Dernier Hurrah, Maison principale

I was president and founder for 25 years of a large indoor soccer company. The managers worked really hard. We all did. I wanted to find a place to get away, where we could escape from the grind. I wanted something in the boonies. Driving to our Boise facility I saw people walk out of their homes, get in their canoes, and get in the Snake River. I need a river. Driving through West Texas coming back from our Houston and Austin facilities I saw folks walk out of their homes and get on their dirt bikes and on their atvs and take off down dirt trails. I need dirt trails.

Sometimes I would find a property that had some things, but not all things. Sometimes I’d find something new and the hunt would then grow more difficult with more requirements. Then, years later I hit the wall. I was done with 100 hour weeks and I needed an escape. I escalated my hunt for a property in the boonies. I started focusing on the four corners area central to most of our locations.

After looking at 50 or so properties one day my Moab real estate agent told me about a property on the other side of Hurrah Pass. I tried to get out here to view it in the BMW but in those days the road was rough and I tore the BMW all up.

Turns out Base Camp has everything and so much more. I bought this place fifteen years ago without knowing about the Wind Caves, Chicken Corner, Anti-Cline, Amasa Back, pottery sherds, arrowhead flakes, ancient dwellings, rock art, the critters of all kinds, dino tracks, fossils, all types of geology, the night sky, the quiet, the unlimited hikes and on and on. There has never been a day I haven’t appreciated what surrounds me. There never will be.

Things to know:

You should bring your own food and anything you’d like to drink besides water. Pretty much everything else is here. It’s 17 miles from Moab and it will take most a little over an hour. Take the road between the side by side rental place and McDonalds. At stop sign go straight. River on right. Black top ends. Follow signs that say Hurrah Pass. You don't normally need four wheel drive but you should have at least six inches of ground clearance. Without it your vehicle and Mother Earth may have occasional inappropriate relationships. If height is an issue you will have lots of issues up and down Hurrah Pass. We are 2.7 miles down Hurrah. Turn right at Base Camp sign and the first left will take you to the lodge.

Things are not static. They don’t stay the same all the time. The road changes, a rock falls down, there is a rain storm, anything can change the road. It may be fine in the morning and deteriorate in the afternoon, for multiple reasons. I mention the beach, but sometimes I don’t have one during snow melt and slightly after and the locations of the beach could change. In June and early July generally we have mosquitoes but hardly got any this year depending on the high water mark. We have a Milky Way most nights but in December and January it’s more difficult to see than in mid summer. I have side by sides for guests to use but sometimes they break and go in the shop at the same time so I might not have one while you are here. I feed critters at night on the front porch of the lodge. Some nights some critters don’t come or they take a long time to come. I have no control over who shows up when. Kobae usually hangs out on the porch in March, April, May, and early June. Once it gets hot he retreats in his hole and I generally only see him once a day when he comes out to eat until end of August and then he’ll want to go hiking every day, for miles. He’s not here from mid November thru late February when he goes to San Diego for the winter.