Mountain Lions

I put my last hunting day in the bag last Saturday. It was a good day to be outside, but not necessarily the best day for hunting as the snow was very loud. It was impossible to be stealth. The 6" of snow had warmed in the last day or two, crusting over with another few inches on top. We joked that we might have just as well banged some symbols as you walked through the woods. But we made a day of it and walked as slow as possible, then sat on top of a knob overlooking a couple saddles.

 Great views showed us a few separate groups of does nearby, but no bucks chasing them. We also spied  3 other hunters on various ridges surrounding us. Across the way, maybe a mile and half as the crow would fly, we could see at least 30 elk. A dozen of them appeared to sport nice racks. If only that area were open to hunt.

But back to the idea behind this post. Mountain lions. I saw at least 3 mountain lions while I was hunting this year. Two of them in the same general area, the other a couple hours south. Spotting a mountain lion is truly a rare occurance.

The first cat I saw was about a week after I shot my deer.  I was walking into the same area and could hear coyotes, they sound like they are fighting. I glassed down there and saw a mountain lion slinking around, seemingly as if defending the carcass. I listen as the coyotes and the lion seem to fight it out for about 5 minutes. Eventually I see the coyotes run off into the pasture. After a few loud coughs to alert the cat of my presence, I walked within 150 yards of it all and continued on my hunt. 

A few weeks later in the same area, a friend and I were about a mile from the first sighting, hunting during quite a storm. Flakes and wind blew into our face as we cruised through the timber. He spotted a mature mountain lion in front of us at about 150 yards. He described it as leaping over a small knob after looking over its shoulder at us. I glassed in that direction and spotted a cat about 25 feet to the left. We sat for 4-5 minutes, staring at each other. The hair stood up on the backs of our neck as we changed directions and hunted carefully for the next 10 minutes. 

The very next day I was 50 miles to the south hunting east of Hamilton with another friend. We had a productive day, harvesting a nice mule deer buck and following fresh elk tracks all day. Heading out, we hit the pavement in the fading fall light and drove east in the canyon. In the borrow pit, a mountain lion sprinted parallel to the road. We sped up and were able to get next to it for a second. It then lept off into the willows and disappeared with only the rustling of the willow bushes. 

So at the end of the season, I could at least say I had the 3 unique opportunities to see a big cat in the while. Was this a consolation prize for not getting an elk? I don't know but it was one that I won't probably repeat. I looked into a bit of the facts about mountain lions and found they usually require a lot of room—only a few cats can survive in a 30-square-mile (78-square-kilometer) range. They are solitary and shy animals, seldom seen by humans. While they do occasionally attack people—usually children or solitary adults—statistics show that, on average, there are only four attacks and one human fatality each year in all of the U.S. and Canada.

I'll leave you with an exciting but graphic video of a mountain lion taking down a deer. There, I warned you. Anybody else out there see anything interesting this Fall?

Unexpected

One of things I've come to realize I like most about hunting, is the fact that you can never expect anything. Of course the ole' cliche, expect the unexpected is easy to apply. You can plan and dream all season long but as things unravel, you are surprised constantly. The variables when out in the field drive you to pay attention. Maybe it's the weather. It was supposed to be 50deg, the sun drifting low along the horizon light. Instead low slung gray clouds spit rain with gusts blowing sideways. Sometimes you walk 12 miles and don't see a thing, other times you walk a mile and see everything. The picture above was taken from 50 yards, near 50 elk but none of the variety that I was allowed to put in my freezer.

Your planning, route and equipment is what you can count on, with the later being a huge factor. Luckily I have been picking some clothing and gear that keeps my body warm and happy. I like logistics, so I thrive on the plan of the hunt. The hunting route and navigation keeps me up at night. Envisioning the ambush or stalk in my minds eye.

Each time I've been out this season, I've found or seen somethings that's perked my ears. Not to mention the colors this fall have made it easy to walk. I was lucky enough to take a nice 4x4 whitetail the day after opening. A friend harvested a black bear the previous day. I spied a mountain lion munching on my deer carcass. All they while picking up sheds as I go along. Here's to walking in the mountains.

Missing Antelope

Tomorrow is the opening hunting day of big game in Montana. I'm jacked to say the least. I have certainly missed not hunting antelope this year. I missed the barren flats, the bitter wind, the crunch of sage and the gumbo. I realized this year antelope also fills the gap between early rifle and regular season. Quelling the urge to get in the field. The fact of the matter is it is usually action packed and high energy. It ranks right up there with elk hunting for me.

