This is topic The things you see and wonder about... in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 08, 2004, 07:42 PM:
This is a copy of a post I just made on the Go Go board. Classic "cross posting". Which, is bad manners, and something I generally try not to do. But, I know there are at least a couple guys here that don't visit the Go Go board, that might be interested, and more importantly might be persuaded to share some of their own mysterious discoveries. So, I hope my cross posting will be tolerated and even indulged.
On a chuck hunt me and my partner Tim took a few weeks ago, we stumbled across one of those things that really make you wonder. Thought I'd post the story, as I know a lot of you are prone to wandering wild country, and have found lots of strange things too.
We were in a very remote area, long ways from anywhere. Even by our standards. And, in a spot way off the beaten path. Found a few chucks peeking from the rocks on top of a ridge and shot some. I took my 4 wheeler and made a long rough trip around to the backside of the ridge just so I could get up there on top where the chucks were and survey the damage. Even before I spied the cave, I was thinking that probably there hadn't ever been another person standing where I was, or at least not any for a long time.
From my vantage point, I spied a cave way down low on the far side of the gulch. With my binocs, I could see a box back inside the cave. Well now... That just HAD to be investigated!
Went back down to where Tim was waiting and after telling him what I'd seen, we hiked back up the gulch and found the cave. It's a natural cave, not a mine portal. Big entrance, with a chamber just inside about the size of a bedroom. Not quite tall enough to stand up all the way in. We'd forgot to bring a flashlight. It got real narrow at the back, but looked like it might go a good long ways, but we didn't go back there without a light. No tracks but animal tracks on the floor. The box I'd seen from up on the other side was an empty wooden crate. There were two of the crates. I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say maybe old dynamite crates.
Now, the strange part... In the middle of the cave, was sitting a big old bathroom scale. Our best guess, it's maybe 50 years old. Just what in the HECK would someone have dragged a big old scale into this hidden cave for decades ago? And when I say hidden, I DO mean hidden. Only way to ever find it, would be to either spot it from where I did - and I figure there ain't been anyone stand in that spot for a long, long time, if ever. Or to be scrambling around in the brush and rocks on the side of the gulch and stumble across it. This is remote, rough country. There was no trail, no old litter, no sign of anyone having been up that gulch at all, let alone in that cave, for a long time. There's an ancient dugout cabin only about a mile away though. And I'm sure the old timers that built and used that cabin knew about the cave. But, whatever in the heck that scale was for, why use it in the cave, instead of the cabin? Our best guess, is that whatever the story, it involved a desire for secrecy, and staying hidden. Looking around the terrain, and knowing the old stories and history like I do, you can easily let your imagination run wild from there!
Anyway... No big deal. Like I said, just one of those things that makes a guy wonder. And I've run across more mysterious and tantalizing than this. But this just happened recently, and I thought some of you might be interested, or care to share your own discoveries.
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 08, 2004, 08:33 PM:
That's great, Dave. There are so many oddities, exploring our western U.S.
Your story reminds me of one I had, while mule deer hunting up around Mono Lake, about ten years ago.
I had hiked up a long slope, which took a large portion of the day. At the top, looking down into the valley floor, where we were camped, there was a natural fortress formation. Hard to figure how it had formed, from granite, but it was about fifteen feet across, and sides that were about two, to three feet high. I just sat in it and enjoyed the view for an hour.
When the time came to get back to camp, I made a questionable decision to decend the almost vertical cliff, with slides and boulders. I don't know, it might have been 800 to 1,000 feet, but it was by far a shorter direction than going down the back side and taking me several hours.
So, I strapped my rifle, it had a split sling, and went straight down...carefully and uneventfully.
As I approached the level, I noticed a rock cabin, hidden in the trees, the branch roof long gone. But as I made it the last twenty feet, I could see the base of a douglas fir, and noticed that the base had been neatly cut, level with the ground.
Sparking my curiosity, I wedged into the space between the tree and the rock wall, and only then realized that it wasn't a cut stump, but a square, rusted can, covered with pine needles, with only the flat surface exposed; maybe only recently?
So, I dug it up, and it was actually a biskit tin with a hinged top, and guess what? There was something inside.
The inside had a folded kraft paper package that fit the inside of the tin, perfectly. Whatever was inside, rattled.
