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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
LITTLE BANDITS
GET OUT THERE
OLD
AGE
his week, Robert Fletcher, a self-described
“adventure cyclist” who turns 80 on Friday, passed
through Astoria on his “Octogenarian Odyssey.” A
retired educator who has been living in Costa Rica
for the last fi ve years, he has set forth to break the
Guinness World Record for the longest journey on
a motorized e-bike. Starting in Fairbanks, Alaska, and
ending in Panama City, Panama, he expects to cover
over 8,300 miles in 155 days.
It’s not his fi rst adventure, by any means. He
climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2014, cycled 2,600
miles in India in two months, hiked about 78 miles in
Kenya and climbed Mount Fuji in Japan, among other
feats, not to mention cycling from Anchorage, Alaska
to Mexico City in 2015.
How does he do it? “I ride at least fi ve days a
week, anyway. I just keep in shape, and there’s noth-
ing special,” he told Richmond-News.com. Along
the way, he’ll be posting on his Facebook page, @
octogenarianodyssey
Aside from breaking a record, he has another mis-
sion. “I want to draw attention to all the people that
are doing incredible adventures but are not pro athletes
and not Olympians,” Fletcher said. “And, I wanted to
motivate people of all generations to be active, to get
out there to do something, to get out of your comfort
zone.”
T
he Ocean Conservancy has come
up with a list of the seven lon-
gest-living ocean animals, starting
with the rougheye rockfi sh (Sebastes
aleutianus), pictured, who grow
slowly, have a maximum lifespan of a
bit over 200 years and live in Pacifi c
coastal waters at depths of 500 to
1,500 feet.
Bowhead whales (Balaena mys-
ticetus ) are 60-foot mammals who can
live 200 years or more and inhabit arc-
tic and subarctic waters. The ocean
quahog clam (Arctica islandica), an
Atlantic Ocean dweller, can live from
200 to 500 years. Ming the Clam
broke the Guinness World Record as
the oldest non colonial animal in the
world, living from 1499 to 2006 (the
age is the number of shell ridges), or
507 years. Now the Ear feels guilty for
all those quahogs consumed as a child.
The Greenland shark (Somnio-
sus microcephalus), who roams the
seas around the Arctic, Iceland and,
of course, Greenland, live to be 300
to 500 years old. In 2009, scientists
found a species of deep sea black
coral (Leiopathes glaberrima) that
was about 4,265 years old.
Glass sponges (Hexactinellida) are
deep ocean animals that attach them-
selves to the sea fl oor for life. Reefs
of these sponges were believed extinct
until 1987, when 9,000-year-old glass
sponge reefs were found in Canada.
And, fi nally, the teeny immortal jel-
lyfi sh (Turritopsis dohrnii) species,
which can revert from being an adult
to its younger polyp form, constantly
renewing itself.
Scientists posit that the bigger long-
lived animals have a slower metabo-
lism, as do those that live in frigid
waters, i.e. “species that live fast will
die young, while those that have a
slower metabolic rate live slower and
longer.”
T
BEACH BEEFS
n The Daily Morning Astorian, on Aug. 18, 1890,
a writer complained about the swimming accommo-
dations at the Grimes Hotel in Seaside.
• After arriving by train, one walked down “a dusty
road to the grove, then deep sand, and a walk over cob-
ble stones must be encountered before one reaches the
grand old beach.”
If one wanted to take a swim, “you fi nd no accom-
modation but a rickety old shell of a bathhouse, with
half a dozen rooms, the doors of which are off the
hinges and no bathing suits are for hire.”
“If you are fortunate enough to have a bathing
suit with you, you can (change) and come out. Then
you must walk through deep sand and over rocks and
stones some 10 or 15 rods (about 165 to 247 feet) to
the water.”
“Returning from the surf … you fi nd no water to
wash the sand off your feet, and no fresh water to rinse
off the salt water … and, after dressing, will have the
uncomfortable, sticky feeling, which a salt water bath
leaves on the body.” Horrors!
Note: The “dusty road” from the train depot
to the sea was called Shell Road. Built by hotel owner
G.M. Grimes, that road is now called Broadway
Street.
I
‘A TOTAL INSPIRATION’
nspiring rerun: Hope Harris was up at the Asto-
ria Column when a woman asked her if it was too
late to go into the column. It was not. The woman went
to help someone out of her car who clearly had cere-
bral palsy.
“He struggled with every step, but was able to walk
without assistance,” Hope observed. “I waited, watch-
ing for the door at the top of the column to open. When
it did, I hooted and hollered, and beeped my car horn,
and fl ashed my car lights.”
The pair were Michelle Lee and 23-year-old Will
Ramis (pictured) of Portland. It turns out climbing the
column isn’t Will’s only feat of late, he’s on his way to
becoming an Eagle Scout.
