IBO - Brian R. Lundin (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

I use to come pass here with my dad on our way into town for supplies. There was a preacher named Ronald Wilgate who was the pastor and every time my pa and I came to town, he was doing some kind of repair work on the church. He and some of his congregation had repainted all the trim work, recaulked and weather-stripped all the old windows and jacked up the sagging front steps so the porch and front door lined up again. They somehow had hold to a bell from a steam locomotive and it would ring loud and clear on Sunday mornings summoning all the Saturday night sinners to come and repent. When the mines closed, the town died and Preacher Wilgate moved on like most of the people. Wonder what he would think if he saw his old church now,” Walsh said sadly.
The first and second row of shingles on the roof was crooked and the third row was worse. The fourth row looked like a desperate attempt to straighten out the errors made in the first three. Only the walls were supporting the roof, the rust covered bell was laying in the back yard.
As they about to drive off a young man rapped on the passenger side window.
“Got Ibo for sale, cheap,” he advertised.

The unexpected intrusion startled Chris for a moment as he looked into the wild eyes of the man who looked about eighteen.
“No thanks,” Walsh said as he pulled off.
“These some bold little MF’s,” Walsh said disgustedly.
“We could have been the police or anybody,” William replied.
“I read something about a new drug; I guess it’s that Ibo the young man was talking about. It supposedly to have taken over the drug market and all you need is a glass of water. What will they think of next? Walsh asked to no one in particular.
Walsh moved on, and then almost as soon as it began the town ended. The land outside the town had abandon shacks, discarded mining equipment and the last vestige of railroad tracks. They passed battered isolate log cabins, weathered, teetering shanties and mobile home parks crouching under add-on roofs, walls and carports. The people who lived there were probably the descendants of the rugged bunch who first settled there.
“What do these people do for a living?” Chris asked.
“You name it, some acts as guides for hunters and fisherman, most are on welfare, not too much work in the area but they survive by hunting and fishing, but they are out here because they want to be. Every person who lives here have a story of why they are here, and they only go into a large town when it is absolutely necessary, these mountains can get into your blood believe me,” Walsh said.
They drove pass vast green pastures with century-old stumps standing black and rotten. In the distance, ten or twenty head of cattle were grazing lazily. A few people could be seen on horses riding somewhere. Every now and then a satellite dish could be seen pointing this way and that; fire blacken areas had been burned away to clear the way for the spring awakening.
Twenty miles down the two lane road they started seeing gaudy hand–painted signs stuck into the ground advertising the Teton Inn at Exit 30 where you could get the best cut- throat trout dinner in the county and fly fish at one of their many creeks.
“Look at that mountain,” William said excitedly while pointing to a snow topped mountain way in the distance.
The mountains moved in, the valley narrowed, and they passed through small sorry little cracker-box towns that had been built on hope that was never paid to the stubborn souls who stayed hidden away in the chinks and nooks of the mountains. Up the steep slopes were the abandon mines. Their dark portals punched into the mountainside and amount of blasted and crumbled mine muck spread out before them, retained with piles of timber. The north woods were a rolling riot of mountains and timber. There were serene green meadows surrounding clear streams. Walsh waived at two fly fishermen who were standing knee deep in a swiftly flowing stream. They passed through a lust green valley that held the mountains apart. Above the valley, sheer rock cliffs towered, jagged and broken off by the centuries, the tenacious trees nearly blocked out the light. There was a sense of solitude and a kind of majesty to the area.
“The mountains range between six thousand and fourteen thousand feet, and there are a lot of beautiful waterfalls that cascade down the rocky canyons into alpine lakes loaded with cut-throat trout. Fly fishermen from all over the world come here to try to catch those silvery little devils. Hunters come here in search of deer and elks,” Walsh said.
“What about the winter, I can imagine it gets pretty cold here,” Chris said.
“Cold as a whore’s heart on a Saturday night,” Walsh answered.
“You guys picked a good time to come, we have a very short summer here, this area is generally covered with snow from early November to late April and it can get as cold as minus 63 degrees, but now the wildflowers are starting to bloom in the meadows creating vivid colors.”
As they continued their way Walsh pointed out the deer’s, moose’s, and far in the distant they heard the howl of a wolf while Walsh pointed out a Black Bear.
