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Arctic Blast 2008!!!!!
Saturday, December 20th, 2008The Official Northwest Experience
Monday, December 15th, 2008Aww, that title’s just a jab at kink fm’s obnoxious Land Rover commercials. But we did have a wonderful northwest experience this weekend. We headed into the hills above Estacada on sunday to track down a tree for my parents.
Permits are only $5 to cut a 12′ tree on US forest service land. We got bonus adventure points because it dumped snow saturday night and sunday morning. And you’ll notice a gal in the pictures. Here name’s Kara an she’s now my girlfriend. She is radical and can pick a mean tree.
Taking off from South East
Hawthorne. Truck good. Car bad.
I think she was nervous I was going to ram into something trying to take a photo while I flew down a snow covered road trying to get a good shot of us. Hehe:)
Aww. Ok, sap meter off.
In search of the perfect tree. There we're lots, and it came down to a tight decision.
Kara never told me she likes to eat christmas trees. I can live with that.
Too big....
8 days
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Our trip started really smoothly, with us acidently driving past our turn off and winding up in nevada. We thought the signs were a joke until we notices the area code for roadside assistance was not Oregons. 40 miles later we were back on track.
We headed up Hart Mountain, and the rest is as follows.
Here are some important numbers:
3. Flat tires(2 in 1 day!)
15. Bucks spotted
0. Bucks taken
8-12. Inches of snow in 1 night
6. MRES eaten by each of us.
12. Hamburger patties for each of us(doubles with ham and cheese never got old)
1. Mean rattlesnake
50. Number of times Karl asked to shoot a smaller buck
50. Number of times I said “no, we’re going for a monster”
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Hart Mountain has it's own storm system...
Day 1: Clean
Karl's fired up for his first mule deer adventure!
Note the sign has a big born sheep and an antelope, but no monster mule deer. Hmm.....
After several attempts, we got our little fort up and running.
Note the wind and lack of stakes to fight the wind: It kept us in check for the next 8 days.
We asked them where the big bucks were and they just stared at us
Our fort at night.
First night. Huge winds blew smoke down our chimney. Don't point the chimney at the wind.
First morning hunt @ 5AM. Cold and dark!
Karl waiting to see what the light will bring
Glassing
This is where they hide.
MRE's for lunch - delicious ribs for me!
The flats bellow the face
Karl rolled his eyes every time I pointed out how pretty the scenery was.
Hamburgers good. Wet sleeping bag bad.
31 to pass the time. We also made shadow puppets to freak out the other campers. Similar to the Riyadah experience.
Multicam + Karl = Sneaky
Chicken MRE = Top performance!
If it were a Chevy, I would have cranked up "Like a Rock"
502 on top of things
Another beautiful sunrise
Fixing flat tire #1!
Karl said "Hey!". I thought, "Why is he being so loud if he sees a deer?". Then I almost stepped on this guy as he screamed "SNAKE!!!"
Flat tire number 2 hours after flat tire number 1!!!!
Sunset on the way to get tire 2 fixed...
Keeping the local tire guy in Lakeview in business
Irony
Aspens
"Hi tower"-The tall buck we chased for 3 days
Hi Tower in field @ 200 yards after I repositioned. He later took off after Karl's muzzleloader failed to fire.
Karl celebrated his first stalk with a veggie burger MRE. I got tuna wraps!
Wrong kind of buck
Tire eater!
We found High Tower up here for a second day. He got away again after one of his friends spotted Karl sneaking up.
First snow
Man Opener, for when your can opener fails!
Chilly and lil' smokies!
Cold night!!!
Almost hit a wild horse this morning!
When it rains, it pours. When it snows, well, its colder than the rain.
Checking an area where a 30"+ buck was spotted.
Karl didn't have good snow clothes.
I did!
Hart Mountain is it's own world
Karl offering a delicious Quaker bar with MRE peanut butter.
Cold, wet and windy with a dash of broken cot.
Our last sunrise.
Brutal cutting wind
The roads became covered with snow drifts
I saw High Tower for the last time here. He was 75 yards away, but Karl was too far down the mountain to get a shot.
Crisp, clean air
A beautiful day to cap a rough trip
The view from bellow
Headed home!
No deer were taken, but an unforgettable adventure that we will never forget.