#126 / 2010 Survival Camp: Coyote Rumble

ASTOR PARK: COYOTE RUMBLE

#126

Wow back in the sixties we called it a "rumble" when two gangs got together to taunt each other and fight. The coyotes were out SOOOOO early, just an hour or so after dark, having heard all the construction noise all day. Usually they start up about dawn. But this night, after Neil and the kids hammered all day long, rode bikes all over, screamed and hollered all over, the coyotes sound like they are lined up all along the property line, yipping, hooting, and making some real noise. The teenage boys just hoot and yip back, taunting, and Scruffy the dog is absolutely magnetized, quivering, every dusty long hair perched on end as she listens to her distant relatives out there in the dark.

"They want Scruffy," Neil claims. I think the coyotes are complaining about the population explosion at Astor Park. Now tomorrow, hands on hips, we will all stare out at the ATV squads that howl past Neil's property and be resentful of their intrusion. This is a private road off of Gate Two and Neil and Henry can't understand why the desert sports centers can send in their clients on ATVs to run all over this property out here. Not Neil's property specifically, but the whole private road. As I said earlier this is Spring Break week and the place is hoppin'.

So after the semi-showdown with the coyotes Neil and the boys gathered around our campfire and we had quite a few laughs with the youngsters. It was warm and we even went to bed with one of two of the screens on our plush new hemp canvas top unzipped and open to the night skies. Come about midnight the wind kicked up so awfully that we had to get out of bed and take down the tarp. I worry that the tent pole will get bent again.

So we had to get out of bed and fight the wind to take down an 8x12 tarp in 60 mph winds. We climbed back up into the bed but worried that the canvas was getting hit too hard so then we took everything down, locked down the top, and then rearranged everything downstairs so we could make the bed. I did sleep a lot better not worrying about all the equipment.

Then it got SOOOO cold. The big wind from the North, the same one that left some snow in Albuquerque, hit us. Clouds, dark mean-looking clouds, covered the skies in just an hour it seemed and I stayed inside the van all day and night. But I can do that very contentedly. Neil and the kids left Saturday afternoon and the coyotes have been quiet ever since.

Today we walked into the RV Park; Henry will give us a ride home. My hands hurt; there are chunks of skin off of my knuckles. Cactus needle pokes, thorn scratches. I try to rub down in Vaseline every night, it's the only thing that seems to penetrate in the dryness, but my skin is taking a toll here. I have a beautiful big broad-brimmed hat that Neil has loaned me. It looks like something out of a Gene Autry movie. I love it.

Happy Trailz

Beatlick Pamela