I pulled the package out, and unwrapped it, thinking; "well, it's light, maybe paper money or who knows? What it turned out to be was essentually empty, the corners had holes, but it still contained some odd looking dried up things, that I later realized were, of all things, garlic cloves! Nothing else but the fine powder in the bottom of the tin.
I later found out that the old prospecters and cowboys used cloves of garlic to discourage rodents much like we might use moth balls, today.
Okay, no jewels or collectable money, ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
but my mind wanders occasionally, of what some cowpoke thought so highly , that he hide it so well, for so many years.
I still have the box, but my wife helped me out and tossed the formed paper. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
With the dried garlic.
It's one of my favorite mementos.
Good hunting. LB
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 09, 2004, 11:31 AM:
Yeah, I'd love to know the answer to that one Leonard. Love letters from "back home"? A waybill to buried treasure? A will, that "someone" was supposed to be able to find?
You just never really know, and that's part of the appeal, to me.
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 09, 2004, 12:20 PM:
Yeah, I went back, and looked at one of your replies. I too, have come across stuff that I dearly wished I had kept, and of course, I have kept a few things.
I have some hand carved indian fetishes, relics, really. Some are animals, for sure one is a raccoon, and others look like a cross between a baby harp seal, and a tadpole, with bits of material(?) tied around the necks. Also, my prize, (but small) branding iron collection.
I found a wagon, once, up above Wells. Wheels were actually too big to fit in the truck bed. Last time I was in the area; gone. Before GPS, maybe I never found the exact spot?
Oh yeah, my mortar/pestal (metate) are the finest matched pieces I have ever seen, including Museum collections.
Yeah, exploring is great fun.
Good hunting. LB
[ August 09, 2004, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
Posted by Krustyklimber (Member # 72) on August 10, 2004, 11:11 AM:
DAA,
Thanks, you're right not all of us go the that board.
And I did enjoy you and Leonard's stories.
The strangest thing I have seen found was this boat...
Red and I hiked a long ways in, to a remote alpine lake, so well hidden, that it had taken many many attempts before we found the key trail hidden behind a bent over young hemlock.
The final 1/2 mile took us past this waterfall, up a trail that was almost straight up, the hand and footholds were mostly tree roots, bushes and boulders. And everyonce in a while old rotted sections of a boardwalk trail, that used to switchback it's way up.
There is no way in the world that boat came up that trail, it had to be brought up on the belly of a float plane or helicopter.
We realized on the way in I had forgotten to pack silverware, about halfway up the waterfall, I spot a plastic fork dangling in the moss below me on the trail... using a small huckleberry bush I hang down and grab it.
Ha! we'll still have to stir the hot food with a stick, but we can take turns eating it with a fork now.
I am sitting in camp eating some canned fruit, I go to reach into the can and "snap" I break off the fork, and the tines half falls down a chipmunk hole at the base of the stump I am sitting on.
We got a good chuckle out of it, and I threw the other end at the fire pit, it fell short and when Red leaned in to pick it up, he noticed something shiny in the dirt, poked at it a bit and dug up a stainless steel Boy Scout mess kit fork!
HA! Now we were really in business... a quick wash, and those last few peaches were mine.
We went to the end of the lake to take this picture, and there was another tent spot down there, as we hopped across the narrow gap in the rock that the waterfall poured out through, I found a small pocket knife stuck in the log, like someone had forgotten it while cleaning fish.
*also stainless steel, and in perfect shape after a new edge, I hope someday to skin some furbearer with it.
On top of another stump was a mess kit plate with two large tablespoons and a fork. We took the silverware, and a big pile of garbage to burn, and we were happily on our way.
My Outward Bound instructor always said "everything you need is out there in the woods, you just gotta know how to find it"... I guess he was right.
Krusty 
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 10, 2004, 11:49 AM:
...brings to mind.
Once upon a time,
Pat and I were on a big hunt, traveling light, and just before dark, were splitting a large can of Dinty Moore beef stew. The problem developed when we realized that we had no silverware, on board. (his truck)
After searching high and low, while the stew started bubbling, he decided to use the lid bent in half. This was quite a risky business, as the stew dripped all over his arm and the edges of the lid, cut with a C Ration can opener, were sharp and jagged.
All this I watched, waiting for my turn.
We were sitting in the cab, and he handed me the can, which I took; but then he held out the lid.
