Field trips 2.0

[Madison5716]

17 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

21 hours ago, BC witness said:

The only tracks I saw in the snow were human and canid.

 

Glad to hear you were thankfully able to extract yourself. Wow, what an adventure. Things can go from fun to crisis in the snap of a finger. y, Having a satellite-messaging system made the difference otherwise it would have been a very long night.

 

21 hours ago, PNWexplorer said:

He also was taken to the ER Saturday due to fever and infection, then taken to Kootenai Medical Center in Couer D' Alene, ID later that morning.  Drove up there Sunday and he had an MRI done.  They now think he had another stroke that started all of this latest mess.

 

Best wishes for your dad.

 

Ditto to both of these comments! Glad you are safe and sound, BC. That sounds super scary. And PNW, hope your Dad improves. 

[Nipissing]

So glad you had such sterling help on tap from the 4x4 Rescue forum! It must have been such a relief when he showed up.

[entropy]

So, last summer I had some personal business in NW Ohio and used Cambridge, OH as a stopover point, which is the closest town to Salt Fork State Park.  I summarized my field trip findings and posted some interesting pics in a prior post linked here:  Salt Fork Summer '22 Trip Summary .

 

I made the same trip a few weeks ago in mid-January.  Originally was going to do an dusk/evening hike but arrived later than expected and it was pitch black, freezing, and wet.  I geared up appropriately and put on a headlamp, but decided the better part of valor was discretion and just tooled around a bit at the beginning of the Morgan's Knob Trail (the pine forest part, if anyone's been to it before).  I then left the trail and drove off the beaten path on some of the gravel roads in the park to see if I might get lucky with a sighting, but no dice.  Absolutely beautiful stargazing, though.

 

The next day in the late morning I made it out for some hiking.  I went to check out the area where I'd seen what I suspected was a tree structure on my prior trip and was pleased to see it was still there, unchanged (pics 2 and 3 below).  More interesting than that, though, was the trio of pushed-over trees I noticed on my hike out to the tree structure (pic 1 below).  They looked a bit odd b/c no other trees around them were pushed over or had fallen over, and it seemed the three were intentionally pushed over in the same direction.  Not sure it's significant, but it did look interesting, and I'm curious to know what others think.

 

Anyway, after my hike, I did a few more short walks, and then drove in a loop on some of the gravel roads in the park.  Came upon a pickup truck with some bigfoot stickers on it, and stopped to have a nice chat with a fellow 'squatcher named Wayne who had driven down from PA.  I gave him some tips on the known hotspots in the park, and we showed each other photos of tree structures we both had come across.  His was from North Georgia and wasn't too different in appearance (kind of an asterisk shape) in the one I'd found at Salt Fork.  I'd heard on a recent Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio podcast that the asterisk-shaped structures supposedly commemorate a birth.

 

 

 

[BC witness]

Nice adventuring in a hot spot. It's always interesting to meet and talk with fellow squatchers. 

 

The intertwining in pics 1 & 2 is intriguing. Pic 1 is something I see frequently in similarly treed areas here in BC, and I attribute it to a combination of wind and snow load taking out the poorly rooted specimens.

[langfordbc]

On 1/31/2023 at 9:03 AM, BC witness said:

You're right cmknight, that is something one of the officers mentioned when we spoke that evening. The encounter wasn't confrontational, just them doing their job, checking a parked, running vehicle late at night. I was out of the truck, with my flashlight in hand when they pulled up.

 

I'm very glad I had the equipment and comms that I needed, as it would have been a long, cold trek to the point where cell service became available, and I still would have needed to round up help to extract the truck the next day.

 

Glad you made it out. Sounds like you were pretty well prepared - I'm sure the 4x4 club rescue guys much prefer helping guys who've at least made an effort to help themselves first.

 

I now have a Garmin Inreach when I go for longer trips. I had to walk 20 miles out through prime grizzly country several years ago, starting at about 800pm. We finally made it to a road that somebody might be on at 300am (still probably 10 miles from the tiny end-of-the-road town of Wells, BC). Lit a fire and had a half hour nap before somebody amazingly came by and drove us in. I might have put 20 miles on but my lab (in the pic) probably covered 60!

[Madison5716]

Nice pix and exploring,  @entropy! Very pretty asterisk/structure!

[Madison5716]

On 2/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, langfordbc said:

had to walk 20 miles out through prime grizzly country several years ago, starting at about 800pm. We finally made it to a road that somebody might be on at 300am (

 

@langfordbc, may I ask, why didn't you sleep in your truck? 

[norseman]

On 2/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, langfordbc said:

 

Glad you made it out. Sounds like you were pretty well prepared - I'm sure the 4x4 club rescue guys much prefer helping guys who've at least made an effort to help themselves first.

