Driving from Motherload/Sore Heel to Solar/Gold Coast

[Ascentionist]

My paternal grandfather worked in the Big Sinking area his whole life. He died in '89 ate up with cancer. I'm sure there's a connection.

He used to knock around in a VW bug. That was his car of choice for work. He and his car always smelled of that goopy hand cleaner.

My mom grew up in the oil fields. Her family lived in a house near the mouth of Coalbank Hollow when she was really young. When the oil boom hit in the '70s my grandparents "moved to town" and bought a nice brick house in Stanton, but we spent a lot of time down in there exploring when I was a kid.

My wife and I paddled Big Sinking once after a torrential rain. She got out of her kayak to portage around a downed log and when she pulled her foot out of the mud it was coated in about three inches of oil-based sludge. And yeah, there's usually a strong smell along Big Sinking.

I also would never drink the water from Bald Rock or Big Sinking or any of the tributaries in the area or downstream. At the mtb trail day a few weeks ago a guy put two Ale-8s in Flat Hollow to keep them cool and I cautioned him against it. He asked why, and I was able to show him an unnaturally orange pool of water upstream a little ways up the trail. He said it was probably okay as long as the tops of the bottles didn't get in the water. He was probably right.