I ran across this article, Blood on the Tracks - which spurred me to post up.

Here was an earlier report from MTFWP:

In southeastern Montana, FWP Region 7, antelope numbers are 57 percent below the previous 10 year average. Winter survival was also severely impacted here by last winter's harsh conditions.

"Winter stress caused spring birth rates to be very low in FWP Region 7," Kujala said. "The 2011 fawn to doe ratio in FWP Region 7 was 47 fawns per 100 does, compared to the long-term average of 73 fawns per 100 does."

Good luck to everyone.

Wolf poop on a headlamp

I accompanied a friend yesterday while he was bowhunting in an area behind his house. We covered about 6 miles and gained 2500 feet. The day proved to be a good one, a very fine fall day with temps in the 50s and a brisk wind. The colors were absolutely brilliant especially in the upper elevations (~5500ft), with the ground shrubs throwing bright reds and the larch turning yellow. We had great views of snow capped peaks in the Missions, Rattlenakes and Swans. We spied a couple cow elk at 300 yards, not close enough for the ole' bow and arrow.

On the weird and strange front of things; we came across this:


What you see here is a pile of wolf scat atop a dropped headlamp. The headlamp appeared to have been dropped by a hunter within the last year. Then a wolf happened upon it, smelled the human scent and decided to mark it by shitting on it. I really do need to buy wolf tag this year.

Surf progression

I've been infatuated with surfing for some quite time, which is quite funny obviously because of where I live. But you can dream right? To one day, live near the ocean and do some soul surfing, bra. It's going on 20 years since I lived near the ocean, I guess I miss it. I can honestly say that back in the day between family trips to Mexico and frequent trips to Newport Beach, CA that I knew how to ride wave, albeit on a bodyboard. But that doesn't even hold a candle to the images in this video.

If none of that shit turns your crank there is a chance you might like bikinis, shredding ladies and warm water. This movie, Leave a Message is worth your 22 minutes, trust me. These women are showing the world what it means to rip.

Vancouver Island

Time just kinda of got away from me on the old blog, probably a good thing after all. As always, I like to share the details of my so called adventures. And more than anything capture it somewhere, so that in six months from now when my fading memory fades a little more, I've got this to fall back on.

A vacation idea was hatched back in the spring by the wife and I. We wanted to see the coast and we also wanted to see a bit of Canada. We had only been to Canada once a few years back on a ski trip to Nelson. Our experience up there had been favorable and the people nice, this trip would be much the same. The route and plan morphed several times and really was quite liquid the entire 10 days. It was nice to roll from day to day, sort of a throw back to our backpacking trip through Australia and Indonesia. But this time with two toddlers.

We busted west from Missoula, the white Highlander blasted constant Disney movies from its seams as we bounced across eastern Washington. Rural highways spilled forth in front of us as we hit the North Cascades Highway, a very scenic drive indeed. Our day ended in Anacortes where a very last minute reservation on the ferry saved my ass.

Early morning toddler meltdowns in dirty motels never seem as romantic as they should. But you survive, throw some more crackers in the backseat and things will settle down. Hot coffee while waiting near the ocean....the vacation started, I think. We sailed across to Victoria in a little over 2 hours, stopping once on Orcas island to let on some more passengers. The scenery overlooking the many islands was stunning. Many more people on the islands than I would have guessed.



We offloaded somewhere north of Victoria, heading down into the city we tried our hand at bit the touristy stuff. Realizing quickly that the toddlers did not have the attention span or energy to deal with much, we quickly audibled to leave the city center. One parking ticket later and we were on our way. Near Sooke we found a nice sandy beach, where across the Straight of Juan de Fuca you could see the majestic glacier laden Olympic Mountains in Washington. There were even some great http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftidal flats where we tried to catch some crabs. That night we ended up in a fantastic campground, Goldstream Provincial Park. The sites were some of the best I have seen for a developed campground, plenty of space and private. The next morning we walked among some humungous trees.

