Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Snowmobiler

I went back to the snowmobile site and did some more searching. I found a peculiar lump in the ground about twenty feet from the machine. After removing a thick layer of dead ferns and leaves I used a stick to push around the heavy wet detritus revealing what looked like part of a carcas.

Fully uncovered there lay a human skeleton, a light nylon jacket over a caked wool material. The persons canvas pants were saturated yet appeared dryly formed over the boney form within them. The condition of the clothes were quite astonishing compared to the condition of the body, not that I though either of them would be candidates for rehabilitation, but the way things are consumed after death out here usually leaving little trace it was suprizing.

I spent an afternoon checking over the body for identification. I figured I should report this to the authorities, hopefully to give some closure to the poor saps family.

A one August R Kline. He was going to be thirty a few days from now. His picture was hard to make out, it was faded and washed. His license expired over ten years ago. I have been here for two winters, never heard a snowmobile close enough to be him. He must have been out here for quite some time. I checked to see if there was any other dates or cards on him. Tucked in the anals of his wallet were three tickets for Metallica in 1997. He has been out here since then, I am certain.

I wasted no more time. I took his wallet, grabbed a bag of dried food and my back pack and headed out for the ten mile hike out to the road. No telling whats going to come of this.

Monday, October 6, 2008

snowmobile

Yesterday I was checking out the perimeter and stumbled across something I had not seen before. I have been through these woods up and down, every which way, I thought I had the whole place scoped out. About a mile from the cabin, in the thickest of pine forest I found a snowmobile. It had been there for quite a while. The faint yellow fiberglass nose was buried half in dirt, moss and pine needles, the rest of it lay mostly under a heavy limb that looked recent. The seat, a blackish vinyl, was completely deteriorated and it looked as though the foam was scavenged by mice. The metal track and ski were rusty but solid. How did this thing get here? I searched around for the whole afternoon looking for some sort of evidence of a person. I found nothing. I'll go back out in a few days and take another look. I am also considering salvaging the snowmobile. I will never be able to get it to run but I can use some of the parts for fabricating tools. My consciousness needs to be consoled by finding the rider.