After the outhouse dispute
So eventually my neighbor and I worked out a deal for the outhouse. The details aren’t interesting other than me learning that a high use outhouse can develop an uncomfortable peak during the freezing winter months. Dig those holes deep folks.
This all happened in the early 1990s Woody Creek/Lenado Colorado. My cabin was an old miners shack in a mining camp called Lenado that sits at the top of Woody Creek Canyon. Down at the bottom of the canyon where Woody Creek flows into the Roaring Fork, is the Woody Creek Tavern and surrounding trailer park. Thompson lived in between but closer to the tavern where he had a somewhat dedicated barstool next to the wall with a pay phone behind a curtain. Sort of his office away from home.
Hunter’s car back then was a big red convertible Chevy Caprice that he called the Red Shark in homage to the Fear and Loathing Cadillac.
I was at the cabin on a chilly overcast March afternoon when the normal peace was shattered by loud engine revving and gunfire. I hit the deck when I spotted Hunter driving the Chevy, top down, blasting away at the sky with a shotgun.
Apparently, my other neighbor from hell (the hunting camp guide) passed Hunter while he was on the way down the canyon and Hunter was on the way up. The dirt road is very narrow and plunges several hundred feet down on the side next to the uphill traveler. Hunter felt squeezed next to the drop off and it irritated him so much that he grabbed his shotgun and drove up to Lenado blasting at the sky with one hand and driving with the other. By the time he u-turned and headed back down to his place there were no injuries or casualties.
Someone called the local paper about the commotion, their reporter showed up at Hunter’s place joining Sheriff Braudis who was a friend of Thompson and had arrived ahead of the reporter. Hunter explained that he’d just saved the local economy from giant menacing black birds of prey that had been circling the valley and were likely to spook the tourists and spoil the spring skiing season.