May 27, 2015 - Green Boulders and Colorful Rafts

Another blessed quiet day in Big Creek to give us time to recover from the holiday weekend. Spence dropped in for a coffee refill. We watched the Camp Carolina group in the group site loading up and heading out with their rafts on top of the school bus. Then Spence got to work and we went up to the campground.

These boulders really stood out with their green-ness in the morning sun.

Then we noticed this roadside boulder that had moved. We were not sure whether it was the drunk woman who hit it; the skid marks seem to say so. But, it could have been the trash truck that pulled her off the rock on the other side of the road.

Andy had bought new windshield wipers at Walmart yesterday, but neither he nor Spence could get them on the car. We returned them to Walmart today and got new ones at O’Reilly Auto Parts. The salesman there installed them for us. We ate barbecue for lunch at the Giggling Pig. We picked up a few forgotten items at Food City before heading back to Big Creek.

When the groceries were put away, we drove down to the Pigeon River so I could call the dispatch office. I talked to the supervisory dispatcher, Bill Sorrel, and asked him all my burning questions about the dispatch office. I am going to put the answers in my book, Big Creek Journal. He settled my confusion about his name. He is James William Sorrel, but goes by Bill. He said all his family go by their middle names. He uses Bill informally, but is James on his email.

When I finished talking on the phone, we watched the rafters float by. This was our view upstream toward the power plant where they periodically release the water.

 

Buses from the rafting companies in Hartford drive up to the power plant and disgorge rafters, who carry their rafts down a steep ramp to the river.

 

I got a laugh out of this hapless crew who came out backwards and did not get turned around as long as we watched them. Andy thought maybe the guide was doing it on purpose.

  

The river was lined with colorful rafts, life jackets, and helmets.

The tent campground was full in the evening and we got a surprise group in the group site. They had just made their reservation before they arrived.

I spent the evening catching up on my log writing. I’ve been too tired or too busy to write for several days.

On the radio

An older man was driving too slowly and the reporting party “only honked the horn once”. They were outside their cars and the older man attempted to hit the younger with his cane. The honker apparently stepped aside and the old man hit his own car. We did not hear the old man’s side of the story or how the situation was handled by the ranger.

A ranger got a report of a visitor killing and disturbing wildlife. The witness who called in got a car tag number. Later a ranger called in to say he had killed a rattlesnake and one of the rattles was missing. I didn’t hear any more about it and don’t know if they caught up with the offender.

A ranger was checking a parked vehicle and called in to ask dispatch to check the backcountry permits for the tag. Dispatch reported that the car matched a backcountry permit. The ranger was concerned because there was food in the car and it was not secure. I think he said a window was open a little bit. Search YouTube with “bear breaking into car Clingman’s Dome” to see how they deal with car window cracked just a bit. The ranger finished with, “I hope the bears don’t get into it”.

May 26, 2015 - Rachel and Jessica

I forgot to mention that another couple stayed with us last night. They were hiking up to Site 38 and met Rachel and Jessica coming down the trail. They listened to the bear story and decided to continue up the mountain. Then they met other hikers fleeing Site 38 and decided that, perhaps they should not go there. They turned around and came here because the campground was full. We told them to pitch a tent on our mossy lawn. I wanted to make them feel welcome and said they could use some of our wood and build a fire in the fire ring. I snapped this picture of them as they were heading up the trail toward Mt. Camerer this morning.

A wildlife person called us on the radio and said that he wanted to interview Rachel on the phone. He gave me a phone number for her to call. She and Jessica loaded their gear and headed to their car to drive down to the river to get a cell phone signal.

Rachel turned sideways so I could see how awkward it was to carry the stuff-sack over her shoulder while running down the mountain. I should have mentioned yesterday that they mean that literally. They are trail runners.

They returned a short while later to say that the wildlife guy would come help them get the camera, phone, and wallet later in the day. He would call me on the radio when he was coming. Rachel and Jessica decided to go to Gatlinburg and gave me Jessica’s phone number to call them when I heard from wildlife.

The campground was practically deserted this morning so our walk around was short. We did stop along the campground road to look at the damage done by the drunk woman. Spence stopped by and went into the woods to pick up the pieces of the No Parking sign.

