Field trips 2.0

[norseman]

18 minutes ago, PNWexplorer said:

I like the .45-70 govt shell for track size comparison!

 

That area looks about as "Squatchy" as it gets.

I love .45-70! Thx!

 

Its thicker than the area around Mt. Rainer. It befuddles the mind. We listened to the rage of the Pacific Ocean all last night. Sounded like a jet engine and we were a couple miles away glassing clear cuts. The beaches were packed.

[Incorrigible1]

[norseman]

Sexy beasts!

[Incorrigible1]

A lifelong Nebraska plainsman, I've never quite found the necessity for a bear or moose rifle. Sadly, bison were eliminated three or four generations ago. I've long cast a desirous look upon a .45-70, I never quite convinced myself.

I do cherish my early 90s Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. For me, a do anything rifle, especially as I'm in the east of my state, and typical ranges rarely exceed 150 yards. And with its magazine capacity and ballistic performance, a stealthy "social" rifle, if must needs be.

[Incorrigible1]

Dinotopia, A Land Apart from Time: Hunting a T. rex

Artwork by James Gurney

When James Gurney's Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time first appeared in 1992, it was immediately hailed as a fully imagined world of the caliber of J. R. R. Tolkien's. Gurney's premise — of an undiscovered island where a race of mystical humans co-exists in harmony with intelligent dinosaurs — has been since reiterated over and over in numerous films and by scores of other writers. Now, Calla Editions brings Gurney's spectacular artistry to a new generation in this 20th anniversary edition. Digitally re-rendered from the original transparencies, Gurney's dramatic panoramas of Dinotopia and close-up character studies of its inhabitants — both human and saurian — take on new vitality. And as a tale of high adventure and discovery told as entries and sketches in journal form, Dinotopia presents a shipwrecked visitor's glimpse into an imagined social order, a culture, and even a cooperative interspecies technology that will satisfy lovers of fantasy and science fiction of all persuasions. This edition includes a new Afterword written by author James Gurney as well as a special section of behind-the-scenes studies and maquettes he used in developing his paintings.

 

 

[wiiawiwb]

I would love a .45/70 in a breakdown format. It would pack more nicely in a backpack. WWG makes a very nice one. A buddy of mine just dropped a large chunk of change on a CZ Checkmate Parrot race gun. Absolutely gorgeous (that's a matter of opinion), a real shooter, and turns heads. Everyone at the range wanted to know what it is. He was proud as a "peacock" shooting it.

 

As phenomenal as the Parrot race gun is, for twice the money you can get a Razorcat race gun designed for JJ Racaza.

 

https://www.limcat.com/razorcat

 

https://www.wildwestguns.com/custom-guns/ak-co-pilot/

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[wiiawiwb]

Just got back from a bushwhack. I went to check on, then relocate, one of my trailcams. It had a few videos, one of a deer that walked right up to it, but nothing on two feet. 

 

I decided to move it further into the forest and the footing was difficult. Tall grass, ferns, and uneven ground made it impossible to see where you were stepping so it was slow going.  I was able to find two game trails which were in/along a small creek that is now dried up.  I put the trailcam near where the two meet. We'll see what happens.

 

This is in Timber Rattler territory so I decided to wear my snake chaps over my snake gaiters.  They both weigh nothing and are not clumsy at all. It was a breath of fresh air to not even think nor care where I stepped. I was protected to my hips. Bring 'em on!

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[gigantor]

18 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

This is in Timber Rattler territory

 

I hate snakes.

 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

19 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

Just got back from a bushwhack. I went to check on, then relocate, one of my trailcams. It had a few videos, one of a deer that walked right up to it, but nothing on two feet. 

 

I decided to move it further into the forest and the footing was difficult. Tall grass, ferns, and uneven ground made it impossible to see where you were stepping so it was slow going.  I was able to find two game trails which were in/along a small creek that is now dried up.  I put the trailcam near where the two meet. We'll see what happens.

 

This is in Timber Rattler territory so I decided to wear my snake chaps over my snake gaiters.  They both weigh nothing and are not clumsy at all. It was a breath of fresh air to not even think nor care where I stepped. I was protected to my hips. Bring 'em on!

 

 

 

Double snake protection!!!

 

We tried to revisit an area in north Georgia where we have found a few pretty good prints.  There are some old logging or forestry roads that are no longer maintained and are being reclaimed by the forest.  They are no longer usable by vehicle, but are flatter and usually somewhat clearer than the surrounding forest, so deer and whatever made the prints that we found seem to use it as a corridor for travel.  
 

It seems that we have had a dryer summer than usual, but the roads were so overgrown it was insane.  The plants were past my head on most spots.  There were a couple of game trails going through it, but visibility was nil.  We were worried about snakes and even more so about ticks.  Going in a few dozen yards left us covered.  

Edited August 16, 2021 by BlackRockBigfoot

[wiiawiwb]

That sounds like a promising area with the deer coming and going. Probably very few people ever go there  which works in your favor.

