Whew! It's been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks, hence, no blog. Well, here's those weeks in a triple-peanut-shell length! Hopefully I won't bore you.....I think you'll enjoy it 'til the end.
The Randle Project ended on some great notes. I ended up working with the other two guys stationed @ the ol' Randle Motel and we got some great, quick work done to finish up the job. We finished the project early, so it was nice to make a surprise trip back home to Idaho. Here's an old growth Douglas Fir we found on the last day of work, a whopping 98" in diameter:
Coming home for a week was great; spending time with Kalee & Sasha helping out her parents move, heading to Nolan's cabin on the Thompson River in Montana, and getting to hang out with my brother and family @ our cabin up at Priest Lake for Memorial Day Weekend. It was great letting my body rest up before heading to the new project just outside of Republic, WA.
I had been through Republic years ago with the 'Old Man' heading towards Tonasket and Omak for soccer games as a kid, but never remembered it very much. All that kept coming to mind was my Dad saying 'Don't make eye contact with any locals' as we drove through because of all the Aryan Nation business going on... Pretty sure things have changed. Republic is a bustling little logging/prospecting town in the heart of North-Central Washington. There seems to be a lot of history in the Natural Resources realm, and everybody is more than happy to help me out. It's really in some gorgeous country; rolling hills, snow covered mountains, and little streams everywhere.
Casey(one of my co-cruisers) and I made camp @ the Ferry County Campground about a mile out of town. Hotels around here aren't cheap like Randle, and this camp has showers(a major plus during tick season). It is run an old school logger named Al. I've never heard so many 'son of a bitch' and 'God damn's' in my life, God damn! He is probably around 70 years old, and has lived and ran the camp since it opened in 1994. He likes to say, 'I didn't want the fucker, God damnit! My Old Lady wanted it, so we got it, and she passed two God damn years later of the God damn cancer, and left me with the son of a bitch! God damn!' The place doesn't get much business(besides our first night, not a soul has showed up), so Al(lonely I am sure) comes over every afternoon when we get off work and talks our ears off, ALWAYS finding a way or excuse to come over(he drives his Mastercraft lawn mower over and leaves it in the middle of our camp, leaves his weed whacker, etc.) He has some great stories of being thrown through bar windows, shooting himself in the foot, shooting bears, and getting rowdy with the boys back in the 60's. It's nice to hear his stories because a lot of them are from when he worked as a logger in and around the Pack River Valley, Priest Lake, and Priest River, of which I can relate and get some words in with the old son of a bitch, God damnit!
The woods out here are much different than the Cascades. Although the trees aren't as plentiful, there is a lot of brush to hike through. The country around here is much like Eastern Washington and North Idaho, arid and full of Ponderosa Pines, huckleberry bushes, and such. The woods are cleaner(no trash), and full of wildlife, unlike the Cascades. It was rare to see animals on a daily basis on the last job, but here, it's rare not to see anything.
In four days I saw(or saw sign) of 4 bears, a moose cow and her kid, countless deer, turkeys, grouse, and other little critters. The second day I was out, I drove up on a big black bear sitting in the road. Later that afternoon I was up in a stand for a couple of hours working, and came back to the Jeep to find a momma bear and cub had cruised right by the Jeep(I am glad I didn't encounter them):
Baby Bear:
Momma Bear:
The next day was full of surprises. I was not alone at my first plot. A moose cow and her kid were right where I needed to be. Knowing that moose are ornery sons of bitches, God damn, I let them know I was around, and they finally walked off. I then got a scare from a grouse who flew off like crazy, which she was in the right, as I was about to step on her and her soon-to-be offspring:
Finally that day, as I was coming into one of the darkest thickets I had seen so far, I saw a skull and bones that still had blood and tissue attached. Walking around off-trail, you see a whole lot of bones and signs of animals past. Usually they are bone-dry, but not today. So my instincts kicked in, and I kept my eyes and ears open. A little close to the plot were two VERY fresh and large bear scat with flys still buzzing. Second warning. I didn't see anything, but that's because I couldn't see further than 20 feet in there. Finally, as I found my plot and was writing out my reference points on tape, a very large grunt followed by stomping around...I dropped my pen and tape, grabbed a hold of my 'piece' and very quickly got the hell out of there. Sounded like he was about 20-30 feet away, but I couldn't see the son of a bitch, God damnit! Last thing I want is to intrude on a big bear's territory in a place that was both troublesome to get in, and out of. Lucky for me a couple of plots later, with adrenaline winding down, I ran into a patch of morel mushrooms to take my mind off of earlier.
Sorry for the length this post, it won't happen again, as I've finally found a nice little internet cafe in Republic. I'll leave you with this son of a bitch, who likes to camp out right on my access road from time to time. He's a a stubborn one, whom I always have to drive around, as he sure as hell isn't moving, God damnit:
