Field trips 2.0

[BC witness]

I hear you on the mud! Even in my H3, running in 4WD in the roads yesterday, that were rained on overnight, there were times when they felt very greasy. A couple of years ago, on a hunting trip with a buddy who brought his Honda Ruckus along to run the narrow trails, we both managed to flop it on successive days due to slick mud on top of the firmer road base.

[BC witness]

It was raining this morning, so I didn't head out till well after lunch, about 3 PM, when it had quit for a while. Because of the late start, and the high cost of gas right now, I stayed very local, hitting a short, steep logging road just 30 minutes from my door. Once off the main FSR onto my chosen branch, I saw only 2 other vehicles, one a ghost from the past (pics below), and the other a brand new Wrangler with a broken front drive shaft, while I was coming back down the road on my way out. The wrangler was driven by a young middle eastern couple, who didn't seem to have any mechanical knowledge, so I got my poor old body down on the trail to peer under, and saw that the rear section of the shaft was resting on the transmission crossmember, and the front section was too short to hit the ground, so I had him shift to 2 wheel drive and move a few feet. Nothing seemed to be in danger of causing further damage, so I told him it was OK to drive out in 2 wheel, but not to use 4 wheel. I followed him down to pavement, and he made it safely, and gave me a thank you wave as he headed home.

 

While up on the higher section of the trail, I was actually in the cloud layer, so visibility was very limited, never more than 100m, and sometimes down to 30m. In those conditions no critters were spotted, and I didn't even see any tracks or scat.

 

When I left home, my daughter had asked me to return by 6:30, and I just made in time, coming in to delicious smells and a lovely big sirloin tip roast waiting  for me to carve for my Fathers Day dinner. What a sweetheart!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cmknight]

My better half and I went for a hike today, from Eagle Mountain Drive to the Eagle Bluff Lookout, just above the south end of Buntzen Lake ... a four hour hike. I, too, had a nice Striploin steak on the barbie and a healthy glass of Crown Royal (neat, of course) waiting when we got home.

[norseman]

Elwood Pass Colorado - San Juan NF

[DrPSH]

Based on these reports and the associated pictures it sounds (and looks) like a good weekend was had!

[norseman]

[BC witness]

The rig is looking sweet, norseman, I'm glad you're finally getting to test it out.

 

I took a short run out to a local mountain yesterday afternoon that had been behind a locked gate for the last year. The logging operation is now finished, and the gate is open, so I had to check it out. It's a spot I posted about 2 years ago, with a hikers cabin near the peak and a great view over the central Fraser Valley. I was up there for 3 hours, and saw only 1 hiker coming down and 1 4x4 that arrived at the lookout about 20 minutes after I did. I saw 1 grouse, and several fresh bear scat piles on the drive up, so for the short hike to the cabin I strapped on my bear spray. Spring bear season ended on the 15th, so I wasn't carrying the 300 WSM. I sat at the table near the cabin for a sandwich, and a few pics of the view, then headed home for supper. It was the warmest day so far this year, 34 C, or about 86 F. The white peak on the horizon in the last photo is Mt. Baker, in Wa., reported to have the word's highest single years snowfall in 1999, 30m, or about 100'.

 

 

[wiiawiwb]

Beautiful areas Norse and BC.  I'd want to be there, in nature, as often as possible. Thanks for sharing.

[cmknight]

Wife and I also got out to the same area we were in a couple of weekends ago. This time we took a couple of local bigfooting friends along for the ride. We did manage to find a couple of promising prints, but they looked to me more like front and rear bear tracks joined together. They were about 10-12 inches long and tapered from about 6" wide at the "toes" to 3" at the "heel". It's a promising area and I definitely want to go back for a campout this summer. It will also be an excellent spot for my Skywatcher 8" telescope.

 

 

[BC witness]

Great area and great shots, cm. I love that area, but don't get out that way often, due to driving time from Abbotsford. I did manage 1 day trip in the spring, but the main FSR was snowed in at about 15km.

 

I agree with your assessment of the tracks, the heel width seems more like a bear track overlap. All the "classic" castings I've examined are only slightly narrower at the heel than the ball.

[entropy]

Greetings, everyone!  First-time poster here, but somewhat long-time lurker. 

 

I live in the Washington, DC area but recently had some personal business take me to NW Ohio.   I chose a stopover point near Salt Fork State Park, both because it made sense travel-wise and because it gave the opportunity to do some hiking in an area where there'd been Bigfoot activity both in the past and present.  I of course hiked around the "Bigfoot Ridge" area.  Actually, a really nice park employee pointed me to an unmarked trail (meaning, not on the official trail map) that was nonetheless blazed with red markings and which paralleled below the Bigfoot Ridge area.  It's located right behind the picnic area of the Stone House that's one of the sights to see within the park.  The same employee also showed me a pic of a tree structure she'd seen herself, and recounted how she sometimes heard whoops and whatnot in the evenings.  Anyway, it was a pretty cool trail that was somewhat overgrown and had some deadfall on it, but nothing too bad (it's no longer maintained, apparenty).  I can neither confirm nor deny whether I went off-trail to investigate some squatchy-looking hollers. 

