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Thread: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    55

    Post Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Update July 11 - Just added last part of story. For anyone new reading, here is what the story is about (photo):




    Hey all.

    It's that time year when I begin to dream about hunting. Summer's great, but it just doesn't compare to fall for me.
    Last September, I had to the opportunity to head out on a dream hunt in the Muskwa-Kechika with my father-in-law and a buddy and I've been working on a little write-up on it the last while. It's been great to reflect on the hunt and relive some of the memories.

    Hope you all enjoy it - oh, and I know it's a bit wonky but I'm telling the story in reverse chronological order. Here's hoping the photos work - first time doing this. MooseDown


    DAY 10

    We woke early, though not as early as Seymour and Tanner, who had to wrangle the horses from somewhere along the three-kilometer-long river bench. After gulping down a quick breakfast and coffee, we began packing up our sleeping bags and assorted gear. Everything we brought with us, except our rifles, the clothes on our backs, and our empty daypacks had to fit into a single 9”x19”x22” pack-box and weigh less than fifty pounds – no easy task, even when your gear isn’t out of sorts from ten days of use.

    We helped the outfitters load up the pack horses with the camp gear, antlers and 864 pounds of boned-out meat that we had carefully weighed out in pack-box pairs the night before; each pair had to be within a single pound of even weight or it would be hard on the horses. And if there was one thing I learned from Seymour and Tanner over the ten days it was this: horses are the only way into or out of this country, so you’d best take good care of them.

    And what a country.

    I took a moment to glance out at the river one last time. The golden light made its way down the mountain-sides and contrasted with the blue-cool mists hanging above the river. No roads, no sounds but the whinny of a horse and the rush of the river; not a trace of human activity – in ten days we hadn’t seen a single human footprint except our own. I was leaving, but I would never forget this place.



    When I arrived nine days earlier, I felt like a foreigner – a pretender who didn’t belong. It was wild country – perhaps as wild as it gets – and I felt overwhelmed by one simple fact: I had no business being there. I was 46-years-old, not in the best shape, and used to hunting close to all the comforts of a well-equipped camper and generator. I had never been on a remote hunt before, where help was a satellite call and probably 12 to 24 hours away.

    To put it frankly, I was scared. Scared of being in a place where my decisions could have serious consequences and even more scared that I would discover that I just didn’t have what it takes to enjoy a trip like this. As a hunter, I had dreamed of a trip into the wilds of the Muskwa-Kechika for years. I prided myself on believing I had a spark of adventure within that drew me to the unknown.

    But maybe I was just fooling myself.

    Finally loaded, I mounted Vanilla, my trusty equine companion for the week. She was about as good a horse as I could ask for – calm, sure-footed, and friendly. Well, there was that incident with a tree on the first day, but we sorted that out with a little advice from Tanner.





    Without a word, we started up the trail to the pass and home.

    Last edited by MooseDown; 07-11-2020 at 09:52 AM.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Williams Lake, BC Canada
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    14,168

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Hmm absolutely incredible location. Adventure..results.thank you kindly for sharing..I appreciate your photos replay of your trip
    thank you
    Srupp

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    55

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Thanks srupp - will be posting more of the trip later. Glad the photos are working

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Cranbrook
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    2,744

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    This is an interesting approach to telling a story! Looking forward to the adventure!

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Posts
    1,916

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Sounds like you had a great adventure, very nice country. Hope you put up a few more pics of the moose. Which outfittere were yoiu with.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    55

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Thanks Rackmastr! It was definitely a trip of a lifetime.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    55

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    LBM - Don't worry...more pics coming! We were with a transporter - Steamboat Mountain Outfitters.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
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    55

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika - Part 2

    DAY 9

    “There aren’t many jobs you can do with a horse, a rifle and an axe.”

    I had to grin at the statement. It was, of course, a massive over-simplification, but it also rang dead true. I stared into the small fire, it’s reassuring warmth caressing my face, while thoughts flitted through my mind: horses and trails and rivers and mountains and the two men who sat across the fire from me.

    Seymour and his son Tanner own and operate Steamboat Mountain Outfitters. They are transporters – a term used by the province for service providers who assist in area access, camp supplies, game retrieval and management, and basically anything that doesn’t involve guiding. If you didn’t know they were father and son, it wouldn’t take long to figure it out. It took a while for me to get to know them as they are both quiet types. But that’s one of the great things about sitting around a campfire – somehow the stories just come and you get know each other. And boy, do they have stories. If you get the chance, ask Tanner about the sheep hunt from hell. I won’t spoil it for you – it’s just too good.



    Seymour and Tanner are steeped in bush-craft and know their horses inside out. What I most appreciated about them, though, was their quiet confidence. They were up early every morning to get breakfast on the go and were gone from camp all day clearing horse trails, checking on the horses or exploring new country. I couldn’t help but think they are part of a dying breed of true mountain men, and if something went wrong out here in the wild, they were the kind of guys I’d want around.

    All too soon, it was time to head to bed. I slept like a log each night, even though my air mattress was pretty thin. That's the beauty of being truly tired - you can sleep through damn near anything.



    DAY 8

    We split up today, with my in-shape friend heading high and my father-in-law and I staying low. We were hunting, sure, but in a halfhearted, just-enjoying-the-day sort of way. More like meandering through the wilderness and taking it all in.







    We spent some time in the mid-afternoon cleaning the skulls and trying to wash out the brain cavities. It was my first time doing this as I've never shot anything worth mounting before. It is detailed work and I learned a lot that I can hopefully use in the future.


  10. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Haney,BC and anywhere you can hunt in BC out of the rain !
    Posts
    8,649

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    wow such beautiful country, cant wait to go back myself, thanks for sharing your hunt with us
    7mm PRC soon to be the most popular cartridge in North America

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Tent city Victoria
    Posts
    3,562

    Re: Into the Muskwa-Kechika

    Ugh that country is gorgeous. Makes me want summer to end right now and the temps to drop!

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