Home at Last!

The Sinks

Monday, June 20, 2011 – This morning we found another library, this one in Riverton, WY, to check email, find a local BLM office near where we wanted to camp, and publish the latest post.  Throughout the US and Canada on this trip, we have always found local libraries to be WiFi capable and helpful, even always allowing us to plug in electrically, as our computer battery was invariably low.  Then, we drove on to Lander where we had been in the early 1990’s when Susan was riding competitive trail.  We remembered “The Sinks”, where the middle fork of the Popo Agie River goes underground for a quarter of a mile, then resurfaces.  The memory wasn’t clear, so we returned today to take a look.  The water takes 1.5 hours to go that short distance, and more water emerges than went in, so there are still mysteries about this area, now part of a state park.

We set up camp at Cottonwood Campground in the Green Mountain area, near Jeffrey City, then went looking for jade in the countryside.  We met another rockhounding couple way out there, and he showed us some beautiful pieces that he had found and polished. We did get some lesser quality pieces, but it was still fun.  On the way back to the campsite, a rainbow arced across the afternoon sky.  We shared the prairie with many pronghorn antelope and a few cows; one black-and-white caught our attention.



Independence Rock



Tuesday, June 21, 2011 – Happy summer!  We are heading East toward Caspar, WY on US Highway 287.  This road, in part, follows the old Oregon Trail, and there are historic sites along the way.  The most interesting, to us, was Independence Rock, where wagon trains would stop and celebrate July 4, starting in 1830.  They wanted to be at that place by July 4, so they would beat the fall and winter snows further west.  (More than 550,000 people passed through this area on the Oregon Trail.)  On this rock, people chiseled their names and recorded births, deaths, etc., some still visible.  Also, there was a plaque commemorating a re-creation trip made by a man named Ezra Meeker, one of the early settlers from 1852 who hitched up a team of oxen and followed the trail again in 1906.



Between Muddy and Caspar Mountains



In Caspar, the BLM staff routed us a long way around, via Circle Drive, to get to our chosen campground, Lodgepole c.g. on Muddy Mountain.  On top of that the road in for 7.5 miles was miserable, whereas we found out that the other way in was much shorter and paved although steeper.  The campground was very nice, however, and no one else was camping within miles of us, so it turned out well.  We went looking for rocks near an archery range on nearby Caspar Mountain and found a few pieces of bluish white agate and did not get pierced by any arrows. 

Rockhounding in Wyoming

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 – Because we were heading south (toward Medicine Bow, WY via highway 487), the shortest route was to retrace our way back out the bumpy, muddy Circle Drive.  We did find some agate and alabaster (a fairly soft, white, carveable material) along this road, and once on hwy 487 we dropped the trailer and took some trips off onto dirt roads and found lots of petrified wood and moss agate.  Moss agate is translucent but has impurities inside which make interesting patterns.  We continued south, turning west for a short time to cross I-80 near Wolcott and then south to Saratoga.  There, the North Platte River was running full,  requiring the placement of sandbags through the town. 



Swollen Encampment River

 We camped along the also full, although smaller, Encampment River in our final BLM campground in Wyoming, every one a gem.



Repairs at Colorado Border

 Thursday, June 23, 2011 – Excited about getting home today, we were up and out early.  We entered Colorado and drove through North Park to and through Walden, then hit US Highway 40 just east of Rabbit Ears Pass.  All of a sudden, we were back in heavy, truck-infested traffic and construction delays.  Our trip was rapidly coming to a close.  We turned south at Kremmling to Silverthorne, then I-70 to Copper Mountain, Fremont Pass to Leadville, and (at last) highway 24 to Buena Vista and home, arriving about 3:00 pm.

While most of our trip had been through green country lush from snow runoff and plentiful rain, our Chaffee County was dry and very brown, but looked great to us.  We set up the camper one more time to unload clothes and food, watered some trees, took much-needed showers, ate, visited neighbors to pick up mail and catch up on local news, then turned in and slept like the dead.

