There is no such thing as enough water.

Back in 1992 the Riverside County Sheriff was asked how many bodies he thought lay undiscovered in the desert. His response was, "If they all stood up together there would be a forest".

It seems that the forest is growing larger with the discovery of a more than a few bodies in the desert between San Bernadino, Riverside and Imperial counties. Near Palm Springs 2 hikers lost their lives hiking in extreme temperatures. Another was lost then found caught in a crevasse up in the Painted Hills in Mecca, Ca. probably at the end of Box Canyon. Going further north to Death Valley a woman, her son and dog went out for an overnight camping trip in Death Valley and found tradgedy when their jeep got stuck. He first mistake was continuing into Death Valley after changing a flat tire. Her second mistake was thinking a a case of half liters bottles of water was enough. When found by the park rangers she was barely able to wave them down. Her 11 year old son was found dead in the car, the dog survived. That could have been avoided. If fact all of that could have been avoided if people would just excercise a little thought before going out for the day. We are well into August, the monsoon season. This is actually one of the worst times of year to go out for some playtime. The higher humidity levels work against you a lot harder than when the humidity is 12% or less. Easier to dehydrate and to become heat stressed since the body has to work harder to remain cool.

Never forget that there is no such thing as enough water in the desert.

Ja~ne

In memory of Bear. 1994-2009

Bear passed away last week. A 15 year old German Shepherd of exceptional note he was the best friend of my best friend who we call Bulldog. Going back more than 25 years our dogs have been friends and companions not only to ourselves but to each other. Simon and I have been caught in the desert in a broken down truck with our dogs awaiting rescue on a day with temps in the mid-one teens the dogs got the priority for cooling while we sweated out the arrival of a spare tire.

Two weeks ago we took Bear and my dogs Jin and Abby to the local river for some playtime then to the pub for a pint. That was the last time I saw Bear. He had a good time good time that day. Pass easy over the Rainbow Bridge Bear.







This was also taken the same day.