After going under the Interstate, through a drainage tunnel and a long and very dusty ride back (at one point Woodpecker thought I was lost and stopped to wait. I also stopped to figure out where I was. Turns out we were less than one hundred yards apart but neither of us had any idea where the other one was, I mean it was DUSTY!). We arrived very thirsty, (no problem we had lots of beer) and hungry (no problem, uh oh). After wheeling for close to twelve hours, Woodpecker says, " I'll get the steaks out, you cook! " Woodpecker hands me two really nice porterhouse steaks that are frozen harder than most of the rocks in Utah and says " I like mine well done. " Two hours later we had dinner.

The next morning we decided to head down to Tomisch Butte, very, very desolate country. The people who mined here must have been really hardy souls. There were quite a few old mines but the thing that got my attention was the very dark red soil(?) that absorbed the sun's heat by Ten A.M. It was about ninety degrees and climbing fast. Woodpecker and I moved out of the valley and headed north towards Little Wild Horse Mesa where we actually saw a small herd of wild horses Apparently they didn't appreciate our company and after staring at one another for a few minutes they sort of snuck away (what the heck do they eat?) The temperature was now in the high nineties and we decided to find a shady spot for lunch so we headed up a small canyon where another old mining site was and actually found a couple of small pinion pines that provided some shade.

Lunch with Woodpecker is always an adventure as he is a fan of MREs and it's interesting to see the look on his face when he gets one that tastes like dead cat (how he knows this sort of makes you wonder, doesn't it?) or blows up during preparation. Now that our basic nutritional needs had been met we took a short trip up the rocky canyon at about a half a mile an hour. As we are proceeding I heard this buzzing noise coming from under my Jeep so I stopped and leaned out to listen. Yup, still there, so I lean out a little more to hear better and look down to find a very upset rattle snake next to my Jeep. Didn't know I could still move that fast - grabbed the snake before he could grab me - had him for dinner that night. [Yeah Doc, and you complain about my MREs!! - Dave]

Woodpecker decided to drive to some famous landmark north of our position so we took a small road that headed off to the Northwest. This particular road wasn't in the best of repair so after climbing two small waterfalls, Woodpecker decided to break out the maps and GPS to figure out where we were. After looking at about fifty maps he hands me one and says, " I'll read off the GPS coordinates. You reference them on the map. " After doing this for a few minutes I decided that we were either in the wrong hemisphere or the GPS was just nut. Woodpecker looked a little sheepish when he told me that he might have transposed the Northing and Easting. Remember boys and girls, those Xs and Ys do make a difference.