Post Race!

[Shaggy Hiker]

I heard some rumblings this morning. Sounded ominous.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It was just thunder.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Even the weather forecasters were surprised. We only had about a 20% chance of rain and that was all in the afternoon, with the morning forecast to be dry.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Washed my car, though, which it needed as I parked under some incontinent birds.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yay, new page!

[dday9]

Those rumblings were from my tum tum.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Those were mighty loud rumblings.

[wes4dbt]

Don't know if this is real but it looks cool.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Hmmm, thought that price looked too good to be true. Guess I should have checked about water damage first.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The Felicity Ace was reported to have sunk in about 9,800 feet of water. That's lower than most submarines can dive, let alone divers....or probably light, for that matter.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Not sure where that image is from, but it sure isn't that ship. Doesn't even look right for a vehicle carrier.

[wes4dbt]

The Felicity Ace was reported to have sunk in about 9,800 feet of water. That's lower than most submarines can dive, let alone divers....or probably light, for that matter.

It probably the Avengers, they could do it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, though Aquaman seems more likely.

[wes4dbt]

No, I don't see a trident and he doesn't need those sissy external air tanks.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Trident is the gum they are chewing.

[dday9]

Dirty mouth? Clean it up.

[dday9]

You lint licker!

[Shaggy Hiker]

I found the strangest thing, yesterday: In the middle of the wilderness, at a ranch where all the buildings had burned down in a wildfire many years back...there was an excellent tennis court. It had well built, smooth, concrete. The green paint was fading, though the lines were still quite visible.

I can't think of anything better after a day of fishing, hunting, or ranching than a good game of tennis.

[wes4dbt]

Maybe they were running some sort of racket at that ranch. Trying to net some easy money.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That would be the gut reaction.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm not sure what the ranch was being used for at the time that the tennis court was built. Most of the ranches in that area were built as small cattle ranches, but they generally were transitioned to something else, usually centered around hunting or fishing. The tennis court could have been built after that transition, in which case you could hunt big game in the mountains, or game set and match on the court.

[dday9]

Tennis is just a racket.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Most of that ranch burned down. They were courting disaster, as happens in the backcountry. The court served them well.

[Shaggy Hiker]

What was also interesting was that there was an ancient tractor and bulldozer, neither of which had burned. So, all the buildings burned down, but the fire didn't burn two items with very flammable parts.

I suspect that the buildings might have burned due to blowing sparks.

[wes4dbt]

Or the tractor and dozer weren't insured.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's quite possible that none of it was insured.

In holdings are weird. They're ex-ranches that existed before the creation of the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness. They aren't part of the wilderness, but are surrounded by wilderness. Some of those end up as historic sites, some remain in private hands, some end up in public hands. This one appears to have remained in private hands, but with no apparent intention of ever rebuilding. I don't know why that is, or what the issues around it are.

None of the remaining in holdings that are operated as businesses seem exactly lucrative. You could host anglers and hunters, but that is always a very brief time of the year. Hunting seasons aren't all that long, but out there, the winters sure are. It may just be that there is no compelling financial reason to do anything with the land...yet, but they are holding onto it in case a compelling reason appears.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The structures that were there were all pretty tiny. Perhaps one main building and two small bunkhouses, with even the main building being quite small. If they can't build more than what was already there, they might not be able to make anything useful out of the property.

[wes4dbt]

I had to look up what "in holding" was. Stop making me learn things, it hurts.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I ended up reading up on the history of the ranch. Apparently, it was almost always a dude ranch. In fact, it might have ONLY been that. Guess they liked tennis.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Stopped on a bike ride to pull a bunch of goat heads. I had to stop once my hands were bleeding and too sore. I had only pulled up half a dozen, or so. Those things are nasty. I really needed HEAVY gloves for those.

[wes4dbt]

Were you pulling them out of your tire or the ground???

[Shaggy Hiker]

Out of the ground so that I won't have to pull them out of my tire later on.

[wes4dbt]

That does sound risky. Been a long time ago but think we always used a hoe. Need to strap a hoe to your bike.

Wow, that has a suggestive sound to it.

[dday9]

Land ho!

[Shaggy Hiker]

That does sound risky. Been a long time ago but think we always used a hoe. Need to strap a hoe to your bike.

Wow, that has a suggestive sound to it.

I was going to comment about that, but you beat me to it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I should have brought some tools, but I didn't expect to be doing that.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It was a bit pointless anyways. What was really tearing up my hands were last years remains. That means that there are plenty of seeds remaining from last year, so removing the plants from this year is going to have pretty modest benefit.

I considered going back there with some topsoil and grass seed. Pretty nearly anything will crowd out goat heads. They don't do well with competition. It would be a bit pointless, though, since there were other patches around, the place has had a lot of recent construction that has opened up new land for the plant to colonize, and the vegetation that would crowd them out has yet to take root.

[dday9]

I was going to comment about that, but you beat me to it.

As long as he beat... you know what, I won't finish that statement.

[jdc2000]

Maybe go back with some Roundup and PPE.

[dday9]

My wife has a step-uncle who caught some sort of lymph node cancer that they traced back to Roundup.