It was a rainy and cold morning heading up to the annual Hardware Ranch Elk Festival on Saturday, but all the brave ones made it safely.  The activities started at 10 a.m. and so that meant we had to be set up and ready for the crowd when it arrived.  The elk festival is held as the kick off to the sleigh rides out among the elk hurd that spends the winter at the ranch…free food….  We were told there were upwards of 500 elk in the meadow with more in the surrounding mountains that would come down after dark to enjoy the free lunch and then work their way back up before daylight to stay hidden from the people.  The ones that decided to spend their time down in the meadow don’t have anything to worry about as there is no hunting allowed and they are there just to be the objects of picture taking.  It’s fun!

The event itself is rather full of activities.  We have our setup with furs and mountain man memorabilia and of course the BS stories that go along with the mountain man era of the U.S.  When the guests arrive and come to our area they are greeted and are shown all the finery that we have available for them to see.  They can touch and feel all the furs we have like, skunks, raccoons, fox, bobcat, badger and more, we even have a sample of a opossum, something not found in Utah.  Folks are pleased to see they are rather fuzzy and not a course animal fur.  We also show them guns, how to load a muzzleloader, flint and steel stuff and a whole lot of things they either are interested in or not (we will bore them with it anyway).

Once they are filled with the knowledge of the mountain man era, they are invited to don capotes (wool blankets made into coats), hats from the era and they all get to hold a rifle, shotgun and/or pistol of their choice for a picture.  This is actually the highlight of some of their day!  And of course we tend to want to make it as fun as we can for them.  We will take pictures using their cameras, phone cameras or whatever they have.  If they don’t have one, then I use my phone camera (which by the way is not the best in the world as you are about to see), post my pictures on here and they can download them and use them however they wish.

Well, this sort of thing can not be pulled off by one or two people.  This year we had Tracker, Wapiti Dung, Weasel, Bones, Hot Spark, Short Cut, Ricochet, Squirrel, Flashpan and myself to get things done.  The kids seemed to be having a great time, especially when we weren’t too busy with guests!

Left to right:  Shortcut, Ricochet, Flashpan and standing is Squirrel!

One of our first guests came up to me and said she was teaching a class and reading them a story about a Santa from the past and the story told how this Santa was wearing a red hat and leather clothing.  In her mind I was that guy in the story and that she had to have a picture of herself and me so she could show her class next week.  I traded her that picture with me, for one of her wearing some mountain man clothing!  Please meet Emily!

In fact please meet Emily twice!

I don’t think that trade was a bad one for either of us!  Thank you Emily for coming up to the Hardware Ranch and enjoying the day!

Well, part of the fun we have is meeting people from all over the place.  We had visitors from the Burley Idaho area as well as the Mountain View area of Wyoming.  I’m sure there were some from further distances but those were the two I spoke to and where they were from.  The weather definitely played a big part in how many people came up to the elk festival, but there were close to 1,000 visitors before the day was done.  And another thing that comes with taking pictures of people are the little cuties that are there as well.  Here are some of them.  I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of all of them, but I’ll share the ones I did get pictures of:

And I promised a few folks that I would post up some of the pictures I took of their families so they can down load them and do whatever they wish with them.  I apologize ahead of time for the poor quality of my camera’s pictures:

During the picture taking we ask them to give us smiles and then at some point we ask them to give us “mean looks”, there are a whole lot of people who just can not make a mean looking face, especially when you tell them that all their furs have been stolen and they don’t have any money to buy whiskey…..

And don’t get me wrong when I say, “Not all people young or old, like to have their picture taken!  Mom, you did really well containing this young one!

Well, there you have what I took pictures of.  There are a whole lot of people to thank for pulling off this Elk Festival and I wish I had everyone’s name…I don’t!  But in general the entire State of Utah and especially the Division of Wildlife Resources and the Parks Department!  Good work folks!

December 11, 2016

Bears Butt

Back a few months Weasel and I were on our way up hunting and came across this situation:

Dry roads, a dicey little “S” turn and these guys lost control and crashed.  Luckily nobody was in the car when we came past and they had put a sign in the window to please not tow the car.  The fear that must have been in them when they lost control and crashed must have been intense!  I hope nobody got hurt badly.

This morning Weasel and I decided it would be a great morning to go high up above town and hunt down a ways to see if he could fill his Extended Wasatch deer tag.  The road is pretty long and really rough in some spots so we decided to leave town about 5:30….That would give us a full hour and 1/2 to get to the top and start our hunt.

Two days ago it snowed a bit.  Probably 6 inches up on the top of the mountain and yesterday it was pretty warm, which should have melted most of the depth.  Of course there would be some slick spots in the road along the way, but 4 wheel drive should take care of that.  I don’t have chains for my rig and I thought I should invest in some, but that will be for a future rig.  At least that is what my mind is saying.

I picked Weasel up promptly at 5:30 and after we loaded his stuff we headed off.  A quick stop to top off the fuel tank, grab an orange juice and water and off we went.

The drive was a good one and soon we were on the dirt road leading up the backside of the mountain.  Dirt and gravel soon gave way to spotty snow and ice and it was obvious there had been a LOT of traffic on the road yesterday (Thanksgiving Day).  We hadn’t gone too far and soon we were passing a camping area called Doc’s Flat.  I told Weasel, “If I had chains I would be putting them on right here”…which I would have, but still I have 4 wheel drive and good tires, we should be OK.  Around the first bend and the ice was sure slippery, but the front tires kicked in and up the road we continued.  The next bend had other ideas for us.  The road in this stretch is pretty steep and there are lots of tire made moguls in the road.  The Trooper spun out!  DAMN!

