Tell It To The Bone Digger

Not being much of a farmer, I really don’t know how big an acre actually is. I have tried to find a comparison that I can relate to. In my DuckDuck Go efforts (cause I don’t want the Google overlords to know that I am spatially unaware), I have earned that it is very similar to a football field. Being equally sports unaware, that is absolutely useless to me.

So I went old school and just took a hike.

The property used to be owned  by a mining company and a mining company. I don’t know the order of the ownership but neither left property in a good state. There are 2 long and deep grooves that run from edge to edge that the previous owner used as his owner personal dump. The logging efforts cleared some trees that actually is not a bad thing. The bad thing is that the invasive Willow trees replaced the downed trees. They are tangled trunks of ugly trees.

It turns out the hike was not just a hike. It turned into a scratchy scramble with crawling and climbing and some backtracking when the crawling and climbing was no longer an option. I knew what to expect from previous attempts to have a look see down in the land of mystery. Nothing gloves, long sleeves, pants and safety glasses cant surmount.

Once I got through a couple hundred feet of 30 years of downed trees, overgrown brush and waist deep ferns that I can see from camp, the unknown beckoned. I found the remnants of an old supply trail that hadn’t yet been taken over. Mostly. Still it was much better than the rest of the area. It took me deep into the canyon that has always thwarted me from getting to the bottom of my property in the past. The old road I was on ended at the bottom of the canyon.  Maybe not originally  but since it was last used, it has been taken over by Willows. Just a jumble of leggy trees all intertwined and hard to get through.

As I tried to figure the way through, I found a bone on the ground. It was bleached white so had probably been there a while. Still I was a bit worried that whatever was responsible for the bones, might be interested in a palate cleanser. I did notice that there were other bones around but thought today was not the day for archeology. I climbed up the other side of the canyon and popped out on a nice meadow that, according to the Google overlords, was still on my property.

I did find the surveyor’s stake the marked the corner of the property so it was a successful trip. I roamed around a bit and found another cabin at the top of the gated community below me. I roamed around a bit but announced visits are a good way to get a butt full of buckshot up here. Besides, It was a mistake to get the exploring bug in the late afternoon of at the end of summer. The shorter days of the waning summer are taking hold. At the bottom of the canyon and under the canopy of evergreens and willows, it gets dark earlier than actual sunset. Since I had lost the trail I came down on, such as it was, I just started uphill, more or less. Putting my long sleeves and pants through their paces, I trudged up the hill. Safe and sound at the top under the waning daylight, I called it a day.

The next day, I decided to go back down and get the bones. This time I took my axe and hedge trimmers. I limbed trees as I made my way to the old road that I found the day before. It is a big effort but always a good idea to limb the trees as high as possible to prevent wild fires from climbing them. I do have tons of dead and drying limbs on the ground now so I am not sure I gained anything. The old road was just tall ferns that was easy to trim back except for it being stoop labor that I paid for the next morning. It took a couple of hours but I made it to the bones and loaded up all that I could collect. I am no skeleton expert but it looks like legs, spine, ribs and a pelvis.

I don’t know what it was when it was roaming the woods, but I would guess a bear because of the short thick leg bones. The Axe and trimmers were a handful so the bucket of bones stayed for another day.

Ultimately here is what I ended up with.

I don’t know what to do with them but a creepy windchime would add a little bit of “No Trespassing” ambiance to the place.