The Weekend Story: "Help"

Early Saturday afternoon Chris and Tami call me on the walkie. They're at the turnoff to Jackson Hole putting up fences where people have been driving down the creek bed to the east and tearing things up. They say someone is calling for help. The wind is blowing pretty hard so it's difficult to figure direction but they think it's coming from over by the boat ramp. I tell them to ignore it, everyone at the boat ramp needs help.

They call back fifteen minutes later and say they can tell someone is really in distress. It's not a joking help. I walk out on the back porch with binoculars to search the area between the lodge and the boat ramp. I don't see anything and no one on the back porch has heard anything. As I'm leaving one guest says "I heard something."

Andy and Irene have been staying at the lodge close to a couple weeks so they are the most knowledgeable about the lodge. I ask Andy to come with me. We take the Polaris and head over to the boat ramp. We see Chris and Tami on the way just past the turn off to the boat ramp searching for where the help is coming from. They say they only hear the help call occasionally now and it's getting weaker.

I pull up to the boat ramp and The Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, before Young, Janis Joplin, they're all are sitting around the tables in chairs under the tarp. I ask if they are missing anybody. They all shake their head or say no. One guy says he heard something over that ridge but they have music playing.

I take the Polaris around the top of the gravel pit so I can look down into the very rough area between the lodge and the gravel pit. I look to the right from the river and then move inland. I see her, barely sticking out from under a fallen tree. I wait for a break in the wind and yell to her to stay, we're coming. We drive around to the Base Camp driveway and Andy lifts the creek fence so we can drive through.

We go a couple hundred yards down the creek bed and find a girl, maybe 20, halter top and shorts, barefoot and burned by three hours of 90 degree sun. She's bright red and her hands, arms, legs, feet, and even elbows are full of cactus and stickers. Andy and I help her to the vehicle and take her back to the lodge where with tweezers and magnifying glass the 45 minute cactus removal operation begins.

She was at the boat ramp, too far out, caught in the current, and swept down river. She said " I ask my friends to throw me a rope but they didn't. They're really nice people and deep thinkers but they waited too long. I don't blame them." Later I heard another version that they tried to get her with a paddle board and she was holding on but they had to cut her loose because the paddle boarder was going under also.

When she finally got to shore she tried to crawl out to the road but the stickers and cactus kept building up and she was so badly sunburned she finally crawled under the fallen tree and had been yelling for help a long time.

When she was able Andy and I carried her back into the side by side and drove back over to the boat ramp. Everyone was still sitting under the tarps at tables and chairs. I thought I saw Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, or at least his hat, and Joan Baez. Didn't see them earlier. I said "Here's the person you're not missing." A girl came over and said "Serena where you been. We've been looking for you for three hours."

At 5pm five people show up and ask where their friends are. I recognize one of them. He says "Remember me? We're looking for our friends." I said "If you want to stay I would not associate yourself with the people who will be leaving in the morning." He says "Ok, maybe you'll remember this. You almost ran over my friend a couple years ago." I said "The guy sleeping in the middle of the road at 4am with the tshirt that said "I think I just saw a ghost?" He says "Yea." I said "You think that's a better reference than the people at the boat ramp?" Go camp over by the curve in the road that heads to Jackson Hole because everyone else is getting kicked out early morning." They do.

At 2am three people pull right up to the lodge and get out and start waking people up asking where their friends are. I walk outside and tell them how to get to the boat ramp. Bottom of the hill, turn left, go through the no trespassing sign, first left, follow the road. I watch as they drive down the hill, turn left, pull into the sheep pen and get stuck in the sand. I go down and guide them out. Guy says "Thanks, we just drove six hours we're tired."

I can't sleep. It has finally hit me. Nobody is leaving in the morning. None of them have jobs. They don't have to be to work Monday morning. I'm not getting any money. They don't have any. This is their new home.