Overall, we traveled 12,078 miles according to out trip odometer, luckily without major mishap.  Moose performed as well as could be expected, averaging 17.1 mpg while pulling a 3,000+ lb trailer.  Total mileage on the vehicle is over 145,000 but he is still going strong, hopefully for a long time.  The TrailManor camper also was as good a companion as we had hoped – easy to tow and comfortable to live in.  We have not decided yet whether to keep it because the complexity of the lift mechanisms resulted in lots of brackets, catches, nuts and bolts, which tended to shake loose while traveling over the washboard dirt roads that we frequent in our Colorado camping trips.  We are taking it into a dealer in a couple of weeks to get it into shape and will make a decision then.  It was also too long to fit into some campsites as well as grocery parking lots, and we may look at the same trailer only shorter.  All in all, the camper was perfect for this trip.

We liked the more desolate, wild areas that we visited, in part because they are getting more rare and in part because those worlds are what the car commercials display – empty roads, big views, and freedom.  While we are not ready to just start another adventure right now, we would not have traded this experience for anything.

Rockhounding in Wyoming

Saturday, June 18, 2011 – On the way to Cody, WY, we ascended Dead Indian Pass.  At the top were several signs telling the history of Chief Joseph, and a  metal sculpture of the Nez Perce.  In the late 1800's, the US government signed a treaty with the Nez Perce (who developed the Appaloosa horse, by the way) providing them with several million acres.  Within short order, due to mining and other commercial interests, the US government reneged and offered a new treaty with about 640,000 acres much of which were not the Nez Perce ancestral home.  Some of the Nez Perce signed, but Chief Joseph led a group of others who would not sign.  The government then forced them off their land (mostly in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) and attempted to capture Chief Joseph.  He led his people throughout the West and Northwest, fighting small skirmishes and always retreating.  At this spot in Montana/Wyoming, near Yellowstone Park, the army had him trapped, but Joseph ascended this pass and covered his tracks with many horse hoofprints going in all directions, and escaped for a time.  The army never defeated him, but they finally starved them out and forced them to surrender.



Dead Indian Pass



From this vantage point, on top of the pass, we could see the campground where we had stayed the evening before, and the Sunlight Road where we had hiked. 

On to Cody, where we set up camp at one of the many private RV parks in town.  We were truly out of the mountains now, so far fewer photograph opportunities came up.  Cody has beautiful public buildings and Buffalo Bill history imposes itself at every turn.  It appears that the energy industry has brought money into this area. 

We drove Moose north to Lovell and south toward Meeteetse looking for rockhounding sites, but did not have much luck, except for some calcite crystals, found all over, and some selenite crystals. At night, we charged up everything (razor, camera, cell phone, camper battery) and took showers, which felt very good after a day of rockhounding.

Sunday, June 19, 2011 – Leaving Cody, we drove south on Wyoming highway 120 toward Thermopolis and further south to the Boysen State Park, along a reservoir.  There was a big (walleye?) fishing tournament over the weekend, which you could tell from the many pickups pulling campers pulling boat trailers.  That traffic plus the weekend campers on the highway made the remote roads fairly crowded, but we found a good spot on the Wind River in the park and took off rockhounding once again. 

This time, although the site appears empty, even desolate, we were fortunate to find lots of agate and some small pieces of petrified wood near Tough Creek. 

Here, the first picture is what the ground looked like in places (no rocks were moved.)  The second is a sample of what we collected in the area.  It was fun to fill a sack with nice specimens after striking out the last few times in our rockhounding efforts.

Yellowstone

Thursday, June 16, 2011 – Last night our trailer happened to be level where we stopped and we did not have to unhitch the trailer from Moose, so some steps could be eliminated in getting ready to go today.  Good thing, as there was frost on the windshield this morning.

A few miles down the road, we came upon a cattle drive, right down US Highway 89.  The cows and the cowboys were all laid back, so no stampeding took place while we were there.  We did have to bring Moose in for a car wash at the next town, however – think about what a street in your town looks like after just a few animals go by in a parade.

From Livingston, MT, the road follows the Yellowstone River, flowing very fast and close to flood stage, or so it seemed to us.  Some campgrounds are closed due to flooding, but we found a BLM site twelve miles before Gardiner, MT (next to the Montana Yellowstone National Park entrance), close to the river but reasonably higher for the night’s stop. 

After setting up the trailer, we took a hike into the Gallatin Petrified forest, up the Tom Miner Road.  The entire Yellowstone area is active geologically, and this section had layers of ash, conglomerate, and rock, with petrified wood showing through in spots.  In the middle of the hike it started snowing but we persevered to get a few pictures in the snow today, five days before summer.



Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone



Friday, June 17, 2011 – The drive to Yellowstone National Park, like this whole part of the country, is very scenic and varied – going along the Yellowstone River, amidst hills and valleys, with snow-capped giant peaks beyond.  We had planned to just drive through the park, as we had been there before.  Once inside, however, we could not resist looking at paint pots, geysers, waterfalls and the omnipresent buffalo, some just outside our car window but with a few hikes thrown in. 

The famous Yellowstone Falls drew us in as well.

Then we drove out the northeast park entrance/exit, the Beartooth highway (which was closed due to snow past our turn) and Chief Joseph highway toward Cody, Wyoming.  A large herd of buffalo dotted the valley. 

We found a National Forest campground unfortunately named “Dead Indian”, set up the trailer, and then took Moose on an unfruitful rockhounding trip down Sunlight Road .  We found none of the expected agate, but the valley was very pretty.  This area is the site where Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce Indian tribe over a pass, and by covering his trail with many hoofprints escaped the US Army into Yellowstone.  We'll have more pictures of this area tomorrow.

Back in the USofA

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 – This morning we visited a local, very nice laundromat in High River, Alberta for needed sartorial rejuvenation.  We also went to the library to publish the past few days of the blog and to learn about road conditions in Glacier National Park.  We confirmed what our campground host had heard, that Going to the Sun highway was not opened at the top due to snow.  Our host also mentioned that the local fire marshal had visited him, and the entire campground was under an evacuation order due to high water levels in the adjoining river.  We wished each other luck, and off we both went.  Not for nothing did they name the place “High River,” apparently.

About 100 miles southward, we crossed the Canadian/US border once again.  We always felt so comfortable in Canada, but it was good to be in good ‘ole US once again, mostly because we were no longer afraid of getting ill with no Medicare coverage and I did not have to translate kilometers into miles anymore.  I’ll miss the loonies and toonies, however (one and two dollar Canadian coins.)

A little bit further we entered Glacier National Park, and set up camp in the St. Mary Campground in the park.  The price was right – our Senior Access pass gave us free admission to the park, and the normal $23 camping fee was halved.  We then drove up the Going to the Sun highway from the east as far as we could go, 13.5 miles (about 22 km – I can’t help from translating still) and took a few pictures.  Supposedly, bears are very plentiful here, but no sightings yet.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011 – We woke up early and left before breakfast, around 6:30 am, to try to see some animals on the Many Glaciers access to the park.  Luck was with us as we spotted a mama grizzly with a two or three year old cub.  Later Susan saw a male moose, lying down in the forest as we drove by.

We left the campground and Glacier National Park around 11:00 am, and decided to swing down through Yellowstone on Route 89, a scenic drive.  Soon we were in wide open Big Sky Country.  There was evidence of flooding and the rivers were still high.  In one watery area we spotted some interesting waterfowl, but the pictures did not come out well.

In the same area there was a statue of two Native Americans, we think to mark the boundary of the Blackfeet Reservation (we had seen a similar, if not identical, statue north of Glacier National Park. 

Nearby was an historical interest sign about Lewis and Clark, which (for a change) we found interesting, historically.

We visited WalMart in Great Falls, much more crowded than any WalMart we had seen in Canada.  Then we continued south to the Neihart area and set up camp in a National Forest c.g., (Many Pines.)  It was raining quite hard during setup, but the camper does not get wet while setting up in the rain, only the campers.

Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff

Thursday, June 9, 2011 – Leaving Toad River, BC, we are still on the Alaska Highway heading south and east.  Early this morning, we reached Summit Pass, at 4,250 feet, the highest point on the highway.  At the top, we came across a few stone sheep, similar to our Colorado bighorns but smaller. 

Near Fort St. John the pace of economic life quickened considerably, probably as a result of oil and gas exploration and development.  Much more traffic threatened, along with pressure to stay at or above the posted speed maximum.  On the plus side, gas was finally getting cheaper ($1.319 vs. $1.559 per liter, still over $5.00 U.S. per gallon.)

