Desert Dog Blog

Remember Dezert Magazine?

The 1937 edition of The Desert Magazine

Remember the old Desert magazine?  It’s publication ran from 1937 all the way to 1985, when its management decided to close up shop.

The original Desert Magazine was published from 1937 to 1985 by a man named Randall Henderson.  In 1958 he passed the torch, and other editors kept the magazine afloat until 1985.  Since then, efforts have been made to resurrect Desert magazine in print and as an online magazine.  The latest, and most promising, effort is www.dezertmagazine.com.

This online magazine is founded by John Grassom.  Grassom said Dezert Magazine is “a quarterly online publication dedicated to all things southwest. This includes archeology, anthropology, history, 4×4ing, travel, wildlife, botany, rock hounding and treasure hunting.”

Grassom added, “We are simply moving forward with the same commitment and passion as the first.”

The first Desert Magazine focused on archaeology, wildlife, human interest stories, history, geology, and anything desert-related.  And that’s what Dezert Magazine is going to be about.

Grassom invited the Desert Dogs to participate in providing content to their magazine, with the first issue coming up on October 1. We hope that this will be the beginning of a long and enduring friendship.

I’ll finish with this last bit, written by Mr. Henderson himself, in the very first edition of Desert Magazine, waaaaay back in 1937.  He wrote that there’s the desert that poets and authors dredge up – a purely imagined world, and then there’s the real desert. 

“The other Desert—the real Desert-—is not for the eyes of the superficial observer, or the fearful soul or the cynic. It is a land, the character of which is hidden except to those who come with friendliness and understanding. To these the Desert offers rare gifts: health-giving sunshine—a sky that is studded with diamonds—a breeze that bears no poison—a landscape of pastel colors such as no artist can duplicate—thorn-covered plants which during countless ages have clung tenaciously to life through heat and drought and wind and the depredations of thirsty animals, and yet each season send forth blossoms of exquisite coloring as a symbol of courage that has triumphed over terrifying obstacles. To those who come to the Desert with friendliness, it gives friendship; to those who come with courage, it gives new strength of character. Those seeking relaxation find release from the world of man-made troubles. For those seeking beauty, the Desert offers nature’s rarest artistry. This is the Desert that men and women learn to love.”

Let the new Dezert Magazine forge its own trail, but we let it also keep alive the tradition of giving the desert its due respect and homage.

New video out on YouTube!!! Desert Dog Down: Return to the El Pasos

Don’t forget to watch in HD (just click the “HD” button on the video menu).

This time, the Desert Dogs set out to find those elusive mummies they’ve heard about in the past (see the first El Paso episode). But the spirits of the dead decide to thwart their efforts. Ben, the Desert Dog website’s blogger, fell seriously ill as the Dogs get closer to their rendezvous.

Also in this episode, the Desert Dog’s Bug Man Marty Lewis finds a hive of killer bees, sits right next to them and talks about them too. He finds another insect, but that will be in the video found at the Desert Dog website, www.therealdesertdogs.com.

Archaeological Site Steward Joe Perry runs across numerous artifacts, even what may be a Native American burial, complete with beads, a broken metate, and maybe even some bone.

Music used with permission from Petroleum (Warner Music Group, the owners of Metallica’s music, started cracking down on us).  But I think we passed the dispute process, because they stopped muting our videos.  Gotta love fair use!

I Felt Like I Was Going To Die

During this last trip to the El Paso Mountains I had no idea what I was in for.  Friday night we went to sleep and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night with a high fever and a soar throat.  I was shivering uncontrollably, was very thirsty and had to take a leak very badly.

I knew I needed to wake someone up to see if they might have some Tylenol of something to help my condition.  It was very dark in the tent so I tried to reached over and woke up Dustin and asked him if I he had any medicine.  I told him how I was feeling and he was able to dig up someone acetaminophen pills.  I took the pills, drank some water urinated and went back to sleep.

When I woke up I felt a little better.  I still had some soarness in my throat and had body aches all around.  After awhile everyone got up and we began to get prepared for the day.  We ate breakfast and drank some instant coffee.

I took  an energy pill along with the coffee in hopes that the stimulants would help me cope with the symptoms for the long hike.  I thought if I hike constant and keep up a sweat, maybe I would sweat it all out.  What dumb idea that turned out to be.

As we started hiking my fever started to kick in right away with the body aches.  I just toughed it out for awhile and then ended up taking more acetaminophen to null the fever.  It helped a little as continued down the valley in search for more chippings.

After awhile I began to feel slightly paranoid.  It just came out of no where.  I started feeling like something was wrong with everything.  It progressed rather quickly until I started thinking about weird scenarios of situations happening that ultimately ended in me getting hurt somehow.  At the same time my body aches came back and throat pain.

Eventually our group split up and we started on our treck up Black Mountain as planned.  The paranoia stayed constant was eventully joined by anxiety.  After awhile of mental horror I ended up pulling Andy aside and I explained to him what was happening.  We spoke breifly about it and we both agreed that it was probably temporary and would go away after awhile.

It didn’t  the problem got worse and worse.  I started feeling so paranoid about every single thought that passed through my mind.  I was ever afraid to tell them how I felt.  I was afraid that I might die out there and that people were going to think I was a loser.

I finally told them in so many words that it was an emergency and that i may need to go to a hospital.  I told them that maybe if I just got back to the camp and laid down for awhile I would be ok.  We eventually got back to the camp but had to scale a decent size mountain to get there.  I remember being so exhuasted and soar all over my body.

I made my way to Dustin’s truck and blacked out for about 30 minutes.  I was awaken by Andy and Dustin who checked my forehead and decided to leave.  They packed up the gear and we left.  We stopped at a local store and they bought me some tylenol which I took and started feeling better right away.  We ate and eventually made it hope around 7:30pm.  When I got back I showered and went to sleep at about 8:30pm.  I woke up at 1am, took some Nyquil, drank some water and passed back out until about 8:30am.

I have been just resting all this week and right now I feel like I am just about well.  My throat still feels a little puffy but I think I am almost 100% again.  I am just so glad the paranoia and anxiety are gone….