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”.