Friday, June 10, 2011 – We reached Dawson Creek, BC, the beginning (or end) of the Alaska Highway.  In total the highway is 2,500 miles long, and we traveled it all, except for 200 miles between Tok, AK and Fairbanks, AK.  The highway began right after Pearl Harbor in WWII, when the US felt vulnerable to potential and actual Japanese incursions into the Aleutians, Alaska and the west coast.  The US army spearheaded the project, which began in Canada before it was even approved by the Canadian government.

Shortly after passing through Dawson Creek, we reached the province of Alberta and set our watches to Mountain Time at last – almost home?  Not hardly.  We visited Costco and Home Depot in Grand Prairie, then turned south on highway 40 toward Jasper, past a big beaver in Grande Cache (and, no, we are not bringing it home with us, it just looks that way) and into Jasper National Park, with high anticipation.  Our first animal was a nice elk next to the road, but we see lots of these in Colorado.

We spent the next three days in the Jasper/Banff area and I want to give you some overall impressions.  The mountains are part of the same Rocky Mountain chain that we know and love in Buena Vista, CO, but the peaks seem newer, more jagged.  The color of the rivers is similar to the glacial green and gray of the Alaska rivers, but the color of the lakes is astounding, from the deep jade green to brilliant turquoise.  The weather reports each day were for rain and the skies were often gray, which dulled and washed out the photo backgrounds.  However, there were periods of sun each day and we were mostly dry, not impeded at all in our hikes or driving.  Temperatures ranged from high 40’s (F.) in the morning to mid to high 60’s in the afternoon.

As in the US, these parks are being loved to death – with lots of people and crowded campgrounds.  We arrived early in the season and many of the campgrounds and a few roads to attractions (notably Edith Cavell road) were closed.  Traffic on the highway seemed light, but parking lots at major and minor attractions were overflowing.  We could not imagine what they would be like in the middle of the summer.

Overall, the Canadians do a wonderful job at presenting the attractions within this spectacular setting.  The roads, towns, and sites are well-planned and clean; the staff is courteous; the animals are varied and plentiful.  Lake Louise is how I picture Italy’s Lake Como – a bewildering array of people strolling along a promenade by a lakefront, a large lodge in the background, the air filled with countless dialects.  Europeans, Canadians, and US Americans seem to arrive in small groups, although bus tours of older (and more infirm) Americans are common.  There are bus after bus of Asian tourists, - Chinese, Japanese, Korean and many other countries are represented.

We took hundreds of pictures, mostly mountain “sucker” shots as you might guess.  Those presented here may not be the best, but should be the most representative.  

Saturday, June 11, 2011 – We spent Friday and Saturday night in Snaring River campground, within the park.  You buy a parks pass for each day in the park (they allowed us to buy senior passes at $15.30, even though we were not Canadian citizens) and a separate permit for camping each night - $16 to $34 depending on use or availability of electrical and water hookups, showers and flush toilets.  The campground sites are close together and we squeezed the trailer into some tight spots.  We heard very little road noise, but the sounds of many, many trains reverberated around the canyon walls at all hours.

We went to Maligne Canyon, a slot canyon with falls, and Maligne Lake, known for a view from Spirit Island.  You need to go on a boat tour or rent a canoe to see “the view”, but it was pretty enough from the shore.  We went into the village of Jasper to get our bearings at the Information Centre, then drove out to Pyramid Lake, and another famous, small island photo op.  We also walked around Lake Annette.  Later, we drove to Athabasca Falls, still more sights and sounds.

Sunday, June 12, 2011 – Leaving Jasper, we drove south, down the Icefields Parkway, towards Lake Louise and Banff.  Glaciers tumble down from the massive Columbia Icefields above and behind the visible mountains.  We walked to the edge of the Athabasca glacier

Then, we took a short walk to Peyto Lake.  We have never seen any lake the color of Peyto Lake.  The reproduction here is not retouched, and it does not even convey the total effect. 

Arriving at Lake Louise, we soon left the crowds in a 2.7 km (1.5 mile) fairly steep climb to Mirror Lake, a small emerald green lake still mostly icebound with snow all around.  Altogether, we had several significant hikes throughout the day and were stiff and sore the next morning, a legacy of too little exercise on this trip.  We found another nice park campground at Castle Cliffs (Escarpmentes Castle) halfway to Banff.

