June 5 2016 Mud + Ranger=Uh oh

Oksanna and I started the day by driving the rangers from the turn-around to the sites. Oksanna was a quick learner and before long was puttering down the beach on the New Ranger, and I was following behind on the Friendly Ranger. Matt worked for Phil again today, learning a few knots in the process. Jean was changing the lives of everyone living, cooking, or eating in the crew cabin with her mad cleaning. Inku was better but still taking it a little easy.

I had gotten parts to fix the drain pipe from the sink in the crew cabin. I think it’s important to pour the waste water from washing over the cliff. There’s a pipe for that purpose from the cabin, but it had become seriously disconnected over the winter. I had wanted some repair to this pipe for a few years, as it just descended from sink exit height to the tundra and ultimately to the cliff. That was a problem for two reasons: (1) it kept coming apart and either no one noticed or if they did, they didn’t repair it so waste water kept spilling about 6’ from the cabin; and (2) it was about 6” off the ground when it crossed the walkway leading to the Space Hut, creating a tripping hazard and making it more likely that the pipe would come apart.

It's not just my fussiness that makes me want the water to go all the way over the cliff. Maybe it’s superstition instead, or maybe all that water in that one spot really will weaken the ground and hasten the sloughing of the tundra in front of the cabin. And maybe the smell of all that yummy waste water really will attract bears and other critters. I'm not sure I'm right to worry about all that, but still... just get it over the cliff, just in case.

So finally, after being bothered by it for years, I got the elbows and pipe from Ace Hardware to run the pipe down the outside of the house to then take a 90 degree turn and head over to the cliff. The problem was that I cut the pipe too long so that it took every inch of the space between the drain exit and the ground so that by the time it was all connected, the end of the pipe was a little higher than the bottom of the exit from the sink, meaning that the water will have to run uphill to empty out over the cliff. Still, that would probably be OK because the next water would just force the standing water along. Sort of like a J pipe. That is, until it froze. So I cut the vertical pipe, taking out about 3 inches and then joined it back together so that the end of the vertical exit pipe was higher than the cliff. Now we’ll find out how that works.

I had hoped we could get the buoys out today. Here are Matt and Oksanna coming over to get to work. While Jean and I were in town, Matt, Inku, and Oksanna refreshed the paint on the buoys (there are regulations governing how and where gear must be marked) and we worked together to pull them out of the cabin.

Here is Inku, pulling one of the early buoys over to the cliff. We decided to just toss them over straight out from Debby's cabin even though the temptation is to take them over to the stairs to where all things descend.

We had seven big red buoys, four of them with smaller white buoys attached, and five of them with 100' of wire rope also attached. It can be a tangled mess. Here is Oksanna organizing one and pulling it out to the cliff.

Again, Jean was our photographer. She got this great shot of the four of us pulling a series of the buoys to the edge of the cliff.

While I was pulling together the tools we'd need to put the buoys out (Crescent wrenches, wire, extra shackles, screw driver, PB Blaster, caribiners, and stainless steel rings) Matt, Inku, and Oksanna used a turning bar to get the anchor for the inside end of the inside site set more deeply.

Now, to the big experiment of the day: find out whether the Friendly Ranger – our most mud-worthy ranger – could make it through the mud that Jean and I had a hard time making it through on our second day.

First, we loaded up the ranger box with the outside buoys of the inside site, as well as the hardware we'd need to attach it all together.

And we're off, charging into the mud with great optimism.

Despite the optimism, we did realize that getting stuck was a possible outcome so we planned the test for early in the ebbing tide giving ourselves enough time to pull out a rope and tow the ranger back in with the truck if necessary. At first, the dogs were enthusiastically trailing alongside.

So, here we are, stuck. The mud defeated the ranger about 500’ from the beach.

Matt was part of this operation and we figured that since we were so close to the outside anchor for the inside site, we could just run the buoy we were carrying it the rest of the way out there on foot and at least get that finished. And that's what Matt did. He ran, literally. I can't explain how, but if you squint, you can see his high stepping legs frozen in motion. You might also be able to make out both dogs, leg-deep in the mud.

Then came the business of getting the ranger unstuck. Backward, forward, lean lots of weight over the front of the ranger so it will dig in, get a running start. The tracks were full of mud and just spinning. Finally, Matt jumped off and pushed as I ran it. We made a little progress. Then we both tried to clean the mud from the tracks and pushed again. A little more progress. Even though Matt said he wasn’t getting tired, I don’t know how that could be true. Inku finished what he was doing on the shore and came out to help. With the two of them pushing, we got out of the sticky stuff and were able to run the rest of the way in under our own steam.

Annie and Ollie were both up to their bellies in mud. Actually, Ollie went a little deeper than that. By the time we made it back in, Annie was worried and Ollie was whining and shivering. Jean tried to get them to stay in as we went out for the next step: putting out the running line. Here they are, cheering us on from the beach.

We have a garbage can that just about holds 700' of 1/2 line, piled in. The plan was to put the garbage can of line into the back of the ranger, tie the inside end to the inside screw anchor, and take off toward the buoy, where we'd tie off the outside end. That plan went fine... until we got to the impassable mud. This time I stopped about 10' before where I got stuck the first time out. From here, we just pulled the running line out by hand the last 250’ or so to the buoy to attach it. Dang! The big ring on the buoy was rusty and would likely abrade and eventually cut the running line. We carried a stainless ring with us, but forgot to bring it that last 250'. It looked like a long ways away. So I asked Matt to go back to the ranger’s tool box to get it. He ran! He said running helped him not get stuck. Yeah, the mud is tough. And I still needed their help to get turned around. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I could have just backed out.

And we returned, victorious, having gotten one site out, anyway. Ollie couldn't help himself and had to have just a little bit more mud.

There was a surprising amount of slack in the running line, so we tightened it up from the inside, and practiced knots in the process. I'm including this photo mainly because of the beautiful rainbow in the background.

Now we need to figure out how to fish this potentially heavy season without a very functional ranger. Uh oh.

Some of the ideas we’ve had are:
• Pull the nets early, so that we can deliver all our fish by water
• Carry a boat anchor and bring the capstan winch out and affix it to the ranger. That way, if we get stuck, we can run the boat anchor with a line on it toward our destination, wind the other end around the drum of the capstan winch and pull ourselves out of the mud, toward the anchor. But the mud would probably mean the end of the winch.
• How about an electric truck winch? Probably the same problem, and the process would probably eat the battery.
• How about taking the ranger part way out and pushing the bathtub part way in by hand. Or maybe getting an extra long line between the bathtub and the ranger (still on navigable land). Getting closer.

The prospect of getting the ranger stuck out there isn’t as scary as I would have thought because if Matt and Inku alone can push the ranger out of a spin, imagine what the rest of the crew all together could do. So anyway, I think we will be able to keep the ranger alive.

Matt, Inku, and I took the ranger to Monsen's Creek to wash it off. It's important to get the mud out of the brakes, but honestly, I don't really know how well we manage to do that, either running it up and down the creek or spraying it with our limited washdown spray once we get it set up. After returning with it, Jean and I took the truck to higher ground for the high tide that would come in the early morning. We saw this as we parked it.