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Whenever I am in the woods. I always have my Hill People Gear Original Kit Bag. It is a chest pack that can be worn alone, or under a backpack, and is the best piece of outdoor equipment I have ever owned. You can carry concealed with no one suspecting it is there. It also puts at your fingertips most of the gear you want to be readily available such as keys, compass, phone pouch, flashlight, ferrocerium rod, etc. It has three compartments and when unzipped literally provides a shelf to lay out a map or other item. A gun can be drawn quickly from it and the pack can be "docked" to your backpack's shoulder strap so it feels weightless. It can fit almost any handgun. My Ruger Super Redhawk Toklat 454 Casull fits in it as does a long-slide Glock. http://www.hillpeoplegear.com/Products/CategoryID/1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HPgY45Qz8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQTXZ71lE4 I recommend this chest pack to all of my friends.

We went out on a Whale Boat in the San Juan's which was the highlight Dave. Orca's and Bald Eagle's, beyond beautiful..

Some from WA earlier in the month. The Olympics and MRNP.

As part of the PCTA trail crew recently I did not encounter anything unusual other than some elk calls a few nights with odd barks, screeches and whistles that were fairly explanatory. Checked mud around lakes for prints. Mostly elk with one canine print likely a coyote. Why one, prolly more a function of me not wanting to get quagmired than a spirit coyote. More than one crew member experienced a loud thud near their sleeping area which could not be explained apparently. I saw three snakes, numerous frog species, a duck or two, a couple birds of prey, numerous chipmunks including young crawling down into a hole near a tree on alert from mom; but no bears or larger mammals. A few pika were seen by others higher on the trail than me on an off day. No goats. Lots of frustrated PCT hikers due to fire closures. A squad of hunters got a bear kill while they were around town. Despite the haze from smoke several bluebird days were great for field and trail work. Bugs were present but the flies were worse than the mosquitoes in my neck of the woods. Yes, I got yellow jacket stung doing my pick/mattock work---took five or six good thunks to find where they were at---one sting through a glove was enough for me---haven't moved that fast in ten years. These crews would only make it deep into the backcountry to maintain trail with the assistance of the Washington Backcountry Horsemen/women that make provisioning remotely possible. Kudos to the cooperation of those dedicated individuals. (and thanks for the watermelon). The large group of international hikers coming through were quite inspiring: Germany, Netherlands, UK and many well known trail angels from parts south. We had one international member on our team. Many of the thru hikers were profuse with the thanks. The platform is playing havoc with my ability to post pictures. I will have to post them up as able. We had two wilderness med trained persons and several MD or physician extender types on the trip, that reassures and great radio communication with USFS everyday by the leaders. Smoke from wildfires was troublesome several days but the blood-red moonsets were nice and several red sunsets.

Evening everyone. I thought I’d share a few pics from my Mogollon Monster expeditions! I have a Jeep for longer outings, this was just a quick overnighter. The NC700x is NOT an off-road bike, lol...except when some guy like me makes it go off-road. It did well enough on the 2 1/2 hr, 65mph+ ride there and tackled the high clearance roads north of the rim family decently that it has earned its spot in the stable. I chose a spot towards the north end of Turkey Ridge for this one. I’ve typically stayed farther west in the past, but I’ve been hearing vocalizations east at night and things seem pretty West so I thought I’d scout a few miles east...it’s been worth it. Some pretty significant tree breaks in the early evening, some unidentifiable growls, and what you see below. This spot was pretty close (within a few hundred yards of an elk bedding area so I thing the growl was from an elk...didn’t sound like a bear. It was about 100yds from my op at the time and accompanied by a crash through the woods. Anyway, First pic is camp the first afternoon. Second is camp in the morning. 3rd are a couple cubs (circled as one was really interested in the underside of that log) and momma bear following the creek bed below camp. The photo of momma bear is too big so I left it out. They passed within about 30 yds of my spot while I was video recording the creekbed. I waited until they were 50 yds or so past before I switched to my dslr so as not to give myself away. If you stare at the pics long enough you can almost hear my prayer to the cubs “go the other way...this way is boring...”. Lol, the G20SF never felt so good on my hip and the photos were taken from roughly 80yds away with a Nikon D3200 and 300mm Lens. They did not seem aware of my presence as I was fortunately downwind. 4th pic is a track that was in the middle of a two track fire road. The 5.11 light is 5 inches long putting this track around 14”x 8”? The ground is pretty well covered in leaves and the two road tracks fill up with mud when it rains (every afternoon). Whomever, or whatever, made this track obviously either hopped across or stepped across. I went 100 feet on either side of the road and there was no other ground conducive to tracks. 5th pic is interesting. A fairly long tree (30-ish feet) laid across a log about 4 feet across that was rotten. A rock was placed on top of where they met. That drew my attention. The log looks like it was gutted by something looking for grubs perhaps. There were pieces of the log scattered around and several undefined indentions that could have been large prints immediately in front. I am up at 3 am to head back out to a nearby spot with the family so I hope the pics all come through!

This is my favorite area where I backpack into to go squatching. The forest is thick and not easy to get through. There are several very secluded ponds in the same area and you have to bushwhack to get to most. These three are my favorite and the ones I keep going back to. The bottom picture is my new backpack. I have six or seven, including a McHale, and this is by far my favorite. It's a Seek Outside Revolution Fortress that has a 125-liter capacity, weighs only 4lbs 2oz and can carry 125-150lbs. A dream to carry.