PNWexplorer Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 Nice! Going on a UTV ride tomorrow to the Moscow Mountain sighting spot with my girlfriend. How are the woods? Crazy full?
norseman Posted September 7, 2020 Admin Posted September 7, 2020 6 minutes ago, PNWexplorer said: Nice! Going on a UTV ride tomorrow to the Moscow Mountain sighting spot with my girlfriend. How are the woods? Crazy full? We came from Jackson hole (crazy busy), not expecting a camp spot. Wasn’t bad. Park had a fire and we couldn’t go north.
BC witness Posted September 7, 2020 Author Posted September 7, 2020 I got tired of scratching up my '18 Outlander PHEV on the trails, and having to stop due to slightly too deep trenches and washouts, so I sprung for a used '06 Hummer H3, with all the off road goodies, rear locker, 4.56 gears, 4:1 TC, and 33" tires. I bought it Wed., and my daughter and I took it for our first trail run, to the valley where I had my sighting and track find decades ago. It was a nice day, some cloud, some sun, and temps just below 20C. Once inside the locked access gate, we only met 1 other family, in 2 4x4s, who also had the gate code. We saw very little wildlife, other than squirrels, chipmunks, and birds, and no tracks or scat from big game. I am very impressed with the abilities of this mid size 4x4. It handled everything we met with relative ease, and the low range TC was phenomenal on the very steepest logging road in the valley. Here's a few poser shots of the truck and the scenery: 3
wiiawiwb Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 Nice wheels BC! Beautiful country too. How did the H3 perform on the rocks?
cmknight Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 Have you ever stayed overnight up there, BC?
PNWexplorer Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 I rented an H3 once and really liked it; great size for woods exploring and surprisingly capable. Just could't get past the reliability issues. No woods exploring today. It's windy and supposed to get gusts up to 45 mph. You don't want to be in the heavy woods in high winds due to widow-makers.
BC witness Posted September 7, 2020 Author Posted September 7, 2020 @wiiawiwb, with the tires aired down to 20 psi, it ate the rocks up with no problems at all. The only damage I did was a bend in the bottom of the rear license plate when pulling out of the steepest, deepest of the trenches. @cmknight, yes I've spent a few nights up that valley, most recently with my buddy Jason (alohacop) last April. The first night he was there, a cougar visited, just 40' from camp. I didn't get there till the following morning, when he showed me the tracks, and the video he shot of the encounter. We both slept the second night with loaded guns very close at hand! @PNWexplorer, we're getting those same strong outflow winds here today, and I hear you on the widowmakers, I've had them come down on a trail very close to my truck before.
JKH Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 2 hours ago, PNWexplorer said: No woods exploring today. It's windy and supposed to get gusts up to 45 mph. You don't want to be in the heavy woods in high winds due to widow-makers. Same here, we just had a good sized alder go down in my mini-forest. Just stopping by to say love all the field images. Posting a couple from an overnight with family on the north side of Olympics. I recorded some kind of weird vocal which I may post after I ponder it more. Third image is a not clear snow print with toes from Mt. Rainier, taken by a family member on a day hike. There were at least a couple prints, but man sized. Just a head scratcher. 2
cmknight Posted September 8, 2020 Posted September 8, 2020 10 hours ago, BC witness said: , yes I've spent a few nights up that valley, most recently with my buddy Jason (alohacop) last April. The first night he was there, a cougar visited, just 40' from camp. I didn't get there till the following morning, when he showed me the tracks, and the video he shot of the encounter. We both slept the second night with loaded guns very close at hand! I'll be going up there next Friday with the better half, for a night.
Popular Post Explorer Posted September 9, 2020 Popular Post Posted September 9, 2020 I went backpacking into Emigrant Wilderness over labor day weekend. I read an old report of a daylight BF sighting on the southern end of the Relief Reservoir and wanted to explore that area. Went in at Kennedy Meadows trail-head and climbed up to Upper Relief Valley. Distance was about 9.6 miles and climb about 3,600 ft. Took me 2 days to climb. Unfortunately, the Creek Fire (NE of Fresno) dumped ash and soot on the whole area on Saturday afternoon and I decided to bail out on Sunday (instead of Monday). At 5 pm on Saturday, I could not see the sun and it was a dark as night. But the worst part was that my mesh tent and everything inside was covered with black soot and I was breathing that bad air. I was disappointed with this trip because: 1) Both lower and upper relief valley had cattle grazing (Don't like cows in wilderness areas because they change the wilderness and make non-local sounds). At least the cows did not have bells, like they have in other wilderness areas that I have been to! 2) Kennedy Meadows during labor day weekend is a ghetto - too many people crowded together (though not many people were climbing 3,600 ft to see Upper Relief Valley) I heard a bear at midnight and at 2 am on Sunday, but my Tascam DR-05 died on Friday (day 1). It was probably far away from my location because the granite walls of that area carry sound very well. My FLIR only captured rabbits, squirrels, and cows. Below are some photos of that beautiful area. Probably best to visit on a non-holiday weekend. There were lots of horse back riding into that area via that trail. So I took a photo of a group of horseback riding on the 2nd bridge from KM. 1 2 6
BC witness Posted September 10, 2020 Author Posted September 10, 2020 Great pictures of wild looking country, and a lot more open than I'm used to. Everything within 300km in any direction from me is heavily forested. The drier, more open areas like that are a 4 hr drive NE of me.
OldMort Posted September 10, 2020 Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the trip report Explorer! Yes, the smoke conditions can always diminish what would otherwise have been a fine outing. It seems like smoke all summer long is the new normal here in California. Such is the price we pay for not raking our leaves. I did a few trips out of Kennedy Meadows back in the 70's and 80's. and I can't say that I was ever that impressed with the area in general. Even in those days it was overcrowded and over run with cattle and horse packers and their refuse. It is pretty enough but something is lacking. I don't know what exactly. Perhaps it is just that it has that overused look and feel to it, a lack of true wildness. Just my opinion. We would usually hike in to Kennedy Lake which is east of where you were at Relief Reservoir, pleasant enough but with the same issues. The "Sierra Sounds" were recorded in the Kennedy Meadows area back in the early 70's so who knows? Not that many trailed destinations there really, so possibly they could have been recorded in the vicinity of either one of those lakes. There are still reports out of Pinecrest, Strawberry, and Twain Harte every year, but I suspect (actually know) that some of these are manufactured by store owners struggling to survive in those tiny summer resorts. The rest- anything's possible. Edited September 10, 2020 by OldMort
Patterson-Gimlin Posted September 10, 2020 Posted September 10, 2020 Thank you for sharing. Great scenery.
wiiawiwb Posted September 19, 2020 Posted September 19, 2020 (edited) Did an overnight backpack into one of my favorite general areas. There are lots of ponds and we passed several along the way. Went farther into the inner ponds than ever before, so it was new territory for me. The trek in was slow going until we hit a cedar swamp which became impassable, try as we might. Went about halfway along the right edge of the cedar swamp and the sun was getting low so backtracked and set up camp near a small beaver pond. It got bitterly cold last night. No tracks found nor sasquatch sounds but the sky above was twinkling with more stars than I thought possible and barred owls were hooting and screeching all night long. Going to make it a point to go back there and get to the destination pond. We'll be sure to steer clear of the cedar swamps near our target pond. Edited October 4, 2020 by wiiawiwb 4
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