Well, we ain’t going any higher, I told Weasel, who knew it all the while.  I popped it into reverse and began going back down and around the bend we had just came around.  Suddenly, the tires locked up and we were sliding backwards uncontrollably.  It was still dark outside and so I could not see where we were going, all I could do was look at the road out the front windshield and try to keep the rig in the space provided.  The hill sloped slightly to the down hill side and even though there was a forest of oak trees alongside the road, there were plenty of spaces for a vehicle to slip through and crash down the 50 or 60 yard embankment.  The embankment, by the way, is about a 60 degree slope.

As we slid around the corner the rig suddenly began picking up speed,….like all of a sudden… because the pitch in the road increased a great deal and gravity was having a very fun time with the weight of the vehicle and the icy slickness of the road.  Hang on was all I could do…Try not to panic….Don’t crap your pants right now, there will be plenty of time for that in a minute….Jesus take the wheel would be appropriately played at this moment in time!

The headlights began sweeping side to side as we back slid quickly down the roadway.  And then suddenly the back right corner of the rig hit the high side embankment which caused the front of the rig to begin turning sideways in the road.  The sloping roadway was pulling the front closer and closer toward the drop off!  Nearly 90 degrees to the roadway we slid.  Oh My Hell!  Was my thought!  We are going over the edge!  The headlights cast out into the tops of the oak trees and I could not see the road any longer out my side window.  The windshield was viewing nothing but blackness and the oak limbs showing in the bright beams of the headlights.

Lots of things were passing through my mind but as of right now I can’t tell you all of them.  Some of my thoughts were how to maneuver the rig down through all those trees without rolling it over, if in fact it didn’t roll when it went off the edge.  I was certain the front tires were well off the edge when it suddenly stopped sliding!  My heart was pounding like crazy and when the reality of us not going over the edge finally came through to my already convinced brain that we had gone over.  I continued to looks straight ahead, hands gripping the wheel firmly and I said to Brandon….You get out slowly there isn’t any sense both of us die in this…..

He eased himself out the passenger (up road side) of the rig and I just knew the weight shift would put the rig the rest of the way over the edge.  The rig stayed put….I set the emergency brake, put the rig in park and eased off the brake pedal.   There was an ever so slight forward movement at that point, but I knew then the rig was not going over the edge.  At least not at that moment.  I too eased the door open and slowly got out.  When my feet hit the icy road I almost fell on my butt, but caught myself on the running board just inside the door.

I must admit, that was the most terrified I have been in a very long time and had I not taken my morning’s morning before leaving home, I most certainly would have done it during that slide.

This picture was taken several minutes after the rig had stopped and I had time to gather my wits.  It looks like the tree has stopped our forward movement, but that tree was at least 10 feet on the other side of the rig.

The slide marks can be seen clearly in this picture.  There are no trees near the front of the rig.  The ones in the picture are 5 or more feet on the other side of it.

Inches of snow covered dirt is all that is keeping the rig from going down into this:

I have a whole lot of belief that divine intervention played a very big part in why this rig stopped on the edge like it did.  THANK YOU LORD!

It wasn’t a huge decision that needed to be made to call for a tow truck to come and save our butts.  I didn’t dare move the rig from blocking the entire road even though I had a come-a-long, high lift jack and chain.  Had there not been the option of a tow vehicle, we would have given it hell and I’m sure gotten out, but I didn’t dare touch the rig for fear it would end up at the bottom of that oak filled chasm.

As we sat there keeping warm and talking about our wonderful fate and how it could have all turned out much uglier, up the road came a guy on a 4 wheeler.  You see there are lots of guys still bow hunting the Wasatch Front and this was one guy who wanted to be “where we wanted to be” at first light.  Upon seeing our dilemma and realizing he could not drive past us, he went back down to warn others who he knew were coming our way.  His warning went unheeded and soon we had 4 more guys on 4 wheelers itching to get around us.  I told one of them that if the rig went over while he was messing around I would hold him totally responsible….he backed off….And then went to digging away the high side embankment to get their rigs past mine.  I ended up taking off the spare tire to help them get past.  After they were around us, one of them had a very tough time going up the road around the corner where we spun out initially.  We even went up and pushed him until it looked like he had it under control….slicker than snot on a door knob….and cold…..

Nothing we could do now but wait.  Well, we decided that maybe we could chop some of the ice out of the road in case the tow guy couldn’t make it up to us.  So we did.

Heck we only have to chop it to the corner down there………

And soon we heard the sound of the tow truck coming up to save us.  He drove up first and then went back down a ways and backed up to come to our rescue.

You can see the road looks flat, but when you have had the wits scared out of you, there isn’t any way in hell I was going to try and manipulate that rig of mine out of where it was and try getting the front tires pointed down the road.  You can also see from the reflection that it is icy as can be!

He backed his rig up nearly touching mine and hooked up a cable to my front tire.  He told us, “Heck, most of the time I’m pulling rigs up from down in there”….as he pointed down into the chasm.  I could see old tire tracks from rigs that went down there before.  That is not a place I wanted to have my rig.

Using his “I’ve done this before” knowledge he got the rig pointed down the road and we followed him off the slippery place….Weasel paid him a meager $200 for his services and off he went.