“Man you got some sharp eyes, I didn’t even see that bear,” William said.
“This is my home and you’ve got to have sharp eyes and ears if you want to survive out here. Very seldom will you see a wolf or a bear, but they are here.”
“I remember seeing a story on television about a year ago where a camper was killed by a bear, many bear attacks out here? William asked nervously.
“Not many, most attacks occur when a hiker surprise a bear or get too close to its young. There have been reports of hunters being attacked after shooting an elk and a griz has beaten them to it. When hunting in bear country it is always better to have a guide. The guide knows the griz habits and tendencies. The blood and gore at a kill is like ringing the dinner bell for old griz with his keen-nose and opportunistic mentality. A smart guide know that many times at a disturbed kill site even if the bear is not seen it is better to back off because ole griz maybe hiding in cover nearby. A smart guide in grizzly country will always pack out the meat as soon as possible after the kill.
“What happened, I didn’t see the program,” Chris asked.
“Well, that happen a few miles from here, it was a grizzly bear according to what I heard. This man and his wife were camping, hunting elk and fishing in the mountains and they both were avid outdoor people and did not believe they needed a guide. They had done all the right thing; the food was properly stored in odor proof ABS containers far from their campsite and hung on a rope stretched between two trees at lease seventeen feet off the ground a standard method of protecting the food and the campers from scavenging bears. Most wild life choose to stay far away from people who is not a food source for them, although a grizzly bear will eat damn near anything it can catch, but their diet consist mainly of berries, roots, bulbs of plants, rodents, and white bark pine nuts which they steal from the cache ground squirrels store for the winter. The griz is a perfect predator and cunning and with their excellent sense of smell, the griz can locate a carcass from miles away and will readily feed on it. During the spring months, they will feed on moose, elk, mountain goat and mountain sheep and their calves. Another major food source is army cutworm moths. During the summer months, these moths congregate on sub-alpine plants located at elevations 10,000 feet or higher. During the early morning hours, these moths drink nectar and then during the day, they cluster on the surrounding rocks. Grizzlies from all around climb to these high elevations to consume 10,000 to 20,000 of these moths a day. At times like this, when food is abundant, numerous grizzlies will congregate and feed together. Once the food source is depleted, the grizzlies will go their separate ways in search of other food. Bears are basically solitary animals. Each has its zones of danger and personal space. If something or someone penetrates this zone, the bear will react. Bears are somewhat like people in that they have good days and bad days. Sometimes this response will be in the form of a bluff charge, that’s where they stand straight up, and snarls and waive their paws around but sometimes it is an outright attack. Even the griz will flee if they sense the presence of something or someone soon enough, but on the other hand if the bear is surprised he may see you as a threat that would force an immediate response.
Bears are very fast and believe me you cannot out run an 800-pound griz and most attacks occur in a split second. In that split second, fear takes control of a person and that split second is all it takes for the griz to be on you. Like I said, bears will try to avoid human contact but because of the many people camping, fishing and hunting in these mountains, some of the bears has became habituated, which means they have lost their fear or should say apprehension about being around people. Most bears especially the grizzly is not afraid of anything, the black bear is a little more timid but still dangerous.”
“How big is a grizzly?” Chris asked.
“A grizzly can be over ten feet tall when he stands up on his hind legs and can weight over eight hundred pounds. One swipe of his six-inch claws can rip a person arm right off. There are stories from survivors of bear attacks where after the bear has torn his arm off he sits down to eat it right in front of his victim. Well, back to the story, according to what I heard the couple did everything right. They had pitched their igloo tent in the open and well away from the trees, which would force the bear to leave protected cover if it wanted to snoop around. Everything to do with food and its preparation was far away from the camp. The fire pit seemed clean and two sleeping bags were rolled out in the tent but unused. Therefore, they probably cooked their dinner, ate and cleaned up. By now, it is probably starting to get dark when bears are the most active. The husband for whatever reason goes to the food cache, maybe to stow the leftovers from their meal in the ABS containers, maybe he saw the bear and went there to scare him off, anyway, he probably startled the grizzly bear and he attacked. The wife heard the screams picked up her 30.06 rifle, and ran towards her husband, but she was too late. By the time she arrived,