At 7am two girls pull up and say they're looking for their friends. They just drove eight hours to get here. I am reasonably sure they didn't drive eight hours to check out at 11am. I guide them over to the boat ramp and ask for the guy that booked the boat ramp. I say "It's over. You said eight to ten. They're still coming, all hours of the night, waking everybody up, coming from six to eight hours away. Everybody out by noon and make sure you collect the $5 a night camping fee from everyone." As I'm walking back to the Polaris I look out to the sides of the road and there are clumps of toilet paper everywhere. It occurs to me I haven't seen a single one of them come use the bathroom since Thursday when they started showing up. As I get in the Polaris the last two girls that showed up and followed me over say "You're kicking everyone out?" I say "Yes. It's over." She says "But not us right? We just got here." I said "You too. Everyone."

Over the next few hours a few people stopped by and paid and apologized for the crazy. Most just drove by and left. At around noon the guy that organized it pulled up, walked up on the porch and said "We cleaned up and I got $10 from everyone so here's $550."

I drove over to the boat ramp, found one sock, one glove, and about 20 clumps of toilet paper deep in the bushes. Somebody still has cactus and stickers in their ass.

As I'm typing this Tami just called on the walkie from the boat ramp and said her and Chris just cleaned everything up. Everything.

I told her "You are now and forever my heroes. Tomorrow when I go to town I will shop for medals of honor and make sure you are appropriately rewarded." She said "Thank you." I called back and said "In the future if you ever hear anybody yelling help, don't call me, let nature takes it's course." It's amazing how many times it's happened in the 13 years. All the opportunities I've had to be chlorine in the human gene pool. Yet every time I've stepped forward and brought those back, some that probably didn't deserve to come back.

I'm going to have to think about it.

The Weekend Story

It started innocent. A guy I have met a couple times emails and says he has a large group, eight to ten people, and can they camp at the boat ramp. I say yes.

On Thursday eight or ten people show up in four vehicles. They park on one side of the road going to the boat ramp. Thursday evening I see a few more vehicles go by and turn at the road to the boat ramp. I take the trials bike over Friday morning and this area is full of vehicles on both side of the road and tarps and or canvas roofs from the vehicles on the right side to the ones on the left forming sort of a tunnel you walk through and chairs and tables are showing up under the tarps. On Friday a few more vehicles go by and turn at the boat ramp road. Friday afternoon I go over and this whole area is full of vehicles, all young people.

All pictures are taken after the weekend.

We have a conversation about maximum of ten people at a camping spot and vehicles start spreading out. There are some in the gravel pit, more on the bone yard road, and more in a newly created area next to the boneyard. All the required 100 feet from each other but then walking over to the boat ramp. I see three inflatables in the river launching from the boat ramp. As I'm driving around on the Scorpa making sure everything is ok a vehicle approaches and ask if I know where the party is. I tell them there isn't any party. They drive toward the boat ramp.

I'm making one more Scorpa pass around the property as I have a wedding proposal situation at the main house with a little bit of music and I have the boat ramp Woodstock forming. With just a headlamp for light I drive the Scorpa down to the boat ramp. Nobody is there. I drive around to the other sites. I can't find anybody. 30 people have disappeared.

As I'm heading back to the lodge I stop the bike, turn the engine off and listen. The ground is vibrating. There is music coming out of the ground. I can feel it and hear the muffled sound. I see blue lights flickering up by Hull's Place. I drive back to the lodge and get the side by side and head for Hull's Place.

I drive the side by side, Polaris, up the abandoned road and park about 20 feet from the entrance. It's close to midnight. There's a large white dog sitting at the front of the door. I'm hoping this doesn't go sideways and wishing I had some of Il's bear spray. I light it up with the headlamp and say "Lay down." She lays down and rolls over on her back to get her belly rubbed. I do and then enter into Hull's Place.

When I reach the center area of Hull's Place 40 or so feet back into where it turns into a cave instead of an overhang it's crowded. Not much social distancing going on. The music is blasting and lights are going off and on. Four or five couples are lying on rocks groping each other and the lone single girl is in the middle dancing a slow striptease like dance. 10 or 15 more are standing around talking. I watch for a couple minutes amazed at how many people can fit in there and it was like seeing a nightclub at Underground Atlanta if it still exists. I was behind everyone having come in the entrance and while a couple people looked my way it was dark. I figured before the stripper and the gropers got much further I should probably end this so I turned my headlamp on bright and it lit up everything in the cave. Lots of voices were going "Hey man, that's bright. Turn it off." Then one guy says "I think it's the guy that owns the place." Music stopped, lights went dark, gropers got up and the stripper stopped. We were all wondering what happens next. Me too.

