Well, after traveling up a grueling hill, we arrived right outside of Grangeville, Idaho. On the side of the road, there was a highway sign that read WOOLLY MAMMOTH SITE NEXT RIGHT 4 Miles. Andy had heard about it and really wanted to go see the mammoth, but 4 miles out of the way means 8 more miles total to get back to the main road, and on an awful, loose-gravel road, that means about 50 minutes of bicycle riding. Scott and Matt decided to just ride into town and set up camp. Ryan, Andy and I were of the opinion that 50 minutes of tushy-torture has to be worth seeing a huge, prehistoric creature amidst the farmlands of Idaho. We called the sheriff in town to let him know we were camping there and then asked him about the site. He was extremely unenthusiastic and said, "Well, its pretty historical, if you like that kind of stuff." After hearing that it was super unimpressive, we knew we had to go whatever distance it took to see it.
On the gravel road, we kept following a maze of signs which had only a picture of a huge-tusked, rearing-up woolly mammoth and an arrow pointing us where to turn. After 4 miles of suspense, and fantasizing about seeing a roaring mammoth with long hair, all encased and preserved in a gigantic ice block, we reach a lake with a small picture of a mammoth and some fishermen. Ryan hurriedly asks them, "So, where are the woolly mammoths?" To which they respond, "There are about 15 of them... under this water. You can see the mammoths in town though about 4 blocks off the main street." The highway sign flashed through my mind, WOOLLY MAMMOTH SITE, and I realized that it was the archeological type of site (contrary to the impressive pictures along the side the road, which lead me to think of the giant ice encased creature).
Then, when we finally got to the town of Grangeville, we checked out the actual woolly mammoth site and we saw a replica of a woolly mammoth skeleton (not the real bones or anything). So to answer my own question, no, I haven't seen a woolly mammoth, but I have seen a site that probably has a whole bunch of bones in it (even though I haven't actually seen the bones). What an elusive creature.
3 comments:
clever ... enjoy all writing from you guys ... waiting to hear from Matt as well, though I know he's busy keeping up the site
That is quite an inspiration. To go somewhere where someone told you it was not worth it. What do they know? So your inspiration has me trying to figure out how to get past this performance anxiety. Trying to play classical guitar when your fingers are shaking is really hard. So I go to this little spot by the graveyard next to what used to be Every Days a Sunday and play everything I know on the guitar. Every Day's a Sunday is now a wine store and people can buy glasses of wine and sit outside. The first time I did it, two couples applauded me when I left. I was so pleased. All that work for the last 8 years paid off for that feeling. Problem is that 8 years of work and I can only play about 35 minutes of stuff I think is worth listening to. Maybe I'll go back and relearn some easy stuff. I've been back there two more times. One time the crowd was really into drinking their wine and didn't notice me. Next time nobody was there. I did meet a couple of guys walking by who stopped and listened. that was nice. Patty is happy since she doesn't have to hear me do the stuff she is probably really tired of. Mary is looking forward to seeing you.
saw Mr. Williams today at the bike race here in DG. He will try to contact you guys again. He tried once and it didn't work. He said he is not computer savvy! Love you and miss you.
Post a Comment