Obstacles

by David Wilson

  Yelling at everyone to grab their bikes, Mat and Talon ran to what was now the front of the ferry and dropped the loading ramp with a loud clang and splash of water. Returning to their bikes, they quickly untied them from the deck and began pushing them to the ramp. It took two of them to get the bikes with the trailers down the ramp and up the small incline to the parking lot without dumping the now overloaded trailers. Talon hadn’t realized that between the guns and ammo and the canned goods from the store, how much weight they had gained. This only reinforced the idea that they needed to take a couple of days and lay low to recover from the events of the last two days.

  After getting all the bikes and trailers off the ferry, Talon could tell everyone was done in. It was almost 5:00 PM, and they would only have about another two hours of daylight. Motioning everyone to come over to him, Talon explained what the plan was. “Here is what we are going to do. I know everyone is wiped out, and we need to take a little bit of time and recover from everything that happened today. From the map, there is a good stand of trees just to the west of here, and I think we should find a good place to camp for a day or two. What does everyone think?” Getting head nods from everyone, he continued, “Alright, I’ll take the lead, and we should be able to find a good place not far from here.”

  Getting on his bike, Talon pedaled to the end of the parking area. From there, it was going to be mostly pushing the bikes and trailers, as the ground was too rough for pedaling the bikes. There was about 50 yards of relative level grassy field and then a solid wall of trees that ran from the river bank for several hundred yards to the south. Finding a break in the trees, Talon pushed his bike another 20 feet deeper into the woods before stopping and leaning it against a tree. Returning to the group, Talon helped Don push his bike across the field and into the woods. Beth was pushing the one remaining bike without a trailer, but she was having a hard time with it. After they made the tree line, Talon sent Don back to take the bike from her. Once under the trees, the going was slightly more manageable. After about 200 yards, Talon came to a small ravine filled with water. Again stopping with Don’s bike, he walked back to get his own. Returning with his bike and trailer, he studied the ravine. From what he could see, it ran all the way down to the river’s edge, progressively getting deeper and wider as it got closer to the river. Turning, Talon walked his bike beside the ravine for about five minutes before he came to an area that had several large downed oak trees. Stopping and leaning his bike against one of the downed trees, he turned and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.

  Once everyone had caught up, Talon sent Mat back for Don’s bike and trailer. He was back in just a couple of minutes, and Talon again gathered everyone to him. “So this is as good as it is going to get for right now. These downed trees will work for a little bit of cover for us, and I rather doubt if anyone will stumble across us here. Don, I want you, Mat, and Beth to go ahead and begin getting the camp set up. Please keep everyone together. If you are having trouble finding good places for your hammocks, I’ll give you a hand as soon as I’m back. Ben and I will un-load one of the trailers and take all the dirty water bags down to the river and get them filled up. As soon as we get the bikes hid, everyone needs to fill up their bladders and canteens with clean water. Ben and I shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. We will hang a bag filter while we are down there and refill the dirty water bags before we come back. We will also set out four or five YoYo reels to see what we can catch from the river. We might get lucky and catch a couple of good-sized catfish. Everyone get your hammocks set up with your tarps. Please keep in mind we need to maintain security, so don’t spread out too much. After that, we will pair up and go down to the river and get cleaned up. I know I need to. Please, let’s remember what has happened over the last few days and be smart about this. No one goes off on their own, and let’s try and keep the noise down. We don’t want any visitors. Any questions?”

  Ben asked, “Why don’t we set out a few snares? I could go for a good piece of meat?”

  Talon explained, “We will take the snares, and I will go over how to set a few up, but we really don’t want to be eating wild stuff this time of year unless we absolutely have too. We have plenty of food right now, and it is not worth the risk of someone picking up something. I know we could trap all the rats, raccoons, or beaver that we wanted right now along this ravine, but we will wait until after the first frost before we begin trapping any wild animals. I do agree about the meat. Tomorrow I will break out some of the canned beef and make us something that will fix that craving.”

  Beth raised her hand and stammered, “Did you just say we were going to be eating rats?”

  I laughed, “Sorry, what I meant was muskrats. Please trust me, if I didn’t tell you what it was after I cooked it, you would not know it from any other wild meat. Well, that is, if it is skinned properly. There is nothing wrong with eating muskrat, but now that you mention it, a regular old rat isn’t the greatest, but it tastes like steak if you are hungry enough. Any other questions? Good, let’s get everyone set up. Ben, get your bike and trailer moved behind one of these logs, and we will get it unloaded so we can go get the water.” Working quickly, Ben and Talon got the trailer unloaded and a tarp secured over the food stocks. Ben followed Talon around the small camp as he began to collect the empty water filtration systems.

