Death in Northeast Washington: Deer Hunting without Reverence

Death in Northeast Washington. What we hear is this: A young man and his father were hunting in Northeast Washington. See recent stories -- Spokesman-Review; Seattle-Times. There were various hunting camps in the area made up of father - son hunters. The camps got together on a Saturday night for some fun and drinking. Things got out of control. One son made threats. A father told his son to get in their pickup truck and be ready to drive away. Some time afterward the father put a rope around the neck of one of the hunter sons, the one said to have been threatening others. He told his son to drive away. The son in the truck followed his father’s command. Apparently he did not know the other end of the rope was tied to the truck’s bumper hitch. One father’s son died by being dragged by the neck over many miles.

I used to hunt deer in Northern Minnesota with my father, brothers, and the fathers and sons of other Minnesota men from the country. In a way it was a reverent event not unlike the sort of attitude one would have when killing a pig for a winter’s worth of meat, sausage, head cheese and lard. Guns were handled with a great deal of care. We would move through the woods in quiet – no talking, careful steps so as not to break any branches on the trail, gently moving branches out of our paths and placing them back so there was no sound.

There was hardly any drinking in the Northern Minnesota woods during deer season. If there was any the father’s sons normally did not participate. No one drank to excess at any of the various hunting camps or summer lake cabin used during the season.

Of course there were always exceptions: Once I remember my father clearly indicating to a deer hunting party from the Twin Cities who were wandering inebriated through the woods and shooting at things with their high powered deer rifles it was time for them to leave. They were endangering my bothers and others in our party who had already gone to their deer stands or were ahead of us and on their way. My father was calm, I stood behind him on the forest trail we were taking to our deer stands. I watched as he confronted the hunters making his words clear as to what the hunters were going to do next. When they objected he made his words a bit more meaningful with the slight but perceptible lifting of his 30-30 lever action. It was time for the hunters from the cities to be on their way, on their way entirely out of the woods. No more words were spoken.

The reverence of the hunt returned and my father an I continued a few more miles to our deer stands deep in the Minnesota forest, each of us hidden in gently sloping ravine leading up from a large lake a three hundred yards distant.

I am a Trucker

The week before last I finally got a chance to be a long haul trucker. My friend Kevin is an auto hauler. He has three trucks which move cars in the Western United States. Here is a picture of the truck (and Kevin) we took to California and back to Spokane. The next picture is a picture of Kevin, my brother George, and myself. Kevin and I had stopped at the Ogden rest area south of Madras, Oregon. Bud and his wife Sue were on their way to Bend to be with family. I got to do quite a bit of driving. It is harder than I thought but still very appealing. Very appealing.

Wind Farms

Have you ever wondered where the large segments of the wind farm windmills come from? I have solved part of the mystery. Here is a picture of a ship, the Beluga Formation, docked at Duluth, Minnesota with several of the segments for the towers.

The windmill generator segments were on their way to a wind farm in North Dakota.

Highway Tragedy

About fifteen miles north of Klamath Falls the Oregon State patrol told drivers heading south that the road was closed a few miles ahead. We joined a long line of trucks and vehicles stopped due to something that had taken place a few miles ahead. As it turned out there had been a tragic accident between a long-haul truck pulling a semi loaded with steel and an oncoming vehicle. Information we were able to obtain over the CB radio only gave us a small idea of what had happened. During the three hours we waited the only thing we could learn was that a southbound vehicle had veered into a northbound semi-truck getting the truck head-on.

The next day, on our way back through Klamath Falls we learned that two young men had died in the collision and that the truck driver had suffered only minor injuries.

As we drove by the accident the night before we saw that the truck tractor was upside down halfway between the road and a railroad track on a steep incline. The flatbed was still upright but also sliding down the incline.

The vehicle, an SUV, was rolled into a ball of steel it was probably a little more than half the length of its original length. The young man in the SUV must have died immediately. Here is a newspaper article about the tragedy.

US 97 is cut into a hillside where the accident took place. The shoulders are very narrow and the road is bounded on both sides by substantial steel guard rails. The driver of the truck really had no place to go to get out of the way of the SUV that had come into his lane. Going toward the outside shoulder he was able to keep the contact from being truly head-on and the SUV struck over towards the driver's side of the truck.

The incident was quite sobering. Apparently, according to the newspaper article the driver of the SUV had been stopped for speeding by the Oregon State patrol some time before the accident.

I am on the road!

Last weekend my friend Kevin Carbury invited me to join him on a shakedown trip of a used car hauler he was taking down to Hayward, California to bring cars from a car auction to dealers in Spokane. He had found a 1989 Freightliner with a Boydston carrier integrated into it. The equipment was in remarkably good condition.

We headed out on Saturday and got in on Sunday. I got to do quite a bit of driving in the areas of the route which did not require high levels of experience.

The main route was four lane (I-90 to Ritzville and US 395 to the Tri-Cities and the Oregon border)for first 140 miles. Then we moved onto two-lane roads down to I-5 in California -- Washington 14 to Biggs, Oregon and US 97 to Weed, California. Further on we moved from I-5 to various sub-interstate highways and on to Hayward near Freemont on the East Bay side of San Francisco Bay.

After a few hours of sleep we helped one of Kevin's other drivers load the another one of Kevin's car carriers -- another Freightliner with an Boydston carrier -- after an hour or so he was on his way. We then loaded our carrier -- I pulled the cars and Kevin did the loading. We had a breakdown in part of the hydraulic system on the carrier so we were limied to six cars -- we had to leave two 2005 Jeep Cherokees in the lot for another carrier which was on its way.

By the afternoon, we were on our way. After Kevin got us out of the freeway maize around San Francisco I took over. Having a car on top of me hanging out over the windshield and truck engine took a bit of getting used to but I felt comfortable after an hour or so.

The road north of Redding on the East side of Mt. Shasta was a real challenge. I gave up the wheel so Kevin could apply his experience.

We had snow near Bend and north of Madras. I took over again just north of Biggs at the junction of US 97 and Washington 14. From there I took the truck in to Spokane.

It was hard work but I loved every minute of it. What a fine change from practicing law for over 37 years.