Field trips 2.0

[BC witness]

No, they're Plains Buffalo. We're going for meat animals, not tough old trophy bulls. Bison is superb eating, very lean, like deer or elk, and flavourful like Black Angus. It needs to be cooked like game meat, medium is perfect.

[norseman]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:24 AM, BC witness said:

No, they're Plains Buffalo. We're going for meat animals, not tough old trophy bulls. Bison is superb eating, very lean, like deer or elk, and flavourful like Black Angus. It needs to be cooked like game meat, medium is perfect.

I’ve had it! It reminds me a lot of our Scottish Highland meat we raise.

[RedHawk454]

in IA its like 100-145$ for a 1,200 pound bale.  We grow our own and it used to be we could make 600 bales a year but due to the cost of fertilizer and the trend of less rain we are down to 400-450 bales

Edited May 9, 2023 by RedHawk454

[BC witness]

@cmknight how are plans going for your trip to Ruby Creek? I just got the front brakes done on the H3, so I'm good to go again, and the weather is great!

[cmknight]

I think we're going to try and organize something for the 2nd weekend of June. We were going to go for June 3rd and 4th, but there is a Friends & Family Day at Seaspan, so I'm taking one of my old buddies from the Navy to see the first of the new Joint Support Ships we are building for the Navy. He was on the old HMCS Protecteur for a bit, so I want to show him around the "new and improved" Protecteur.

Edited May 13, 2023 by cmknight

[BC witness]

Thanks for the update. I might try to find your star gazing camp on the May long weekend and say Hi.

[BC witness]

We have sunny, unseasonably hot weather here in BC right now, so I took advantage and got out for some exploration today. Earlier in this thread there was mention of Ruby and Garnet creeks, which triggered me to head that way today. I had some honey-do chores this AM, so didn't get away till about 2, and the temp was up to 31 C (90 F), about 15 C higher than average for this time of year. I took lots of water and soft drinks, and had the AC turned up all the way out there, but had to turn it off on the steep logging road up Ruby Creek drainage, as the H3 overheated, and I had to pull over, open the hood, and turn on the heater to get it cooled down again. It didn't lose any coolant, but stayed on the high side all the rest of the trip, so I may need a new thermostat. The joys of driving a 17 year old 4x4 !

 

I checked out many of the off shoots of the main FSR, most of which ended in washouts or at giant powerline towers, as there are 3 major lines that cross these mountains parallel to each other. I only met 2 other trucks on these trails, one stopped for a picnic, and the other looking for a route to nearby Deer Lake, in Sasquatch Provincial Park. I had to tell that couple that although the lake is visible in the valley we were in, the route to the lake was cut off by a washed out bridge, and the only access was via Harrison Hot Springs, about 30 km back around the mountains on the highway. I came back out the valley on an alternate trail, rough and overgrown, but a fun descent through the old forest.

 

Once back on the highway, I went a few km further east, to the Garnet Creek FSR, which had been severely damaged back in 2021 in our November storms, which flooded a huge portion of Sumas Prairie and caused terrible damage to major highways, rail lines, and of course many logging roads. I arrived at the washout site to find that it had been "sort of" repaired, making it passable to 4x4s, but not logging traffic. My target was to climb the pass near the headwaters to cross over to American Creek, and return to the highway on the east side of Hope. I made it up to the pass at 800m (2600') to find a deep snow patch right at the summit, next to a lovely little alpine lake, so I had to turn around and retrace my path back to pavement. In this watershed I never saw another vehicle anywhere, and also failed to see any wildlife, or even signs of critters, No tracks, no droppings, nothing at all. I did take a few pictures to share, and a couple of very brief videos showing Garnet Creek in full freshet from snowmelt.

 

 

[cmknight]

14 hours ago, BC witness said:

Thanks for the update. I might try to find your star gazing camp on the May long weekend and say Hi.

If you have a Garmin or Gaia GPS on your phone, punch in the co-ordinates I gave on the 4WDABC FB page, and you should have no problems.

[norseman]

Beautiful night!

[BC witness]

@karo In hunting season, I carry a rifle (currently a Browning BLR 300 WSM) and a 20Ga bird gun. Off season, bear spray only. When I was prospecting, I had a S&W 44 mag in a shoulder rig at all times when in bear country, but that, and timber surveying, is the only situation where you can carry a handgun in Canada, other than LEOs and armoured car personnel.

[wiiawiwb]

Spent a few hours carefully browsing a creek looking for footprints. I followed it about a half mile as it was slow going but enjoyable. It's an area where I know of several sightings although none were mine. The fun is in the process not the results.

 

[BC witness]

I went out Saturday afternoon to check out the location of a decades old sighting right in my city. The location is a large regional park that encompasses a mountain that is bordered by farms on the west and south sides, some light industry on the east side, and the Fraser River on the north side. The park covers much of the crest of the mountain, and the entire mountain is about 10km e/w and 5km n/s. The park itself is heavily forested in mature second growth timber and has a network of old logging roads and more recent mountain bike trails.

 

The sighting story involves a small group of Cub Scouts who were on a camp out near a small lake on the mountain top. They were playing a game of hide and seek in the forest a few hundred meters from the campsite when they noticed that another being had joined in the game. They described the new player as a hair covered person about 5' tall, who would peek out from behind a stump or tree, then disappear, to show up again behind another bush or stump. This apparently went on for 15 minutes or so, before finally leaving the game for good.

 

The weather was cool and damp for my trip up there, after weeks of extremely hot and dry conditions, so visibility was limited near the summit by a combination of clouds and smoke from forest fires in the nearby mountains. There were only a few vehicles in the park, probably bike riders using the trails that lace the area, as seen in the map screenshot below. I spent several hours driving and walking the old roads, but found no tracks or other evidence, but did spot a nice healthy looking blacktail deer, a young buck with his antlers just emerging in velvet, about 4" long, shorter than his ears.

 

The orange line on the Gaia screenshot is my route, and the white dotted lines are the bike trails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cmknight]

STICKER!!! (LOL) My wife and I go up that mountain quite often. Jealous that you saw a deer. The only thing we've ever seen is the modern bearded sweaty on a bicycle. Which layers/maps are you using in Gaia GPS? Mine (paid subscription) only has the faint topo ones that don't show much of anything, especially zoomed in.

[BC witness]

cmk, I believe I have Backroad Mapbook and satellite view turned on, but I can't seem to find the menu where I did that right now. Senior's brain fart!

[cmknight]

No worries. I have those, too.