Scouting trip for Koko 5

    My husband, Fred loves adventure. He will engage in it whenever possible and sometimes I tag along. This year’s scouting trip was for the benefit of Mark Saucy and Bodie Garside. These two mountain bikers like to go to out-of-the-ordinary places that their bicycling magazine suggests.

Mark Saucy imagines big air. 

    Our friend Mark Saucy, baptized his first wilderness mountain biking trip as the Kokopelli, because it was the entire Kokopelli Trail. It took the better part of a week. After this trip subsequent trips have been named Kokopelli two, three, four and this year’s scouting trip was in preparation for the Kokopelli five trip which will be in 2021. Koko five will be the lower quarter of the Colorado Trail-which runs from Denver to Durango. To do these trips there must be a support team which travels along as close to the trail as they can to provide food, water, repairs, campsites, hugs from Kidnap Carl (another story) showers etc. So for the week of August 15- 21, there have been a group of us scouting where the support team could best intersect with the Colorado Trail. 

On the scouting trip were Fred Taylor, Carl Freeman, Ulanbek from Kyrgyzstan, Rudi Weins, Mark Saucy, Michael Alcorn who claims he is Murrie Alcorn‘s identical, older and better looking twin & Bodie Garside in front. I took the photo.

     And here, some footage from a small drone showing some of the terrain. 

Interestingly, as we stopped here some hikers came along, one of whom would later join us. She is at the tail end of the clip.

     We came to a place that intersected with the Colorado Trail where one of the hikers from the day before met up with us again. Her trail name was Doc Mac, (I don’t know how trail names originated but apparently, they exist in hiker culture) and I sensed she wanted a lift. Sure enough she asked if one of us could give her a ride to Durango. Since two of our scouting vehicles had open seats, Michael Alcorn volunteered but we explained that we had to go up to Kennebec Pass first to scout it out and then we could turn towards Durango. She was grateful for the opportunity.

    She explained that she was doing the Colorado Trail and she took a leave of absence from her regular veterinarian practice, to celebrate her father who had died at age 80 and had taught her all she knew about out-dooring.

    Our guidebook said that it was highly recommended to have 4x4 vehicles to travel up the the Kennebec pass. Our 4 Jeeps and Tacoma were trail tested and qualified easily. Kennebec basin was once a highly mined canyon. We climbed up the rocky, steep shelf road that was cause for what Mark calls ''junior high screaming.'
As we reached the summit, the road zipped through the pass and went off to the right, but on the left was a 2 door black Mazda. We were horrified at its position as it was teetering with its hood over the edge."

"Its amazing what a 2 wheel drive Mazda can do when powered by Meth."  -Fred

    Scattered about the car where bright orange cheese puffs (you can see them on the right) and double bubble gum balls still in the wrappers. Inside the car was a mask, I thought,   - "This is a bit ironic. A Covid mask isn't useful for warranting against a cliff dive." 

License plate has been altered to protect the innocent.

    Its precarious position and the fact it was a front wheel drive only vehicle left us bewildered. We snapped photos. Since we were only there to check out the pass, our five cars once at the summit now had to turn around in a very tight space flanked by steep drops. It made me nervous to watch the cars move into position, so I went down the other side’s shelf road. Fred took the role of parking attendant on steroids and got everyone turned around and pointed back downhill.

Driver Found

    Doc Mac discovered the owner of the car, sitting in a cleft of the rock on the other side. Scattered about her were lots of peanut butter sandwich crackers, a large 6 pack of paper towels, cigarettes, and other little convenience food packages. The driver was very thin but in unbelievably good spirits. This woman, lets call her Daisy, was dressed in skimpy shorts, with a bright green tropical jacket and flip flops. Her blonde hair, weathered skin, teeth and gums had seen better days. As we talked, she answered coherently but was somewhat oblivious to the close call she had had. She claimed she had come up for a drive last night in the dark. But the car got stuck. She was so excited because she, “had never been this high in her life!”

   She declared herself a paranoid/schizophrenic. She eagerly relayed that she was so happy because she had spent the night with God, he had protected her and had watched the sunrise with her.

   When Daisy realized it was more than just Doc Mac and I, she walked out tour scouting group with cigarette in hand and said, “You are all gentleman here, can someone give me a light?” Daisy assumed that we were sent by God and declared, “I am so glad you’re going to help me.” Seeing her and in view of the predicament her car was in, Fred asked her in a non-accusatory way, “Are you on anything?” She answered, “No sir.”

