Field trips 2.0

[cmknight]

On 11/2/2018 at 1:39 PM, NCBFr said:

 

Isn't there a program where you can return them?  I recall doing something like that in Jackson Wy when I found out I could not take it back on the plane with me.  However, 1 can was slightly used as it went off in our room when we were unloading/moving supplies around the room.  It is amazing how much power just a quick quirt of that stuff can do.  It was open all windows and evacuate as fast as possible to the bar for a few hours.

 

Don't cans of pepper spray have a safety clip that has to be removed before use? I know mine does.

[NCBFr]

I recall they do.  Evidently it failed probably due to user error.  I do recall feeling very embarrassed at the time as my family and I had to evacuate to the Mangy Moose while it cleared.

 

[MindSquatch]

Here's a place I'm going to backpack to next summer in the Carson Iceburg Wilderness. It's called Soda Cone and is located in the Eastern Sierra's, west of the town of Coleville. Not too many people visit this part of the Sierra's which adds to the wildness of it. Here's a link to a video of the area.

 

 https://youtu.be/y8nnQ41FC7E

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by MindSquatch

[Guest John Cartwright]

Great pictures and information in this thread. Thank you for the good read.

[Guest prob2236]

Do you ever use drones to survey an area before going in?

[gigantor]

3 hours ago, prob2236 said:

Do you ever use drones to survey an area before going in?

 

Several members have drones and have tried them; unfortunately, they are impractical unless equipped with FLIR. because the camera cannot penetrate the tree canopy.

 

[wiiawiwb]

I was out a week ago trying to find prints.

 

 

[hiflier]

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 5:07 PM, NCBFr said:

I recall they do.  Evidently it failed probably due to user error.  I do recall feeling very embarrassed at the time as my family and I had to evacuate to the Mangy Moose while it cleared.

 

 

LOL. Went to that place on my trip out West last year.. An old Connecticut friend of mine told me he got punched in the nose there sometime back in the late 60's when he was living in the Laramie area. He could be a wise guy after a few beers and so it was probably deserved  

Edited November 20, 2018 by hiflier

[SWWASAS]

9 hours ago, prob2236 said:

Do you ever use drones to survey an area before going in?

I am a pilot and have used an aircraft to survey areas.    The best value in that is that you get a good mental image of the area and what it really is like before hitting it boots on the ground.       At one point I figured that I could do aerial survey work and actually spot a BF.     But I think I have flown about 20 missions looking and only on one did I think I had a sighting.    Something large , brown, and bipedal  went around the back side of some trees as I flew by very low.  I could not have differentiated between a BF and somebody poaching deer wearing camo.     I circled and could not see what it was.   I gave up on it because the tree canopies are so dense in this area that you really have to see something completely in the open to have a chance to see it.   And you have to fly dangerously low to even tell what it is.    FLIR and night would be good but I would consider that near suicidal in the mountains in an aircraft at night.    Someone using drones could do it but they need to have deep pockets because they will lose them often hitting trees.    

[Kiwakwe]

I’m just back from 2 months or so out West.  A month of that spent on Cedar Mesa in SE Utah, wandering down rarely traveled side canyons and up over mesas. It’s not exactly prime Sasquatch habitat but it was a trip afield and my eyes were always out for the anomalous. I saw no signs of our big footed quarry, not surprisingly, nor much sign of less cryptid critters, no rattlers, no cougar tracks, though I did see bobcat and coyote prints, and heard the latter sometimes at night. Bighorn sheep were seen a few times down those seldom visited canyons and Pronghorn and Mule deer up top but pleasantly, no indication of human presence. None of the ubiquitous bud lite cans and no trails, not even footprints, just wilderness **** near the way it was a thousand years ago.

