Devil's Playground and the Hogups

There will be a couple of simple photographs later in the post. Also, I still haven't solved the paragraph problem (drives me NUTS!), so sorry about that. Our weekend didn't turn out the way we had hoped. We were actually going to visit Antelope Island yesterday (I've never been but K has). Something else became the priority. K and I haven't had the same regularly scheduled day off from work together since early February. I had to take personal leave once so we could do our taxes. Yesterday was our first day off together in MONTHS! And this is how it all went down. Warning--the adventure is mostly his, not mine.

K has been itching to kick off the camping season. In previous years, we've been able to sleep out somewhere as early as March or April, however, with no days off together, it's been rough. He decided to go to a place called Devil's Playground on Thursday after work. We've been there before so I could picture it in my mind. He called me after work to check in and then headed out to a land with no cell phone service. He also mentioned he would be exploring the Hogup Mountains. I wonder who named those. The plan was to meet at Kamp Kyburz on Friday in the late afternoon as soon as I could leave school. K said he thought he would beat me there, but if I got there first, I shouldn't think about calling Search and Rescue before Midnight. Midnight? Doesn't SAR deserve a little daylight to begin with? So I was just hangin' out by myself at Kamp Kyburz looking at the clock every so often. However, I had a very calm and peaceful feeling. It was getting a little late, but I wasn't franctic with worry.

My phone rang at 6:45 p.m. My guess was that K was calling from the road to let me know he was back in cell phone service range and that he would arrive by a certain time. The number was not K's, but it was him on the line. I said, "Hi!" He said, "Hi." I said, "How are you?" He said, "I need you to make a long drive." I asked, "What happened?" K said, "I blew two tires in the Hogups!" Ouch. K was calling from a very nice person's home. This person happens to reside across the street from the LDS Meetinghouse in Park Valley in northwestern Utah. I've been through there several times (six in the last thirty days, actually), so I could picture that too. I asked if he needed me to do anything, call anyone, buy anything, etc. He said he couldn't think of anything. He still had plenty of food and water. And besides, the tire shop was closed. So I topped off my gas tank and was off to retrieve my darling husband. YAY for audio books!

K threw the first flat tire in the trunk of my car and I started driving us back to Kamp Kyburz. He began to give me the whole story. He was on the west side of the Great Salt Lake overlooking Dolphin Island while enjoying his explorations. Having just crested Big Pass (I know, the NAMES just slay me), he heard a very loud "WHOOSH!" sound. He stopped immediately and looked at his front driver's side tire which went flat within seconds. Rather than a donut, his vehicle has a full size spare tire, so he began jacking up the car only to notice that the rear driver's side tire looked quite flat as well. From what he could ascertain, that tire had a bit of a slower leak. The only cause he could see for these flat tires was sharp rocks. K said a prayer. He explained to Heavenly Father that he was thirty miles from pavement and forty from a landline. He further explained that with the spare tire for the first flat and a can of Fix-a-Flat for the second tire, he was hoping he could make it to a telephone. He asked for help and blessings. He also knew he had everything he needed to camp for another night. And then he went to work.

He headed toward Kelton, taking it easy. He stopped at one point and noticed that the Fix-a-Flat tire had actually plumped up more than it did at first, which is what happens when you use that stuff. What a relief! K wondered if he should try to make it back to Golden Spike or try to find an inhabited ranch house somewhere, but he just stuck with his plan to get to the highway. Kelton came and went and he was still doing fine. Once he made it back to pavement, he headed for Park Valley, not wishing to push his luck any further than that. And just so you can picture these places, Kelton is a ghost town from the railroad in the 1800's--nothing there. Park Valley is a ranching community with no services--no gas, no store, no pay phone, etc. On Saturday morning we took the tire to Big O and after a few minutes the employee approached us in the waiting room and said, "Sir, this tire is NO GOOD." It was split. We bought a used tire from them, threw it in my trunk and made another lovely trip back out to Park Valley. We stopped in Snowville for refreshments and restrooms (last restroom until we got back to Snowville!) on the way. We also ran into a very slowing cattle drive, but that always happens to us, so why do I mention it? The spare still looked like it was doing fine. K put the newly purchased tire on the rear and back to town we went, me following in case there was trouble. Turns out the second flat was fixable.

While waiting for the repair, we visited a diner/cafe called Bert's. K ordered the "famous" Garbage Omelette. The description read "whatever the cook can find." He had to get a to-go box. I ordered the Navajo Taco and felt some disappointment. That's really all I can say about "Bert's."

Later last night we attended the Golden Spike party for this week's celebration of May 10th, 1869. K's days are numbered at the Spike. It was a tad bittersweet. This morning, K headed off to work and I came back to Base Kamp for my church meetings. Such a crazy life we have! God does watch over us--I know this is true! I just thought I would end with a list of things that K did right/well when faced with a difficult situation, a list of blessings if you will: 1. He left a travel plan with me and proper time frames. He actually advised me what time to call SAR (we've had that discussion several times on several occasions). 2. He stayed with the car. If the quick fixes for the two flat tires wouldn't have worked, he would have stayed with the vehicle rather than walking such a distance. He would have camped another night. Smart Guy! It's so much easier to find a bigger vehicle than a smaller human that has walked away from the vehicle. 3. He had plenty of supplies: fuel, shelter, clothing, food, water, light sources, gear for bad weather, sunscreen, hat, etc. And, once I picked him up in Park Valley, he reminded me that he still has the emergency kit I made for him earlier this winter (it's the nicest one I've ever made)--I forgot that I had given him that. If all else failed, we figure the Air Force might have saved him. He was cooking his lunch on Friday when four air force jets (F-16's?) flew right over him really low to the ground. It was thrilling! And then a few minutes later, four more flew over him. I'm certain they picked up on the fact that there was a red vehicle in the Hogups. I asked, "Did you hear that an Air Force jet crashed today in the West Desert and the pilot ejected?" K responded, "Really? Maybe that's why all those jets were flying around!" That pretty much sums up my 540 mile weekend. All's well that ends well and in case you didn't know, the loveliest choke cherry trees are in bloom at the Park Valley Meetinghouse right now!