Looking back at the whole deal, we were SO VERY FORTUNATE to not have gone off that cliff.  Had we gone over nobody knows how long we would have been down there before someone noticed us.  We will never know how our injuries would have been, but for sure there would have been some broken stuff.  Maybe we were within seconds of both being killed.  I thank the Lord for saving us from any of the “what ifs”.

Coming down off the mountain I decided we needed to have breakfast at the Rusted Spoon….it was a wonderful breakfast.

November 25, 2016

Bears Butt

It’s funny what and where you find things in the forest!

Last Saturday found Hunter, Mike Brailsford and I back in the mountains and camped at the head of Green Fork.  The weather before had been somewhat rainy and even some snow had fallen during the week, but was nice and dry and a bit brisk for our hunt at this time.   Mike and I had left town around 5:30 and met Hunter on the mountain.  We went up through the Johnson Ranch and Hunter came in across the road from Monte Cristo.  We were all in hopes of bumping into some cow elk and Hunter also had a spike elk tag he was hoping to fill as well.  My goal was to have all three astride my Trooper as we bounced our way down the road back to camp, with blood running down the windows and the sound of the hoofs banging against the vehicle as we rolled along.  Much similar to this from several years back:

Well, as things went, the weather was perfect and so was the hunting, but the killing could have used some vast improvements….we saw ZERO elk.  Our daily jaunts took us high, low and in the middle of the altitudes around our camp.  We even found ourselves clear across the valley in the Crawford range…..I digress here to share a little light on something that has been happening during all these days of hunting…..

Randolph is a nice little community that shares a common thing with another community just 10 miles to the South, Woodruff.  These two towns have some very respectable citizens living there and they are very hard working, caring people.  Most own substantial spreads of land and almost all of them own a herd of cattle.  They work hard for what they have and they endure the coldest weather that Northern Utah has to offer.  The sign in Woodruff says something like….The coldest temps and the warmest hearts….I’ve heard the weatherman tell us that Randolph had the low temp for the state at minus 30….That is getting very close to Minot North Dakota cold.  Well, you no doubt read about a young man who told Weasel and I about some elk hunting area out near Big Creek.  We ventured that direction and found nothing much that held our attention and then while driving back toward town ran into another guy who said we should have turned off a ways further down the canyon and that it would take us into some very good elk habitat etc., etc., etc.  To my way of thinking I think those two guys were in “cahoots” to keep us from finding the elk we were after with our bows…just saying.  So, on this trip, we found ourselves enjoying some of Randolph’s finest chicken strips and tator logs, when a lady pulled up along side our vehicle and she and her son got out to go into the local convenience store (just like we had).  The young man asked me  how the hunting was going and then asked if we were hunting elk…I told him yes but we were not seeing any.  He then proceeded to tell me that he had shot an elk over in the Crawford Mountains the day before and that there was at least one cow and a calf still over there.  I questioned him about where he had been when he shot his…he said the towers.  And then for some reason his mother told him to get back into the car and off they went…that was strange.  Well, we talked among the three of us and decided we would go over there and see if we could find those other two elk.  We had to finish our chicken fingers first, however.  About the time the last bite was being taken, here came mom and the young man back….Without looking at us they proceeded to head into the store….I stopped the young man and asked him a couple more questions about his elk hunt the day  before…he answered my questions but acted funny to me.  Talking in the vehicle later, I decided there was a secret “Cartel” in the town of Randolph.  One in which the locals pay these people to tell hunters like us big old stories to get us to go off and away from the best hunting areas and into areas that hold few or no animals that we are after.  I believe this last young man was about to be paid off with a Doctor Pepper for his efforts to get us to go over into the Crawfords in search of elk.  Back to the hunt…..

We took a hike down into Green Fork and we went quite a ways into there.  Scoured a clear cut and around a hill, down and up and over and out and then back to camp….nothing!   We hit an area that Crock said had lots of sign and not too far from the road….we hiked in, saw a couple of deer, no sign of elk….we hiked up, over and out then back to the vehicle…nothing!   We took a drive miles away to a little hidey hole.  There was a LOT of sign from about a day or so after the last rain/snow but little or no sign that was fresh…we hiked out, down, up, over and back…nothing!

Mike even took a detour to push down through some very likely looking brush in hopes of kicking an elk to Hunter and I as we waited in ambush spots along the hillside…nothing!

We drove a long way out on a ridge, parked the vehicle and then hiked down into a spot where elk should have been running helter skelter all around us and when we got down into the deepest darkest spot, we began our slow ascent back toward the vehicle and in the bottom of all of this we found this:

A very nice 4 point buck that had been shot during the archery hunt but not recovered.  The shot was a bit low but fatal none the less.  We are sure the hunter just lost track of the blood trail as there should have been a good one and this deer died while still running.  Velvet was still on the antler that was partially buried in the dirt.

We tried early morning ambush spots in areas we had seen elk sky lined before (years before).  We hunting late into the evening in some of those same places and arrived back at camp at nearly time for bed.  We bounced and jolted our way up and down some very rocky and rutted travel routes we had never been on before.  We had to cut our way through some very tight spots in order to get the vehicle into what looked like the perfect elk hiding spots and when we got there, we found no sign at all….nothing!

It was a very discouraging hunt as far as elk were concerned.  However we did have a good time laughing and cutting up as usual and we did see a lot of deer, mostly does and fawns but I saw more buck deer on this outing than I did during the muzz hunt the week before.  Of course, I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get them on film (digital).  This one little spike stuck around with his sisters for this picture.

