Going west

[NMC_EXP]

Ok guys, I’ve learned yet another lesson.

Glad you're OK.

As a former flatlander I agree that altitude and dehydration can screw you up big time. The lack of O2 you can notice if exerting yourself .

Dehydration is tougher. The humidity is so low sweat evaporates before your clothes get wet. Plus you lose a large amount of water just breathing. When I lived in the midwest in the heat an humidity I got thirsty. In the mountains for some reason I do not feel thirsty when I should. Its a mystery to me.

 

[shmukster]

Boy oh boy Don glad you're OK! Be careful. Other than your having that problem I am so jealous of your trip!!!!! Enjoy the rest of it and take good care of the pilgrim................

 

[rubicondon53]

Boy oh boy Don glad you're OK! Be careful. Other than your having that problem I am so jealous of your trip!!!!! Enjoy the rest of it and take good care of the pilgrim................

Hey thanks.. last night lying under the full moon I realized in spite of the SNAFU we’re still having a great time.

 

[VBRoamer]

Ok guys, I’ve learned yet another lesson. Saturday morning I got up with the birds as usual. Got water boiling for tea and coffee, filled up the press, poured hot water into the tea mug. Went for a very short walk to the edge of camp to squirt the dirt. And as I have a big blank spot for about 45 minutes discovered I had fallen and pulled a muscle in my lower back.. I just got out of the ER and I’m OK as a stroke was ruled out, I just have a very touchy muscle.. the doc has seen this before with retired folk.. when camping at high altitude, drink water and eat something as soon as you awaken, which I did not do. Walking back to camp I was white as a sheet, however I was functional for that 45 minutes, but remember nothing of it. We even took a walk to an overlook for Virginia to show me where I was. I came back to reality sitting in a camp chair drinking my coffee.. the doc figured the pain of the pulled muscle put me in a state of shock, I fell down because of lack of h20 and nutrition.. scary stuff as I’ve never experienced anything quite like this.. Then, to top it all off, we slept on the ground last night along the RR trail, which exacerbated the pain levels.. so, keep hydrated, eat when you should, and don’t sleep on the ground while a pulled muscle is trying to heal.. lessons learned.

Yeah, hydration is surprisingly important at high altitudes. Glad you're ok. We need you to keep reminding all us grounded earthlings what it's like today in the world we remember.

 

[rubicondon53]

Ok guys. Our newbie guest arrived at the Moab Inn a full 18 hours early. My brother in law, John, was really anxious to get going. We got up the next day, hit the grocery store, fueled up, and headed for the Swell. We got to camp mid afternoon, set up, and pondered our surroundings.. John was like, “ this is so cool, it’s nothing like Bald Eagle, we just kept driving and driving and driving, just to get to camp. Here’s the camp

and some of the road to it.

 

[NMC_EXP]

I'd like to be there.

 

[rubicondon53]

Next day we went up to the Cleveland Loyyd Dinosaur Quarry which was very interesting. On the way back we stopped at some railroad ruins. The next day we got up early and headed out for a bit of touring. Fortunately we bought a tour guide book for the Swell and as John was a newbie, I let him pick his poison. We left camp after breakfast and headed out north a bit, then west. The going was easy, at first, then deep sand, deep, a couple of water crossings, a bit of mud, then— deeper sand. Damn it was good fun.. then we started heading south. Hmmm. John! Do you know what you’re in for? He replied the guidebook said his bone stock Chevy could do it.. The Eva Conover trail isn’t the most difficult trail I’ve been on, that aside, it was darned technical. Any false moves would amount to a big oooops.. I decided it best for John to take the lead as I didnt want him to try to follow my lines. Besides that logic, he’d been at the point most of the day, and had proved to be a really good driver. And, as difficult as it is to admit, that Chevy was an ok truck. After six hours of skillful technical driving John was in pig heaven.. albeit exhausted. Well, me too, pig heaven and exhausted.
About six months ago John kept asking me what he needed. “ get the nose of that truck up in the air a bit and get some rock sliders” thankfully he did both. The front axelless fell off a ledge and “BANG”. I thought he was hung up for sure. John gathered his witts, and crawled/slid right off. he has thanked me several times now for insisting he get those sliders. John now completely understands what it is and why it is what we do. Not only is there great joy in the solitude, within that joy, it brings out the little boy, and the little girl ( my wife) in all of us.

Tomorrow we’ll be hiking down the Horseshoe Canyon to witness the Great Gallery.

 

[rubicondon53]

More

 

[rubicondon53]

From the Swell we went down and camped at the Creek Pasture BLM site in the Indian Creek SMRA for 4 nights. Climbers are a special kind of people and we enjoyed being encamped with them. We spent our days hiking and 4x4ing. I still could not sleep on a mat on the ground (ribs/pulled muscle) and setting up a full campsite for just an overnighter was out of the question so instead of coming back east via the Rim Rocker we headed down to Durango and enjoyed sleeping in a hotel and eating restaurant food. Here are some photos of our encampment and surrounding area.

 

[fireball]

Looks like good fun Don. Love the swell! Thanks for posting and sharing the stories.

 

[rubicondon53]

I would be remiss of me to not share some of my favorite photos of our 2020 trip. The Horseshoe Canyon hike is well worth the effort. The Great Gallery is the greatest collection of 5,000 year old Indian artwork. The figures are 6-7 feet tall. I was intrigued with the wild Jack-asses as much as they were interested in me. Some of the trees are 8-900 years old.

 

[rubicondon53]

 

[VBRoamer]

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Aliens, no doubt.