Family matters...

Thirty-four years ago yesterday, I saw a river otter at Trinidad Bay for the first time, so I went up there for a visit to mark the occasion. (Actually, I mostly went to treat Shadow to a nice outing, as this will likely be his last trip to the beach...)

Anyway, I didn't expect to see any otters, and I didn't, but I did run into the lady who has become Otter-Spotter #1 there since my departure, and she gave me a rundown on what she'd been seeing there the past couple of summers.

Also, an old commercial fisherman friend drove out onto the pier while I was there. When he saw me, he stopped, rolled down his window, smiled and said, "Where... have... you... BEEN?!" It was nice to know at least one of my old buddies noticed I'd been MIA all this time.

Only downer of the day was that I had the worst plate of fish and chips ever for dinner afterwards: an absolutely horrible mush of undercooked cod, and limp, greasy fries. It was expensive, too. Even Shadow didn't want a piece of the fish. I couldn't blame him. :p

It was nice to get out there again, though. I used to go to Trinidad every single evening. Kind of hard for me to grasp that all that has been over for 9 whole years now.



The awful new pier.

 

I just saw wild river otters at Trinidad for the 4,800th time! Or maybe this evening's sighting was #4,801. Whatever, it's been so long since the last time, I've kind of lost count. ^^

 

I've been collecting old bottles for over 25 years, but only once have I pulled an intact antique bottle out of the ground myself. This is it!



One day about 10-12 years ago, after a rainstorm, I saw the bottom of this sticking out of an eroding seabluff. I pulled on it, fully expecting it to be another broken bottle bottom, and instead, out came a completely intact antique "whiskey" bottle!

It didn't contain whiskey, though. As you can see, it was a bottle of "Tennessee White Rye." That's like moonshine! This was a hardcore liquor in those days. These settlers were badasses!

( Closeup of the lettering. )

It's a fairly rare bottle. In 1999, I found a value for it as $175. Probably worth about twice that now.

 

I obtained a very rare image via eBay this past week. It's a century-old photograph of Trinidad harbor – the otters' home.

The picture was taken from the side of Little Head on the bluff where the whaling station would be built c.1920. The present pier extends about 350 feet out from the notch in the foreground, passing just to the left of those offshore rocks (which still look exactly the same today).

In the background you can see the remains of the old Ryder Wharf on Trinidad Head. That burned in 1914, so this photograph has to be at least 93 years old.



Here's a closeup:

( Cut for width (image is 1152x1152, 220KB) )

I don't believe there were any otters living here then, though. The nearby Yurok village of Tsurai was still settled in the first decade of the 20th century. This tribe made its arrow quivers out of land otter pelts, so I very much doubt that the kind of stable and visible population I witnessed here in the '80s-'90s could have existed in this area during the period of aboriginal settlement.