A whole lot fuzzy of a picture…sorry about that!

And just like the previous hunts, we saw more does with twins fawns than we did does with only one fawn.  This will be great if the winter isn’t harsh and next years deer hunt should be a good one.

With this kind of country all around us, one would think there would be elk a-plenty to be seeing, even if they were two miles away.  But none were there to be seen.

We spent plenty of time glassing and with each passing hour, each passing day…our frustration continued to grow.  On the last morning of this journey, we made it up to a place I had doubts the vehicle would make it.  We were on top of everything hoping that elk would cross over from one drainage into another and we would be there waiting when the morning light allowed us to take a shot.  Glassing out into the early morning light all we could see were deer and moose.  We stayed with the hope until all hope was washed away and then made our way back to camp and then home.

It was a fun four and a half days in the mountains even though frustrating as far as the elk killing was concerned.  We did see some country that I have only seen on Google Earth up until then.  There is some potential for future hunting especially for deer.  I learned that my Trooper can and will take you into places that perhaps you shouldn’t be in and that a good sharp saw is a necessary evil in order to get you out of tight spots.  I found roads that can shorten an otherwise long drive to and from potential “good hunting” areas.  I drove down a road that had my pucker factor pretty much maxed out and if it wasn’t for “one more beer”, I probably would have turned around, but my cheering squad said, “it will be just fine”…..We made it without incident….I’ll have another beer…was the key statement once we were down off that hill, even Hunter had a beer, which is something I have never seen before.

Well, there are still a few days left to find that elk and I’ll take at least two more of them and head back to find my elk.  You can bet I WON’T be going back into the area we just hunted in AND I am not going to listen to the Cartel guys anymore.

October 13, 2016

Bears Butt

It was back in my college days (1971-1976 or so), when I first took a liking to Olympia beer.  Not necessarily for the flavor, which I have become extremely fond of, but for the message.  You see, Tracker and I found ourselves in an upper level college business class, and it was the first day of the class.  The professor was looking over the faces in the class and said to us all:  I see some unfamiliar faces in this class.  If you have not taken class number such and such, you need to take that class as a pre-requisite to this class.  You may be excused at this time if you have not taken that class.

Well, Tracker and I got up and left the class and wandered down to the Student Union building to look over the class selection book to choose another class.  As Tracker was looking through the book, I was looking at the latest student newspaper.  In it was a joke that had several sections each containing pictures of two guys in a classroom and the professor said “I assume you all have a working knowledge of calculus”……and the last section showed the two guys slunking down behind their desks, obviously without a working knowledge of calculus….and then it said “You owe yourself an Oly”!!!!

I showed that to Tracker and we laughed.  Later in the afternoon we found ourselves in a local bar and I was ordering an Oly beer.  I have been drinking Oly ever since.  And I’m probably one of the very few to be drinking it to this day.

Oly has been my mainstay beer for over 40 (yes forty) years.  Should anyone ever need a blood transfusion using my blood, the doctors had better test for more than just blood type…mine is A-negative, which is rather rare and I’m certain there is a substantial amount of CH3CH2HO mixed into it as well.  I’m not bragging, it’s just a fact.

I use Oly as a cooking beer as well and it makes the flavor of Rabbit Chicken (see recipes in the category block to the right) exceptional.  No other beer will make it taste like Oly does.  Wapiti can attest to that fact and anyone who has ever tasted rabbit chicken made with Oly will also attest to the great flavor.  For those of you who think the alcohol content of the beer will cause your Bishop to cringe and think bad thoughts about you, I can re-assure you the alcohol evaporates out and none of it will remain in the pot with the chicken.  Go ahead and use it.

Now that I have you convinced to use Oly beer in your cooking recipes, I have to inject a negative note.  Soon we won’t have any Oly in Utah…bummer huh?  It’s getting harder and harder to find it on store shelves as of late.  I went through a period several weeks ago where I had to rely on my backup beer, Keystone lite, which is cheaper than Oly by a few cents but not as flavorful.  I just flat out could not find any Oly on the shelves.

After several attempts to locate my favorite beer in local stores, I was obliged to write the producer (Pabst brewing company) and ask this question:

I’m finding it very difficult to find Olympia beer in northern Utah. My regular source, Smiths Food and Drug, only had 6 12 packs this week and my other sources haven’t had any in the last two weeks.  Are you guys discontinuing producing it?

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

There response was this:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Pabst Brewing Company and Olympia products.

At this time this product is only available in the following states: Washington, California, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming and Arizona

If you travel thru one of these states or reside in one, we would need a zip code and city to provide retailer locations.

Unfortunately, due to the rules and regulations given by the State Alcoholic and Beverage Committee, beer products cannot be ordered directly through Pabst Brewing Company and beer products cannot be shipped. In order to obtain beer product not located in your state you would need to travel to one of the states that carry it.

This brand is what we call a “regional beer” and is only going to be available in certain states, and at this time we do not plan on expanding this brand any further.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and thank you again for contacting Pabst Brewing Company.

Cheers!

Indulge Responsibly – Drink Exceptionally

Consumer Relations Representative

Pabst Brewing Company

————————— 

That is one of the saddest emails I have ever received.

