I hate snow
Quote from: Wspeed on November 10, 2018, 03:30:41 PM I hate snow I love snow. I hate rain. When you get wet, you are wet. At least with snow, you just shake it off and keep going!
Quote from: Rapidray on November 10, 2018, 03:49:39 PMQuote from: Wspeed on November 10, 2018, 03:30:41 PM I hate snow I love snow. I hate rain. When you get wet, you are wet. At least with snow, you just shake it off and keep going! No I still hate snow!!!
Quote from: Wspeed on November 10, 2018, 04:10:32 PMQuote from: Rapidray on November 10, 2018, 03:49:39 PMQuote from: Wspeed on November 10, 2018, 03:30:41 PM I hate snow I love snow. I hate rain. When you get wet, you are wet. At least with snow, you just shake it off and keep going! No I still hate snow!!!
Day 07 :I'm a few days behind here, it's been fun reviewing the thread and catching up! Nice work guys. I was out in the woods and didn't have cell reception or internet access. I did however take my cell phone and snapped a few pictures along the way. And of course the Huntsman accompanied me at awl times! I'll try to catch up with a few posts from the previous few days, starting with DAY 07:My hunting buddy and rented a Forrest Service cabin out in the mountains. We got lucky with the timing: a major storm had dropped a bunch of snow in the area. We drove in as the storm tailed off.....or seemed to. It actually snowed on and off days 7 and 8. We drove in early and dumped our gear in the cabin. Here's a view from the cabin porch:(Image removed from quote.)If you think it looks cold, you'd be right. Temps varied from -12ºC to -2ºC. Ahhhh, Fall in Montana......We geared up and headed out to look for sign of Elk. It didn't take long to find some nice tracks in the fresh snow. Finding Elk was a different matter......(Image removed from quote.)From the photos you can see it is obviously hilly terrain. I think it's hard to convey a sense of how steep some of these spots are. I t was easy to work up a good sweat while climbing up. Then, trying to be slow and still, we chilled down easily. It was hard to stay hydrated--the water in our water bottles froze up!(Image removed from quote.)While there was plenty of Elk sign in the area, is often led us into think timber. This area has suffered from beetle infestations. As a result there is a lot of 'blowdown'--dead trees that have pitched over. The long legged Elk seem to know how to use these barriers to their advantage. (Image removed from quote.)After working our way (often more noisily than one would prefer) through some of this terrain, we felt we had started to figure out where the Elk were moving. Foolish us.Cold, wet, and tired, we retreated back to the cabin, built a fire, and spread out our gear to dry off. The Huntsman's scissors got used to open up some packets of tea. (Image removed from quote.)
Day 08 :We thought the snowstorm was breaking up the evening before, but we got another 2" of snow over night. (Image removed from quote.)While the additional snow made hiking, staking, and climbing a little trickier and tiring, it did let us determine which tracks were more than 12 hours old. We felt sure we'd be able to find some Elk now.(Image removed from quote.)The Huntsman is sitting up on the snow several inches above the track, so the track here is actually bigger than it appears in the photo. But you can see it is fresh!Sure enough, we soon found a couple Elk....legal Elk... However, we were in thick timber and didn't have a good shot. Neither of us wanted to wound an animal with a poor or ineffective shot. We tried to be sneaky and wait for an opportunity. An opportunity that never came.....Obviously if you are seeing Elk in thick timber and can actually see Elk you are close to the Elk. If you are close to Elk they can see you and hear you. We had been working up wind, so I don't think they smelled us (or we never would have seen them), but they became suspicious about our presence and disappeared like ghosts through the timber. After spooking this set of Elk, we decided to climb up a little higher and see if we could locate other Elk in a spot where we might have better shooting. Another tough slog up through some deep snow. (Image removed from quote.)When we got up high, the snow was up over our knees. And all the tracks were partially filled with snow, so we knew they were at least 12 hours old, maybe older. At this point we were pretty tired and cold. We retreated back to the cabin where we made a fire and heated up some lunch. (Image removed from quote.)After drying out a bit, we headed up another drainage to higher ground, again. Once again, the snow got deep and the climbing got hard. And up at the top, there was scant sign of Elk. We now figured that this storm had dumped enough snow up high to push the Elk down to better food sources. A hard way to learn that information, but it sure was a nice hike, and the sun had finally emerged!(Image removed from quote.)
Ok, I’m home sick now.
...the Elk outwitted you !
Quote from: Rapidray on November 10, 2018, 09:58:34 PMOk, I’m home sick now. Where are you now? And where was home? And why aren't you here?
Wyoming is not as crowded and one of the few states left where nobody says anything when they see a revolver on your hip when out in the open.
Thanks, guys. I'm never sure how many extraneous photos and stories to post in the middle of a challenge thread, so tell me to turn down the volume if I'm getting too wordy. I'll post Day 08 here shortly....
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