Wednesday the 17th 2024 11:10 am
Almost eight years ago, wow, eight years, I set off on my exploration of reality and myself when I started WildernessPunk. One of my first posts was called Road Ripping. In it, I reveled in my new found freedom and set off with my father, in a rented jeep, to travel from Flagstaff Arizona to Montana, seeing parts in between, as well as going to Yellowstone with my brother and his family. In early August of 2016, I took my father to a secret campsite located west of Montecillo in the aspens where one could overlook the canyonlands descending into the deserts to the west.
We didn’t stay there long because we were bound for Moab and the Arches, but I did find my bear spear I had made many years before and had stashed there.
Do you think I’ll be able to find it again? Because that is our final goal. Not finding the spear, but returning to that site.
Strange to think eight years ago, I hadn’t seen my boys for months and now they never leave my side and will be coming with me to explore this mystic wonderland in the high forest of Utah.
I have been on many road trips and gone camping a lot since the day I last left my footprints there, but this is the most adventurous pushing the limit trip I have made with my boys in many years. No sidekicks besides them, we’re flying solo, just the AZ AB boys.
Currently I sit at the closed bar near where they’re getting one last tutoring session in before we roll and begin our road trip. We won’t be heading up to Montana like last time, but I’ll be starting from further south and making a few stops on the way before revisiting my old sight.
Will others be parked there having discovered my beautiful camp? Will there be anything left after eight years? I guess I’ll find out in a few days. 30 minutes to go.
Thursday the 18th 2024 6:50 pm
Soooo… I have suffered through a rash of bad luck so unexpected and odd it has become comical.
The new side mirror, which cost a full 8 Bennies to repair, jiggles loose and smashes into the fast lane of 1-10 after only traveling 40 miles. I’m then forced to drive through the rugged traffic of the 5th largest city in the US (Pheonix) with no passenger side mirror and only minimal rear view mirror use due to all my gear. The kids helped me push on for another 170 miles through 85 mile an hour madness and we manage to arrive safely to the wrong address, because we were given the wrong address. I correct this and we head to the other side of I-17.
Finding my Bear Spear in 2016
The night goes great, although the next morning I’m asked to help move two sofas, a heavy drill press, and a saw table. Nothing like giving yourself a chance to throw out your back before some camping. After driving another six hours, through parts of the Painted Desert, Navajo Nation, and Monument Valley we arrive at the hotel I unfortunately paid for in advance. The pool and ice machine are down, minus five points from the idea that booking things online is a good idea.
So instead of lounging poolside, I’m writing in our dinged up room. I’m not trying to bellyache and bitch, but sometimes so many things go poorly, it becomes amusing or perhaps a tad challenging.
But alike usual the good points outweigh the bad.
- We get to see Kurt’s new place, all five acres of his river side paradise.
- Before I can finish my first beer, we have already recrafted a new side view mirror. Booming!
- A hike through the forest during off and on rain reveals the grandeur of the area and I’m happy I was able to pitch in some to help him get more organized.
- We see a big toad.
Today I got to take the kids to an old school A and W soda stand in the dry town of Blanding. Blanding gives me a little PTSD because I had some bad luck there too, but we push through and then enjoy relaxing as we prep for the real deal, camping in the mountains on the edge of the Canyonlands.
Will my string of ill luck continue or will the arrival of my college buddy turn it all around? I suppose I’ll soon see.
Saturday the 20th 2024 7:50 am
Up in the mountains loving the beauty, but strangely the ill luck continues. Now I’m not trying to moan and bitch or complain, I’m just noting how an odd string of ill luck has followed us. Not enough to ruin our good times, but when you’re taking care of other people besides yourself and have greater responsibilities such things take a higher toil.
I suppose this is interesting to note. If I was by myself, I’d probably not notice half these things, but when you are a caregiver and have an audience, these events can strike a harder chord and slow one down.
So I’ll start with saying, I don’t think I will ever reserve a hotel online, which I haven’t already been to, ever again. It was supposed to be a chance for my boys and I to have some downtime and gear up between camping. Instead, we get there and
- Their pool is down
- Their ice machine is down
- I get bitten by insects all night
They did have electricity though and we manage to enjoy a few movies. At least Stratton was happy because we saw two movies with boob-
7:32 pm
Oops lost my power where was I? Saying I recharged our things…
Again, I’m not trying to be a whiner, I’m just going to point out the how this strange string of ill luck continued to plague our team of adventurers, it didn’t keep us from having a great time, but it had passed through the comical into the downright odd.
I had only purchased dry goods in Tucson thinking I would get my meat and veggies in Monticello so they’d be fresh for camp and oops. All the food there was the opposite of fresh. The lettuce was rotting on the selves, and I kid you not, they were selling grey hamburger. Why they even put it out there instead of tossing it in the trash, I’ll never understand. A sad aspect of modern man. One can drive through cows for hours but somehow the people living around them have rotten men while the folks in the city who haven’t seen a cow for months have food ten times as fresh.
I’m not sure if this counts as bad luck, but sadly the Flagon Wagon did not have the strength to get us to the top of the ridge, due to the rugged shape of the road, so we had to camp at a lower spot instead of the campground I had made. I did hike up find and then retrieve my decade old spear, however. Oh yeah.
The opposite of ill luck was being joined by one of the first people I had met when I moved to AZ in 85, Rick. Rick is a truly Stalwart man, Not only is he a jack of all trades, but he’d help you through anything both good and trying without a complaint or needing to be asked, with a smile on his face the whole time. Also, he a Cochise Brother. If you know, you know.
However, our string of bad luck appeared to be contagious. My ground-score camp stove stopped functioning and then so did his. Having a better vehicle than I, Rick attempted to race back into town and buy a new one, but upon arrival, the entire passage into town was blocked by the Poineer Day, or as he calls it the Pie and Beer Day, parade and he had to turn around or be trapped for hours.
Making do, we cooked over the fire on a grill. Rick gave me a tarp since it was raining every two hours and I had left mine behind. But besides our more limited food options our ill luck wasn’t affecting us and we hiked, gathering rocks in the stream Bobby found, saw lots of cool animals, played half a dozen games, and had a great time.
It did end too quickly and we decided to leave when Rick did, because with all the bad luck happening, I didn’t want to end up being trapped alone there with two kids. I made it back to Tucson safely, after being stuck in a 4 hour traffic jam in Pheonix where they kept 3 lanes of the highway shut down even though there was no construction taking place on a Sunday when about a 100,000 people were returning to the city from the cooler north. I won’t discuss how stupid this is other than saying the people responsible should be taken out into the desert, beaten, and then forced to walk back into town barefoot.
What is the moral of the odd turn this adventure had? I think it would be, when ill luck, or if that is too much of a magical thinking concept for you, a string of unfortunate events strikes one, it can prove your character. Someone might complain, become grumpy, and let it ruin their good time. I’d rather consider it a way to challenge one who is living a modern life which, for many of us, is far too easy.
Speaking of pioneer days. Were our ancestors using camp stoves, refreshing in hotels, getting into traffic jams, or upset they couldn’t buy fresh meat on their way into the woods? Every single problem we had is something which could only have occurred in the last hundred years if that. Our idea of challenges is only losing a few layers of our insanely luxurious lifestyles and bringing us back to a more basic state.
Ill luck for them would be broken bones, running out of food, or becoming sick and none of those things happened to us. Our bad luck was only stripping away a few decades of opulence. Did I really care? No, it just makes for a better challenge and hopefully a good story. I also hope you enjoyed it and thanks for listening.
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WildernessPunk 