 

I now have a Garmin Inreach when I go for longer trips. I had to walk 20 miles out through prime grizzly country several years ago, starting at about 800pm. We finally made it to a road that somebody might be on at 300am (still probably 10 miles from the tiny end-of-the-road town of Wells, BC). Lit a fire and had a half hour nap before somebody amazingly came by and drove us in. I might have put 20 miles on but my lab (in the pic) probably covered 60!

https://lectricebikes.com/products/xp-lite-sandstorm?g_network=x&g_productchannel=online&g_adid=&g_locinterest=&g_keyword=&g_campaign=account&g_acctid=790-567-9445&g_keywordid=&g_adtype=pla&g_ifcreative=&g_locphysical=9033761&g_adgroupid=&g_productid=6710824599630&g_source={sourceid}&g_merchantid=129756959&g_placement=&g_partition=&g_campaignid=15765885828&g_ifproduct=product&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzumYoff__AIVfA-tBh1TIQqwEAQYASABEgLvP_D_BwE

[langfordbc]

3 hours ago, Madison5716 said:

 

@langfordbc, may I ask, why didn't you sleep in your truck? 

The weather was good, with lots of daylight - it was late May and about 400 miles due north of the 49th parallel.

 

It was reasonably likely that nobody would be on that road for a week or more.

 

I always have a gun in the bush - a Remington 870 12 gauge that time. 
 

I had a week old baby at home and didn’t want my wife to worry and call the RCMP/SAR. I knew I was capable of getting out without burdening those resources.

 

But also because, even though I had a mapbook and knew roughly where I was, I grossly underestimated the distance!

 

The only real bad part was the work boots I was wearing had a hard insole. The soles of my feet were so sore I could barely walk for a couple of days after.

Edited February 6, 2023 by langfordbc

[langfordbc]

@norseman Yeah, that would have been awesome. I’ve definitely been considering one but I’ve been reluctant as I don’t want to give myself easier options than riding my horse. I’ve only had her for a year and a half and I’m not yet an “experienced” rider, but to me they are ultimate quiet mode of transportation.

 

15 HH mares don’t fit in the bed of a truck very easily however, lol.

[norseman]

30 minutes ago, langfordbc said:

@norseman Yeah, that would have been awesome. I’ve definitely been considering one but I’ve been reluctant as I don’t want to give myself easier options than riding my horse. I’ve only had her for a year and a half and I’m not yet an “experienced” rider, but to me they are ultimate quiet mode of transportation.

 

15 HH mares don’t fit in the bed of a truck very easily however, lol.

I hear you. I sold my mules two years ago. It was traumatic. I’ve been riding since I was a kid. My daughters still have 2 horses on the ranch.
 

But that ebike doesn’t paw the ground or girdle a tree when I park it. Doesn’t need hay or water either. It’s pretty easy. Battery up…..gravity down.

[PNWexplorer]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:56 PM, entropy said:

So, last summer I had some personal business in NW Ohio and used Cambridge, OH as a stopover point, which is the closest town to Salt Fork State Park.  I summarized my field trip findings and posted some interesting pics in a prior post linked here:  Salt Fork Summer '22 Trip Summary .

 

 

My daughter and son-in-law are planning on moving to the Columbus, OH area later this year.  He is getting out of the Air Force and looking to work in Cyber Security for a defense contractor.  

 

I've never been to Ohio, but will be making a trip out to visit in the near future.

[PNWexplorer]

On 1/31/2023 at 11:07 PM, Madison5716 said:

And PNW, hope your Dad improves. 

Thank you!  Meeting with the therapy folks this week to get a plan together.  He's made me the Executor of his estate, which will be daunting. 

 

He's somewhat of a celebrity in the big-game hunting world and rubbed shoulders with legends.  We talked earlier today about plans for his Jack O'Connor shotgun and rifle and whether to donate them to a museum or keep them in the family.  

  Ironically, he's hunted on nearly every continent, flown bush planes over millions of acres of wilderness, hunted Brown bears in Siberia, spent years in the Idaho/Montana/Alaska bush, and insists that Bigfoot doesn't exist.  He's never seen one or experienced one.

 

Then I drive a propane truck to the Idaho/Montana border in a blizzard and have an encounter that convinced me they exist.  Strange world.

[wiiawiwb]

1 hour ago, PNWexplorer said:

My daughter and son-in-law are planning on moving to the Columbus, OH area later this year.  He is getting out of the Air Force and looking to work in Cyber Security for a defense contractor.  

 

I've never been to Ohio, but will be making a trip out to visit in the near future.

 

A lot of sighting reports have come out of Ohio. Hopefully, you can get out in the woods while you're out visiting.

[Catmandoo]

17 hours ago, langfordbc said:

they are ultimate quiet mode of transportation.

 

Sasquatch  have approved horses for human transportation for many decades. All animals watch horses.

An ebike will not alert you to danger.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Catmandoo
text