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Overdue male youth
By Craig
Beasley
There I was,
sitting at my desk drawing up some geologic maps
when ring... ! I picked up the phone and heard
the increasingly familiar "Hi Craig, this is
Mary (McIlvoy). You have a mission - can you
go?" Having told her yes, she informed me
the plan was to meet at the Banning substation at
5:00 a.m. to begin searching for an overdue male
youth in the infamous Tahquitz Canyon. Five
o'clock would come awfully early, so geology
would have to wait till some other day.
RMRU assembled
at 5:00 a.m. at the substation and rolled to Ann
Dolleys (our usual helispot for Tahquitz
Canyon missions) to meet Don Landells at 6:00
a.m. We split into three search teams, Bernie
McIlvoy and Craig Britton, Kevin Walker and Rick
Pohlers, and Bob Attride, Mark Rhoads and myself
to cover the lower, middle and upper portions of
the canyon, respectively. Don arrived on schedule
as usual and deposited the teams in the
appropriate places.
The assignment
for each team was to search down canyon
attempting to cut tracks of the overdue teenager.
With all teams down in the canyon, radio
communication was marginal so Don flew Walt
Walker to a high point on the ridge to act as
radio relay between the field teams and base. A
few prospective tracks were turned, none of which
yielded a concrete lead. While approaching the
ends of our assignments, the Sheriff was notified
that a boy fitting the description of our subject
had been seen in Palm Springs earlier that
morning. We continued our assignments and having
turned nothing, coupled with the earlier sighting
of the boy decided our job was done and we headed
for Carrow's in Banning for lunch.
A special note
for those who have known and appreciated Tahquitz
Canyon for years past - it is no longer the same.
Due to the absence of ground cover because of
last year's fire, the ground essentially let
loose in this month's (September 7th) intense
rains. A torrent with incredible force must have
ravaged the canyon to cause the radical changes
that have occurred. Boulders six feet in diameter
are piled where there were none, twenty foot tall
trees are now horizontal, and perhaps the most
devastating change, RMRU's favorite swimming and
diving pool has been reduced to a four inch deep
trickle as the pool has completely filled with
sand. The large flat rock we camp on during our
annual Tahquitz Canyon training is covered with
large boulders and our shade tree rests upon the
rocks. It was quite disheartening to say the
least to find that the assent out of the canyon
prior to arrival at the camp site is no longer
necessary as it is now merely a short jump into a
large sandbox that used to be the best swimming
hole in the canyon. All we can do is hope for a
good winter that will produce a run off strong
enough to clean the sand from all the pools and
return our favorite spot to its well remembered
condition.
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