 

While I didn't observe anything on that trail, earlier I had hiked the Morgan's Knob trail, where I saw an interesting track in the mud (first pic below).  A few things to note: 1) there was a squall that had some through in the morning the day before, so it was quite muddy, and I wonder if it could've affected the shape of an otherwise innocuous print or have been an artifact of the water flow itself; 2) the print was on the actual trail, on an incline; and 3) for size reference, the water bottle is 8", sorry it's at a slight angle, as I said, it was on an incline and was kinda hard to place something that'd stay still.  I think you can see some good detail of what looks like the heel area and some toe impressions as well.  This was from the first of my two trips to the park, in mid-May.   I'm interested in others' thoughts on it.  I didn't see an discernible prints near it...some indentations, sure, but nothing with detail.  To me, while it looked like a pretty good track, I did find it odd that it was basically in the trail itself, where a rivulet had probably flowed the say prior during the torrential rain.

 

The following four pics are from my second trip in mid-June.  For this trip, I drove on some of the gravel park roads, and there were pull-offs on these that led to "unmarked" trails.  On one of these, after hiking through the woods for a bit, I came to a large meadow with tall grass.  I hiked across it to the next wooded area, and shortly after entering, noticed a curious looking tree structure.  I took two pics, one close-up, and one further back to give a better sense of the surroundings (pics two and three, respectively).  Interestingly, near the possible tree structure (was it perhaps a marker?), I noticed what I thought was really a good, natural "hunting blind" that looked out over the meadow (pic four).  Right behind the "blind," there was also a well-flattened area where it looked like something had lain, but perhaps not very recently, as there was a small fallen branch in the middle of the "bedding" area (pic five).  I called it a "hunting blind," but it really could be used by prey too, I guess.  Anyway, I'm curious to know everyone's thoughts on these too.  Look forward to the feedback!

[norseman]

1 hour ago, entropy said:

Greetings, everyone!  First-time poster here, but somewhat long-time lurker. 

 

I live in the Washington, DC area but recently had some personal business take me to NW Ohio.   I chose a stopover point near Salt Fork State Park, both because it made sense travel-wise and because it gave the opportunity to do some hiking in an area where there'd been Bigfoot activity both in the past and present.  I of course hiked around the "Bigfoot Ridge" area.  Actually, a really nice park employee pointed me to an unmarked trail (meaning, not on the official trail map) that was nonetheless blazed with red markings and which paralleled below the Bigfoot Ridge area.  It's located right behind the picnic area of the Stone House that's one of the sights to see within the park.  The same employee also showed me a pic of a tree structure she'd seen herself, and recounted how she sometimes heard whoops and whatnot in the evenings.  Anyway, it was a pretty cool trail that was somewhat overgrown and had some deadfall on it, but nothing too bad (it's no longer maintained, apparenty).  I can neither confirm nor deny whether I went off-trail to investigate some squatchy-looking hollers. 

 

While I didn't observe anything on that trail, earlier I had hiked the Morgan's Knob trail, where I saw an interesting track in the mud (first pic below).  A few things to note: 1) there was a squall that had some through in the morning the day before, so it was quite muddy, and I wonder if it could've affected the shape of an otherwise innocuous print or have been an artifact of the water flow itself; 2) the print was on the actual trail, on an incline; and 3) for size reference, the water bottle is 8", sorry it's at a slight angle, as I said, it was on an incline and was kinda hard to place something that'd stay still.  I think you can see some good detail of what looks like the heel area and some toe impressions as well.  This was from the first of my two trips to the park, in mid-May.   I'm interested in others' thoughts on it.  I didn't see an discernible prints near it...some indentations, sure, but nothing with detail.  To me, while it looked like a pretty good track, I did find it odd that it was basically in the trail itself, where a rivulet had probably flowed the say prior during the torrential rain.

 

The following four pics are from my second trip in mid-June.  For this trip, I drove on some of the gravel park roads, and there were pull-offs on these that led to "unmarked" trails.  On one of these, after hiking through the woods for a bit, I came to a large meadow with tall grass.  I hiked across it to the next wooded area, and shortly after entering, noticed a curious looking tree structure.  I took two pics, one close-up, and one further back to give a better sense of the surroundings (pics two and three, respectively).  Interestingly, near the possible tree structure (was it perhaps a marker?), I noticed what I thought was really a good, natural "hunting blind" that looked out over the meadow (pic four).  Right behind the "blind," there was also a well-flattened area where it looked like something had lain, but perhaps not very recently, as there was a small fallen branch in the middle of the "bedding" area (pic five).  I called it a "hunting blind," but it really could be used by prey too, I guess.  Anyway, I'm curious to know everyone's thoughts on these too.  Look forward to the feedback!

Welcome to the forums!

[norseman]

Crossing the east fk of the San Juan river after a inch or so of rain!

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRJ7T7Wc/?k=1
 

 

[norseman]

Moab

[norseman]