The InReach Adventure - August 2021

 

"Where's the InReach?" I asked the Lady as we were cleaning the truck and camper after our last trip. I was looking in the console between the seats in our truck, its standard location. The Lady was in the camper.

"Its suppose to be in the console," I knew that'd be her answer. "Please check the cubby hole where we put it overnight when we're camping," I asked.

"Not there," came her answer.

 

We've all been there, right? Tearing about, now looking everywhere for a missing piece of equipment. It's got to be here. It's suppose to be here. Nope.

 

For years we used a SPOT SOS devise, up until September 2016. The gadget has to see the sky, be able to talk to the satellites. The best location for that to occur is on the roof of the camper directly above the rear entry door. That location worked great for the SPOT until the time in September 2016 we forgot about it, left in up on the edge of the roof, drove off, and could only imagine it's last final flight.

 

The SPOT was replaced with an InReach - the InReach we both now could not find. We did learn from the untimely death of the SPOT. The location on the camper roof top edge worked too well, was too handy a place to use to abandon. We tied a long leash on the InReach and attached a bright red mini carabineer to its end, a hard to miss flag to remember the InReach is up there. It also attaches the InReach to a compression strap on our packs so it cannot be lost if it drops out of an external pocket while hiking.

 

We have forgotten and left the InReach overnight on the roof a few times, but that weighted flag of a carabineer hanging down saved its life, reminded us to retrieve it and put it away.

 

Now it was gone. "Didn't you see it when you lowered the top this morning?" the Lady asked for the third time.

"I remember taking it from the roof and putting it in the cubby after sending the 'camped here for the night' message last night," I insisted for the second time. "I did not see it this morning."

 

No matter how many times we went over it and how many times we searched through the same places over and over, the InReach was gone. We went on with the "returning home from a trip" routine. Packs were hung in the gear closet. Clothes were pulled from our duffle bags. A dirty clothes pile grew. Food was returned to cupboards and the refrigerator in the house. The Lady pulled out the vacuum and started cleaning both the truck cab and camper interior. The puzzle of the InReach did not leave our heads.

 

It came to us both at the same time. We both remembered the thunderstorm the evening before as we cleaned after dinner - the violent gusts of wind that rocked the camper. Had it blown the leash and carabineer out of sight atop the roof? We both climbed up and looked on the camper roof.

"Here it is!" the Lady yelled with glee. "How lucky is that!"

 

The InReach was in the center of the roof, loose, not attached or caught to anything, loose in the middle of the roof. Many miles of serious wash boarded dirt road, crossing two winding Sierra Nevada mountain passes, and 145 miles of travel had not sent it on a last, fatal, final flight. How lucky is that?