We spent the next two days camping and exploring the areas around China Beach. The west coast of the island is excellent, massive trees and rainforest. The beaches in this area were equally impressive, with white sand, huge driftwood and the emerald forest flowing right down to the ocean. We had one day of rain, holing up in a Port Renfrew coffee shop for the morning before we got the courage to hike in the rain down to Sombrio Beach. The beach was full of surfers, all apparently warm enough in their head to toe wetsuits. We checked out some salmon jumping at the mouth of a river/ocean and saw a big salmon fish camp, apparently the thing to do in Refrew.

Driving NE across the island we ended up near Qualicum Beach for a night. The east side of the island near there was quite developed, surprising again for some reason. We beat feet back towards the west side of the island. I found one of my most favorite campsites ever in Ucluelet, Wya Point Campground. Sites were nestled into the forest right on the beach line. The cove was made of tiny smooth multi-colored pebbles. And the rocky point made for stellar tide pool searching in the early mornings. Up to the north we checked out Tofino and spent some time on a beautiful sandy beach with surprising warm waters in the shallows. Both towns had great seafood, weird huh? We rallied back across the island and caught a ferry for Vancouver. One night in a dirty motel and we pushed on. All in all we camped 7 of the 9 days and covered 1600 miles. Great, great trip.

Well, if you happen to still be reading this, thanks! I do appreciate my readers and any comments.

Early season rifle hunt 2

We were able to do another trip into the Bob Marshall for the early season rifle hunt. The three of us spent 5 days, with one day being a scouting day. We saw great things the first day, getting answers from a few bulls. The next call was from a wolf pack who quickly shut all the elk up in the area. We had good weather and hunted hard. Unlike the year prior, we didn't have to worry about packing out any meat.

July fun in Montana

Lots of activity lately, soaking up them rays, not much time for words. Enjoy.

Sun

We like sun and we like the warmth. Although the girls could definitely watch non stop Scooby Doo, we're trying to soak up summer. Western MT is entering the first piece of prime weather of the summer. Long days and perfect evenings make for some great camping.

We went camping for the first time last weekend and only managed to forget a few things. One item being the fuel to run the stove. Luckily I talked the campground host out of a bottle and then walked over to the firewood vending shed and plopped in 16 quarters. Blam! A saran wrapped bundle of fire wood came down the chute. I'm getting lazy ain't I? Anyone ever seen one of these? I hadn't.



And no Matt, I didn't post this to piss you off. :-)

Antelope as Indicators?

Antelope as Indicators in Our Recent Extreme Weather NewWest.Net

Interesting article on the speed goats that I love to chase around Eastern Montana. The party that I hunt with have hunted the same area for 6 seasons. We skipped last year as the #'s were 20-30% down. The previous year we had definitely noticed less animals. We were anticipating a another bad year this season and will be checking out some new ground.

Rocky Mountain Wildfires Set to Intensify?

Rocky Mountain Wildfires Set to Intensify? | NewWest.Net

Thought this was interesting. Although, right now it doesn't seem as if anything could ever burn in Montana. The cold and wet continue. I was out in the woods yesterday at 6500ft doing my sawyer re-certification and guess what? We froze our asses off. It was 40 degrees and we had hats & gloves on. Lame. Bring on summer

Water

Wet and muddy in Montana these days. If you live anywhere in the state there's a good chance you're sick of the rain. May was gray and wet. The NWS data I looked at said Missoula's May had 21 days of light rain and 5 days of "rain". Enter Seattle references here. The graph above shows the Clark Fork almost tripling in a little over weeks. The surges and crest keep rising. Had it not been for some cold temps and snow in the high country, the heavy valley rains may have spilled the banks in a big way. The river sits at 12.5 feet and had originally been predicted to go to 14ft. The Missoulian put up some interesting aerial photos showing the flooding around town. Keep in mind there is still 90" of snow in the Rattlesnakes (7400ft).



The girls I took a ride down next to the Clark Fork and admired the power (and the people) of the river. Some great people watching down there, eh? We followed up the bike with a carousel/playground 1,2 punch. Knocking out the day with watching the fire department burn down a house (practice burn). Lucky.

Yes, you were supposed to say that in a Napolean Dynamite accent. But seriously, how cool is it to be a kid watching a structure burn while eating a piece of pizza?

Anyway, thanks for following along with the random stories and facts. Does anyone like these new little Facebook and comment buttons below? Bueller?

Dead things and live things

This is a picture of a little girl holding a flattened dead snake. It just so happens she is deathly afraid of flies. Go figure.

One likes flowers, the other dead snakes. Best buddies.

