Sunsets (Courtesy Linda)

 

Daily Life

 There was a time when I kept track of rescues, even little ones. Now jumping somebody's vehicle, tow strapping them out of the sand or back onto the road, or changing tires is just part of daily life and happens two to four times a week.

Smoke drifts in and out a couple times a week depending on what fire is burning where.

Was Jax and I were leaving every morning at 6am to go hiking, then 6:15am, then 6:30am and now we're at 7am as the sun is coming up later and the days a little cooler. About half the time guests show up to go with us.

When we had the big temperature drop and it went from 99 to 45 one day snow showed up in the mountains and when a day or two later temps went back to 90 plus the snow melted and took over the sand bars by the boat ramp so they were almost gone.

Ferrel showed up and put my new tanks in with gauges that work and filled me up. Amerigas as usual never came back and got the tanks that have their name on them and sent me a bill again for tank rental that I haven't used for about three years. There's no learning curve with them.

I never found a beer I liked to reach my life's ambition of being an alcoholic but Kobae did.

Kobae Goes Hiking

 Kobae finds the spot where the Polaris burned up and eats the dirt.

The Quiet Mornings

 All of Base Camp is packed almost every day. Granted that's still only nine rentals spread across a mile by half mile property but it's plenty for me. Linda has a massive work load keeping the inside of everything clean. If we hired somebody else we'd have to find them a room and most everything is booked until late October. Because of the two night minimum I think there are four dates between here and end of October where I can take a reservation. It will never be 100% occupancy without somebody taking the whole place but I'm turning down weddings and large gatherings because they are just too much work. So Jax and I can say good bye to everyone when they check out we mostly hike the property in the morning or Hurrah Pass so we'll see them as they depart.

Sheriff Jax

It's so busy. Two weeks since I've posted. Several times at the end of long days I've gone on to post and couldn't keep my eyes open or my head fell on the desk and I go to sleep. Wild two weeks and no chance I'll remember most of it but I'll go through pictures and see if I remember why I took them. 

It use to be when Jax was not here that I'd have people park backwards, unlatch their hoods and spray coyote pee on the engines to keep squirrels from chewing wires. Then Michelle dropped off Jax and none of that is necessary any more and sadly Jax is without a job. He still goes out and checks the parking lot occasionally hoping even one squirrel will head for a vehicle but there are none. The day before he got here I counted 37 rock squirrels at roughly one time around the lodge. Sleeping on the porch and railings, sunning themselves like they were on a cruise ship or something, breaking into rooms and cars stealing whatever they could. Then around 4am one morning Michelle dropped off Jax and now there are but an occasional glimpse of a rock squirrel far off in the distance and the parking lot is now all about law and order. 

Things Are Turning

 I met with San Juan County on Hurrah Pass last week to show them what my losses were when a couple of guests couldn't make it over the pass and turned around and went back to town. It's mostly the same spot every year that develops into a problem and I was willing to invest money into fixing this same spot. They said the county had gotten a rock crusher and would be back this week to have a talk with the rock ledge. Linda went to town and gave me these pictures when she got back. True to their word they were working on the spot.

After a 50 degree temperature drop in one day suddenly I didn't have to get up at 6:30am to go hiking I could go whenever I wanted. Around 8am Jax and I took the Kymco to the top of Hurrah Pass and walked down the other side to see the improvements. The road is sweet, at least in comparison to lots of other times.

The solar guy called to say they found a defective part in the new generator that he took with him and would bring it back as soon as he could. Gen and system is working good at the lodge. Ferrell will be here Monday with new tanks and fill me up for the winter on Tuesday.

After three days of cold windy weather Kobae finally came out of the laundry room and didn't leave me even one present and hung out on the porch all day for everyone to see. The little people have been putting on a show for guests each night on the front porch around 8:30pm. I heard a loud noise coming up the drive way two nights ago and it was a large gathering of black birds flying in the darkness and swooping all around like a dust devil. Never saw that before. With the heat down not nearly so much stress on the batteries and generator.

The Making of Re-Imagine

 

Review of the New Yamahas

 Partially filmed in Alabama and the rest right here at Base Camp or on the road above at Doug's property.

Reimagine Everywhere, Reimagine Everything

 

Some Stuff

 The days are so busy. Jax and I hike in the morning. About half the time guests go with us. I come back and go through the night's emails which are almost all booking requests. I can get 30 of them in a day. The four stand alone, main house, condo, male hogan, and female hogan are mostly booked solid about four to six weeks in advance so anyone wanting to come out with less than a month's notice books at the lodge and now it's mostly filled up. With 77 cancellations back in the Co-vid day and being $75,000 down as of 31 May, I'm now within $2,800 and I've already counted all of September of last year. When this month ends I expect to be up about $20,000. Unbelievable.

It's been ten days since I posted. I've sat down to post five or six times and something happens. I've called Nations three times in the last couple weeks to get people out and I've tow strapped three or four out myself. Gone up Hurrah four or five times to show people how to get over the hard spot or give them a ride back to the lodge or escort them out. Lots of directions people coming up the drive way, use the bathroom, inquire what is this place, and it's about as busy out on the trails as it's ever been.

A fire somewhere in Colorado doubled in size a few nights ago and apparently the smoke did too because the next couple days were memorable on the morning hikes.

When these pictures were taken at the beginning of the week the temperature on Monday was 99 degrees. By Tuesday the high was 54. The high went down 45 degrees over night. Now we've had three days of not exceeding 60 degrees. When I woke up this morning I realized I didn't have to get up at 6:30am to go hiking I could go whenever I had an hour or two from work and reservations.

I want to thank Linda. When she said she'd fill in for Tami when she left I thought she'd be asking for help in a week or two but after two weeks and some change I ask her today if she needed help and she said she was ok so far. She's doing a really nice job. 

Today was the first day in quite awhile I was able to get around the property and it's starting to get beat up some. It needs some weeds pulled and cut off the roads and trails. There's a few pieces of trash here and there and just some general clean up on the porches and so forth. It's tough keeping up. 

I called today to get Jax a hair cut again already. It's nice he has that kind of hair that doesn't shed but apparently it multiplies and grows quick.