Schafer Beer Miracle '06

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="043c8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B>  This is what I like to call "The Miracle of the Beer".  </B></div> <div> <B>On our backcountry trip in </B><A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Schafer 05"><U><B>Aug. '05</B></U></A><B>, Doug and I managed to forget four beers that had been left cooling in a dunk bag, in a small stream that runs by the campground.  While packing to leave, we both reminded each other not to forget the beer, and then we both promptly forgot it. </B></div> <div> <B>It wasn't until we landed several hundred miles away at the </B><A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Moose Creek 1 05"><U><B>Moose Creek strip</B></U></A><B> in Idaho, that we realized our horrendous error.  We were doomed to spend a beerless night, before we could make a food/laundry/breakfast and beer flight the next day.  </B></div> <div> <B>Many times that night we thought of the cool beer in the gurgling stream.  Doug was even tempted to relieve some white water rafters of a few of their beers, but honesty prevailed.</B></div> <div> <B>I often wondered how long it would take campers at Schafer to find the beer, and if they would be grateful for the gift we had left them.  Cold beer is quite valuable when you're in the middle of the wilderness.</B></div> <div> <B>Fast forward to July '06.  After landing, I decided to check the stream to see if the beer was gone.  I was amazed to find it exactly where I'd left it.  The beer had survived a freezing winter, and heavy spring runoff in the stream.  Of the four beers, one had been punctured and the other 3 still contained last year's beer.   </B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#0066CC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#99CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>John Galban's Flying Site</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFF99" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC0000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John Galbans Flying Site"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="16"><B>     </B><A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Schafer 06"><U><B><IMG SRC="04910100.gif" border=0 width="16" height="16" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>     </B><A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="West Yellowstone 06"><U><B><IMG SRC="04a10100.gif" border=0 width="16" height="16" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="John Galbans Flying Site"><U><B><IMG SRC="04b100e0.gif" border=0 width="16" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B> </B></div> <div> Schafer Beer Miracle '06</div> <div> <IMG SRC="22a9bf40.jpg" border=0 width="667" height="500" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> I found the beer still in the dunk bag and tied to the stump where I'd left it the previous summer.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="22c9bf40.jpg" border=0 width="667" height="500" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The bag didn't look so good after nearly a year in the stream.  It was brown, dirty and mossy, but it was intact.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="22e9bf40.jpg" border=0 width="667" height="500" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Here are the beers.  The paint was rubbed off of the cans by constant agitation in the stream.  I'll bet the water was</div> <div> really rushing during the spring thaw.  The can on the left was punctured, but the other three still contained beer.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>