Canyon Rescue in the Roost

[TheBird]

This fall a few friends and took a trip to Robbers Roost. Our last day we decided to check out the East Fork of Blue John. After all, it was the last fork of Blue John i hadn't seen yet. the first have of the day was great. We hopped in and out of the small potholes all morning having a blast. i was first as we made our way down and as i sat on the downhill side of a small but steep walled pothole i caught something moving down it it out of the corner of my eye. "holy, There is something stuck in here. It's still moving." My friends all quickly panicked. I should have been more specific. nothing to be alarmed about, it was just a little mouse.



The poor little guy had fallen into the hole and couldn't find a way out. How did he even find a way in here in the first place? can a mouse survive a fall from the canyon rim? He was noticeably exhausted. barley able to rum from me when i jumped down into the pothole with him. as i looked around, i saw something that made me feel even worse for this poor little fuzz ball. the ENTIRE way around the pothole, 360 degrees, tiny scratch marks showed his efforts to escape. man, he must have been at it for a long time before giving up.



I couldn't leave him there to die of thirst so we decided to carry him out. luckily one of us had a plastic sandwich container from lunch. holes pre-punched and everything. we scooped him up and carried him to the junction with the other forks where the walls widened and plants started appearing. "Little guy must be thirsty". we cut the bottom of a pop bottle and buried it in the sand. I splashed him with a drop to cool him off. The mouse immediately started chugging and life instantly came back. he moved around the cup a while before sauntering away into the brush.

well, my one good deed is done for the day. think I'll celebrate with a beer back at camp.

[Iceaxe]

Nice!

Sent using Tapatalk

[schrods]

...Hantavirus...

[Kuya]

[TheBird]

Apparently This mouse didn't bring his pothole escape tools.

[SRG]

Good shit man!

[spinesnaper]

...Hantavirus...

To digress, funny story about that first time I did Paria Canyon about 25 years ago. I got up at 3 am to relieve myself and heard noise in the direction of my cook set. I had one of those boxy Primus gas stoves. Frozen in the beam from my head light, sitting in the middle of the stove, was a small mouse. After a second, it urinated all over my stove. Hantavirus was my immediate thought. Of course if you remember those stoves, they were impossible to light without engulfing the stove in a ball of flames which I figured would sterilize the stove.

Point is that hantavirus is endemic to these rodents. This is the virus that infected 10 people in Yosemite Valley over the summer. Three of these people died. The case mortality rate for hantavirus is 38%. As a physician I would strongly discourage anyone from handling rodents they come across in the backcountry not just because of potential lethal exposure to hantavirus but also a number of other potential zoonoses (animal exposure related infections). Hantavirus infection symptoms develop a couple of weeks after exposure as severe flu like symptoms, which can progress to severe pneumonia leading to cardiovascular collapse and death. This syndrome was originally known as Four Corner's Disease as in that place you are canyoneering in. Glad very one is OK but my sober unsolicited advice is next time let natural selection take its course and save yourself.

Ken

[accadacca]

Great story!

[iceman]

Nice story. It looks pretty pitiful in the photo. I'd have had to rescue it too.

[2065toyota]

You know what Bear Grylls would have done with it

[Brian in SLC]

You know what Bear Grylls would have done with it

He'd a drank it's pee?

[Slot Machine]

You know what Mel Gibson would have done with it.

[TheBird]

I thought hantavirus was inhaled, passed through their urine. We never actually touched the thing directly. Just scooped him up with the container. I guess there is still a little risk, but sweeping out my cabin every spring seems way more dangerous.

[Eric Holden]

We did the same thing with a Lizard found in Das Boot. He road on the arm of my buddy the entire way out.

[spinesnaper]

One acquires hantavirus infection by inhaling the virus or dust contaminated by infected droppings, urine or saliva. A bite of an infected rodent can also transmit the infection. The point is that you do not need to actually handle the animal directly.

Ken

[Deathcricket]

Frankly sir, I'm a bit dissappoint.

WHO RESCUES A MOUSE AND DOESN"T GIVE IT A NAME!!!!

+1 party fouls have been issued to this thread.

[spinesnaper]

Frankly sir, I'm a bit dissappoint.

WHO RESCUES A MOUSE AND DOESN"T GIVE IT A NAME!!!!

+1 party fouls have been issued to this thread.

Come on you've read the kid's book: If you give a mouse a rescue.

[Dan-wild]

HAHA! Mouse potshot....New product idea for Imlay Canyoneering Gear!

[hermmit]

And then the hawk came :)