diamond hitch
Well-known member
In 1975, we had a crew of nearly 20 living at Pittsburg landing on the Snake river. The access to this area is near Whitebird, Idaho. We bought our food or took a break out of camp, one night out of our our ten day work period at Grangeville, Idaho. The trips back would usually reveal 50 to 75 rattlesnakes on the road as we returned that night.
Our task at hand was to map and sample every mine and deposit within the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. Half of the crew reopened the over 700 mines in the area and worked underground. Some of the poison ivy grew up to seven ft tall at the portals of some of the mines. At night after we ate dinner we would usually gather around a campfire to compare notes on things we had found during the day and the plans for the next day.
We stayed at one of the abandoned ranches that the forest service had condemed to create the area. This one came with a functional outhouse. It leaned a little but was functional. A technique we developed for safety was to to sweep the underside of the seat to disperse the black widow spiders to protect any hangy-down parts during your brief visits. Lingering was not encouraged.
One evening, one of the geologists got up from the fire to use the facilities. After an hour when he didn't return, one of the crew went to see if there was a problem. As he approched the privey he called out his name and received a whisper in response. Getting closer he called again and got another whisper but with more details. Evidently he had sat down in the outhouse as usual but shortly thereafter a sizable rattlesnake had crawled out and coiled up on top of his feet while he was sitting there. Now he had been sitting there so long that his legs had gone to sleep and he couldn't safely move. A plan was contrived to make noise on the outside of the building to irritate the snake enough to get him to crawl back to where he came from. The plan worked and we got to retrieve our wayward geologist without an incident - embarrassment yes but not an incident. Further use of the facilities continued but everyone knew the privey was being used by the yelling and beating on the walls that pre-empted the occupation.
As we enjoy our social distancing, government unpaid vacation, and whatever else you wish to call it. I urge you to take note of the hazards of the outback and apply reasonable safety procedures.
Our task at hand was to map and sample every mine and deposit within the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. Half of the crew reopened the over 700 mines in the area and worked underground. Some of the poison ivy grew up to seven ft tall at the portals of some of the mines. At night after we ate dinner we would usually gather around a campfire to compare notes on things we had found during the day and the plans for the next day.
We stayed at one of the abandoned ranches that the forest service had condemed to create the area. This one came with a functional outhouse. It leaned a little but was functional. A technique we developed for safety was to to sweep the underside of the seat to disperse the black widow spiders to protect any hangy-down parts during your brief visits. Lingering was not encouraged.
One evening, one of the geologists got up from the fire to use the facilities. After an hour when he didn't return, one of the crew went to see if there was a problem. As he approched the privey he called out his name and received a whisper in response. Getting closer he called again and got another whisper but with more details. Evidently he had sat down in the outhouse as usual but shortly thereafter a sizable rattlesnake had crawled out and coiled up on top of his feet while he was sitting there. Now he had been sitting there so long that his legs had gone to sleep and he couldn't safely move. A plan was contrived to make noise on the outside of the building to irritate the snake enough to get him to crawl back to where he came from. The plan worked and we got to retrieve our wayward geologist without an incident - embarrassment yes but not an incident. Further use of the facilities continued but everyone knew the privey was being used by the yelling and beating on the walls that pre-empted the occupation.
As we enjoy our social distancing, government unpaid vacation, and whatever else you wish to call it. I urge you to take note of the hazards of the outback and apply reasonable safety procedures.