We headed out on our weekly run for groceries and errands. We ate lunch at Subway again where it is convenient to send/receive email. I did not take time to post to the blog. When we got back home, Rachel and Jessica were parked in the picnic area parking lot. We had heard Spence calling on the radio to see when someone was coming and he was told it would be late afternoon or early evening.

Later, I heard Ranger Chuck report that he was at the Mount Sterling trailhead and was heading up to Site 38 to close it. I walked up to the parking lot to report that news to the women. When they figured he had had enough time to reach Site 38, they came to the RV. Soon, we heard Ranger Chuck say that he was at Site 38 and was telling everyone to leave. He would transport some back to their cars in Big Creek. I then called Ranger Chuck to ask if he found Rachel’s things or whether she should head on home. He said she should go home; he had her contact information and would call her if he found anything. The two very disappointed women left for home. I don’t think Ranger Chuck spent too much time looking for the camera, phone, and wallet. He and the campers had hiked back down the Mount Sterling trail and were back at Big Creek before we finished our campground rounds. He was gone when we left the campground and we did not get a chance to talk to him.

On the radio

At 0820 someone reported a rock-slide on Clingman’s Dome Road which was blocking both lanes. They were calling for heavy equipment to come clean up the mess. They closed the road. Several hiker’s cars were parked in the parking lot and some were allowed to pass when they got one lane cleared. We heard them talking on the radio most of the day. They opened the road to traffic at 1821.

Someone called in to say that the lock on the Abram’s Creek campground had been replaced with a combination lock and it was causing problems for the bat researchers.

Someone called for wildlife to come take care of a rattlesnake on the trail. I think I heard a wildlife person saying for them to just keep people from getting too close to it and it would leave on its own.

A park visitor reported that large white cow, as in “moo”, was on the Rich Mountain Road, a mile into the park. The ranger and dispatch hardly believed it, but when the ranger got there he called dispatch and said, “True. White cow”. I think he tried to herd her back out of the park but don’t know how successful he was.

May 25, 2015 – A Bear at Campsite 38

Memorial Day

I always figured that Sunday was the busiest day here in Big Creek with family and church groups arriving for picnics. But Memorial Day beat any Sunday we have seen. Cars were already filling the picnic area as we walked to the campground for our morning walk-around. We met Baby Arya hiking down the campground road. Each time her dad took a step, her little legs kicked straight out.

Just a few steps further along, the nurse in Site 8 met us to tell us what happened in the campground last night. The groups in Site 10 and 11 were both drinking and partying into the night. There was also a visitor in Site 10. About 0200, an argument broke out and a young woman stormed out and spun gravel all the way out of the parking lot and part way down the campground road before she hit one of the boulders lining the side of the road. The nurse checked on her. She had hit her head and her vehicle was atop a boulder with both rear wheels off the ground. The nurse told us that the woman was very drunk so she took her keys to prevent her from driving any more. Of course, from the picture she showed us, I’m sure she was not going anywhere. Apparently the trash truck pulled her off the rock this morning. The young men in Site 11 were gone and the group in Site 10 were packing up. I took a picture of the tire tracks leading off the edge of the road, but it did not show up well. The big casualty in the incident was the no-parking sign, the Post was broken and the sign was laying in the woods.

 

I was in the parking lot about 1000 when a parade of 15 or 20 cars drove up Big Creek Road and into the parking lot. I was directing them, one at a time, to park in the horse camp day-use lot. One vehicle stopped to off-load coolers and the woman asked me if there were any camp sites available. She saw that all the picnic tables were taken. We have not had much rain here in a few weeks and all those cars and trucks were stirring up dust. They reloaded the coolers and someone was sent to the horse camp to get the ones who had already gone there. There was still a steady stream of cars arriving. Andy and Spence stationed themselves near the entrance to our site and told people to go to the horse camp.

One of them apparently thought he saw an empty spot and entered the one-way loop the wrong way. He got around to where I was standing and made a quick stop and a three-point turn to go the correct way.

Andy and Spence continued directing traffic while I walked down to the horse camp to assess the situation there. There were three spaces left, which filled up as I counted them. Boss Larry came by and said I could tell people to park in the band of grass on the perimeter of the lot. Spence was not too happy to hear that; he takes care of that grass.

I noticed a horse trailer in the midst of the cars. They had all parked to close to it that the horse owners would not be able to open the doors to load their horses. Even if they could load them, they could not drive out.

