Real Life - contribute freely

[moose eater]

There are Wyoming Hot Tubs available for soaking the aches and pains from a good ole bison toss.
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Some have aerators, but no thermostats.
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We'll take 2. I still owe my wife a 24-year-overdue sauna. Thinking about the plans in my mind fairly often.

We had a 7.9 quake here years ago, centered about 80 miles south of us, and about 45 miles south of a former friend's in the bush.

We were on the phone immediately after the first major, somewhat elongated rocking and rolling.

During an after-shock on that one, I was in the basement where my boiler (an older Energy Kinetics EK-1 at that time), was bolted to a welded angle iron stand in the shape of an inverted upper-case 'L', that was bolted to the wall, and bolted to the concrete slab, with the void beneath the stand and boiler having a 'low-boy' hot water heater sitting atop a circular piece of 2" blue exterior-grade foam.

At one point I looked at the boiler on the stand, about 2-1/2 feet off the floor, and the boiler was swaying like a drunken sailor, despite its stand being hard-bolted to a filled and rebar-reinforced block wall and the concrete slab.

A minor crack to the sheet rock in the vaulted ceiling of the stairwell that runs from the main floor to the top floor was the only discernible damage. The place was built over-kill; my specialty.

But there are times that Alaska gets a BUNCH of quakes in a single day, someplace. The defining differences in how they 'roll' or feel is greatly dependent on distance and depth in the earth.

Good and exciting times, until they're not.

On a good, lofty mattress, when lying down, it can be sort of a variation on the old 'magic fingers' massage beds you put .25 cents into, in random motels years and years ago... but with no coin slot.

 

[moose eater]

"tourist tossing season" LOL! i love it! i want a compilation of all the airborne idiots, and of the fools too stupid to stay in their cars when ol' griz crosses the road... elk have a way of repelling morons too.

They're out there on numerous different sites.

I think Darwin is losing, and the species, in some circumstances, is not evolving as planned.

Like dogs chasing porcupines or spinning tires on fast-moving cars....

 

[buzzmobile]

Tourons of Yellowstone has a number of video encounters.

 

[Microbeman]

They're out there on numerous different sites.

I think Darwin is losing, and the species, in some circumstances, is not evolving as planned.

Like dogs chasing porcupines or spinning tires on fast-moving cars....

it's the artificial intelligence...

 

[moose eater]

it's the artificial intelligence...

I think in many cases, artificial intelligence in some places is the ONLY intelligence.

 

[moose eater]

Aside from my near certainty that it's pronounced as 'Cat-my' Park, not 'Cat-may,' and that mature brown and grizzly bears can get larger than the stated 700-lbs. in the video, this isn't a terrible re-telling of Treadwell's passive suicide in which he helped his significant other to unfortunately perish, as well...

 

[moose eater]

 

[moose eater]

 

[moose eater]

There ought to be a different life insurance and health insurance rating for these folks. It's only fair.

 

[buzzmobile]

Sometimes the bison approach you. Custer State Park in South Dakota has a large herd of bison. We were cruising a loop road when a portion of the herd came ambling down the road. I could have reached out and grabbed a horn. LOL

 

[armedoldhippy]

The place was built over-kill; my specialty.

Like dogs chasing porcupines

or snakes. an uncles hound reliably got bitten by a copperhead every summer. great dog, but dumb.

I think in many cases, artificial intelligence in some places is the ONLY intelligence. There ought to be a different life insurance and health insurance rating for these folks. It's only fair.

and make them ALL paint their cars safety orange so they can be identified at a safe distance. maybe outlaw them exiting their vehicles in public ?

 

[armedoldhippy]

I could have reached out and grabbed a horn. LOL

i could have grabbed a huge bedded whitetails antler once. i'm glad i thought better of it...

 

[moose eater]

This cow was standing between her calf and traffic along the Alaska Highway, east of Delta Junction, Alaska, with me heading west, coming back from a solo ice fishing trip into the Wrangell-St. Elias (Range) National Park & Preserve, spring of 2022. She was providing a shield between the sparse 60-70 mph traffic and her baby.

 

[Microbeman]

Aside from my near certainty that it's pronounced as 'Cat-my' Park, not 'Cat-may,' and that mature brown and grizzly bears can get larger than the stated 700-lbs. in the video, this isn't a terrible re-telling of Treadwell's passive suicide in which he helped his significant other to unfortunately perish, as well...

Yeah 700 pounds is a pretty regular to smallish sized griz, at least in terms of the silver tips from southern interior mountains that I've seen. We were driving back home on a bush road after a 3 day mountain lake camp/fishing trip and coming over a rise we saw what looked like a large grey bull/steer grazing; early I thought for range cattle. The darker wide face that lifted up to view us revealed a grizzly. He immediately jammed it into fourth gear up the hill into the trees. He looked like a half ton to me.

A few large and small black bears hung around our farm grazing and feeding on elderberries, hawthorns, thimble berries, squaw berries, etc. They were accustomed to us and steered clear. Every once in a while, the dogs would tree one and somebody would have to go call them off so the bear could come down. I probably relayed this before. On one such occasion I called the dogs and as they were following me, I looked back to see the 300 pound bear following at the rear of the 4 dog line, like he was just one of the crew.