Calling Will her “new hero,” Hope said, “I am so in
awe of him ... What a guy! A total inspiration to me.”
(In One Ear, 10/10/2014)
I
GONE,
MOSTLY FORGOTTEN
ll the raccoons in our care have moved on to
the next level of care,” Peninsula Wild Care in
Ocean Park, Washington, posted Aug. 6 on their Face-
book page. “We do not have the outdoor enclosures that
raccoons need for proper conditioning for release … yet!
“In the past few weeks, they have gone from sweet
little babies to rambunctious, crazy, ornery raccoons.
This is the fi rst group of raccoons we have been able to
raise, as we recently obtained our permit for them.
“We started off feeding them formula fi ve times a day,
for the fi rst couple weeks, then the number of feedings
slowly go down. At about fi ve weeks, you start off er-
ing a juvenile diet, while still supplementing with for-
mula. Their diet consists of kibble, fresh veggies, fresh
fruit, yogurt, eggs, fi sh and fresh trout, if they are lucky
like ours were (thanks Emily!). Then they receive med-
ications for de worming weekly, and were vaccinated,
including boosters.”
Want to help them with their good work helping local
wildlife? You can off er to volunteer or donate at penin-
sulawildcare.org
“We enjoyed caring for these little bandits,” the post
concluded. “ … Hopefully, next year we will be able to
provide the necessary outdoor enclosure to see them to
release.”
“A
RENEWED FAITH
ow that I have my wits about me,” Wenda
Vorce wrote, “I would like to thank the peo-
ple who helped me when my bike tire got stuck in a
trolley track, and I went down hard, breaking, frac-
turing and chipping my wrist.
“I am doing OK, with a plate and nine screws.
My point is those strangers who witnessed the wreck
called 911 and got me help. One sat on the pavement
and let me rest my head on his leg until the emer-
gency medical technicians got there. They talked to
me, keeping me awake. I never saw their faces, just
their feet.
“Their care and concern for me renewed my faith
in humanity. I am not seeking sympathy; I just want
to say thank you to those two couples that stayed with
me until help arrived. I don’t know if they were locals
or not. I did thank them numerous times in person, but
wanted to share their good deed with others.
“And, thanks to the great people with the ambu-
lance, they were very attentive, and to the Astoria
Fire Department, for making sure my bike was safely
taken care of. I think I saw the Astoria Police Depart-
ment. It was sort of a blur. Thank you all for being
there for me.
“However long it takes,” Wenda added, “I will ride
again. By next spring for sure.”
“N
KITING ALONG
rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Aug. 18, 1894:
• For Sale: Ten acres improved land in Upper
Frankfort, Washington, slashed, and partially
cleared. Two-story house, stable, chicken house and
yard, workshop 20 by 40, situated on the river, just
the home for a fi sherman. Will sell on easy terms for
$1,600 (about $55,000 now). Inquire on premises.
David Upton.
Note: The area that is Frankfort — which was in
Pacifi c County, Washington, perched on the Columbia
River — was fi rst homesteaded in 1876. It was only
accessible by water, and not easily, at that.
In 1890, Frank Bourne and Frank Scott platted
the area; their partnership provided the name for the
town. The two men had big dreams, planning a resort
with 1,226 lots and streets and alleys, that looked great
on paper — but was never built. The selling point was
that the railroad was coming, and would go through
the community … which was still inaccessible, except
by water.
The money from lots sold was used to build a store
and a hotel, and get a newspaper, the Frankfort Chron-
icle, started up. Things looked promising for a while,
and more lots were sold, but potential investment came
to a halt when the Panic of 1893 raised havoc with the
economy — probably the reason why Upton wanted
to sell.
The railroad never appeared, but the town did have
some success with logging until 1900, when it started
to fade. The post offi ce closed in 1918. By 1947, there
were only 11 residents – by 1960, there were only two.
A logging company bought the town in 1953 and now
it’s a ghost town.
F
ell, there’s a new form of energy production on
the horizon: aluminum wind kites, made by
Kitekraft. The power absorbed while aloft is transmit-
ted to a ground station through its tether. The energy
can then be stored there in batteries, or fed into the
grid.
“Our systems need 10 times less building materials
compared to conventional wind turbines of the same
power rating,” the website says. “ ... Thanks to their
compactness and their increased operational height
our fl ying kites are barely visible (and) we can cut
the carbon footprint of wind energy by 90%.” When
there’s no wind, the kite rests on the ground station
it’s tethered to.
What’s the downside? There doesn’t seem to be
one. The only problem is that the kites don’t produce
enough energy yet, InterestingEngineering.com says,
but “this does not mean that they won’t.”
W