After I closed
the computer last night, I heard dispatch call Ranger 411 to report that Pigeon
Forge had the man in custody. 411 said he would meet them at the Pigeon Forge
jail.
I stayed awake
worrying about the little raccoon. What are they going to do with him? Will
they just let him out somewhere far from a campground? Would he survive in the wild? Larry told us
today that there is a place that takes in wild animals and rehabilitates them
somewhere in the region. Would that be animal reform school?
Spence said he
did not do anything on his weekend. As hard as he works during the week, I
would think he would really need to rest on the weekend. His split rail fence
was knocked down in several places this weekend. Maybe boulders would be better
to line the roads, they just aren’t as charming. We should have put a fence
building verse into the Smoky Mountain Maintenance Man song. He’ll be
rebuilding them again this week.
We were sitting
outside talking to Spence when Andy said, “Baby alert”. A man and woman were
pushing a baby stroller up the horse trail. Spence took the last drag on his
cigarette and got up to nonchalantly throw the butt into the fire ring behind
him and take a look. Then he turned around and told Andy that he was going to
have to clarify whether he was saying baby alert or babe alert.
Someone had
thrown coins off the bridge and onto the large boulder below the bridge. I
suppose some kids will pick them up soon, if they haven’t already. We didn’t
see any fish today.
We met Boss
Larry as we were driving out of Big Creek. He was driving in and stopped at the
entrance to the horse camp. Spence was there too. We talked about the little
raccoon. Larry gave us updated reservation schedules for the group and horse
camps. The Ranger Pete from Cataloochee drove up. We had not seen him since 2011
when the girl got hypothermia up at the Midnight Hole and Pete heard on the
radio how far away Ranger Tim was. I don’t know why he was here today, but was
glad he was here when I tried to start the car and the battery was low. He gave
us a jump start. We charged it back up on the interstate.
It has been a
number of days since I went out to get a cell signal and send/receive email. We
decided to go to Subway today to get that done. It went partially well. The
emails went out, but then a lot of them bounced back. The messages was that I
had exceeded my daily limit. I didn’t know I had a daily limit. Who set the
limit anyway? Is it Verizon or
Google? I’m guessing Google, but
couldn’t tell from the message. Now I have to figure out which ones need to be
resent another day. My veggie sub was great though.
We stopped at
Food City on the way home and picked up a few items.
I came across
this toad on the lawn in front of the toilet building in the picnic area. I
held the camera very close, but he didn’t hop.
I wrote up a
courtesy notice for Site 1. They had leftover food on their picnic table and a
small cooler of food next to it. There was also a dish of dog food next to the
tree. Andy went to the creek to look for them while I carried part of the food
to the bear locker. When I got back to Site 1, the woman came back to put the
rest away. They didn’t know any better and didn’t read the bear notices on the
registration board. Later, I saw them struggling to get a campfire going and went
to the cart for some old Smokies Guides for them to use as kindling.
The people in
Site 3 were just finishing eating ice cream when we walked by. They have a
somewhat cylindrical container that you fill with ice and salt. A smaller
container inside it holds the ice cream. They shake the ball a very long time
to get ice cream. I suggested that it needed an inflatable ball so they could
bounce it around. That would be less work. Then, one of the women picked up a
deflated ball and said they kicked it around.
One of the
little boys had served me a roasted cherry yesterday and I asked if they were
roasting grapes today. They wanted to, but did not know where to get grapes
locally. I had just bought a bag at Food City and offered them some. The
children came to Sao with us and I gave them a big zip lock bag with several
clusters. We escorted them back up to the campground.
The young couple
in Site 5 told us that they had put their few pieces of firewood into the fire
ring before heading up to the Midnight Hole. When they came back, their
firewood was gone. Andy took them a big block of our firewood when we returned with
the children.
Here is the
two-family group in Sites 4 and 6. That is two couples, each with four
children. They have their kitchen canopies set up between the two sites. The
kids are running all over the place and having a great time. One of them is an
eight-month old boy.
Ranger Heath
stopped by in the evening and asked about the people in the group site. We told
him that they have not been leaving food unattended. He had been visiting with
the old man who lives at the entrance to Big Creek. The one who toppled over
the side of the road with his horse and buggy a few weeks ago. Heath said that
Keith seemed depressed. Heath guessed he was 10 beers gone when he said he was
quitting the jar, as in moonshine.
Heath said he
did not come by yesterday because he was detailed to accompany the brother of
the woman he found in the creek to look for her belongings. They found a hiking
stick that was not hers, but none of her possessions. That was not a pleasant
experience. He was happy that the brother does not want to go back and look any
more.
On the radio
There was a single vehicle motorcycle wreck between
Fontana Lake and Cable Cove. He was conscious, but was having trouble
breathing.
At 2015 dispatch called for a ranger to check the
tunnel. Driver’s had reported that a man was standing on the top of it over the
road. His intentions were not known.
I figured out the firefly viewing event is over when
someone came on the radio to ask for a ranger to come help with the
out-of-control traffic. People were parking their cars everywhere, even in the
yards of those old cabins.
No comments:
Post a Comment