Evening at Seven Springs

Recorded at Seven Springs, north of Cave Creek, Arizona.

I had gone to this area, several miles further up the rough road, to try and catch a thunderstorm that was moving through. After I was done with that, I made my way back toward civilization. On the way, I got a flat tire, and very quickly realized I did not have the correct tool to put my spare on.

So I slowly limped my car back to Seven Springs campground, where I tried again (in vain) to get my tire off. As soon as I got out of the car to reassess the situation, a young guy on a dirt bike happened to ride past and noticed I was in trouble. He came over and offered to put a call into the sheriff’s office in Cave Creek, about 15 miles away. I gladly accepted and thanked him. This area is very remote with zero cell coverage. It’s a popular camping destination on the weekend, but completely dead during the week.

I was there on a Thursday evening. This guy on the dirtbike was the only other human I saw my entire time out there.

So, I was stranded there, in the middle of nowhere, with no food or water, with night coming on, until the sheriff’s department decided to send someone to rescue me. I sat there for about half an hour, assessing my options. I noticed that the crickets were singing very loudly in the thick stand of trees next to the creek, so I decided to make a recording – since I had literally nothing else to do.

In this recording you can hear thousands of crickets. A cardinal sings it’s sweet song at the beginning. An Abert’s towhee flits around as well. Toward the end, as it gets completely dark, the cricket chorus is even more intense, and some night bird or owl that I can’t identify starts its eerie whistling sound.

I was eventually rescued by Sheriff’s Deputy Andy, after several hours. I had to leave my car there until I could come back with the proper tool and replace the tire. I now carry a tire repair kit in my car.

And the correct-sized tire iron.

You can all thank the guy on the dirtbike and Deputy Andy: they’re the reasons anyone is able to listen to this recording.