Spring in Montana

The rivers are running big and brown around the state. It is the hot topic for media. Snowpack and runoff are reaching all sorts of records and predictions are for the rivers to stay high for quite some time. The northeastern, eastern and now the central parts of Montana are flooding. Most folks predict the flows to be as high if not higher than the record year of 1997.

But really, the stuff we're seeing around here pales in comparison to the other major disasters around the country. My thoughts go out to all the people affected in Joplin, MO.

The Campbell clan has been busy enjoying the out of doors as much as possible. The lawn is all greened up and going apeshit, requiring multiple mowings per week. The first batch of homemade compost was applied to some of the garden beds. Finally, that stuff takes a long time to make.

And best of all our chickens are plumping right up. Yep, chickens. The peeping chicks slid into the household while I was zonked during post surgery. Oh that T, she's a smart one. We've lost 2 out of the 5, most likely due to the fact they've been living outside during some cold temps this spring. I think that might make them taste better.

On my knee- I am recovering well and making progress every week. It's slow progress but good. I returned to work after almost seven weeks. I'll have another month until I can return to regular duty. The road is long, but I can see the light at the other end. I'm grinding out my 6 days a week of leg exercises and almost enjoying it. I'm cleared to ride trails that are less steep, but hey at least it's outside. Watching the flat screen in front the basement spin bike was getting a little stale. I've also finally got back on the weights, I see lots of squats in my future.

Back to the outdoors, everyone has been enjoying the blast of life that has hit the valley. I'm reminded how much I love spring in Montana every year. Lilacs and fruit trees spill forth the color that we've missed for the long winter months. Hopefully you too are out enjoying spring and getting after it. Check back soon for some lively Montana spring pictures. Cheers

Earthquake memories

I recently watched the Discovery Channel's Megaquake: The Hour that Shook Japan and was absolutely floored. I don't think I had sat with my mouth agape and said "whoa" so many times. It brought back some memories of living in the quake ridden zone of California. If you get the chance, search your DVR and record the Megaquake show.

I grew up in Southern Cal and thought that I had felt some big quakes, but obviously nothing close to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011 and the tsunami that followed, resulting in more than 12,000 deaths. The destruction and devastation is heart breaking. There are serious changes that where imparted by this quake, some areas have sank as much as 4 feet and now flood during high tide from the now closer sea.

As everyone knows there have been 3 major earthquakes since last February: Christchurch in New Zealand was rocked by a 6.3 quake that killed 166 people; 550 people died after Chile was hit in February 2010 by an 8.8. Japan's 8.9 earthquake was the highest ever recorded in Japan, compared to the 8.3 Great Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo in 1923, which killed more than 140,000 people. The well known and reputable organizations could use your help, but watch where you donate they're not all equal.

Back to the SoCal quakers....for any of you out there following from that neck of the woods. This might pique your interest. Do you remember those big shakers back in 1992? Anyone have any good stories/memories out there? I definitely vividly remember the night of June 28th 1992. I thought that might be "the big one", really I did. I had been through other earth quakes and they had always been pretty short.

However, on that night the Landers 7.3 quake shook for 2 to 3 mintues! I got shook awake, laid there for a bit, then finally decided I had better get out of bed. It kept going and then I moved under the doorway, still going....I ran down stairs as the whole house swayed back and forth, pictures crashing off the stairwell wall. As I ran downstairs, I made way for the backdoor, hoping the outdoors might be calmer. As I looked around my whole family was out there. Best of all my dad stood there, naked as a jay-bird, hand over his swaying....er stuff. If I remember right there were several other aftershocks that night, making us all pretty edgy. Then that morning another one centered less than 10 miles away at 6.5 scared the crap out of us.

1992	April 23		1:50	Joshua Tree	6.1			1992 Joshua Tree earthquake
1992	June 28		04:57	Landers	7.3			1992 Landers earthquake
1992	June 28		08:05	Big Bear	6.5			1992 Big Bear earthquake
1994	Jan 17		04:30	Northridge	6.7			1994 Northridge earthquake

Anyway, thanks for following some old earthquake memories. If you've got any of your own, we'd love to hear them. As for anything shaking in Montana, I think I've felt a few tremors but nothing serious. The main thing we have to worry about here is the Yellowstone Caldera, at least the wind always blows from the west though. We'll be fine right?

Check out this crazy, scary video of some POV tsunami footage.