 

[moose eater]

Yeah 700 pounds is a pretty regular to smallish sized griz, at least in terms of the silver tips from southern interior mountains that I've seen. We were driving back home on a bush road after a 3 day mountain lake camp/fishing trip and coming over a rise we saw what looked like a large grey bull/steer grazing; early I thought for range cattle. The darker wide face that lifted up to view us revealed a grizzly. He immediately jammed it into fourth gear up the hill into the trees. He looked like a half ton to me.

A few large and small black bears hung around our farm grazing and feeding on elderberries, hawthorns, thimble berries, squaw berries, etc. They were accustomed to us and steered clear. Every once in a while, the dogs would tree one and somebody would have to go call them off so the bear could come down. I probably relayed this before. On one such occasion I called the dogs and as they were following me, I looked back to see the 300 pound bear following at the rear of the 4 dog line, like he was just one of the crew.

The U.S. Forest Circus knew our crew were prolific workers, but they also knew we were hippies who liked to party.

They stuck us at a fairly remote spot on Mitkof Island, opposite corner diagonally from the town of Petersburg, not road connected, and directly across from Zarembo Island, on the SW side of the Island, at a place called Woodpecker Cove, and left us there initially with no firearms (the Forest Circus back then typically supplied a .375 H&H Mag if they were going to put one in a camp, but if I recall, there had to be a person present who was formally certified by the Forest Circus. Never mind real life experiences.... it's all about the paper). They would later formally arm our camp after another incident involving a bear, another worker and myself, when the rest of the crew had been taken into town, Wrangell Island, by boat, for R&R., but that's another novella altogether.

There were no Brown bears there (the definition in Alaska technically being that Brown bears live south of the Alaska Range, and grizzlies live north of the Alaska Range). Noting that coastal bears often have greater growth potential based on long-term genetics, more fish, fatter and more wild berries, etc.

We figured out that we could use our topo maps and orange safety flagging to hike the main logging road to the east-northeast, and when we neared a small mountain/large hill there, turn due east and cross the little bit of terrain/forest/brush/bush to Blind Slough, wait for low tide, cross Blind Slough at low tide, and come up to the Mitkof Hwy about 19 miles south of Petersburg, if I recall the distance correctly.

The 1975 Ravin Decison was in full swing, and though illicit to sell, cannabis was everywhere for sale... mostly in towns and villages.

There was a bar in Petersburg that belonged to a legislator at a time when our legislature was heavily into Peruvian marching powder. The place was called Kito's Kave. A semi-notorious spot for all sorts of clandestine meetings of opportunity back then.

We were pretty fit, so carrying a couple (or more) cases of beer, a quarter lb. of Colombian, and an oz. or so of Moroccan hash back to camp was a piece of cake. Just reverse the direction on the way home, wait for low tide at the Slough, etc.

All we had for weaponry were Sandvik safety axes, maybe a machete or 2, and pocket knives, and a guy who later turned out to be a thief and burned several friends of mine in the Yukon Territory where I got him an under-the-table cash job around Summer Solstice (Bill Wurth/Werth/Worth/ aka 'Worthless', after his stunt with my Canadian friends) that summer ('79) had a Colt .38 snub-nose Cobra.

One trip back from Petersburg on our way hiking down the main logging road and feeling pretty good, maybe halfway down that road toward camp, we came upon an old lethargic, slowly loping along black bear, probably 400-450 lbs.

Being young semi-bush savvy hippies, we decided to do what we'd been taught to do, and we grouped up to appear larger than we were, and as we joined our shoulders as one mass, still walking as a group, and still gaining ground on the bear from behind him, all of us and the bear traveling the same direction, we began hollering all sorts of stupid shit. Whatever would make noise while we tried to appear as one huge organism.

The bear kept on his leisurely sauntering, and several times looked back over his shoulder at us, no panic to be seen in him or his behavior, just sort of saying, "What the fuck is wrong with you guys?"

Seeing that we were having little to no effect on his demeanor & that he wasn't afraid in the least, we decided that slowing down a bit and letting him get ahead of us was probably the wisest preventative thing we could do. So, we did just that.

Our garbage dump there was less than a 1/4-mile on the main spur logging road from our camp, and the trees there frequently had a dozen bears in them when we'd pass by on our bicycles in the mornings and afternoons, with our saws and gas/bar oil jugs in our baskets. (*The US FS had later brought us bicycles to transport our gear to old clear cuts that were too far to walk to with our gear. and later on, after the bear incident that necessitated them finally leaving a rifle in camp, they barged a truck to us via the Cove beach landing there, that we could use on the limited logging roads).

Lots of stories from Woodpecker Cove days.

 

[armedoldhippy]

following at the rear of the 4 dog line, like he was just one of the crew.

probably thought it was dinner time...

 

[Microbeman]

English - the language of scientific research - becoming the international language

 

[Capt.Ahab]

 

[armedoldhippy]

 

[moose eater]

Saw this sign at Alaska Airlines' ticketing area in Anchorage a month or so ago when I was down for appointments. Rather than uploading my problematic flip-phone, I found the same sign online.