 

On setting out from coastal Maine, my intention was to camp somewhere each night along the way as travelers used to—finding a spot that looked good where one wouldn’t be harassed or attacked by marauding bands of any sort of law, out or otherwise and that was not atop asphalt or concrete. I knew this would be easier once I crossed the Mississippi but I didn't suspect Iowa and Nebraska would be so difficult to hide in. it sure is along the I-80 corridor.  With the exception of being awoken one morning by tribal police down a heavily rutted and water-holed two-track just South of Lake Erie on the border of the Cattaraugus reservation (They were concerned I was dumping tires or some such.) and the asphalt that 2 of my tires were parked on outside of Moab, Ut, I managed that for 45 nights or so. It was a trip filled with amazing vistas and long eye stretches not to be had in the thickly forested geography of home. Many nights spent perched along canyon rims looking 1000’ down to the wash or river below and not another soul incarnate for miles around, just the ghosts of the ancestors and the mute yet intelligent silence of stone. Segments of that stone had interesting glyphs pecked into it, somewhat representative of a familiar figure.

 

 At the end of my journey, after a sojourn in SLC, UT and along with a fellow conspirator  we made the trip out to Skinwalker Ranch, a place I’d heard of but not really known much about. After a wee bit of research we decided to check it out. It is still gated and surveilled by cameras with large no trespassing signs at the entrance to the property. It is also guarded by savage skinwalkers in the form of Owls ( we watched a Great Horned for 10 minutes as it hunted the pasture from telephone pole tops) and dogs, one of which attacked the front tire of the vehicle we were in then assumed such a friendly demeanor so as to lure us out of the car and most assuredly claw our hearts out. We weren’t fooled, though later that night we did return to feed him a blueberry muffin:)  Skinwalker ridge, above the ranch was our chosen vantage point and is probably accessible had we been in the Rover but we weren’t at the time so we settled for walking across the sagebrush pasture to the South under cover of darkness. After covering maybe a third of the way, my companion began feeling a sense of dread over not what was ahead but what was behind and suggested we leave. I know to trust that intuition and put up no resistance, so back we headed through the scrub and over the barbed wire into town and a somewhat less dangerous  venue--Taco Time for fried empenadas…And that’s about all folks.

[gigantor]

4 hours ago, Kiwakwe said:

I’m just back from 2 months or so out West. 

 

I'm green with envy. What year is that Land Rover?

 

Just beautiful, thanks for sharing those pics!

[Pdub]

Excellent adventure and nice photos. Beautiful country, nothing better than having large chunks of people fee wilderness. 

[hiflier]

It is amazing country out that way if one has never had the chance to be there. Welcome home Kiwakwe  

[PBeaton]

Kiwakwe,

 

Beautiful shots of some mighty purdy country. Thanks for sharin' the adventure.

Pat...

[Arvedis]

 

7 hours ago, Kiwakwe said:

At the end of my journey, after a sojourn in SLC, UT and along with a fellow conspirator  we made the trip out to Skinwalker Ranch, a place I’d heard of but not really known much about. After a wee bit of research we decided to check it out. It is still gated and surveilled by cameras with large no trespassing signs at the entrance to the property. It is also guarded by savage skinwalkers in the form of Owls ( we watched a Great Horned for 10 minutes as it hunted the pasture from telephone pole tops) and dogs, one of which attacked the front tire of the vehicle we were in then assumed such a friendly demeanor so as to lure us out of the car and most assuredly claw our hearts out. We weren’t fooled, though later that night we did return to feed him a blueberry muffin:)  Skinwalker ridge, above the ranch was our chosen vantage point and is probably accessible had we been in the Rover but we weren’t at the time so we settled for walking across the sagebrush pasture to the South under cover of darkness. After covering maybe a third of the way, my companion began feeling a sense of dread over not what was ahead but what was behind and suggested we leave. I know to trust that intuition and put up no resistance, so back we headed through the scrub and over the barbed wire into town and a somewhat less dangerous  venue--Taco Time for fried empenadas…And that’s about all folks.

 

 

That takes serious guts to go near that place.  You should probably sit in a sweat lodge for a few days now and douse your surroundings with sage. 

 

 

13 hours ago, gigantor said:

 

Several members have drones and have tried them; unfortunately, they are impractical unless equipped with FLIR. because the camera cannot penetrate the tree canopy.

 

 

Has this video ever been discussed don the forum? Nothing can be verified of course but check out the speck at around 0.33 in crossing those dirt tracks.  It is moving very fast and you can see it casts quite a shadow.  Apparently the drone operator saw it too and spent considerable time trying to wait it out and get a better view to no avail.