Weasel and I discussed this email and have decided it is a corporate decision to cut costs on products that cost more than the regular production run products.  You see, Utah is a state that requires beer manufacturing companies to only deliver 3.2% alcohol content and the majority of states allow 6% alcohol.  For them to “cut” the alcohol and yet maintain the flavor they have to do something out of the ordinary from the usual run to cut that alcohol down.  Perhaps an evaporative step or something and they are finding the demand in Utah just doesn’t justify that expense.  As a business decision that is a good one, but for me…the consumer…I’m saddened.  I don’t particularly like 6% alcohol beers.  The flavor is usually too strong and the alcohol is certainly more than this guy can handle (not that I can handle the 3.2%).

Since this letter was written and responded to, the stores have been stocking up more Oly than I have ever seen.  Perhaps the distributors are giving the stores a discount price in order to clear out the warehouses…I don’t know, but I’m buying it up like usual, and more so.  They should just bring it to my place and store it here avoiding the middleman.  But they won’t.  I’m betting that by Christmas time I won’t be able to find an Oly that isn’t 6% anywhere in Utah.

In the meantime, I will take the Consumer Relations Representatives words to heart….Indulge Responsibly-Drink Exceptionally!  CHEERS!

September 15, 2016

Bears Butt

UPDATE:  Oct. 6…..Could only pick up 3 12 packs the other day…..:-(

UPDATE: Nov. 2…..Shelf marking Olympia beer has been taken off the shelf in local Walmart and replaced with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer…..:-(

I’m as guilty as the next person to not visit some of the local spots around my home.  I hear this from people all over the nation so I’m not the only one.  How ironic it is that we live so close to some of the biggest attractions in the world and never get around to going and seeing what they are all about.  Well, Sherry and I had heard about the “Oldest Continually operated saloon West of the Mississippi River”, located in Huntsville, Utah and how good their hamburgers are.  We decided yesterday to go for a short drive and have lunch.

The outside of the place is very quaint…rustic logs adorn the outside and hold up the overhead roof.  The doors into the place look like they could be right out of the old west, but they have put handles on them so they don’t swing both ways, but they could be modified easily.  I don’t think the owners want to do that however as they don’t stay open all night.  Sitting on the front bench I felt like I could be watching a gunfight out in the street in front of the place, but what I saw was two LDS missionaries walking our way.

The owner was outside with us at the time and stopped the men as they were going by, went inside and brought them out a cold root beer!  They were very much appreciative!

Nothing says missionaries than a couple of them standing outside a saloon drinking beer (root beer).  A couple of really nice guys.

Inside the place it was rather dark after coming in from a full sunlight world and it took a minute to adjust.  Once that had been accomplished, I could hardly believe what I was seeing!  My eye caught a very dear to me sight…..

Above the bar is a huge collection of animal plaques from the olden days of Olympia Beer company.  When the owner came over to take our order, I said to her, “Now the answer to the question I’m about to ask is ‘YES’….and then I asked her if they had Oly Beer for sale………unfortunately she said no….But then piped up with a cheery…”We do have Rainier….You know…Raineeeerrrrrrrr  Beeeeerrrrrrr!!!!  (To say that you have to sound like a motor cycle revving up, speeding off and shifting gears) I repeated it with her and then ordered one!

The place is amazing!  Look at these pictures of the inside:

And that is just the walls!  I didn’t take what was probably the most famous of all of the mounts on the wall, and that just gives me a reason to go back.  They had a mascot dog (I’m not into breeds of dogs, but I think it was one of those you see with a beer keg under its neck) and when it passed away, they had a shoulder mount made of it and it was hanging above our table.  Another very interesting thing is the ceiling!

In this second picture are several dollar bills that read (one word per dollar bill)….Heather, I love you, will you marry me?…..I don’t know if Heather has ever seen this but I suspect when she woke up from the night before party, she could read it clearly.  If they in fact did get married I hope they have been happy ever since!

What about the meals?  Well, the menu is rather simple and I couldn’t help but think that the franchise “In N Out Burger”, got their idea from these folks….Several styles of hamburgers and one hot dog.

Their is also a sign on the wall that says, they serve beer, hamburgers with chips, beer and don’t have anything like yogurt or any other specialty items (another sign I wish I would have taken a picture of).

Sherry and I ordered the “Mini-Star Burger”, on the suggestion of the owner Leslie and I’m glad we did because it was actually more than we should have eaten.  The Star Burger, as I understand it, is a double cheese burger with a polish knockwurst covered with sautéed unions and all the other fixins.  The mini that we ordered had all that but was only one burger.

If you go, be prepared to use a lot of napkins as Carl’s Junior has nothing on these guys!  Our meal was to die for!  The combination of a perfectly cooked burger and polish sausage, smothered in sweet onions, tomato and pickles!  No ketchup needed Mr. Dry Dog!  Some chips and a very cold beer and there you have it!  A meal fit for a king…or in my case, a Bears Butt!

These ladies treated us really nice….Amy Barker on the left, our chef, and the owner Leslie Sutter on the right!

Head on up there the next time you get a chance!  They have a sign outside welcoming bikers.  I don’t know why you have to welcome a group of bikers, but they do.  They welcome everyone, even skiers….just kiddin….You might even find a card that reads “Bears Butt dot Com”!

Thanks ladies!  We had a wonderful time and a SUPER meal!

