Bob Campbell SB 14 Repairs Completed
Bob Campbell Would Be Proud
SB14 Repairs Complete!
Story by David M’Greene.
They say it takes a village. For the weekend of January 20th through the 22nd of 2023, that village came together to work and to celebrate. I guess you could literally say it was a party.
The Bob Campbell Drinker System has long been in need of repairs. I think we just did not realize the extent of the necessary repairs because it had been so long since there had been any rain in the Mesquite Wilderness. As I have written in past reports for The Sheep Sheet, all of that changed this season! A dissatisfying scout trip to the system revealed the necessity of the 2nd water collecting dam being reconnected. Announcements were made, emails were sent, and social media events were created. The result? The village arrived.
Seeing the project dates, Norm Lopez volunteered one of his accounts to provide materials for the project. I was told to be at Landscape Warehouse in Azusa on the 17th of January to pick up “some stuff.” Some stuff indeed. “Tiny Joey,” as Norm likes to call him, was proud to provide SCBS with 100 feet of two inch schedule 40 PVC piping, connectors, sweeps, glue, and a ten foot section of four inch overflow piping. Oscar Perez, the manager on duty that day, helped me load it all up into the van and simply could not believe that Norm did not show up to help. We were fine loading it all up ourselves, but very concerned for what could have happened to Norm to keep him away from manual labor. He did check in later that night to let me know he had been stuck in traffic. He also let me know that Joe Robles (Tiny Joey) planned on being at the project to help out. Incredible!
On the 20th, Arioch M'greene went to Glenn Sudmeier's to pick up additional supplies while I went to Camp Cady for tools. We almost caught Debbie and Steve Marschke in Baker where we stopped for lunch. Marty Ambrose had an issue with his vehicle and met Steve and Debbie there to hand them pipe cutting and threading tools for the project. Having already had lunch, they went ahead to sight see while Arioch and I ate our lunch and topped off our fuel tanks.
After a nice hot lunch, it was full speed ahead to the Corral that we had selected to serve as our camp. At the very well disguised junction of Kingston Road and Old Traction Road, we came upon David Hess who had shot right past the turn off (fun fact: So did I). As we spent a minute or two making sure I was on the right path, along came Joe Robles. He had brought two additional volunteers in the form of relatives visiting from Mexico. They had been looking for the turn off that I had just so expertly found. Filiman “Phillip” Robles, and Justin Robles thought they were just going for a ride. That is exactly what I tell my volunteers too. “Let's go for a ride.” Now on the correct road and in caravan, it was full speed ahead. We did make two more stops along the way. One was when we came upon Norm Lopez, going the wrong way, and another was when we stopped to let the tourists on their fun ride take pictures of the burro that were out in abundance. Don't tell anyone, because I know it is an unpopular opinion, but I kind of like the burro. They are cute. (That will set off some of our members.) The tourists were shocked that such a thing as wild burro exists. They clearly had no idea and thought I was joking when I told them why we stopped.
At camp, we set up quickly and got the fire pit ready. John Voght and Don Moore were already there with Don telling stories about the horrific route he took coming to camp from Primm through The State Line Pass. I kind of yawned at his harrowing tale since I have done that route in the Crown Victoria. I try to be encouraging when I interact with others, but it is something my therapist says I still need to work on. Michael Graeber brought his dogs Bear and Cricket to meet SCBS's official K9 Glacier, and my own little princess Amalie who was on her first ever project. Joe Preiss was thrilled to see his old pal Glacier and Glacier was happy to make the rounds saying hi to everyone. Especially everyone that had food in their hands.
