LOOTENANT
BEERBOTTLE’S BULLETIN
Last of the Medicine Names Given
At last nite’s campfire
old timers gave their brags about why they are roughest, toughest &
reasoningest Mt Men in these hills. New
M-M:
Coming down from the
Crest where Tootling Bald Scalped Iggle played the sweetest bugle ever to the
pure sunset (3 notes of taps, pause, then next 3 notes to counterpoint the echo
coming back! Magnificent!) Cityboy
Scotty Morrow (a masculine 8 yrs old!) did a commendable work in crawling over
the trail logs as tall as himself. He
layed on them then rolled over. So his
new name: LOG ROLLER!
PANTHER-Track Schware
is intrigued with number, arithmetic, math in the city. These are the symbols that prove
scientific facts by measuring weight, distance and size accurately...so why not
transpose the same disciplined technique to a mt animal reading sign of trail
dust, tree scratch and sky to know the environment!
...............
Disciplined Drill: Axing logs, slicing kindling, fire
making.
...............
ANALYSIS OF FOREST-FIRE
AREA TO DETERMINE CAUSE – Research & Report
Muscle Back
When we came up this trip, we discovered a hute burn rea that had
happened sometime after the last trip last
year. It could be traced from its starting point near the fireplace of
the Medicine Bone Lean-to. Underground
“Duff” must have been ignited to burn slowly like a rope punk. While no one was up on the mountain the
smoldering fire patiently ate it’s way uphill, destroying tree roots, climbing
the bark, eating into the center until the tree crashed, then destroying it
totally; leisurely. The path split, one
branch going toward Medicine Man’s camp area, the other up into the talus and
boulder slope of Hawk Cliff. Amazing
brutality! Stumps reduced to powdery ash. Grass and flowers roasted. A case of
Lingo’s home brew bottles, hidden in the rocks, exploded! An ugly, black work of devil’s art. But it
stimulated us to learn by it. I took a double handfull of soil, spread it out
on a large flat rock and with my knife point separated all the contents. About 30% of the soil was burnable material:
un-decomposed pine needles, roots, sticks, bark, aspen leaves, dried plants,
and cones! We really understand now that
any mountain campfire must not be sprinkled merely by water or urine, but must
be drowned, stirred with a stick, and soaked again!
...............
A PHILOSOPHICAL DISASTER!!!
Ol’ Soc in the bedsheet may very well have said that “Virtue is its own
reward.” – but these are just so many purty words – unless!! The proof is in
the LIVING of the fine, high-sounding words!
Any parrot can recite “Truth, Beauty & Goodness”, but to understand
these abstract ideas; to believe them; to act in life according to them
--AHHH—that’s a COMPLETED Mountain Man – truly, a moral man.
On
a hike to the Parthenon and Agora Market-Place on Acropolis Hill, during time
to roam about and explore the 100 year old well preserved homestead cabins and
barns, an old timer Mt Man in his exuberance started knocking out boards and
logs. Needless to say, this shocking,
inconsiderate action went directly against all past training. We all sat down and had a long, long talk
about it. The hike back was a silent and somber one. We’ll see tomorrow if any
of the soul-searching gets written down.
...............
--Last nite across the valley, a bear
chased a bellowing cow.
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