    Not all our team was convinced of that.

    I had to relieve myself and with so much car activity at the pass and no shrubs to hide behind I started down the shelf road on the other side, past Daisy. I told her I was going down to go to the restroom so she would know not to follow me. She astonishingly looked up, asking, “There’s a restroom down there??” I answered, "No I don’t think there’s a restroom, but I have to go to the bathroom so I’m trying to find a private place." And she said, “Oh because that would’ve been nice.”

    As Fred and crew finished their vehicular chess game, I think we were all aware that Daisy’s car couldn’t just be left there, hanging over the edge. Nor did her cheese balls and flip flops inspire confidence that she was prepared to spend another night up there. So Fred started to pull out our collective recovery equipment and line up vehicles to pull her back. She saw our efforts and showed enthusiastic interest  saying, "Oh, what can I do to repay you?” Carl answered: “Well there is one thing you could do to repay us; you could agree to go back down with us.” Doc Mac confirmed that would be a good idea. So, Daisy agreed yes, she would do that.

Fred also had to assess whether or not Daisy was capable of driving down in her current condition. Because Carl is an ex police officer, Fred asked him if he could find out if Daisy was under the influence of something.

    Carl said to her “We are responsible for you and we need to know if you are OK to drive down the hill, so I need to ask you some questions."

    She said, “Shoot.”

    Carl asked, “What drugs are you on?"

    She threw out a whole list of stuff that Carl didn’t recognize, Then she said, “My doctor said I was addicted to __________, and wanted me off that, but I am still taking them.”

    Carl asked, “OK are you taking anything else?

    No.

    Carl asked, “Fentanyl? (Synthetic morphine.)

    At this she got angry and pulled away. She started to loudly declare she didn’t NEED any help she could drive herself down all by HERSELF, after all she got herself up there. And in fact, she WANTED to stay up there longer anyway, she hadn’t INTENDED to return so soon. And she didn’t like that we were demeaning and JUDGING her and were we from Access?! Did Access send us? Later Michael Alcorn explained to naive me, that this switch of Daisy's sweet self to her hostile self; is called a psychotic break.   

Praying to the Maker of our Souls

    I didn't know what a psychotic break was but I did know that agitation would only hurt her and so I was prompted to try and redirect her thoughts. I asked her, “I heard you talk about God so I know you know him. Can I pray with you?” To which she answered with childlike enthusiasm, “Yes, I would like that I haven’t prayed with someone for ...” and then her voice trailed off.

   I stretched out my hand to hold hers as we prayed, and she held my hands with hers. 

Me in my down coat praying with Daisy in her flipflops. 

    I believe God gave us both peace through our time of praying. And although I had determined in my mind that when the vehicle was being pulled back I would avoid watching the activity so I wouldn’t have to manage my nerves, (Good grief! The cars pulling could go off the opposite side or the straps could break, or her car could go forward and pull Fred’s jeep to the bottom etc.) that fear was gone. My heart was calmed by God‘s presence and the reminder that Jesus is with us, he has a plan for us, and it is a joy to be his. In the middle of our prayer Stacy who was making happy sounds, yelled out “And God bless America!”.. Which made me smile and we continued to pray. At the end of our prayer her sudden hostility abated. 

    So it needed to be determined how to pull her away from the cliff in a way that we wouldn’t lose any of our cars or drivers.

    Fred, who God has gifted to be a take-charge-kind-of-person got Bodie to shimmy under the Mazda’s back side and wrap a tow strap to the inside lower A arm bracket. The other end of the tow strap was connected to Fred‘s jeep, by way of a sling he makes with his tree saver strap. Then, Fred’s Jeep was tow strapped to the back of Rudi’s car. Fred didn’t want to be dragged off the cliff if Daisy's car went over so Rudi’s connection was for anchoring gravity on their side.

    Once the tow straps were in place and the slack taken out, the car needed to be put into neutral, the parking brake released and the car steered. This meant that the car would need a new pilot. I had guessed that would probably be Fred? But then I looked around and realized I weigh less than most of these people and perhaps it would be better to have a light person in the driver seat than a heavy person. I asked Fred if he wanted me to do that and he looking around sarcastically, said, “Since there are no other men around”  and then motioned me over. (sometimes a take-charge-kind-of-person’s strong point is not tactfulness) A little surprised at myself, I approached the car, and Daisy called out, “Thank you!” I answered without thinking; “You're welcome.” But my brain said- “What? You're welcome? This is a time to say something more significant than you’re welcome!” But nothing came to me, so I got into the car.

