Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...

[temwood]

That bottle from Dunkirk, NY is really cool because thats my hometown....

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

Well, Tom and I had been knocking around the idea of revisiting this place since we were there back in April...yesterday we both had the afternoon free, and decided to go check it out...see if we could find any other spots up in there. This time we decided to just park the truck, and both bike in...We did a scouting run first...to make sure the coast was clear, and drop off Penn's potato rake...[] This pic was modified abit to protect the guilty....[]

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

We gathered up our gear and headed in....Here's a rare Penn Digger sighting on a bike!

He was flying low the two miles in...I had a hard time keeping up...[]

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

When we got to the appointed spot, we stashed and chained the bikes in the brush, to do our hike portion of the bottle "triathalon"[&:]... The forecast hadn't called for rain, but it started raining just after we began our hike....

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

It was getting dark in the woods, and early on, Tom bent to retie his boot, and I glanced past where he was crouched and there was a dead whitetail deer about three feet behind him laying in the tall grass....I asked, "Tom, did you see that deer behind you, and what the heck killed it?" [8|] Tom turned to me and said "It's throat's been slashed!" !!! Oh boy...

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

We headed up into the area we had found a few homesteads before, and I wanted to dig some more at the spot where we had found a few at an unmapped home site, while Tom wanted to go back up to the head of the valley and recheck the place where the balloon and the blobtop were found....I wasn't 100% sure that splitting up was the best idea, but weighed the pros and cons...We decided that after an hour, I would hike up to where Tom was heading...one reason for my misgivings was that the bears are getting ready for hibernation right now, and are hungry and on the move, So I decided to eat the food I brought first, then dig. []

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

I reaquainted myself with the spot,...cleared the leaves away, and started digging...well, you all know how it is when your finding nice shards...Keep on digging! Dug for what had to be an hour, still no Tom...or any whole bottles...[8|] Had a small 'Farm and fleet' el cheapo three prong digger that fit my pack...but not my hand...Ended up with some new blisters..and a lot of early crude shards...I did dig part of an aqua version of Tom's prior Dunkirk blob....but the rain was affecting my already beat camera...dirt in the lens mechanism wouldn't let it auto focus...so couldn't get too many good digging pics....At one point, this shard popped out of the bank and fired me up for another 20 mins. or so...[]

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

I was taking a break for a drink of water, and saw someting moving....It was Tom! I was hoping he came to get me, with a pack full of bottles to show, but other than a few slip decorated crock pieces, he hadn't found much, but had hiked another hour beyond where I was...We were running short on daylight, and decided to check one last spot down below us, that had shard all around, but no obvious dump, or enough remaining geography to guess where a privy might have been. We did find their rock walled spring, and some more crockery sitting along the wall. You can see the spot where I pulled it out of the dirt and set it up a tier higher...

 

[bostaurus]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

Love the stories and pictures!

 

[JOETHECROW]

RE: Bicycles, Bears, Balloons and bottles...Part 2

Well, after that spot, we really did have to hike out....the only thing different on the way out, was that something had been feeding on the deer while we were up in there....We found the bikes where we left them, got adjusted with our stuff and headed for the van...perfect timing as when we got to the van it was just full dark...We did find another fork in the road that begs exploring...It is cut off on my 1899 map, so who knows whats up there? Third time's the charm? Perhaps that will be our lucky spot! Thanks for tagging along with us. [] Not much to show for an hour and a half of digging, but that's how it goes...