Monday, June 13, 2011 – We drove back to the Lake Louise area, without the trailer, to visit Moraine Lake, beautiful but still icebound.  In the photo to the left, the ice on the lake and the mirror image combine so there appears to be a two-tiered lake, an optical illusion.

Later we took a hike through Johnston Canyon, where iron catwalks are suspended from the sides of the cliffs leading to seven falls up the canyon, a distance of 2.6 km.  Along the route we saw a gray fox and two groups of wild goats.  We drove around the Minnewanka Lake loop, and finally exited the east end of the parks toward Calgary.  South of Calgary, we found a town campground in High River, about 100 miles or so from the US border.

The Yukon and British Columbia

Mining Dredge - Chicken, AK

Monday, June 06, 2011 – A little more about Chicken, AK.  The RV campground was pretty much an open parking lot, with hookups for electricity spaced every 15 feet or so around the perimeter.  Almost everyone else there was panning or digging for gold, still being mined in nearby diggings.  They were not very forthcoming about where we might find the mother lode, but you could easily imagine an old mining camp.  There was an old dredge on-site as well.  This whole building floated on the river as it took in and disgorged tons of gravel.  We also saw a mother moose with two babies this morning as she strolled through the camp.



Scenic(?) Views in the Fog

 It was still raining this morning, but we decided to drive the scenic Taylor Highway anyway.  The dirt road was slick in spots, and we could not see very much at all, but we reached the Canadian border without incident and drove on toward Dawson City on the Top of the World Highway, the weather improving as we went.

On the Ferry, Dawson City

You have to take a ferry (no charge, courtesy of the Yukon government) to cross the Yukon River and continue our journey through Dawson City and beyond.  The ferry crew miscalculated slightly the length of our rig, so we were somewhat hanging off the back as we crossed the river without mishap.  The current is quite strong, as it was in many of the un-dammed, wild Yukon rivers.  I took a movie of our crossing, and may be able to upload it at some point.  Dawson City has a strong mining history and many of the buildings are being refurbished in the old style (false-fronted buildings, etc.) mostly for tourist dollars but the effect was pleasing to me, less so to Susan. 

We spent the night in a free campground, next to another wild Yukon river, the Pelly.  The manager at the Klondike Resort across the street kindly supplied me with a free bolt, washer and nut for a loose bracket on the trailer.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 – We continued down the Top of the World Highway (Yukon Hwy 2) to Whitehorse.  Just outside Whitehorse (but we had no views, and, alas, no pictures) was a turnoff to Lake Lebarge made famous by Robert Service (and later Mark Lindsey) in “The Cremation of Sam Magee.”  We shopped for hardware (more nuts and bolts), food and gas in Whitehorse and drove through town.  At a stop in at a local rock shop we found out that we had already passed the best places to rockhound about 200 miles earlier, near Mayo.  The evening was spent in a provincial park campground ($12), Teslin Lake, about 150 miles from Watson Lake.  We had traveled this stretch between Watson Lake and Whitehorse on our trip north, about two weeks ago.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - Out of our campsite by 8:00 am, we reached Watson Lake before noon.  There we saw the somewhat famous forest of signs, and went to a planetarium-like movie of the Aurora Borealis, at the Northern Lights Centre.  Further on down the road, and back in British Columbia, we saw more moose, several bison, and two bears.  We crossed the Rocky Mountains at their most northern point, the Termination Range, and found a private RV park, at Toad Lake, where we could take showers, recharge batteries, watch TV, and publish this blog.

Underway II - The Sequel

Thursday, June 2, 2011 -  The latest test on the jet boat was a success, so Mark and Suzie, Keith and Emily will be going fishing for king salmon starting this evening, and it will be time for us to take our leave. 

Moosetooth sign in Beartooth restaurant

Yesterday, I brought Moose in for an oil change.  It had been just about 5,000 miles, and the “Maint Reqd” light came on as I was driving there.  I have been using synthetic oil which, although almost prohibitive in cost, should provide better protection against engine wear (now over 141,000 on the odometer.)  We have noticed also that the (shifter) gear box cover gets hot while towing, especially while manually downshifting for steep downgrades, but we are hoping that the transmission will be okay until our return to Colorado.  Last night we took Mark and Suzie out to dinner at the Bear Tooth restaurant, within walking distance nearby – next time you are there, try the Pork Colorado…delicious! 