  

A couple drove in with a large dog. Andy told them they could not take it on the trail and offered my services as a dog sitter. His name is Butch and he is a brute; a mix of boxer and English Bulldog. He is also a very well behaved sweetie.

I took my book, a mug of iced tea, and a park radio with me and sat with Butch under a tree. He fell in love with me right away, after I fed him bits of a cheese stick. Andy returned about 1430 and quickly fell asleep. Butch did the same.

Spence arrived about 1500 for a cold drink and a break. He said he had cleaned all the toilet buildings twice today. We saw two horses come down the trail and Spence jumped up to tell him that he might still be blocked in at the parking lot.

They went on to the parking area and were still blocked in. They rode back to our site and the man was furious. What kind of idiot would block a horse trailer like that? Or, words to that effect. Andy got on the Gator with Spence and they all went back to the horse camp to wait for the idiot. Andy told me later that Spence had the couple laughing with his antics in short order. They were calm when the very nice people arrived and apologized to Spence who said, “Don’t apologize to me; apologize to them”. They just were not thinking. They moved their car and the horseman was able to back his trailer out to load the horses.

Spence had parked his Gator near the toilet building he was cleaning as we walked up to the campground in the afternoon.

We walked out onto the bridge after our campground walk in the evening. A family was washing their dog in the creek. He was covered in lather. They were with a big Spanish-speaking group. We were too tired to deal with it. I don’t think they spoke English anyway.

Finally, in the evening the madness calmed down. Spence went home and we went to the motorhome. It was just about dark when I invited Andy on a walk to the dumpster in the parking lot. It was such a beautiful evening so I suggested that we walk out on the bridge after I tossed the trash bag in. We saw a light across the creek. My first thought was that we had illegal campers over there, but the bobbing light came across the bridge toward us.

Two young women had been on a backcountry hike for a few days and had arrived at Campsite 38 on Mount Sterling today. They were eating when a medium sized bear rushed in and snatched Rachel’s pack. It carried it into the woods and then came back for more. Apparently the bear was not afraid of people and reared up on its hind legs and roared at them. Rachel assured us that she probably screamed much louder. The bear did leave, probably with a headache. Rachel and Jessica were terrified as well as all the other campers there. Everyone decided to leave. Rachel and Jessica ran down the steep, six-mile Baxter Creek Trail until it was too dark to go fast. They were still excited and exhausted when they crossed the bridge and ran into us.

I called dispatch to report the incident and we brought the women back to Sao. It was a bit too much excitement for all of us. I offered them something to drink while they told the story. Here they are a bit more relaxed, Jessica on the left and Rachel on the right.

 

We told them that we have heard rangers or wildlife people on the radio who escorted campers back to the scene of bear incidents. Rachel was anxious to get the top part of her pack, which had her cell phone, camera and wallet in it. She had managed to pick up some clothing and her sleeping bag and stuffed them into a mesh sack. It was very difficult to carry it slung over her shoulder while running down a mountain.

 

They wanted to stay to get her valuables, but were not anxious to sleep outside in bear country and more. We offered them our hide-a-bed and they readily accepted. They were especially happy to take hot showers. They hopped on the hide-a-bed and Rachel sighed, “bear proof”. 

On the radio

A Ranger called dispatch for a car on the side of the road that had run out of gas. Butler’s Towing was called to bring her some. Later the ranger called in again to say that the woman who was delivered the gas took off without paying for it. She did not have the cash to pay the man so she supposedly following the tow truck to Townsend, Tennessee to pay with a credit card. She dropped back and the truck driver lost sight of her in his rear view mirror on the curves. He pulled over in a pull-off to wait for her to catch up. Then he turned around to look for her and she was nowhere to be found. There are only so many places to hide in the park. About half an hour later, another ranger called in to say he was following the car in the back loop of a campground; then he pulled her over.  They arrested the woman and called the tow truck company to come impound the car.

An 83-year-old woman fell at Newfound Gap. She hit her head on the left side and had abrasions on left knee. She was coherent.

May 24, 2015 - Spence's Cherries

Sunday, May 24, 2015

It was another busy holiday weekend kind of day in Big Creek. The tent campground stayed full. As soon as two sites were vacated, they were occupied again. We had put a man and his two daughters in the group site last night and told them to get up to the campground early to get a site there. They didn’t get up there until after 0900 and it looked as though they were not going to get a site until the couple in Site 6 began to pack up.