  Going over to the other three, Talon saw that Mat and Beth had set up their hammocks close together, utilizing the same tree to secure the head end of their hammocks close together. Talon looked over their set up and nodded his approval. “Mat, Beth, good job. I do think you have your ridge lines too tight, ideally you want the angle of your whoopee slings to be around 30 degrees, that way you can lay as flat as possible in the hammock. If you go with more or less of an angle than 30 degrees, you end up sleeping in a banana shape and will wake up with leg cramps. Might want to lower them a little bit, no more than 18 to 24 inches off the ground is what you are shooting for. The last thing, make sure your head is slightly lower than your feet. If your feet are lower than your head, then you will get leg cramps during the night. Also, go get one of the large green tarps and use that as cover, that way both of your hammocks will be under the same tarp. Just tie off the center hole to the same tree and the end holes to the trees your feet are connected to. Stake it out, and you are good to go.”

  Beth asked, “What did you mean earlier about the muskrat tasting, ok if it was skinned properly?”

  Talon replied patiently, “There are many right ways of skinning and cleaning wild animals and twice as many wrong ways. A lot of animals have scent glands, and if they are not removed properly, then the musk oil will taint the meat, and no amount of spices will fix it. Can you still eat it if you are starving; yes. But only if you are starving. It is very, very strong. In fact, I would bet you good money that at some time in your life, you have worn a perfume made from some type of animal musk.”

  Beth wrinkled her nose as if she had smelled something rancid and mumbled, “Thanks for answering my question, but I think I’ll pass on the muskrat.”

  Talon laughed, “Your loss, but you might just find the time and place that you will have to eat those words.”

  Beth looked at Talon and groaned, “Ha, Ha, real funny, if I were you, I would quit my day job to do stand up.”

  Talon laughed again as he grabbed Mat and Beth’s filtration systems after they had filled their Camel Baks and canteens and headed over to Don. Don had his hammock system laid out on the ground but was sitting with his back to a tree and reading the instruction booklet. Squatting down next to him, Talon asked, “Want some help?”

  Don looked up with a slightly irritated expression and said, “Screw you and the horse you rode in on, go away and leave me alone. I’m just reading the instructions first, so I know what I’m doing. My water bags are over there on my bike. Go away and leave me to this.”

  Talon laughed and said, “Ok old man, but don’t blame me if you have leg cramps or are uncom
fortable all night.”

  “Kiss my ass jarhead, hold your critique until I get this setup, then come over and give me your suggestions, but I do need to learn how to do this myself. I’m thinking we will still be sleeping in these when we get to the cabin. Sure would make for more room if we could just unhook one end each morning. If we try and make beds for everyone, we won’t have much space inside the main room.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Talon said, “I really do think once you get the angles figured out, you will find they are as comfortable as any bed you have ever had. Ok, we will leave you to it and go get the water and fishing lines out, be back in a few. I don’t think we are in any real danger here but do keep an eye out. We will call on the radio once we are on the way back in. Have Mat and Beth begin heating water for the evening meal, but just for tonight, make sure they use fuel tabs until we get a look around tomorrow. I don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves with wood smoke if we don’t have to. We shouldn’t be gone long getting the water.”

  Leaving Don to his instruction booklet, Ben turned and walked over to where his bike and trailer were leaning against one of the downed trees. Talon headed over to his rucksack to get the fishing YoYo’s and snares. After digging around in his rucksack, he found the waterproof stuff sack that contained his fishing and trapping supplies. Pulling the stuff sack from his ruck, he knew it had everything they would need to set a few snares and some YoYo’s. Rejoining Ben, they got the bike, and the trailer turned around and headed back towards the river, paralleling the ravine. The going was fairly easy as the carpet of pine needles let the wheels roll smoothly across the forest floor.

  After walking along the ravine for a couple of minutes, Talon told Ben to hold up a minute. Pointing down into the ravine, Talon asked Ben, “Tell me what you see?”

  Ben stood still, and Talon could see him concentrating on the ravine. After a couple of minutes, Ben stated, “I think we are looking at some type of animal slide down into the water. I’m not sure if it is a muskrat run, or it could be beaver, but I’m only guessing.”

  “Good,” Talon stated, “It is a beaver run, it is much too big for a muskrat slide. Also, most muskrat slides will begin and end at the mouth of their dens, so if it were muskrat, we would see a den hole in the bank. This slide starts at the top and runs down into the water. Leave the bike here, and let’s take a look at the trees over there and see if we can find any sign of beaver activity.”

  After Ben leaned the bike against a tree, he and Talon walked into the denser undergrowth, beginning just a few feet from the edge of the ravine. Within just a couple of yards, evidence was everywhere of beaver activity. The area just out of sight of the ravine had almost been clear cut. All of the young trees from ¾ inch to over two inches in thickness were cut off about three to six inches from the ground. Piles of wood chips were everywhere around the small clearing.

  Ben looked at Talon, “Guess that answers that question. We don’t have any beaver where I’m from, this is really my first experience with beavers. Is this typical of them?”

  Talon glanced around, “Yes, this is pretty typical for this time of year. Later they will probably start dropping larger trees right next to the ravine and dam it off. Come on, and you can set a snare to learn how to hopefully catch one of the younger ones. If it was later in the year, we could chunk it up and make a stew with it. Also, remind me tomorrow we should come down here and pick up a couple of gallon zip lock bags of these wood chips. They are perfect for the Solo stoves if we dry them out really well for a couple days in direct sunlight.”

