The Bureau of Land Management's Eugene District is composed of thousands of acres of steep terrain, navigated by zig zag gravel roads. For the 20 years I've been working here, some people entertain themselves with recreational dumping on public land. One aspect of this fun consists of rolling derelict and/or stolen automobiles off high places so that they land hundreds of feet downslope. I think the yahoos doing this must be re enacting their favorite scenes from Dukes of Hazzard, or maybe Rebel Without a Cause. Then, too, there is the recreational dumping sport of "Bridgestone Bowling" where Bubba and Billy Bob roll unwanted tires over the side of forest roads.
I have always stayed on top of the abandoned vehicles left on landings in the woods and have utilized the Forest Work Camp crews to tote hundreds of tires up the hill to be hauled to town. I am approaching 700 junk cars, trucks, motorhomes, pickup campers, camp trailers, boats and loads of tires removed from the land since I assumed this duty.
A year or two ago, I got a call from the warrant officer in charge of the the local National Guard's Echo Company Motor Section. Mr Barnaby wanted to know if there were any dead cars in need of retrieval from over the side on BLM land so his people could practice using the five ton wrecker in recovering vehicles. We did a field trip south of Cottage Grove and looked at a half dozen heaps that had been Evel Knievaled off a 200 foot bluff but decided that was beyond our capability. Eventually I remembered where somebody had pushed three junkers over the side of a clear cut and the reprod had grown up so that you couldn't see them any more.
Since then, Echo Company has yarded up at least half a dozen "problem children" out of canyons for me. Their monster wrecker is very powerful and has a rear facing PTO winch with a three quarter inch cable. Staff Sergeant Scott and the gang can be very creative using blocks (big pulleys) chained to trees to pull a Suburban carcass up a dogleg chute created by dirt bikes.
Friday's target was a Ford Explorer somebody had stolen in Sheridan and tired of, so over the side it went. Australia Road is a happening place when it comes to dumping. It is less than fifteen miles from the new multi agency office. The National Guard and the Forest Service have already moved in. The Bureau is going to move in this summer as soon as a add on building goes up to house our overflow since the original design. I volunteered to take an early out.
I was sitting in my Expedition in front of the boarded up Camp Creek beer store. The gang was supposed to meet me at 0900. At five minutes til, the light green GSA six pack came around the corner closely followed by the big green wrecker. I started up and led the mighty convoy the four miles to Australia Road. There is a logging show up the left fork of the road but we make a right. A truck driver was cinching his load of logs on the pavement and ten foured everybody that we were coming up the hill.
The wrecker slowed to a crawl going up the steep gravel road. I pulled over at the site and five guardsmen piled out of the six pack in new mechanics' shop uniforms. I pointed out the front of the junk Explorer a hundred and twenty feet down, behind a hazel bush, lying on its side. The crew is oriented and has a plan by the time the wrecker comes around the last corner.
The road is wide enough for the green machine to turn broadside with its boom hanging over the slope. One man grabs the bull hook and walks the cable down the hill. The winch pays out very, very slowly. It doesn't free spool. It is designed to move deuce anna halfs and even armored vehicles on the flat. The hillside is littered with animal bones.
The men in the hole run a chain around the frame of the heap. Somebody has helped themselves to the rear axle and transfer case so it is that much lighter. Sergeant Scott put the winch in forward gear and the massive cable comes taught. The Explorer budges and then creeps up the hill on its side. It flops over on a boulder and rolls along like a circus seal on a ball for while.
Doug, our PR guy, shows up and photographs the heap coming onto the road. The crew leaves it on its side so I can remove the gas tank. A man starts back down with the cable. Two more guys have made a necklace of tires on a chain to pull up. The bushes downslope are taking a beating.
The crew loads up and flees the scene. I try to start my rig but the emergency flashers have drained the battery. Oops. At least the radio works so I raise Doug who comes back and jump starts my Expedition. I should get a new one shortly so I refrain from buying new tires or a battery for this (04) one.
I pull the Explorer on its belly and winch it on the dead car trailer. I manage to cram and stack the 14 large tires in the junk car and strap them on the deck of the trailer. Call it a load and head for the barn. The Explorer weighed 3,200 pounds at the steel yard. N
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