Spence stopped by for a cup of coffee and brought me a bucket of sour cherries from the trees in his yard. I began to pit them in the morning, but didn’t finish until afternoon.

Here was another first in the parking lot. The man at the table had set out all the fixin’s for lunch and  four others were standing around waiting to prepare their lunches. The name on the side of the van was “WildlandTrekking.com”.

The nurse in Site 8 said that she went down to the Pigeon River to watch the rafters launch and start downstream. The constable told her that 3,500 rafters went down the river yesterday.

The party of six in the horse campground was packing up to leave for Cataloochee this morning. Actually, the women had already left on their horses. The men were tasked with cleaning up and packing up. Then, they would take their trailers and horses to the Cataloochee campground. The men’s horses were in the stalls. Two of them were standing there peaceably, but the one in the back was raising a ruckus. One of the men told us that he was unhappy because his girlfriend had left.

Andy and Spence both spent a large part of the day in the parking lot directing visitors to park in the horse camp day-use lot. Some still parked illegally. One couple had a small dog with them and Andy told them we would dog-sit while the family hiked. They arrived at our site and I fell in love. She is a designer dog, half poodle and half something else. I really don’t know my dogs. She is still a puppy and is all wiggle and lick. Her name is Abbey.

She yipped for a while after her family left, but then calmed down. She was busy watching down the horse trail and up to the road whenever there were people or vehicle sounds, looking for them to return. Andy took at chair out to the mossy lawn to be with her and she jumped up in his lap.

A teenage girl came up the hill through the forest and said she could not find her family. She had no idea where they had parked. Spence took her on his Gator to the horse-camp day-use lot to find them.

It was late in the afternoon before I got the cherries prepared. There was not enough for a pie, so I planned on a tart. Part way through prep, I simply dumped the cherries into a pie plate and spooned my slightly wet dough on top. I did not use a recipe for the cherries or the crust so I was a bit apprehensive about how it would turn out. I pulled it out of the oven and walked up to the parking lot to tell Andy and Spence it was done. Ranger Heath was in the parking lot. How did he know?

Ranger Chase was with him and he wrote some parking tickets. In both cases, the people parked right in front of the No Parking signs.

I suppose that if you are a car length away from the No Parking sign, it doesn’t count.

When they were finished with the tickets, all four men came to our site for my cherry concoction. It was delicious.

These leaves are above the campground road. I think they are walnut, but he could surely be something else.

The couple in Site 7 had put a huge webbed strap up between two trees. I asked them what it was and the guy told me it is a Slack Line and demonstrated it.

She sat on one end of the strap to stiffen it up a bit and make it easier to do. He told us that she is more skilled than he is. Andy and I joked that we could not walk that strap on the ground.

On the radio

Just before noon, someone reported that there was a two-mile traffic backup on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Someone had parked a car partially in the road and cars could not get by. Someone said to close the gate so that no more cars could enter and then see if some of the ones stuck could turn around and come back out. The reporting voice said that a large man was attempting to pick up the car enough to move it off the road.

The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is an extremely narrow, one-way, paved trail through a mountainside forest. There are old cabins, waterfalls, and plants. There are a few spots for parking and maybe some pull-offs, but very little opportunity to pass the car in front of you. I have no idea how long it took to clear up that mess.

A ranger called in a vehicle license for some people who had a passenger riding on the bumper of a Chevy Blazer. I assume the person was standing on the back bumper and holding on to the top of the vehicle.

BOLO for a Honda that had been involved in a minor motor vehicle accident.

The Smokemont host called the Cataloochee host to ask if they would look for a child’s scooter that a family had left behind. Later, the Cataloochee host called to say they had found the scooter if they wanted to come back and claim it. Those two campgrounds are 43 miles apart.

A large white pickup truck (3500) on the loop road was disabled. The owner said it weighs 8,000 pounds and was worried that a regular tow truck would be inadequate and he wanted a large tow truck. Dispatch asked if it had “dually” back wheels, but the answer was no. I would think the tow company would know what kind of tow truck to bring for any vehicle.

There was a bear in the Chimneys picnic area that took food from a picnic table. The reporting party said he ran him off into the woods, but he would come back. The wildlife person responding said he was on his way with a trap.