Upsie Daisy

  Fred gave me explicit instructions on what I was to do and I reviewed them with him twice to make sure I understood. Fred got into his jeep, and communicated to me via his handheld radio, that  he was going to drag me a couple inches just to make sure he could pull me. Once I started moving backwards, Fred instructed me to put the car in neutral and release the brakes. I felt the car inching backwards to more stable ground.  

     Daisy clapped her hands and cheered. All tow straps were removed. 

     At this point Fred got into her car and positioned it so it was facing downhill. Fred asked her, “Do you want to follow us down or do you want to stay here? She said, “No, I’ll come down with you.”

     Daisy giddily got into her car and I was aware that it would be important to keep her calm and not thinking about the fact that we were helping her down. I asked her how to make sausage rolls because she had told me she had worked in a bakery when she was younger. When all were ready, Fred came over to tell her to keep her car in first gear the whole way and that we would escort her to make sure she didn’t get hung up. When she lined up behind the others, she saw the road down and declared that the road down was so narrow! It had NOT been this narrow when she drove up last night!. Hhmmmm.

    The plan for going down the mountain was that we would sandwich her Mazda between our cars and escort her down the treacherous part of the shelf road. Down we went with her following Bodie’s jeep, and then followed by Michael’s Tacoma with Doc Mac.

     On the way down, Bodie could hear her car scraping on the rocks, because it was so low slung. Its low slung-ness was the fact that actually kept it from going forward off the cliff. We continued driving till we were back where we picked up Doc Mac.  At this point it was past noon and we stopped to have lunch. As Daisy drove up to where we had stopped, Fred asked her, “Are you still OK driving?” She strongly affirmed yes, so Fred told her she should go on ahead and if she had any problem, we would be along to help her. She eagerly put out her hand to shake Fred’s, enclosed his hand with her other hand and thanked him. Then I approached and told her that God had a plan for her life and that she should seek Him with her whole heart.  She answered, “Yes when we cooperate, He will make his plan happen. And He could come back today!”  She pulled me towards her through the window and planted a kiss on my forehead followed by her finger drawing a cross. She smiled, and said, “That’s what my friend always does to me- she’s a recovering Catholic. It’s for good luck.” Let me say here that I saw Ulanbek also try and give her messages of God’s love while cars were being moved around up at the pass.

Outward Bound

    After lunch we resumed our descent. About 3 miles down, we found her stalled at a turn where a creek flowed under her car. She was sitting on the hood with her feet dangling in the water like she had not a care in the world. Fred asked her, “Do you need help or are you OK?”  She answered, that she was fine and just wanted to spend more time with God and she wanted to stay there. After more questions, Fred found out her car quit, but she was sure that her State Farm towing could come up even though she had no cell phone. Asking her more questions to try and get her help led to nowhere so we left her there in a childlike happy state. We knew the trail was well traveled, as we saw cars coming and going and Daisy was confident that she would be able to get herself out.

    When we got to the bottom of the trail, we tumbled out of our cars for a map check and bathroom break. Doc Mac had asked Michael while riding in the car why we would stop to give her a ride and help Daisy off the precipice. Michael replied, “Because that is what Jesus would do.” Doc Mac said she felt so blessed and was thankful that she got to be with us and she felt like she was part of the team.

Ulanbek, Michael Alcorn photobombing, Myself, and Doc Mac

    We are thankful that we got to be a part of some redemptive work in both of these girls’ lives. We headed to Durango and dropped Doc Mac where she wished. We regrouped and headed up another remote County Road for our next nights rest.

    I told Fred later that I hadn’t felt drawn to help Daisy when I first talked with her. I am ashamed my first inclination was not to reach out and help her, though she was in need. I was put off by her physical condition and the paraphernalia she had scattered upon the pass. But in the end my heart was settled to talk, pray, clasp hands and receive a kiss from her. Fred reminded me that it’s not how you start out or your initial thought that counts for obedience but what you do in the end. Someday, may my heart be initially compassionate towards someone, even in a season of Covid. I am a work in progress.