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Spending Time In The Gifford Pinchot National Forest


BigTreeWalker

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I want to share some of the pictures I took while hunting in the area in September. Anyone with some pictures taken in this area are welcome to share here too.

We've been archery hunting in this area for 10 years now. It's near the Wright Meadow area off forest road 9300.

Heading into camp.

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Mt Adams

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Mt Hood

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Home sweet home for a couple weeks.

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BFF Patron

Yes nice pictures indeed.

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Thanks Dave. I've heard that the mountain was steaming or out-gasing recently. Don't know if that was the case. It did look like fire when the sun set behind it.

When I first got up there it was still warm but as the week progressed it cooled off and rained. You can see the difference on Mt Adams.

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Our camp is almost equidistant from St Helens and Adams. Both Mt Rainier and Mt Hood are to the north and south about forty miles each way. We can't see Rainier because the Dark Divide is in the way to the north of us. A couple more of Hood and St Helens.

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Not all the springs dried up this year. Although they are lower and fewer than in years past.

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Edited by BigTreeWalker
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This was an elk hunting trip but I always keep in mind that it is also prime BF habitat. I set up two camera traps on a couple openings leading into camp. They were about 40 yards back in the woods and facing toward camp. In hopes that something would not see them as they went by trying to observe our camp. The first one is a white flash cam which definitely gives itself away when triggered. This cam got a few pictures of deer and a few that I don't know what triggered it. One night it went off after dark. We were sitting around talking and my friend says, what was that. I told him something triggered the cam. Don't know what it was. As I said there were a few with nothing in them.

Front

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Back

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This is a stealth cam. It took a couple vids of deer then switched to stills for a couple more deer pics. Then after about four days it quit working. Don't know what the problem was there.

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This is my omni-directional recorder housing I made to protect it from the rain. Jury is still out on how effective it is. I'm still wading through about 80 hours of recordings.

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These are a couple of camera traps I set up down in the old growth behind camp.

I got a couple bears on this one and a couple deer. It's in the center of the picture.

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A little closer.

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From the back. I think it's on that larger tree just to the left of center.

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This is my Plotwatcher Pro. It's under a square of camo cloth. This was a good spot on a trail leading down to the creek. But out of two weeks there was only one day with anything on it. Everything must have been going through there at night. The funny thing is, that one day had us at 7am. Then a 4 or 5 point bull elk a half hour later. Then 2 hours later a bear walked by. After reviewing the footage my hunting partner says, you got to be kidding me! Lol!

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Right now I don't have access to those photos. Maybe later.

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BFF Patron

Nice pictures.    Definitely somewhere BF would like to hang out.      I can just see them start to see your campfires at night and then they come in to watch and see what you are up to.    They don't have cable TV so humans in the woods are probably their best entertainment.   Too bad the elk were not around.     Makes one wonder if elk are not there because BF are?  

Edited by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
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Thanks SWWSP. Oh the elk were around. As I mentioned in one of the other threads, they change their behavior accordingly when there are hunters in the woods. I was able to find them or call in a bull about every other day. But just couldn't get any shots. That's the nature of bow hunting. I limit myself to about 40 yards which is close, although I often get closer. But due to variables of wind and vegetation or even a truck driving down a nearby road, good shots seldom present themselves. But it's the challenge that I enjoy.

We did have some odd noises around camp at times during the night. Hope I got some on recording. The silence in the area was almost deafening at times. There was one other camp about a mile away from us and I heard about some others a couple miles or more away. Definitely dispersed camping.

That big cedar in the last picture above showed signs of big cats. I think they like to climb them during the day to sleep. The bark is fairly soft on those cedars and it's probably easy on the paws. I found a couple other cedars in the area they were using too. Kinda makes a person nervous when you know something could be up there watching you.

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A timber tiger keeping an eye on me. ;)

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