Smoke gets in your eyes

Notice the hazy smoke in background from the fires burning in New Mexico. Even smelled like a camp fire all day.

Couldn't even see Waugh for a few hours yesterday.

The winds were blowing +40 mph all day.

If you like to watch car racing...

Sunday is the greatest day of car racing all year.

Morning: F1 - Monaco
Mid-day: Indy Car, The 500
Evening: Nascar - Coca Cola 600

All day in front of the boob tube.

Busy SAR times since last I wrote

First, our lost soul showed up last Thursday, right on time. It takes 10-14 days to build up the gases that float a someone to the surface around here. Three of the guys went down and recovered her body to be sent home to her family.

Tuesday night we went out to Brush Hollow and found a lost fisherman who got his car (a car, not jeep, not suv) in to a place ATV'rs don't even go. Call-out at 10:45pm, back home at 4:30am. I still can't figure out how he got a car into where he was at. Interested in finding out how he got it out.

Friday started three days of tracker training with the folks from Universal Tracking Services, out of Oregon. Although my knees are sore from crawling around on all fours, all weekend, Marlys and I will, as they say, "never look at the ground the same way again".

Sunday after getting back from tracking class, we got called out at 11pm to search for a missing mom and daughter in the Beaver Creek Drainage. This is a place we go to a few times a year, as it is easy to get off trail. The country is pretty rough and communications is difficult.

Besides seeing a trailer load of search horses flip-over on the way in, Marlys and I spent the night going up and down different gulches whistling, and calling. By morning as our teams burned out from being in the field all night, SAR teams came in from a number of counties, even the Army at Fort Carson sent a Medevac Helicopter (Lakota).

A El Paso/Douglas County team found the Mom and daughter walking down a trail about noon. Good going guys. Scratched up from bushwhacking, but OK.

Remember, if you get lost, don't wander around, hug-a-tree (as we tell the 5th graders).

Holiday weekends can be active, let hope this one isn't.

In search of a lost soul.

We had our third jumper at the Bridge last Tuesday evening. That's two folks in March, and now one in May.

This person is challenging us to bring them back to their family.

We went out Tuesday evening, but lost the light before getting into the gorge, so we postponed until sunrise Wednesday.

It is about a 1000' drop, and there was evidence of a impact on Tuesday evening. It was not a rescue, but a recovery. The first two came down on the north side of the Gorge, which is where we are able to access the bottom via the incline. This person came down on the south (river right) side.

I always wonder what has happened in someones life, that causes them to lose all hope, ending in this.  Bringing them home, to their family, can bring some closure for the living.

Wednesday the river was checked, climbers were ferried, via raft, to the south-side, to check as much of the gorge wall as possible. Climbing here is not easy as the rock does not always hold protection well. A helicopter was brought in to check areas that were not safe to access, other then the impact evidence, they were not to be found.

Saturday, we went back to the river searching, with no luck. We may go back to the river this week.

Sometimes though they are never found...and brought home.

That's one scrawny bear!

While watching the 5 o'clock news this critter walked up to the rear deck to look around.

By the time I grabbed the camera it had moved around to the north side of the house.

It looks like it probably just got up, and needs to put on some weight.

Pretty scrawny and kinda sleepy looking.

After I gave it a yell off it went back into the woods.