I Can Do This Tom

My best friend in the whole world, Linny, Born one pound, seven ounces, not expected to live, Linda, brought Linny home from relatives where she was to live her last days. I remember the night I knew that she would live. Way before the doctors said it. I use to take the dogs out hunting in the industrial parks of San Diego and they would kill rats. The parks were over run with them. Owners of industrial parks would ask me to hunt their buildings. When I'd get off at midnight or so I would drive home, open the door and Bishop and Chewey would race to my BMW to go hunting. One night Linny wanted to go. I said "You're too little." She said "I can do this Tom, I can do this.

When I opened the door at the industrial park the dogs shot out the door and into the bushes with Linny right behind them. I spent the whole night until 3 or 4am trying to stop Linny from following the dogs everywhere they went. When I loaded up the car with essentially three dogs, I was exhausted.

I put Linny in her room and went in and woke Linda up. I said "Linny's not going to die." Linda, still mostly asleep said "What?" I said Linny's not going to die. Her heart is so big it doesn't fit in her chest. She's not going to die." I went in her room to make sure she'd gone to bed and she was jumping up and down on her bed, with her fists doubled up in front of her. She said "Tom you want a piece of me?" I said "No." She said "You want a piece of this." I said "No." She said "I'll fight you with one hand tied behind my back." I said "Linny, quit watching the Wizard of Oz and go to bed." Then I closed the door.

Then the day came I had to tell my best friend I bought a lodge in Moab and I was moving. I would miss her a lot. She said "I know Tom. I'm going with you." I said "I can't take a three year old out there." She said "Tom my bags are in your car and so is my car seat. I'm going Tom. I can do this." I knew she could so we headed out. Linda said when she calls I'll come get her. Sixteen years later, she never called. There were times she went to San Diego with Linda or to Salt Lake with her mom and brothers and sisters but when she wasn't required somewhere else she came back here.

Then last year I saw a storm coming over Dead Horse Point, a bad one. I called everyone on the walkie talkies to get back to the lodge in the next 15 minutes or you wouldn't be getting back at all. All the guests made it, Teresa made it, Linny did not. She was escorting people over Hurrah Pass and when she got my call she was at the top of Hurrah. Part way down the hail came and no matter how fast the wipers went the hail was faster. Linny hit some rocks on the side of the road and the truck was crashed. She called to say she was going to make a run for the Base Camp sign. When she got there it was a giant flood. Linny tried to sneak around the corner but the flood got her. She held the walkie up while she was getting swept down the driveway and we could hear her coming up for air. She grabbed the gate as she went by and pulled herself up out of the raging water. I got in the truck and headed down the hill to get in the driveway and go get her but the raging waters almost took me to the river and we got out just in time. Teresa and I headed up the hill and Linny from the other side where we met at the top. The next few days she tried to walk and even move but she was beat up pretty bad. After 16 plus years she made the call and Linda came to get her to rehab in San Diego.

Today my best friend turned 20. One pound and seven ounces didn't get her and neither did Mother Nature's repeated attempts even with all the years Linny lived here. At 20, Linny is an old soul, way beyond her years, all the rescues we did from the time she was four years old and being rescued occasionally. Life was not always easy here. She went through a lot, endured it, learned from it, and in the end turned out to be right. She knew at three years old. "I can do this Tom. I can do this."

It's Been Busy

Mostly full nearly all the time. Folks coming up the driveway just curious and disc golfers camping around the place. Jax and I still get a hike in but we wait until later in the day when it cools some.

Hayduke Trail Emails

I've been asking the Haydukers to email me with any water they find in the 50 or so miles between Base Camp and Needles. On April 26th I got this.

Whoops that's not Brian. Got this from Brian. Tom, Thanks again for the hospitality you showed Phil and I. It would have been a much more difficult hike without your information and water. Here's an update. - Unreliable spring/seep at 19.3 down the draw from Lockhart Road, is dripping. Was able to collect enough for a long drink. - no reliable water to Indian Creek. Some pools of pretty salty looking stuff. - Indian Creek is running high. Would suggest getting started in the morning going up the canyon as it looks like it's been rising about 6-inches during the day. - we found a couple really good pools after coming down the pour off at 39 miles. Enough to refresh and get us to Needles. Hopefully our paths meet again. Brian and Phil Then a few days later I got this from Kendra Message from Kendra Parris. She ran into difficulty today but is ok. She wrote: last good water in Section 2 is either the spring at the turnoff that leads to the Lockhart pouroff OR the one after the pouroff that Brian mentioned. The issue with that one is that is is a drip, and it would take hours to fill up. Second part of message: Normally you can fill up at Indian Creek, but it is so high that it is pure sludge. Like drinking out of the Dirty Devil basically. So I got as much water from the small pools in Rustler Canyon. There was no other option until We Hope So Wash, which had similar pools. Third part of message: I purified with chlorine AND used a Sawyer filter and got pretty violentally ill, both ends, and that caused a situation very fast while i was almost to the visitors center. Note that the Indian Creek alt/shortcut is very treacherous. I fell down to my chest at one point, and it has a lot of crossings

Something is Killing the Little People

Maybe the mountain lion is hanging around more than I thought. They have all been found in the last couple week. Baby female big horn, fox, and mule deer leg.

White Eurasian Collard Dove

For the 4th year in a row the white dove has returned. I felt bad for it first time thinking if a hawk ran into a bunch of them it would be easy to pick the white one out. Disadvantaged at birth, but here we are four years later and still alive. Better yet it always hang with the flock but I've never seen anyone hang around with it but a few days ago there was a male chasing it around looking for a relationship.

Jax in the Box (Courtesy Teresa)

River is Coming

Every other day or so across the river can hear the front end loader working to shore up the bank and save the Geodesic Domes. They've probably added two feet to the embankment. My feeling though is it's going to come up about ten more feet. Boat ramp at Base Camp.

Stairs

Water coming up the creek beds from the river.