Photo from www.blm.gov

My name is Joe Perry. I am a member of the California Archaeological Site Steward Program and “elder” of The Real Desert Dogs.

I was visiting the Inscription Canyon area just days after the March 2010 vandalism occurred. I was in the area again this month (October 2010) and took a closer look at the damage done.

In addition to petroglyph panels removed and/or seriously damaged in the attempt to do so; I noticed the damage caused by bullets to many of the remaining panels.  Some of the oldest petroglyphs in the canyon probably exceed 10,000 BP. I was stunned to see bullet damage to those old panels as well.

From the information I gathered it is in my opinion that this recent theft incident was pre-planned and probably occurred within a short period of time. Two trucks were involved; two middle to late age caucasian males, three younger males (20’s) and one or two females of the same age. Probably local tweekers (methamphetamine users) out to make a quick buck.

At another smaller petroglyph site just a few miles distant I noticed bullet damage as well. The Real Desert Dogs are made up of a group of men; some of whom are military veterans, who are extremely protective of our cultural resources. We have fun on our journeys but we will turn real serious if we ever catch someone in the act of vandalism or theft. Bad Boys,  watcha gonna do when you know the Real Desert Dogs are looking for you?

I noticed that the Desert Dispatch caught wind of our initial blog post about the vandalism in Inscription Canyon.  You can see their story here.

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 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 some 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.  I ate breakfast and drank some instant coffee.

I took this new kind of black 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 a dumb idea that turned out to be.

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

After awhile I began to feel slightly paranoid.  It just came on 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.  At the same time my body aches increased along with throat pain.

Eventually our group split up and we started on our treck up Black Mountain as planned.  The paranoia stayed constant and 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.  It felt so horrible!

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 home 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….

UPDATE: Looking back at that situation I think I might of had a full on panic attack.  I have never felt that way before.