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Thursday I went up and checked out the Glen Thomas Site and Tarzan Springs area. It was nice but really cold.

In response to those eager to "exhume" putative bigfoot graves I will say this. I really think this is a disservice to the BF community to start this line of endeavor. I have personally witnessed settlers graves in the southern Appalachians marked by only field stones or in some case nothing more than daffodils growing near a quartz stone. I am sure Oregon trail unmarked graves are endemic too. I have had the uncomfortable experience of knowing that someone that knew my area attempted to dig up what seemed like a settlers grave in part. Thank God for a humongous red oak root that prevented total grave robbing. Please do a rethink on this.

These are great little tools, in more ways than one. I bought my first one called the MiniMulti, pictured below, at an ACE Hardware in Seattle. The brand name is True Utility. The tools are designed in the U.S. and manufactured in China if memory serves (I no longer have the package insert). The second one I bought at the ACE in Helena is like Madison's, though I actually bought it for the case though the tools are well made and useful. Those cases are acrylic, hinged with a secure latch and best of all, have a rubber seal and are waterproof. The cases make a handy little minor first aid kit that will fit in a purse or cargo pocket; I keep a dozen or so BandAids in two sizes and a tube of Neosporin and put together another one in the second case for my wife. My go-bag has a regular first aid kit plus a full trauma kit with Quik Clot, tourniquets, EMT shears, etc., but is a bit cumbersome to pack in Walmart and Winco (the machete handle protruding through the top might garner unwanted attention as well). In my experience, most day-to-day boo boos can be handled by the little kit, and for slivers, the tweezers in my EDC mini Swiss Army knife fill the bill. Here's a link to the website of NEBO, the company that comes up when you click on the True Utility website. Amazon of course has them. All of the products I've seen in ACE Hardware stores come in the plastic cases, but I don't know if that applies to all of their tools. https://www.nebotools.com/b/True-Utility/95

I don’t use such canisters. If the bear shows up, it will be war just like with the ground squirrels. I’ve used 55 gallon environmental drum over packs to store gear in the field. I would bury them to within a few inches of the top, then cover the top with wood and debris. Every single one was found by human thieves and burgled, even those hundreds of miles up rivers from the highway. Once I even caught a camp of scumbags redhanded with my stuff. When I collected the stuff remaining in the drum and even under their asses (camp chairs), it nearly started a gunfight, but I was good with it. I’d have killed them all, not for the gear, it for their attitude and the deadly mistake of flying the flag. Actually, that happened two different times..........

Those aren’t pikas. Those are Arctic ground squirrels. Rats with pretty tails. If they would respect my temporary presence while caribou hunting, they would fare much better, but the little rats steadfastly try chewing into my tents, including the one that does not and never had food in it. And there are hundreds of these things per acre.....maybe thousands. Upon setting up camp, one must shoot these pests back for a couple of days so one can leave camp for an hour or so and not return to find your camp utterly destroyed. The first year we found that valley, our tent and sleeping bags were destroyed and all our food fouled by the rats while we hiked up the mountain to glass for sheep. As we were returning, we could see movement from afar in our camp. Eyeing camp with binoculars, we could see the little vandals running all about and some even bouncing on the tent as if it was a trampoline. The following year we brought a dog and staked him down at camp to guard it from the pests, but when we hiked up the mountain, he howled and cried non-stop or hours. We could hear him for miles..........and so could the sheep, caribou.........and bears. We were then afraid that he would end up as lunch. Now I just shoot several dozen of the little rats upon my arrival, and that seems to put the scare into the rest of them for a day or two. LOL.......my war with the ground squirrels might be why Mrs. Huntster doesn’t want to go anymore. The year she shot her first caribou, we were sitting on a knoll feeding the little rats out of our hands. As long as I don’t have a camp to defend, I think they’re cute. But when I have $1000 worth of tents, cots, and sleeping bags set up, it’s war...........