By Sherry Baysinger
It is now seven days since we packed up our mules and rode into the Enchanted Valley. Sara and I have prepared and served 21 meals to the crew. We actually have been cooking for several weeks now, as many of the meals were cooked at home, vacuum-sealed and frozen. Our 10-pack boxes are getting lighter and our insulated pack box (freezer) is still doing a good job of keep things cold.
Our 210 eggs are now down to a few dozen and have lasted frozen in their vacuum-sealed bags. We have enough food to feed crews for another week if the project lasts that long. This evening we will fix our five-star meal, salmon from High Tide Seafood Company, a Port Angeles based company of which Sara is part owner.
The last helicopter load of 20 pieces of crib and one side rail was dropped late Saturday. The crew had “picked” the chalet one inch and let it sit overnight.
The steel beams that had been cut were now under the chalet, with four hydraulic rams on each rail. Jeff marked the gauges on the power pack to see if it would bleed off. This would determine whether they needed more cribs or more rails.
Fifty cribs and a side rail had to be left behind due to helicopter flight limits, so like pioneers of the past, the men would make due with what they had. Cases of Ivory and Fels Naptha soap were opened and crew members were under the chalet soaping the beams in preparation for it to start moving.
We were ready to serve lunch, but the crew didn’t want to quit. They were at a crucial place in the project. The riverbank under the chalet was collapsing, but the cribbing stood solid. Jeff decided that the crews needed a break and some nourishment before they went for the first move so reluctantly they all came to the table.
Sara and I had made a huge pasta salad for lunch and served last night’s leftover roast and gravy with mashed potatoes. Tortilla wraps work well for backcountry sandwiches since they take up so little space and can be easily packed in, but a hot lunch was a welcome break for the crew.
When Jeff cranked up the power pack and the chalet actually started moving, it was a bit anti-climatic, because it moved so slowly that you had to focus on a tree in the distance to see that it was moving. It moved 17 inches each set up. No one really relaxed until the chalet was eight feet from the riverbank.
To see the chalet moving in fast motion, check out the Olympic National Park’s time-lapse photos of the chalet move. It’s fascinating:
www.flickr.com/photos/126487419@N04/15063816887/in/set-7215764647952886.
House mover Del Davis rode in with Larry late in the afternoon on our faithful mule, Henry. Henry and several of our mules were born and raised on Larry’s family’s ranch in Oklahoma. Larry happily took mules in payment for several years of helping during calving season.
Mule owners often display their mules’ abilities with special cuts of the tail hair, called bells. One bell cut means he packs, two cuts, he rides and packs and three cuts indicates that he is a harness mule and that he can be ridden, packed and can pull a wagon. Henry is a three-bell mule.
He has packed out numerous medical evacuations for the Olympic National Park and National Outdoor Leadership School. Henry packed out our son’s monster elk (386 gross score) that was on display at Forks Outfitters a few years ago.
Del and Henry bonded during the 17-mile ride in and over the next few days, Del would disappear to the high lines to have chats with Henry.
Jeff was ecstatic that his friend and house-moving buddy had arrived. Now the entire crew was in camp, media people had come and gone and Sara and I served up our meal of salmon, roasted over the fire, fresh green beans, coleslaw and bacon-corn casserole from the Dutch oven.
Dessert was Sara’s special recipe for biscuits on a stick, which everyone was crazy about.
Sara had escaped earlier to bathe in her private “tub” but found it was full of trout. She ended up getting her shower under a waterfall. Rainy let me use her solar shower so both us cooks, who had literally been sweating over a hot stove, for seven days were quite refreshed.
We all relaxed around the campfire that night, satisfied that our mission was well on its way to success. All the main players were here and the chalet was far enough from the river that it looked like we might even finish early.
An amazing thing has happened. We all felt it. Our motley crew of park managers, trail-crew laborers, independent contractors, employees of two house-moving companies, and the cooks and packers have become a finely tuned team.
Most of us had never worked together or even really known each other before this project. We have become a team of friends, working toward one goal: To move the chalet to safe ground away from the Quinault River. It’s what we all would like to see in our country.
Regardless of political opinions, backgrounds and cultures, that we could all come together as Americans for the purpose keeping our nation safe and free from what would undermine its survival. It seemed possible in the Enchanted Valley.