June 22, 2016

Bears Butt

Last weekend Weasel, Kenzie and I joined up with Ken and Sam Snyder at the 3D shoot for the upper course portion of the shoot.  The shoot was very fun and those two made it even funner.  They are relatively new to archery, as I am, and it was fun to know not everyone on the course wanted to hit 12’s….hitting foam was what it was all about for us.  Anyway, during the course Sam commented on the fact that he was thirsty.  Weasel and I both had on our backpacks with hydration bladders and we both offered up a drink from the straw.  We were declined, but the fact remained, Sam was thirsty.  During the course, we crossed a stream of clear, cold water a couple of times and Sam looked like he might just lay down next to the water and take a big old drink!  I’m glad he didn’t.

Well, we talked about some of the small, packable filtration units that are on the market and how you can suck water right out of a dirty pond or stream and it will filter out any bad stuff that might be in there.  That got me thinking.  Why would an outdoors person be without something like that?  We were on a hike near Tony’s Grove a few years back and we ran out of water but continued to hike to the next lake instead of turning back.  That was not a very bright thing for us to do.  Had we had one of the filtration units on us, we would have been fine.

Well, yesterday, I had to stop in at Smith and Edwards to pick up some stuff Sherry had purchased and she showed me a small devise called  a “Sawyer Mini”.  It is a compact little water filtration unit that will filter up to 100,000 gallons of water before you have to discard it.

This little thing fits in the palm of your hand!  Comes with a small, 2 cup size bladder, a straw and a plunger to clean out any moss or junk that might tend to plug it up.  You can screw the bladder onto the “input” end of the filter, or you can screw on a common plastic water bottle.  BUT, you don’t need the bladder or a water bottle to make it work.  Just lay down next to a stream or lake, put the end into the water and suck through the straw.  They claim it will filter 99.999999999% of any E-coli, giardia, salmonella, cholera and an assortment of other bad for you stuff that might be in the water source.  AND it will filter up to 100,000 gallons of water.  Think about it!  100,000 gallons of water!  If you drank one gallon of water a day and used this filter to drink it, you could use it for 274 years!  100,000/365 = 274!  Or in other words, you and 273 friends could all use it every day for one year before you needed another one.

I put mine in my backpack!

Smith and Edwards (The Ikea for Rednecks store)

sells these little units for about $20!  Twenty bucks!  But after talking to the guy in charge of making sure the store has a supply of them they will sell out fast once the word gets out about them!

I suggest you hurry your little butt right down there and pick one up….Tell them Bears Butt sent you!  It won’t get you any discount, but it will make them smile!  And then you can enjoy 100,000 gallons of worry free stream and/or lake mountain water drinking!

May 25, 2016

Bears Butt

About a year ago, I was looking on Google Earth and located a small pond high above any access roads near home, at that time I told myself…Butt, you need to make that hike!  It isn’t as though I’m into hiking all that much, it’s more that I like to find out of the way places that might hold a game animal I’m in pursuit of.  At this pond there could be deer, turkey, moose, elk, grouse….all of those critters live and play around this place.  At the same time I also saw, not too far away, the remnants of an old cabin.  I figured I could hike and visit both some day.

Well, this old body of mine will be 67 come August and if I’m going to be doing any hiking I figure I best be getting on with it.  I needed a full day, good weather and an excuse to go.  Yesterday I had two out of the three and chose to “do it”!  What do I mean I had two out of the three?  I had nice weather.  An excuse to go…turkey hunting.  But I only had until 10 o’clock….I had promised Wapiti and Tracker I would meet them in Logan at 11 a.m. to do a mountain man demonstration to a group of 90 some 4th graders!

I was at the parking spot at 5:30 a.m. and it was just light enough I could travel without the aid of a flashlight.  I also had the makings of a full moon (not quite).

So, up the trail I had never been on before I went.  It is quite steep at the beginning and I thought as I plodded along that if it continued to be that steep, I could see I was not going to make it.  But after a couple of switch backs it mellowed out a lot.

As you can see the trail is very well defined and so a lot of folks use it.  It used to be a trail that ATV’s used, but that activity has been banned and so the trail continues to grow in to the path it is today.  I noticed some bicycle tire marks in some of the muddy spots.  So some very ambitious people are using it for that.  I know I could not bike up, or down for that matter, this trail.

I took pictures every once in awhile to document the trail so that YOU can see what it looks like if you ever decide to venture up it.

My goal was to make it to a pond that is situated just to the lower right of this point of pines on the hill.

I’m still quite a ways from there and I trudged on, all the time hoping a turkey would present itself for a shot.

The morning sunrise from up on this trail was very pretty.

And as I climbed and climbed my goal became closer and closer.  Again, the pond sits just to the right and down from that point of pines on that far hill.

Soon the trail began a slight down hill grade and I knew I was nearing a junction in the trail.  If I were to go to the left at the junction, it will lead me to the pond, the trail to the right will take me to old Petes Cabin.

It was an amazing morning for a hike like this one.  It had rained pretty hard the day before and so everything was wet and the air was crisp with the smell of the rain still in the air.  Not a breeze was blowing but I could hear running water rushing down the narrow draw to my left.  Some of that water would be coming from the pond, while other water would be coming from other narrow draws that seemed to converge on this spot.

I chose the left trail and forged the small stream.

The picture is looking back toward the junction in the main trail.  I took the picture after I made it across the water without getting too wet.  On up the trail a little ways farther I found an old fire ring where someone who spent a night or two camping had made.  What a nice little hide out for a quiet camp.

