BromBones
03-06-2011, 07:32 PM
Weather's been turning nice again, so the last couple days me & the pup headed out to do some hiking, and see if there were any muley sheds to scoop up. Also wanted to try out my new Canon Rebel DLSR with some outdoor pics.
Yesterday we headed up behind the house into some nice high country fir above the lake & stomped around the wintering grounds hoping to find some sheds.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills1.jpg
Tons of deer sign, pretty much the entire south and west slopes of the ridge looked like what's pictured below - beds and packed trails everywhere. Lots of nice draws, folds, and benches in the area. Between my scouting & sightings, and trail cam pics, I think the deer are wintering pretty well. No predator sign anywhere in the area, I like to think my coyote hunting's helped out. Counted ~20 deer over the day as well.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills3.jpg
Found a couple fresh sheds but nothing big. The dog sniffed out a couple nosepickers, and I found a matched set of forks. There are some dandys around though, but the 8'' of recent powder snow on top doesn't help. Once the thaw starts it should be pretty good.
Temp dropped pretty quick in the late afternoon, so I lit a fire and cooked up some tea a-la-whisky to thaw out before heading home.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills2.jpg
Today I took the sled and down to the break the trail going up to my 'lookout', but with a couple big trees down on the trailhead it was snowshoes from the bottom up. About an hour + of slogging up through the timber. Decent going until I blew the webbing off the tail of one snowshoe a few hundred yards from the top. I sent the dog ahead and let him swim through the snow which packed down a little trail for me. Wasn't too long until I was sitting at the top out in the sunshine, drinking another spiked tea and smoking a cigar, followed by a quick nap.
Played around with the new camera a bit more as well. Ol' dog was gettin his fun out of tunneling through the snowdrifts -
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills6.jpg
I like this one - I call it, "As Canadian as snowshoes and rye"...
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills5.jpg
So that was my fun over the weekend. Weather is supposed to start smartening up so hopefully will get out more often in the next few weeks. Stompin around on snowshoes sure is a good way to get the legs tuned up for spring bear huntin.
Cheers
Yesterday we headed up behind the house into some nice high country fir above the lake & stomped around the wintering grounds hoping to find some sheds.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills1.jpg
Tons of deer sign, pretty much the entire south and west slopes of the ridge looked like what's pictured below - beds and packed trails everywhere. Lots of nice draws, folds, and benches in the area. Between my scouting & sightings, and trail cam pics, I think the deer are wintering pretty well. No predator sign anywhere in the area, I like to think my coyote hunting's helped out. Counted ~20 deer over the day as well.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills3.jpg
Found a couple fresh sheds but nothing big. The dog sniffed out a couple nosepickers, and I found a matched set of forks. There are some dandys around though, but the 8'' of recent powder snow on top doesn't help. Once the thaw starts it should be pretty good.
Temp dropped pretty quick in the late afternoon, so I lit a fire and cooked up some tea a-la-whisky to thaw out before heading home.
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills2.jpg
Today I took the sled and down to the break the trail going up to my 'lookout', but with a couple big trees down on the trailhead it was snowshoes from the bottom up. About an hour + of slogging up through the timber. Decent going until I blew the webbing off the tail of one snowshoe a few hundred yards from the top. I sent the dog ahead and let him swim through the snow which packed down a little trail for me. Wasn't too long until I was sitting at the top out in the sunshine, drinking another spiked tea and smoking a cigar, followed by a quick nap.
Played around with the new camera a bit more as well. Ol' dog was gettin his fun out of tunneling through the snowdrifts -
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills6.jpg
I like this one - I call it, "As Canadian as snowshoes and rye"...
http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/ursusarctos/hills5.jpg
So that was my fun over the weekend. Weather is supposed to start smartening up so hopefully will get out more often in the next few weeks. Stompin around on snowshoes sure is a good way to get the legs tuned up for spring bear huntin.
Cheers