Today, Mark made another attempt to solve our ongoing refrigerator/propane problem.  He changed two wires which internet research in the TrailManor users forum claimed were too small.  To do this, we had to disconnect the gas line and pull the refrigerator out to access the wires.  But, once again, the propane setting is working.  We’ll keep you posted.

A little after 3:00 pm we were underway again.  We drove back up the Glen Allen highway, then took the Richardson highway north towards Delta Junction, a total of 250 miles.  We stopped at the beautiful Paxson Lake BLM campground for the next two nights ($6.00 per night with our Senior Pass) and had Bear Tooth leftovers for supper.  We did not realize how late it was getting because it was so light outside, but a glance at the time showed 11:15 pm!

Friday, June 3, 2011 – Today was an exploration and rockhounding day.  We drove north ten miles to Paxson, then 22 miles west on the Denali highway to visit the Tangle Lakes, a popular canoeing spot.  The drive was mostly above treeline and very scenic, but the lake was still iced in, as Mark had predicted.  We came back to Paxson, then turned north on the Richardson highway for about 25 miles to three rockhounding sites – one on a river bank looking for marble, one in a quarry looking for copper-based minerals, and one along the road looking for fossils.  We picked up samples at each place, but nothing earthshaking.  We hope we have enough gas to get to Delta Junction tomorrow – we will if my calculations are correct.

Saturday, June 4, 2011 – The weather recently has been more clouds than sun, with some showers.  Last night the temperature got down to 46 F., high about 65 today.  We continued on the Richardson highway to Delta Junction.  As yesterday, the drive was scenic.  Along this highway, the Alyeska pipeline was built in the 1970’s, from the north slope to the port of Valdez.  The line is above ground part of the time, and below at other points, depending upon closeness to earthquake fault lines and soil conditions.  It was surprisingly easy to see.  From Delta Junction, we proceeded down the Alaska highway back to Tok, a stopping point on our way north.  At a gas station in Tok, Susan spotted Colorado plates, so I went over to talk.  Turns out the people lived in Buena Vista, had lived in Tampa, owned horses, and had done competitive trail riding in the early 1990’s.  We were simply amazed!  They were heading the other way, so we will compare notes when we get home. 



West Fork Campground

 We continued on towards Chicken, Alaska and the Top of the World Highway, which was closed ten days ago.  Susan looked for Labradourite, Rhyolite, and other rocks along the way.  We found another very nice BLM campground (West Fork) just before Chicken for the night.

Sunday, June 5, 2011 – We drove to Chicken, AK, just 17 miles.  It rained fairly steadily, so we decided to wait a day here, hoping that the visibility improves tomorrow for the “Top of the World” highway trip to Dawson City, Yukon.  Chicken is just a wide spot in the road, with a mining and prospecting history going back over 100 years.  We’d love to find some gold nuggets, but not in the rain (some prospectors, huh.)  Mostly we had a chance to veg out, recharge batteries, and upload the latest blog information.

Anchorage in the Rain

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Happy Rabbit-Rabbit Day to all, especially to you Carol Kelly!

We have spent the last couple of days at Mark and Suzie's house in the city of Anchorage.  They have done extensive remodeling over the past few years, and the results are spectacular.

Yesterday we trooped next door (same house, but different unit) to their daughter Jenny's (and Ben's) son Anders' two-year-old birthday party.  The rest of the family was there, of course, so it was a tamer, more focused on children version of this past weekend.

It has been raining the last two days, so we are glad to be set up, warm and dry in the Lindsey driveway.



Keith's Jet Boat

 Mark and Suzie and the newly married Keith and Emily had planned to go fishing for king salmon for a few days starting tomorrow.  Sue and I were invited to go but decided against it because the cost of the fishing license with a king stamp was close to $60, and then we could not take any fish with us in the camper.  Shipping the fish to Colorado would also be prohibitive.  Besides...it's raining!  Keith has a jet river boat, similar to what Mark used to have.  Mark and Keith have replaced a seal to repair a water like in the drive assembly, but a test on a lake yesterday did not go well.  Today, they are once again pulling apart the assembly in the rain in Mark's driveway and will test it again later.  Those of you who own or used to own boats are familiar with scenarios like this.