In the background you can see the trail climbing up the hill beyond the fire ring.  That was going to lead me to the pond.  Looking back toward the fire ring you can see the nice little grassy spot to pitch your tent.

It was only 100 or so yards from here to the pond and the nice little meadow that it sits in.  I really expected to see deer, moose and turkey in this meadow and I moved slowly and quietly up to it.

You should be able to put these two pictures together  and see how it looks.  The meadow stretches for 3 or 400 yards off to the south ending in a large stand of quakies.  A perfect spot for deer, moose, turkey and elk.  But wait!  Perhaps a fox as well!

I stayed around the pond calling for turkeys for about a half hour and decided I was wasting my time.  Except for the fact that it was such a pretty spot in the world to be…peaceful, quiet and beautiful.  I hope to return this fall.

Well, with it being around 7:30 a.m., I decided I would venture up to Old Petes place to see what that was all about.  What I didn’t know was in store for me was the extremely steep climb up portions of this trail!  And how narrow the trail is in some places.

There it is!!!!  My first view of the cabin from down below!  I knew I would make it at this point and so I continued my slow ascent until suddenly there it was!

In its day I’m sure Old Pete enjoyed staying up in this out of the way place watching his flock of sheep grazing the hillsides.  But those days are long gone now.  Luckily for me the cabin is still in as good of shape as it is.

I took a picture down toward the pond area to give you an idea as to how far it is from the pond up to the cabin.

That narrow strip just out of the shadow, way down there, is the meadow and pond.  I’d guess somewhere close to 1/2 mile, maybe 3/4 mile.  Don’t be scared of the steepness of the terrain…..the trail makes two switchback turns on the way up. 😉

Well, what a great place to be at 8:30 in the morning!  Time for a snack!

It was sure a pleasure to have had the health to be able to climb up to this beautiful spot.

After munching down a whole can of Kipper Snacks by myself, I looked at the time….8:45!  I have to be in Logan by 11, so that gives me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get off this mountain and drive to Logan.  I gotta hustle!

My trip down the mountain was pretty much uneventful until near the end when a hen turkey putted her way around a bush and then came straight at me!  When I finally decided to take a picture of her and reached for the camera, she noticed me in the trail and high tailed it out of Dodge as quickly as she could.  Why can’t I get a dumb tom turkey to do that?

I made it to Logan by 11 and got things arranged at the school before Wapiti and Tracker got there.  Our show went off with only one minor hitch….I demonstrated how to start a fire with flint and steel and had a good smoke going on right under a smoke detector.  90 plus kids were all yelling as loud as they could….”GO BEARS BUTT, GO BEARS BUTT, GO BEARS BUTT…..”  I’m glad the alarm didn’t go off!  We won’t do that trick again inside a building….always load and shoot parade loads outside and always start your flint and steel fires outside….two very important lessons for any of you who like to show off your mountain man skills!

May 24, 2016

Bears Butt

For what it’s worth, I’ve been driving this truck for Allans Plants, delivering flowers and bedding plants to mostly the Salt Lake City area.  I can usually make two trips from Pleasant View to SLC and make a couple of stops in SLC at each delivery.  It takes about an hour each way and usually 15 to 30 minutes at each drop (nursery) to unload carts full of plants.  It’s actually a pretty easy job, but does require some upper body strength to keep the tall carts from tipping over with the load of plants while pulling them off the loading ramp.  Other than that I get a lot of free time to think while driving both directions.

I have to say the Allan family works VERY hard at this and it’s obviously their true love.  To plant, grow and nurture what every gardener loves…flowers and vegetables.  I call them “babies” and you might say I’m sort of a doctor who delivers babies….just saying.

Yesterday was a big day for the delivery service I’m in, because tomorrow, May 8 is Mothers Day, and what better for Mother than flowers!?!  I made 3 stops but had to make two runs into town.  My first two stops took me to about 3300 S. and 9th East and I dropped off eight full carts of plants.  Hanging baskets make wonderful Mothers Day gifts and this nursery got a few yesterday.  Then it was off to Tooele for my drop off there.  Mostly vegetables at this place and the rain was just beginning to fall when I got there.  The rain wasn’t so bad, but the lightning was sort of scary.  I was on one end of the metal cart while a nursery worker was on the other.  He made a remark about lightning and how it was not a comfortable feeling holding onto a metal cart while it was hitting around us.  I reassured him he would not know it struck if it did in fact hit the cart.  He was less than amused.

From Tooele is was back to the plant plant for another batch of carts full of Mothers Day fun!

This last run took me to 9000 South and then West to a fairly large nursery there.  This one probably does the bulk of nursery business in that neck of the Salt Lake Valley and they were busy as heck when I got there.  I was even being asked by customers if we had any “red flowered plants with green leaves”…..That is a joke among us….I had to even tell some shoppers they could not take the plants off the racks because they had not been inventoried yet.  People are funny.  One young lady even waited while I pulled a cart off the truck because she could see some pink flowers on them and wanted to see them up close.  She went off and bought something else, even though those pink flowered plants were very pretty and of course they had green leaves as well.  Have you ever seen and pink flowered plants with green leaves?  Everyone should have some of them.