Another bear was just past the Methodist Church in Cades Cove.

Yet another bear was in the stables at Cades Cove. It left before the wildlife people could get there to chase it away.

There was a two-motorcycle accident near Look Rock. The ranger called it in as an emergency and asked for EMS. He said there were three people who would need an ambulance. He called back and asked for Life Star, the helicopter ambulance.

Wildlife specialists, 355 and 344, were planning to meet somewhere and net bats.

In the evening, a ranger reported that he was following a motorcycle going at a high rate of speed. We could hear his siren wailing. He said the biker would not stop and that he was passing multiple cars. The bike was headed north on US 441 from Cherokee. Other rangers chimed in and would place themselves in position to pursue the motorcycle. One blocked the road with his car, but the biker swerved and went around it. Then the biker made a U-turn and headed back to Cherokee. Dispatch called Cherokee police to be at that end of the park, and then set the radios so the Cherokee police could hear the park rangers. Other rangers were closing gates to prevent the motorcycle from driving on side roads. Four Cherokee units reached Smokemont, but had not seen the motorcycle. Then they were sure that the biker had ducked off the road somewhere. One reported that there was a big black mark on the road at the Smokemont campground. The biker ditched the bike and ran into woods. We could hear that ranger huffing and puffing as he was reporting and then we heard him say, “one apprehended”. It was a Honda motorcycle with Wisconsin plates. The guy had a Florida driver’s license. Both good.

Like most other events on the radio, there came a point when the rangers were not talking to dispatch anymore. We never heard any more about it except when 518 called in the license numbers. We’ll never know why he didn’t stop for the ranger in the first place.

May 23, 2015 - Chili in the Park

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Andy got up during the night to use the toilet. This is not news. While he was standing there, the mouse ran across his foot. I checked under the sofa for any food that a mouse might chew into and removed two boxes of pasta shells and two boxes of linguini. I put the potatoes into the new microwave/convection oven and covered the fruit bowl with a plastic lid. I don’t think there is anything left out accessible to a mouse. I hope it will get hungry and go away.

Even though I felt as though the holiday weekend started two or three days ago, it really started today. Of course, the campground was full. Three parties left and three more moved it before the tent pad cooled down. The day visitors were pouring in constantly throughout the day. Most of them headed up the Big Creek trail. It was hectic.

Spence told us over coffee that when he was twelve years old, he got a court summons for a child support case in Memphis, Tennessee. At that time in his life, even if he had been an exceptionally young rogue, he had never been west of Knoxville.

This trailer and motorcycle were in the parking lot in the morning. They were hooked up to a large white car.

 

Boss Larry stopped in and brought me some more Smokies Guide newspapers and pay envelopes. He needed my daily census numbers for the campground because he is going on vacation  (Bahamas) next week and wants to submit his monthly report early. Andy complained to him that Maintenance man Robert had locked the gate to our site again. Larry promised he would come again tomorrow.

We met an Indian couple in the parking lot looking for waterfalls. We gave them directions and also mentioned the Midnight Hole and the bridge farther up the Big Creek trail.

A couple with a toddler boy arrived last evening with bicycles in their car. This morning, they were getting ready for a bike ride and the woman asked me about the condition of the road between here and Cataloochee. It is a winding, gravel, mountain road, but I called to Spence at the toilet building to get more specific information. He said the gravel is well packed. I told her the distance is about 16 miles. She said, “Good” and then asked me what trails were over they could ride on. Holy cow!  They are going to ride 16 miles on a narrow, winding, gravely, mountain road (that does mean up, down, up and down, up, down), ride around Cataloochee, and then ride 16 miles up and down back to Big Creek?  I checked out their leg muscles.

We chatted briefly with the group in the horse camp and they were getting reading to hit the trail. Their horses are larger than most others I have noticed. Two of the three couples came from Montana. I suppose this first picture can be added to my animal butt collection.

 

I was making chili for our dinner and had invited Spence to join us. He and Andy were sitting outside while I was cooking. I heard Spence call to a backpacker walking down the horse trail and called to him out the window. We had seen a car parked in the horse camp day lot for nearly a week and were hoping someone returned to it soon. I asked if that was his blue car and he said yes. The guys started talking about his hike and Andy invited him to eat chili with us. He quickly accepted and put down his backpack.

