04/19/01:
The wind howled all last night and was still howling this morning. The truck did quite a bit or rocking so I guess the winds must have been in excess of 25 knots. They didn't let up much today. That was OK though. I needed the time to rest up and get some strength back. 4-5 days of no food or drink is not conducive to good health. I drove around a little and then dozed most of the afternoon.
04/20/01:
White caps upon the waters. Everywhere! All the time. Some gusts up to 50 mph. That gets kinda boring after a while.
04/21/01 Paddling Bullfrog Basin:
I awoke to the strangest sound this morning. Silence. No winds howling. No waves crashing. Nothing but silence. It was cool with a heavy overcast but there was no wind. The bay on which I'm camped was roiling yesterday but smooth as a baby's butt today.
7:30am found me on the water with no particular place to go. I thought I was at a dead end but soon saw several boats turning into an invisible channel. Sounds good to me. Then I noticed my deck mounted compass was kaput, just rolling around not pointing in any specific direction. Thinking back, I'd have to guess it was freezing weather in the teens over the past months that did it in. Probably froze the liquid, cracked the plastic and it all leaked out. I probably won't replace it.
I paddled a mile out into the lake to several huge sandstone boulders 200-300 feet long and 50 feet high. From there I could see where the other boats were heading and turned that way. Red sandstone mountains are everywhere in the distance. Close by are huge sandstone rocks .25 miles long and a few hundred feet high. As I followed the other boats I found myself between canyon walls 100+ feet high, 75 feet of sandstone on top and 25 feet of limestone underneath.
This is the first exercise I've had since my bout with the stomach bacteria so I wasn't looking to do a lot. I just paddled a few strokes and then drifted and admired the scenery then a few more storkes. 10am the winds came. The heavy winds the past few days had been out of the south, the direction I was heading and if they came, I was hoping they'd come that way again. As it was, all I had to do was turn around and let the wind push me back. The waves built up to 2.5 feet and things were pretty lumpy for a while. Of course, butt head that I am, the PFD was under the front bungees while the spray skirt was jammed up beyond the foot pedals.
04/22/01 Paddling Bullfrog Basin:
Last night I awoke several times. Once I could hear some wind, once I couldn't and once it was really howling. At dawn I looked out on the bay and didn't see a ripple. But as I watched, some wind moved in but not too much. It looked like I had a shot after breakfast so I went to grab it. The kayak was just pulled up on shore so I began swinging the bow around. And the wind hit me! Big time gusts so that was it. I grabbed a book and finished the last few chapters. At 10:30am I noticed the wind had died so I grabbed the kayak and launched.
I had seen houseboats and power boats heading for another apparent dead end to the east so went in that direction. I'm at the Stanton Creek camping area. The problem with that is the official map shows it on the other side of the bay so I'm a little confused as to where anything is. Not to worry though. I really don't care. I always know where I am and that's what matters to me.
Half the sky contains murderous looking black clouds while the other half contains nice fluffy white clouds and deep blue skies. Ya know how sun rays come down from dark clouds when God talks? Well the devil must've been talking to someone because instead of sun rays, black cloud rays could be seen streaming down from the clouds towarss the water.
I just paddled along in a leisurely manner. Big sloping sandstone domes kinda dominated one side as I moved into a canyon type area while red sandstone cliffs dominated the other. An hour into the paddle I was stopped for some water when I got hit with a big blast of wind from behind. The paddle almost flew out of my hand and I almost lost my hat. After dropping the chin strap I turned back into it. What I've found is once the wind starts, it doesn't stop for a while. And it didn't, even though it was out of the northwest instead of the south.
Waves soon built up to two feet and were hitting me head on. That coupled with being splashed by a dripping paddle every stroke soon had me wet. Most of the time the wind was in the 15 mph range but occasional gusts had me making no progress at all. I would have preferred not to have had a paddle like this so soon after my stomach bacteria but...
04/27/01:
Well, I haven't been having a good time. Stomach bacteria is the least of my concerns. Sunday night (the 22nd) I woke up throwing my guts up again. About 5am I headed north towards Price. This is less than a 3 hour drive but it took me more than 4 hours because I couldn't drive more than 10-15 minutes at a time before I had to pull over for a rest and a barf.
Back in the emergency room, it didn't take them long to decide I was bleeding internally, not after I told them about the black stool. When I reminded them I had been taking aspirin for 8 years I found myself admitted; diagnosis: bleeding ulcer. And they got the blood ready for a transfusion, in case needed. They knocked me out and stuck a TV camera down my throat for a lookesee. A giant ulcer is greater than 2 cm requires special treatment. Mine measured over 5 cm.
I was on IV for 4 days with nothing to eat or drink for the first three, then only Jell-O, pop cycles and such as they wanted they waited for the ulcer to dry up, stop bleeding and hopefully heal. When he released me today the doctor wanted me to stay close to Price in case I started hemorrhaging. I'm 110 miles away now trying to get into Arches National Park tomorrow. I forgot it was the weekend and there weren't any campsites available at the Colorado Riverway Recreation Area in Moab. I drove back north 12-14 miles and found a spot on some BLM land (I think).