Having a fire is great and it is something you miss when you do a bunch of work in Wilderness that does not allow for fires. Everyone came together to share stories and information about what has been going on. There were a lot of stories about Bob Campbell and back in the day. We received word from Scott Gibson that he would be in very late. That was a little bit of a concern, because he was the guy with the food. Jim Fitzgerald arrived and set up while far in the distance we watched approaching headlights. As wood was added to the fire, we watched as those headlights would back track every once in a while in search of a way to get to us. Much commentary was made asking who it could be and what were they doing? Why would they go that way? Turns out it was the new CDFW Desert Bighorn Biologist Danielle Glass and Scientific Aide Shelton Hatfield. They are new, so no wonder they came the hard way (but not as hard as how Don came.). That they made it is what counts and they quickly found a place around the fire.
I know that I went too bed early. I also know that some of the village stayed up around the fire until well after one in the morning. Insanity. The temperature got down to 18 degrees! Scott Gibson arrived at about three in the morning. I don't know what time he started cooking at, but he and Don Moore had coffee and egg and sausage burritos made for everyone well before our departure for the job site time.
The Cal Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation graciously sent a grant for food for the project. Scott and Don prepared the aforementioned breakfast and gave us the motivating news of a hot dinner for that upcoming evening. Listen, when it is 18 degrees and you are waking up to ice on the windshields and tents, it is the little delights that make the project something to be remembered with a smile. Unless you are Arioch. He doesn't need a tent and his old man is a dumb ass for suggesting he put a tarp over his bed. He doesn't feel the cold. Now go back to sleep in your equipped with a memory foam mattress, nice, warm van. Old man. Yes, he does not feel the cold. But he felt my hand. I, as usual, digress. The addition of meals to the project really brought things up a notch and were warmly received by all in attendance.
I know I said the plan was that we would head for the job site at eight in the morning of January 21st. We almost did. It was more like 8:45. Like I said, it was cold. We had a small delay as we were joined by Rick Stiebel. He had a small mechanical issue with his truck's shifter mechanism, but luckily he was on the road to camp so no travel time was lost. The group loaded up supplies, tools and bodies into four vehicles. BLM had requested that we try to use less than five vehicles getting to the job site, and we were happy to comply. It was under five miles from camp to the staging area, but it was slow going. The recent rains and subsequent plant growth covered the route and made for a lot of “look before you go” driving. We did see more burro along the way, and remarkably, one car reported seeing two Bighorn! I am unsure if I believe the report, but I wanted to pass it on.
From the staging area things started happening fast. With so many hands, all of the heavy equipment that I had been worried about having to make multiple trips back and forth for started to disappear. To my surprise, everything made it up in a single trek. Arioch took the CDFW crew up to the dam we were there to connect and had them start digging it out. Jim went up to the other dam to clean the screen and confirm it's condition. John Voght measured that the system had collected a couple hundred gallons since our last visit. Pipes started getting cut. Rebar started getting switched out. We put in a few “synthetic” fiberglass rebar pieces to see how they hold up and last in comparison to their prone to rust steel counterparts. I almost felt bad for the volunteers that could not keep busy because for once, we had more bodies than space. Almost. Screens were installed. PVC was painted. Dirt was moved! We finished up just as the sun was finally reaching the canyon we were in bringing it's welcome warmth. A slow drive back to camp and time well spent covering our track through wilderness and it was time for dinner!
The dinner was excellent and consisted of chicken tacos. But the real joy was in the celebration of John Voght's 75th birthday!! Debbie presented a desert themed cake and John lit up when he got to wear a Happy Birthday Medallion. The cake had all manner of desert critters on it and some of the rocks were candy in disguise. Some. That was part of the fun. Yes, we did sing Happy Birthday to John, and yes, there were candles on that cake. I guess you now see if you were not there, you missed out.
Thank you to all the volunteers that made this project happen. It is unreal to me that it took so long from first scouting this system to finally getting it done. I really appreciate everyone that helped get this thorn out of my side. I am actually looking forward to a return trip after the next wave of rain to see these tanks filled.
Special thanks to:
Landscape Warehouse www.landscapewarehouse.net
California Wild Sheep Foundation (cawsf.org)
Your contributions were very well received and appreciated.