  As they turned to walk back to the ravine, Ben asked, “Are the older beavers too tough to eat?”

  Talon laughed, “The older ones can be really tough, but if they are prepared correctly, meaning if you parboil them for several hours, they should be tender enough for a stew, I would just want a young one because of the size. I would hate to waste all the meat of a larger one, and I doubt even you and Mat could eat 40 or 50 pounds of meat in two or three days.”

  Arriving back at the edge of the ravine, Talon hesitated and began to slowly walk along the ravine, closely examining the top of the ravine bank. Ben stood and attempted to figure out what Talon was looking for. After about a minute, Ben whispered, “Talon, what exactly are you looking for?”

  Talon came back over to Ben and replied in a normal tone, “The area the beavers use to slide back down to the water is easy to find, but that isn’t where we want to put the snare. We need to find the place they are climbing the bank to get to the trees. That is what I’m looking for; the beavers will always use the easiest place they can find to climb the bank. Also, remember to always speak quietly but try and not whisper. A whisper carries further than just speaking in a low normal tone of voice.”

  Ben looked at Talon with a puzzled look, “Why not just use the slide area? I would think one of them sliding down that ramp would be easy to catch in a snare.”

  Talon smiled and said, “I would agree with you but you will rarely catch one of them that are using the slide. What do you think they are carrying with them when they use that slide? Here take a close look at the area around the head of the slide and the area leading from the trees to the top of the slide.”

  Ben closely looked over the area and the top of the bank where the slide started. After a few moments, he said, “The grass and area leading up to the slide has all the grass beat down, I just can’t figure out why.”

  Talon laughed, “You are way overthinking this. Again, think about what the beaver is doing up here on the river bank to start with?”

  Ben looked at Talon in bewilderment, “They are up here cutting down a bunch of small trees to take back near their lodge for food.”

  Talon replied, “Ok, you are getting close to figuring this out. How do the beavers carry the small trees back to their lodges?”

  Again Ben looked at Talon in confusion, “Well, they carry them in their mouth and with their front arms.”

  Talon shrugged his shoulders, “And just how do you expect a beaver to stick his head into a snare with three feet of tree limb sticking out of each side of his mouth?”

  Ben just hung his head, muttering to himself under his breath. Talon smiled and said, “Ok, enough goofing around and come over here. This is where they have been climbing up the bank. See how they have used this small gully, it is nowhere near as steep as the rest of the ravine is. You have to remember that the beaver is not the most mobile or agile creature God ever made. They will always find and use the best terrain available. Go ahead and take the snare equipment and get a snare set covering the trail out of this little gully. Once you are finished I’ll show you how to attach a large rock to the snare, so the caught beaver will drown quickly without much suffering.”

  Ben nodded and took the snare equipment from Talon. Giving Ben some room without him standing over his shoulder, Talon went over to the bike and began pushing it down to the mouth of the ravine to begin the easy but boring task of filtering water. Finding a spot on a curve of the ravine that had a small sand bar about 100 feet from where the ravine met the river, Talon stopped and picked up two of the water filter bag kits. Carrying the bags over to a small tree, he pulled out his belt knife and lopped off several of the lower limbs and hung the dirty water bags over the ready-made pegs. Detaching the water tubes from the bottom of the dirty water bags, he carried the two bags over to the water and carefully filled them. Returning to the tree, he again hung up the dirty water bags and reattached the water tubes. Waiting until he was positive that the water was filtering, he repeated the process until all the dirty water bags were hanging in the tree and filtering water.

  Over the next hour, Talon continued to supervise Ben and add suggestions while Ben set three more snares. After the snares had been set to Talon’s satisfaction, Mat hung four YoYo fishing rigs down by the mouth of the ravine. After getting the YoYo’s set, they both sat and waited for the water filters to do their magic. Refilling the dirty water
bags, they carefully repacked the trailer with the clean water bags separated from the dirty water bags, called it complete, and headed back to camp. They had almost made it back to the campsite when both Talon and Ben jerked to a stop and looked back towards the river. The sounds of a huge explosion and gunfire echoed across the river, making it hard to tell how far away it was. Talon frowned, he knew the source of the gunfire could not be more than two or three miles away, now the only questions were who and why.

  Turning to Ben, he said, “Ben, hurry back to camp and make sure everyone shuts off their radios, in fact, have everyone take their batteries out of the radios. Have them do it in front of you and do not for any reason use any radios. No campfire tonight, have everyone use red lights if they need light. I’m going back down and observe the ferry crossing for a while. Have everyone get something to eat and bed down. Keep the noise down, I don’t think this battle has anything to do with us, but we sure don’t want to draw attention to ourselves if we don’t have too. You take the first watch, and I’ll be back to relieve you at 10:00 PM. Let Mat and Beth know they have the 2:00 to 4:00 AM watch. Any questions? Good, go ahead and get back there as quick as you can, and don’t shoot me when I come back tonight.”

  Chapter Three