Abbeyfest VI

All photographs copyright 2002, Jim Olsen

Hazel and myself headed out on Thursday night to squat on the spot for Abbeyfest, and lay down some survey stakes with arrows to show the way.  We arrived down at the turn off of the interstate well after dark.  I opened a beer, and began to pound in a survey stake near the start of the dirt road.  An unfortunate man in his camper turned off all his lights to stare out at me and figure out what I was doing out there.  Must have seemed strange to see a man pounding stakes at 9pm at night with an MGD in his hand.

We drove down the rest of the road stopping at key spots, pounding a stake, and pounding (well sipping) a beer.  It was great to be back in the swell, and it was a spectacular night.  A weird fog made up of the dust from the road hung in the air.  It was still very dry down here.

I arrived at the spot, and it was unoccupied.  It was as beautiful as I remembered it.  The kitchen had to be setup (don't ask me why, but I always like to set up the kitchen the night before), the cooler attached to the propane to keep my beer and food cold, and a campfire lit.  The tent was set up behind a tree, but fairly near the campfire.  I figured I would be one of the last ones up, anyways.  It was then time to sleep for the night

We awoke to a spectacular blue sky, and a slight chill in the air.  I poured some water into the coffee pot, turned on the stove, and lit a small fire to warm myself by.  I then settled in to enjoy the morning view.

The view up canyon from the group gathering area is a play of colors.  Where else can you wake up every morning to such a colorful palette.  Whenever I gazed off into the distance I was overcome by the beauty surrounding us.  It is a special area with a view that just can't be beat.

Having sat around camp for a whiles, and enjoyed a few tasty beverages, people began to trickle into camp.  They would show up, look around, enjoy the view, then scurry off to find one of the prime camp spots before they were taken.  What they didn't realize was just how many beautiful camp sites there are in this location.  It really helps that it had been completely graded over for the mining operation.  Everything is flat.  Of course, it HAD been completely graded over.  But this is a reasonable compromise and we didn't have to worry too much about our groups impact.

The Mines above were small at first, but opened up into large dusty chambers.  I guess Christer decided he had been close enough to Chernyobyl to not want to actually enter the mines.  This is as far as he made it in while video taping us in case we never actually came back out.  We all poked around for a short whiles, but headed out after not too long of a time.  After all, none of us wanted to outshine the campfire at night.

That night we had our first group campfire as we waited for the remaining people to show up.  We talked of desert journeys, of friends now beginning to gather, and important stuff (like beer).  Every now and then I would just settle back into my chair, while sipping on my beer, and enjoy the sun setting on the sandstone cliffs high above.  I have always loved this place, and it was so nice to be sharing it with friends.

I also cooked up a pot of Geo's Friendly Lentil Soup.  We kept it warm and everyone (well most) got some soup as they showed up to the campfire.

The next morning, I cooked up many pancakes for hungry (and hung over) Abbeyfesters.  I can't remember exactly how many I produced, but they just seemed to keep disappearing off of the griddle almost as fast as you could produce them.

It seemed there was always some hungry soul standing there with a plate :-)  But what a kitchen to cook in.  I never mind making food out in the desert under the sun.

It took a whiles, but we finally got some kind of idea about two different hikes that would be going out that day.  Fortunately, we could start all of the hikes at the same location near Tomische Butte.  One set of people would head down Muddy Creek to the Chute, and another group would head upstream to another canyon.  So we finally just started the cars revving to get people motivated and into their vehicles and started the procession down the road.  Man, it can be hard getting this group going :-)

But once the group was moving, we were into some spectacular country.  We hiked down the river in the beautiful fall weather.  It was a bit windy, keeping you cool if you got too wet, but pleasant considering the time of the year.  We crossed back and forth across the river.  Those of us with Chacos were happy to do it, the others with hiking boots thought about their crossings a bit more.  By the time we reached the chute, however, you had no choice but to plunge into the mud and water.

And then there were those of us who enjoyed having the Chacos on just a bit too much......

We had our usual group campfire that night, after a wonderful dinner prepared by Chris.  None of my pictures from that night came out.  Maybe it was a sign to protect the anonymity of the individuals involved.  We had remembrances of friends no longer with us, friends who could not come, and a great howl to the moon and the canyon walls.  We read randomly from Abbey, which was sometimes interesting to see the quotes that came up (and sometimes not).  We had random conversations, and music from guitars and water containers echoed off of the canyon walls.  More than one or two beers might have been consumed as well.....

The next morning, people had a final pancake (and many other foods including salmon) breakfast.  People chatted, cleaned up, and prepared to say goodbye.  It was a great gathering of friends.  The rain then started to shower down on us.

It made for some not so dry conditions down in the desert.  I'm just glad people looked down before they sat in their chairs.

But it also made for some spectacular desert scenery as the clouds lay low over the canyons and water streamed down the walls.  The desert was alive again.

Fortunately, the sun came out again long enough for us to dry a few things out and say our goodbyes.  I had a wonderful Abbeyfest, and look forward to the one next year.  They often seem to far apart.  Hopefully all our friends who could not make it this year will join us next.

As a postscript, just ask Brian, Amy, and myself why it seemed to hail and downpour on us every time we touched the groover.  When we went to seal it up at camp, we were promptly hailed upon.  Following getting back in the car, and being slightly ahead of the rain, we arrived in Green River.  As soon as we started to empty the thing out at the truck stop, it started hailing and pouring down rain yet again.  It was all made up for with some great burgers at Ray's!

See you next year!