At that precise instant, I saw/noticed a real spoon, amongst the junk on his dashboard. I casually said; "No thanks, I think I'll just use this spoon, here", as I reached for it!
The look on his face was priceless. However, if you were to ask him today, even. He would claim that I knew that spoon was right there in front of our faces, and allowed him to burn his mouth and cut his lips, and dribble all over the front of his jacket, out of pure meanness!
That one always makes me smile. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Good hunting. LB
Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on August 10, 2004, 04:36 PM:
Good stuff guys! I love hearing these types of stories about unexplained finds that leave you guessing as to what the truth is. Thanks for sharing.
DAA, did you take the scale with you? If you did have to make a wild guess, is there any connection you can make between the dynamite crates and the scale?
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 10, 2004, 05:10 PM:
Left everything as we found it Lonny. I really just don't know what the connection between the scale and the crates might be. And, keep in mind, I'm only guessing that they are dynamite crates. Don't really know that for sure. The way they were put together, with wood pegs and dovetail joints where you might expect nails, is what made me think that. But they were so faded, you couldn't make out any kind of markings on them at all. Could just as easy not be dynamite crates, really.
Along the lines of no silverware... Me and Tim got my truck stuck in the mud one day late last winter. Supposed to be a day trip, home that same afternoon. No food, very little water (yeah, we're idiots). No chance of anyone coming by to pull us out or pick us up for a least a week or maybe a lot longer. Pavement was 34 miles away (I ended up walking all 34 of them...). Anyway, on the first night out there, we shot a grouse. Had nothing to cook it on, or in. And way too tired and miserable from walking in mud to try and rig up one of those nifty little spits on forked sticks you see on TV. Wasn't any forked sticks for miles around anyway. Just plucked it, lit a sagebrush fire and tossed it in. Rolled it over once in awhile. That was the toughest, worst tasting, just plain NASTIEST meat I ever tried to eat. But I got down several big mouthfuls anyway. I was HUNGRY! Tim, he got one bite about halfway down, and puked. Deficit situation for him...
- DAA
Posted by huntress (Member # 322) on August 10, 2004, 06:22 PM:
Those are some cool stories, very interesting!!Thanx for sharing them. Krusty those are some nice pics!! Pretty country where ever that is.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 10, 2004, 08:14 PM:
Dave, if you are talking what we call sage hen, they aren't too good, properly prepared and seasoned. You would have to be hungry.
I have a sense that you win the prize for the longest walk, also. Not that I have not tried! . We were towed 168 miles once, you can believe we were fortunate to snag some help from our friends in US Customs, who showed up in a beat up pickup truck, wearing Levi's, and an all civilian attire. Had they not radioed for us, we might still be walking.....
Good hunting. LB
Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on August 10, 2004, 08:41 PM:
DAA, I gotta agree with you on those tasty late winter grouse..
When we were kids we were always out in the hills pretending to live off the land. We tried eating just about any critter that could be killed with a pellet gun or .22. Bluejays, magpies, robins, porcupines, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, etc. tried them all. The absolute worst was a big old blue grouse killed in late January. It's crop was full of fir needles, and the uncooked meat was almost reddish in color. Cooking it over green pine boughs probably didn't do anything to improve the taste either. The "cooked" grouse was sooty and burnt on the outside, and at best medium rare on the inside.
I've never eaten boot leather fried in turpentine, but this had to be damn close it.
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on August 11, 2004, 05:56 AM:
You just described our meal Lonny!
This thing was bright red like some fish I've seen before cooking. And, like you said, burnt charcoal crispy on the outside, raw in the middle. Tougher than anything else I've ever tried to chew with intent to eat.
Me and Tim ate a rock chuck I killed with my bow once, more than 20 years ago. A young small one. We were literally starving at the time, and it seemed like some right tasty eats. On that same trip we subsisted mostly on pine hens, and they were even better eats. But this sage grouse last winter, BLECH!
I got another tasty treat the day following the second night out there. Tim had played out, and wasn't going anywhere after waking from that second night. Was completely out of water. Snow was just in small patches here and there, mostly melted off already (hence the mud...). You know those little black bugs that you see on snow? I'm not even sure what they are. Fleas, I think, but not sure. Well, anyway, snow patches were just covered THICK with these tiny black bugs. Digging down a bit, they weren't AS thick, but still plentiful. I swallowed a bunch of them trying to drink that snow water. My turn to puke, LOL!
- DAA
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