Exploring the hills and forests

I had to do a lot of chores when I was a kid and teenager in Ekalaka. Despite that, my favorite thing to do was to explore the hills and forest behind and around our home. Sometimes I went with other boys from town and sometimes I even went alone. It was believed then, that at the age of ten a boy could have a .22 rifle, usually a single shot, and I had one at that age. I saved up my money until we could send away for it in the catalog, Sears, I guess. It was a Stevens as I recall. I usually took it with me.

Gun safety was ingrained in us by Dads, Grandpas and Uncles. There were only certain things we were allowed to shoot. I usually brought home a cottontail rabbit, which we ate. If you didn't get a clean kill on the rabbit it would cry and that would just about break you from shooting one again. I shot at a lot of magpies but they were very hard to hit. At one time, there was a small bounty on them. We were not allowed to shoot birds, otherwise. My killing days are over now.

Most of the time I just explored. There were shallow caves that I liked to go into, one had an opening on the top where, if one had been inclined, you could have a campfire and the smoke would go out the top. Once down off the hill near there, in a valley with big boulders, I found an old rusty, broken six shooter. I wish I had kept that; I donated it to the museum and I don't think I see it in the museum now. I always wondered if there was a gunfight there.

Most of the time my destination if I had time was our old house that we called the Opeechee Park place. It was seven miles from Ekalaka. It was still fresh enough in my mind that I enjoyed going there and most of the buildings were still intact. As I have told you in the past, I loved that place. I lived there when I was four years old. I don't think anyone lived there after us.

There were always things to enjoy in the forest. Once David Lamphere and I saw tracks that we convinced ourselves was a mountain lion. There was a butte kind of on the way that we called Rattlesnake Butte. I didn't go there much because the butte was aptly named. I did spend a lot of time on a butte on Dad’s land we called Tittie Butte. From it we could shoot at car bodies in the dump if nobody was there. It was fun to see the bullet hit and then wait for the sound of the thunk to come since sound is slower than light. I saw quite a few porcupines back then in the forest. We would occasionally eat porcupine but it was considered not good meat if they had been eating pine bark. They were only good when they had been eating in the cornfield.

Just seeing all the things that was happening in the forest was enjoyable. One of the greatest joys in life was seeing, in the spring, a crocus flower growing up through a snow bank. Coming back onto our property there was several kind of shale and sandy slides coming down off the hill. I always slid down on the back of my butt and as a result my pants always wore out there first. A lady at the local clothing store commented why other boys clothes were worn out at the knees while mine were worn at the rear end.

My main memories were in the forests behind the second house in Ekalaka, we called it the Odis Harkins place; your sheriff lives there now. I did do a lot of exploring in what we called Chapman's pasture behind our first house in Ekalaka also. I was very interested in school and while learning about how certain plants, especially grasses, pollinate each other, I actually observed one piece of grass bend over toward the other. This was in thick meadow, just south of our first house. So, I actually observed grass having sex in the meadow. I did ask the teacher about this and he verified it.

I once saw a seagull on Chapmans Dam. I asked Mother about it and she said that sea gulls did come that far inland. There was a little swampy pond on the road going out toward Chapmans. Every time I got close, I spooked a good size snapping turtle. Boy he was quick. I tried my best to get close enough to get a good look at him but to no avail. I wonder now if that turtle’s descendants are still there,jumping off into that pond when startled.

I suppose that kids do not explore the forest anymore, but no, I know that is not true. One time my nephew Mike’s kid went into the forest when I was there and saw a big elk. There is such a rich bunch of things to see and do there. I didn’t tell you how we usually went for a summer picnic at Lantis Springs when we were visiting the Grandparents at Belltower. We always enjoyed the lookout tower when we were there. If there were someone there they would take us up in the tower to see the surrounding forest.

I told you that I always had a lot of chores to do. Next time, I will write about those chores.