I get asked a lot whether I worry about running into a bear while I’m wandering the backcountry. Next person who asks will get to hear ALL about my experiences bear hunting…
Scheduled 6 days for this hunt. However, it doesn’t take that long to identify that the elk have moved on in their migration. Good times. Good lessons. On to the bear hunts.
Setting out into the wilderness to hunt elk. Success might truly be more painful than failure…
Check your equipment, kids, or you too may find yourself with no way to make coffee at 5:30 am on a camping trip. A failed stove shortened the trip, but didn’t dampen spirits. Good times. A wet dog. Mountains and fall colors.
Hitting the back roads with a buddy who couldn’t backpack this year. Got him into the Bob. He fished. I didn’t. Brought the dog. Had a cot. What is this luxury?
Wait, this was supposed to take a week?Also, strange bedfellows and late night visitors.
Well, that was a long day. River bottom miles with bonus blowdown to finish the hike.
That feeling when, after days of hiking, you just hit the wall. Depending on the Wall, it can be a pretty good feeling.
Beginning a trip to the Chinese Wall, culminating in a bear rope hang dubbed ‘the monkey and the viking’. Sometimes I hike with other people. Turns out, it’s kind of fun.
Wandering down the river. Turns out ricer valleys are easier hiking than mountain passes. Shocking.
Rest day. Admitting I was wrong in snapping to judgment about folks I don’t know. Shocking how I could get that wrong. Blind judgments so seldom prove erroneous…
Shortcuts make for long delays. Walked on air for a while, well, blown down timber anyway. Through a dense tangle of alders no less. Also, there was a pond. Fun crossing at mile 14, with the day’s heat fading. Side note. Lick Creek. That will make sense in wither this episode or the next. Can’t remember in which episode I forgot.Which speaks volumes to how my brain… works.
Switchback Pass. I get high, then find out I need to get higher. Then I have to rapidly surrender all that altitude. But it’s ok because turquoise lake.
A disagreement with dinner, a lot of climbing. Oh, so many cliffs and waterfalls.
In which the long walk continues, and I reach an outhouse. It’s a big deal in the backcountry.
Starting what I planned to be a fourteen-day jaunt through the Bob. A brush with tribal law, a lot of walking.
Short episode, covering a quick ten-mile day. Forgot to mention the rain.