I said "You rented the boat ramp. Not the whole 145 acres. Go to the boat ramp. The ground is vibrating and I can hear music at the lodge. Go home." As people were walking by they were picking up the trash and saying they were sorry and they understood and they left it pretty clean. Still I admired their creativity. I thought about hiring all of them but realized I'd have to go to all of Moab's free clinics before I could sit with them to discuss it.

As headlamps, flashlights, and cell phone lights drifted off into the distance headed boat ramp bound the night was nice. The planets were emerging. Venus had long set but Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter were just arriving and following each other. The Milky Way was mostly south to north and it was a stunning night and it was quiet. All the critters sleeping in the protection of Mother Nature's Earth could rest now in the holes they had dug and called home all these nights. Kobae a half a mile away and probably 20 feet back inside snoring away probably wouldn't notice. They're scheduled to check out Sunday just get me through one more day. Just one more.

The Story Before The Story

I've been thinking about how to tell the story of what happen over the weekend. I think I have it chronologically correct, just get ready to type the first word when I hear a motorcycle blowing up the drive way. I know what this means. The rider needs help. He hits the brakes right in front of my window and takes a deep breath. He starts to get off and takes another deep breath. I head out of the office and yell to Tami and Chris. "We have an issue."

I step onto the front porch and the rider says "We need help." I say "I'm it." He says they flipped the side by side, several times, but they think everyone is ok. I tell him I'll get in my side by side and head out and see what we got. He calls them on a walkie and says I'm  coming. I arrive out by the Base Camp sign and two guys are walking toward me. Neither is limping or looks in pain. I give them a ride back to the lodge while the motorcyclist and a few friends head for town to get a vehicle that they can all go back in. I tell em I'll take care of everything out here.

I call the side by side rental place before their 6pm closing time and it says I can't leave a message because the mail box is full. I try twice more and get the same response. I email them and it gets rejected three times. While their friends head to town we go over to see if the side by side needs to be moved. They said it was kind of in the trail.

From where this first picture is taken, where I'm standing, there is a slight berm to my left. They hit the berm. Where you see the vehicle there was not a single tire track from where I took the picture to where the vehicle is in the picture with the exception of mine. That means that they rolled or flipped, or both, all the way to where the vehicle is.

They hung out for awhile and then their friends returned with a vehicle to get them all to town. They were thanking me for the hospitality and a little tour of the property and the last guy says. "Appreciate it. You're a life saver." He's right but not how he thinks and nothing to do with this incident. If he had made this berm the next one is on the big sand hill that I fenced off knowing there would be somebody like this and they'd die. There were several close calls before I fenced it off. If I'm a life saver it's for all the incidents that didn't happen.

Thursday

I dropped every one, staff and guests, in the river in town. While I was walking over to check out a safe place to get in the river some guy drove by on a bicycle and started yelling at me to not get by the river it's dangerous. Actually for 12 years it's where I've put people in the river. There isn't a safer place. As I started walking back to the pavement he lectured everyone else and rode off just before I got there. When I read the opinion section in the two local papers there are always people writing in to say they can't believe how rude the citizens of Moab are or they had a car in the shop and so they got a rental which had out of state plates and people were yelling at them saying they didn't want them here.

While everyone else was in the river I did errands. Filling the back of the truck with wood I got directions to the Dog Rescue place. Pulling in there was a guy on the phone and his female counterpart came outside and said they are by appointment only. Go online and fill out a form about myself, make an appointment online, they'll show me around, and give me some brief time with a rez dog to see if we're a match. I didn't think it was going to be so much work to get a dog. They said all their dogs are rescues from the Navajo Reservation. I spent three days on the reservation once, not on purpose, it's a good story, but I don't think I had a blog then so I'll add it when I get some time. There were hundreds if not thousands of dogs roaming everywhere. I walked from the car repair place to the grocery store and had ten or fifteen dogs followed me looking for food. This is a pretty special thing they are doing in my book but it turned out they didn't have any dogs that were trained from being wild that were ready to go into domestic life but they were working on some. They told me to call back in a couple weeks.