 

It's funny how I have yet to see on a tick on me this year. Plenty of tick bites over the years but so far so good. Stay safe!

[BC witness]

I had a good "Sasquatch Day" today, starting with a breakfast with 4 local researchers and wives in a restaurant for the first time in over a year, followed with an afternoon sortie into the mountains to check out a couple of lakes N.E. of Mission, BC.

 

I arrived at the first lake about 3:30, after parking on the logging road and making a short, steep, muddy hike down a rough trail to the shore. I found lots of tracks on the soft mud of the beach, but all of them were human and dog, nothing at all that hinted of Sasquatch. I returned to the 4x4, and continued deeper into the mountains, on a much rougher stretch of disused logging road, with speed reduced to 10km/hr. due to deep potholes, lots of rocks, and a rather sketchy looking old bridge, but did not reach the second lake target, as it was getting too late for me to make it the rest of the way there, and still get home by the time I had promised my invalid wife. That one will wait for another time, when I can devote a whole day to the task.

 

It was great to be able to have an indoor social gathering for the first time in ages, and as always, refreshing to body and mind to get out in woods for a while.

 

 

[wiiawiwb]

I think it would be quite something to go sasquatching in BC, Alaska, Washington, or Oregon.  All beautiful areas that are remote and teeming with wildlife. Glad to hear you got out and enjoyed. Maybe next time those human and dog prints will be sasquatch prints. Thanks for allowing us into your world.

[Madison5716]

@BC witness Absolutely gorgeous area! Sounds like a whole lot of fun. 

 

@wiiawiwb, you ever get out this way and we'll take you out for sure!

[JustCurious]

I don't think I'd have braved that bridge! 

[MIB]

This past weekend my "brother from another mother" Bill and I did our annual backpacking trip.     Usually we go into a particular basin and do bigfooting things.    This year that whole area was smoked out by wildfires upwind so we stirred things up a bit.   We hiked into Blue Canyon Basin in the Sky Lakes Wilderness.     It is a broad, shallow glacial cirque in the head of the South Fork of Rogue River in the Cascade Range between Crater Lake to the north and Mt McLoughlin in the south.  

 

There was fairly heavy haze as we left town but it got better as we neared Blue Canyon trailhead.    The trailhead is on top of a ridge.   From the TH the trail drops steadily but gradually to valley floor passing one lake on the canyon wall and meeting at several at the canyon bottom.   To that point the trail is heavily traveled but gets less traffic depending on which direction you choose.    We headed east past some lakes under the back rim of the cirque.  

 

We passed the turnoff to Blue Canyon Lake which hangs high on the back wall of the cirque.   (We came back to this trail and used it getting out of the basin .. more of that later.)    On the way in we passed Horseshoe and Pear Lakes, climbed a low ridge, and dropped past Dee Lake to Island Lake.    My intent was to camp at Dee Lake but we missed it ... out of sight of the trail.    Though I had never been there I recognized Island Lake when we arrived.

 

We set up camp at Island Lake, filtered some water, ate dinner, and went to bed not long after dark.    Sometime not much later the wind blew what was left of the smoke out of the basin and we had a great view of stars, Jupiter, and later the moon.

 

Saturday AM we woke up to this at Island Lake:

 

 

... no smoke!! NONE!! 

 

We got up fairly early but it was after 9:00 a by the time we had breakfast and broke camp.   The day stayed clear, at least up high, but heated up a bit.     We reversed course and headed back with intent to take a different trail up out of the basin.    We stopped at Pear Lake for a while, then after a short walk, we stopped for lunch and a nap beside Horseshoe Lake:

 

 

After a break we hiked the last half mile to the junction with the Blue Canyon Lake trail.    

 

At that junction, the fun ended and the work began.   Trails within the basin were fairly level and more or less maintained.    The Blue Canyon Lake trail was neither.    The lake is about 2/3 of the way up the trail to the ridge but off a few hundred yards through some gnarly brush.    There had been some maintenance attempted as far as the lake.   It ended there.    Also the yellowjackets, which had been noticeably absent, began there.    We stopped about where we figured lake level should be and I bushwhacked to the lake.    It was not a fun bushwhack.    The lake was pretty gross.   The water looked clear but the lake bottom seemed coated with a bright yellow-green plant layer.   There were no obvious camping spots.   I decided we should move on. 

 

The last 1/3 of the trail to the ridge, along with the Cat Hill Way trail which ran along the ridge 2.5 miles or so back to my truck, was littered with fallen logs and had a lot of impinging brush .. mostly huckleberry.     That whole section was overrun with yellowjackets as well.    I almost stepped in one ground nest.   No stings, but .. close.  

 

From the trailhead, we drove back to where we had cell service, phoned home / checked in with Bill's wife and my GF, then drove to where he usually parks his trailer in hunting season and camped one more night to finish off the mountain house, etc.   

 

Good trip.   No bigfoot.   No tracks.   No vocalizations (though I have not reviewed the audio recording from the night yet).    No heavy "vibe" as the research area gets when they are around.    

 

Time to start figuring out something for next year ...