Ponderosa Pines, Redwall Cliffs and FBI's Most Wanted

Opening day/week of the North Rim has passed.  Cyndee and I took the first four days on duty and got to experience what it was like getting the first wave of campers checked in.  We also saw how rusty everyone was at using all the procedures that need to be done to get everything to work smoothly.  But by the end of this first week it is going pretty well.

It did not take long before we were out at one of our favorite spots, the place we call cell phone point.

Ten miles as the raven flies across the canyon is the only cell tower that has a signal that can just barely reach to the North Rim.  It is a bit of a hassle to make the half mile walk to place a phone call but the bonus is the awesome view.

In our first four days Cyndee and I saw more service rescues than we did all last summer.  We aired up two flats, jumped a dead battery, made arrangements to replace a busted radiator, and towed a truck out of a campsite with our all electric Polaris ATV so a tow truck could hook it up and take it to the nearest diesel mechanic a hundred miles away.

Then there was the law enforcement activity.  One morning as Cyndee and I were servicing the tent sites out near cell phone point we noticed a couple of our local LE's walking up through the Transept Trail.  Not unusual except that they were carrying AR-15's!  Then we noticed LE's we did not recognize in vehicles we had never seen easing in on the road we use to get to the tent sites.  Then we saw LE's in the woods perpendicular to the road.  There were at least 3 pairs of cops coming in on a tent site from every angle except straight up the canyon wall.

Guns drawn they closed in on a campsite of a guy that had hiked over from the South Rim a couple days earlier.  He had arrived with barely a day pack of stuff, intending to return to the South Rim.  But when he got done with the 14 mile hike and the 5,000 foot climb up to the North Rim he was totally exhausted, dehydrated and altitude sick.  We loaned him a sleeping bag to use with the hammock he was carrying and encouraged him to drink, eat and rest.

And he did just that, but he stayed pretty sick for a couple of days.  But that did not stop him from doing what we later learned was his reason for hiking over here.  He was applying for a job at Forever Resorts, the concessionaire that operates the Lodge, General Store and Gas Station.  But what about the LE's and drawn guns?  Well, they quietly eased up on the bulging hammock and when they were within arms reach announced themselves.  Nothing.  One of the cops inched forward and gave the hammock a tap with his boot, it was obviously empty.  The bulges were from the heavy sleeping bag we had loaned him.

We were headed out of the tent area by this time and as we swung through the campground we saw the two that had come through the woods.  Their bullet proof vests had big yellow letters on them spelling out 'Federal Police' .  I have never heard of a federal police before, but that is what they were.

A day went by before we were able to talk to one of the LE's that we knew about what was going on.  Apparently they thought they had come upon the FBI's fourth most wanted person.  A guy that had killed his wife and two children, blown up the house to try to cover up the murders and on the run for the past thirteen years.  They finally caught up with our guy in the campground, discovered he was not who they were looking for and before the day was done, Forever Resorts had made him a job offer for the summer.  By 6:00 am the next morning the sleeping bag we had loaned him was neatly rolled up and on our picnic table.  I returned the bag to the store room and we have not seen our sick hiker since.