I got back about 2pm Thursday afternoon expecting to see the Base Camp Navy coming around the Pot Ash boat ramp corner of the river any minute but what is normally a four hour tour turned into 6.5 hours. Not long after the return Tonja packed up to go visit relatives and Tami and Chris working at the lodge. Both are good workers and I hope I'll have enough business to keep them both employed. We've still got some backlog so good to go so far.

After bragging about the Desert Willow always blooming May 10th (Linny's birthday) to May 14th (Heather's birthday) it of course waited until May 15th and immediately filled up with hummingbirds and carpenter bees.

Last Hurrah was full for the weekend and the lodge had two of five rented. Lot of campers playing disc golf.

The Day

I'm not use to having people here for extended periods of time but I have three for over a month and a few more for a couple weeks. On Tuesday I took the Scorpa over to the Main House. Pulled up a gravity chair and enjoyed the quiet. In the nearly hour I sat there I saw four jet trails and that was it.

Pond is full and even the reeds destroyed in last year's hail storm are turning green and starting to stand up again.Bullfrogs are bellowing.

Went to town Monday and a rain storm hit on the way back. Lot of side by sides coming back from the boonies. Drivers had one hand over their faces trying to protect themselves from the hard rain and one on the wheel.

Tami had gone up Two Trains with me a few weeks ago and she led everyone at the lodge up to the top today. They all made it and it's a climb.

Haven't heard from Michelle in a while about Jax so I emailed the Moab Humane Society on Monday that I needed a dog that could hike, was friendly with kids, and didn't chase critters. I didn't hear from them by noon Tuesday so I called. Two of the four had been adopted and the other two were born to chase critters. Tonja told me that while she was in town she saw a dog rescue place not far from where I get wood so I'll try that next time in town.

Kobae is so proud of his house. He comes out around noon and can sit in front of it for hours with his head held high. Today, as all days a few vehicles came up the driveway to check the place out. While the parents were talking to guests the two boys, maybe eight and ten were standing by Kobae at his house. One of them reared back and kicked a bunch of sand in his face. I was on the way over there when the parents decided to leave. I'm sure they didn't see it. Kobae came across the driveway when they left to eat. His eyes were watering trying to get all the sand out.

Normally I get five head of romaine, five green peppers, and five cucumbers, and take them onto the porch. Sometimes he'll eat one or two more of each but today it appeared as he had not eaten in years. Here's a picture of the five of everything before we started. When he finished he headed toward the fridge. I got out four more head of romaine, four more green peppers, and four more cucumbers wondering how many I'd be putting back in the fridge when he was finished. The answer is none. He then ate the last four green peppers making a total of nine romaine, thirteen green peppers and 15 cucumbers. The fridge was empty. Fortunately he has his own refrigerator next door still stuffed to the max. Here's about $40 later.

Monday Evening

Driving back from town a thunderstorm hit suddenly and the road was filled with side by sides racing back to town. One hand in front of their face to keep from getting hit by the hard rain and the other on the steering wheel. Lasted ten minutes or so and was over but left it's mark on the sunset.

Jane, Goddess of the Trail

Nikki and Bryan checked out today. They didn't waste a minute of their four days here. Every day they were out hiking. All the way out to Jackson Hole, up the ladder, and back again. 12 miles. When their four days was over they had done 35 miles of hiking. I should have a picture of them but unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I'm missing Jax so in my world the super star of their hiking team was Jane. Jane is a beast. She did the whole 35 miles. This is her briefly resting on the back porch and waiting for a massage for the tired body that kept up with Nikki and Bryan.

Knowing the heart and will Jane has I wouldn't doubt that she took down this mule deer at the top of Jackson Ladder except beginning about a week or so after I came through on my hike from town Haydukers began telling me they saw the remains at the top of the ladder. I just avoided the green eyes by not much. I have no doubt however that Jane could have taken it down after the 35 miles.