While we were eating, we heard Ranger Heath on the radio saying he was in Big Creek. Andy, Spence, and I all laughed and said Heath smelled the chili. A moment later though, dispatch told Heath some hikers had found camping gear along Baxter Creek Trail. They had brought it to the ranger station. My thought was that a hiker had set his gear down to find a private spot behind some trees to take care of business. He was probably not happy to return to the trail to find his gear gone. Heath told us later, that the gear was actually spread along the trail. He put it in the ranger station so we can return it to the owner if they come to claim it. It’s a mystery.

Then Ranger Heath got another call. Park visitors had called the park to report that someone had left a dog in the back of their truck (with a cap) while they hiked up the Big Creek Trail. Andy and Spence headed up to the parking lot to see if they could rescue the dog. Hiker Jeff loaded up his backpack, thanked me for the chili, which he said is better than his mother’s, and headed on down the trail to his car. Andy returned to the RV for a tarp to put over the back of the pickup to shade it a bit.

 

The truck cap has a small open window, but the dog was still hot. Its tongue was hanging out, but it was not panting. I took a picture through the screen and then wrote a courtesy notice and put it on their windshield.

I walked around the campground while Andy, Heath, and Spence stayed in the parking lot. Cars arrived every few minutes. People were looking for a campsite or just a place to park. This eight-month old saw me a campsite away and smiled. Of course, Grandma had to go talk to her. Her parents are marines who drove here from Jacksonville, North Carolina for the weekend.

 

I spent some time directing traffic when I got back to the parking lot. That means telling some people the campground was full and telling others where they could find a parking space. Ranger Heath had left without eating any chili. Spence left at the end of the day without eating the leftover banana pudding I had saved for him.

Andy suggested building a campfire in the early evening. It was very relaxing to sit by the fire after a hectic day. A man with two girls came looking for a campsite. We put them in the group site, since the people who had reserved it for two days had not shown up.

We got a surprise visit from Ranger Will who is now the acting head ranger for our quadrant of the park. He brought along Ranger Chase, who is the backcountry ranger. We have not met him before. Andy complained to Ranger Will about Maintenance Robert locking the gate. Andy is really fussy about the gate across the road to our site and the group site.

Ranger Chase was not talking much, so he posed for a picture.

Ranger Will was talking to Andy, who was seated, so his picture did not turn out as well. I’ll have to get another one of him in the future.

  

On the radio

A couple called for help when their twelve-year-old boy did not return to the Smokemont campsite after heading out into the forest near the Toe String trail looking for firewood around 1000. A team was formed to search for him. Some personnel were assigned to keep park visitors out of the area so they would not destroy any signs of the boy’s track. At 1110 they announced a description of the boy. Ranger Will said the boy was found. I know it was several hours after he went missing before I lost track of it on the radio.

A two-year-old fell at Clingman’s Dome and her head was bleeding.  She was not responding, but they did not think she was unconscious.  Her eyes were open. Dispatch decided to send EMS. A few minutes later, they reported that it was just a scrape on the chin and she seemed better. At 1115, the little girl was not as responsive as before. The medic had arrived and was looking for the family in the parking lot. Ranger Will said she was fine.

At 1212 an off-duty ranger reported that there was a cardiac event on the Laurel Falls trail. They were giving him CPR. He had a history of heart disease and high blood pressure. He was not conscious. Ranger Will told us the man had died.

Just before 1800, the elk were wandering around near the Mingus Mill and traffic was building up. Dispatch called for the Luftee Rover to control traffic.

1905 at ranger called 700 saying he was going to be out with an individual lying in a pullout wearying camouflage. A moment or two later he came back on the radio to say it was not camouflage, but really dirty clothes. He talked to the young man and learned that he was walking over the mountain to Cherokee. The ranger told him it is dangerous to walk on the narrow mountain road in the dark so the man showed him a blinking flashlight. The rangers can warn someone, but I suppose they can’t stop him from doing something crazy.

A ranger came upon some people camping illegally (not in a campground) and told them to move on. I don’t know where else they could go in the park; it seems all the campgrounds are full.

Dispatch stayed hopping-busy late into the evening responding to ranger’s traffic stops for all kinds of reasons. He was still answering one call after the other when I finished my journal at nearly 2330.