My week in review.

[Tillaway]

I am back but I have to leave tomarrow. Sorry... no pictures yet since I have been on the run (litterally) all week.

Almost found an old mine shaft the hard way.  I found a vertical shaft about 15' in diameter and 50 or so feet deep.  The shaft then went horizontal.  It was surrounded by brush and the sides were vertical.  Anything falling in is not climbing back out.  I peered oever the edge looking for skeltons but didn't find any.  We will start marking that unit tomarrow so I warned the markers about it.

I was GPSing a unit Friday that is quite brushy, a jungle comes to mind, and I was stalled swatting mosquitoes and waiting for a satellite to fly by when I heard some crunching and crashing.  Oh great... sounds like a bear.  Sure enough a nice Black Bear wanders on by.  He / She was only about 40 or 50' away minding his own business.  Digging and rooting and basically doesn't notice me at all.  I kind of figured it would not be a good idea to alarm it since it was so close and I was only armed with a GPS antenna and no camera... drat.  He continued on his merry way and I continued on mine.  I finally had to "talk" to him later since he stayed in the area and had no clue I was there.
At the end of day I was boogying down to the road on a brushed over skid trail when I heard..... a strange buzz...hmmmm.  Well... after some searching, on my hands and knees, I finally located the source.  A Rattlesnake all coiled and ready.  He was hiding in a nice cool spot under some Deerbrush.  Great... Bear, Snake what else is next.

Saturday was uneventful, oh I did see a Bobcat earlier in the week.  Some years I see several and then don't see any for a couple of years.  This might be one of those cat years I hope.

I have been running around with a new to me GPS unit.  I am using a CMT HPL4http://www.cmtinc.com.  They shipped me their newest software PC-GPS 3.8.  If you are in need of a GIS/GPS program for Forestry applications this one is really cool.  It will generate all the maps you will ever need and it looks real professional for the client.  

Catch you all later.

[CHARLIE]

Did the bear you saw have 12 feet like the one Don wrote about?......or did he only have 4?....................

[Ron Wenrich]

A 50' deep mine shaft ain't so bad.  To the north of me, they have old, deep coal mines.  Those shafts are hundreds of feet deep.  

I've seen some strippings where they were down about 300', and those deep mines go below that.

Several years ago, a guy drove a full sized blazer into one of those.  It took several days before they found it.  There were 4 people in the blazer.  None survived.

The problems we het into is where debris falls over the shaft .  Leaves pile up and you can't see it at all.  Then when you walk on it, it gives way.  We've lost a few hunters like that.

[Tom]

'when they dig a hole like that down here in Forida, it isn't nearly as dangerous.   If you fall off into one, you drop about 2 feet and are in water.  If you can't swim, you might be in trouble.