OK, now for the reason for this posting.  Traffic!  My late afternoon trip began about 3 p.m. from the Ogden area and scooted me into the Salt Lake City rush hour traffic on Interstate 15, the major carrier of traffic North and South through the state.  For those of you familiar with the Interstate situation in SLC, it includes a major junction of Interstate 80 which runs East and West across the nation and carries millions of people from one end of the country to the other.  And of course this is Mothers Day weekend and more people want to get back to see Mom, which added somewhat to the traffic situation.  The SLC area also has a stretch of Interstate 215 in it (called the Belt Route), which skirts the town of SLC itself, but connects all the surrounding towns as it goes.  Each town needs an exit and entrance and that adds considerably to the traffic issues.  The locals call the junction of I-15 and I-80, the “Spaghetti Bowl”!

Photo courtesy of the internet.

I forgot to mention State Highway 201…That is a major highway that routes folks East and West out of and into downtown from the western part of the valley.  Sort of a quicker way to get to the Jazz games if you live out by the Bingham Copper mine area or Tooele area.

With all those lanes of highway, you would think the traffic would flow like water through a pipe.  Each driver picking their lane that would take them to their destination and off we go at just over the speed limit of 65 mph.  Zip, Zip, Zip!

As I travelled South through this spaghetti bowl, my exit was 9000 South, the split off for I-80 is about 2500 South, no problem because I still have a goodly distance to go before I have to insure my big old truck is in the far right lane and ready to exit when I get there.  But wait!  Around 3300 South, or is it 4500 South, there is a bottle neck that gets folks on and off the Belt Route.  If my travel takes me South toward Las Vegas and I need to go West on 215, I have to get over to the right lanes pretty quickly or I will miss my turn.  There are three exit lanes going that way.  Oh, yes and of course there are three lanes coming off 215 that will take that traffic to the South….hey that’s the direction I’m trying to go!  Those guys are merging into my lane!

Well, everything was rather congested before I got to 4500 South and then it seemed like everyone wanted to be on the same road and in the same lane at the same time.  HOLD ON FOLKS!  I’m in this lane!  Around the 7000 South area I was able to take my phone out and snap a couple of pictures.  You can see “I’m not driving” at this point in time.

I see open space…close it up people!

Add a little bit of rain to the mix and there you have it!  Wet spaghetti!

This is only part of the issue.  I’m still trying to get to my drop off point.  The busy little nursery that carries all the plants mom wants for mothers day.  Maybe all these people are trying to go where I’m trying to go…?!?  Well, I made it about 4:20 and was able to unload my 4 full carts of goodies.  I’ve already told you about the shoppers.  I didn’t get away from there until nearly 5 p.m.  As most of you know I retired about 12 years ago and have not had to deal with traffic like this for that long and now I find myself back into it with a big old truck at my disposal.  When I look in the rear view mirrors of that truck, it looks like the back end of it has just left Willard, while the front is almost to the 9000 South exit.  I need to get over.  Make space people, I’m coming over!

Back on the freeway (freeway….sounds like a joke this time of day) and headed North….back to home!  The red and green lights are flashing at the end of the “on ramp” telling me when it is my turn to “go for it”….only two vehicles per light change and don’t you move before the green is in your lane or the automatic ticket picture taker will get you!  ZOOM!  I’m off as quickly as a 40 foot truck can zoom!  I turn my left blinker on as soon as I clear the solid line, indicating I can change lanes as soon as someone will be kind enough to make a space big enough.  Nobody seems to want to move or give up their position in this congestion, but soon a smallish black car decides he is going to lose in the battle if he doesn’t hit his brakes and let me over.  AHHH!  Now I’m in a lane that will take me all the way home.  As I sit there waiting for the millions of cars ahead of me to decide it is time to push on the gas a little, I check the time on my phone…5:05 p.m.  I should be home by 6!  Granted I’m still just a bit North of 9000 South.  Suddenly I realize I’m going almost 10 mph!  Hey folks we are beginning to move!  YEAHHHHaaaa!  At 6:10 my phone buzzes me that I’m getting a text….sitting in traffic, I see it is Sherry…”Are you OK”?…is the message, and since I’m not moving I hit the call button.  “Hi Hon, what time is it?  6:10; I should be home in an hour.  Ya, I’m just past Lagoon.  See ya, love ya”!   Just past Lagoon!!!  From 9000 South to just past Lagoon in an hours time.  I do recall getting the truck up to 35 mph in the Centerville area, that seemed like we were cruising pretty good.

Well, I made it home about 7:30, so that wasn’t too far off my guess.  There is something magic about the West gate of Hill Air Force Base that is a magnet for slow moving traffic.  From that point to home it was 60 to 60 mph with the rain beating down so badly you could not see anything in front of you, but that did not matter to the traffic…gotta make up for the lost time back behind us!  ZOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!

OK, so I had a lot of thinking time and I decided we, the people, are our own worst enemy!  My observation was that over 90 percent of every car on that road, going North and South, East and West had ONE PERSON in it!  From Clearfield to 9000 South and I’m sure from Tooele to Park City had the same.  Talk about air pollution, wasted time, the few wrecked cars I saw (which was amazing in and of itself).  People!  WE have to do something about this!  I don’t have the answer, but it’s pretty bad when a little old Willardite can see what is causing the problem on our interstate system.  I’m certain the same issue takes place in the morning hours as people “try” to get to work….everyone is late (as usual), which causes road rage, overzealous driving habits and of course the major crashes that take place.  Going home, people are exhausted from there daily work routine, tired from lack of sleep (last night, which caused them to be late this morning) and because it is Friday night, there isn’t any big hurry to get home anyway.

Puttzing along as I was I thought, people could car pool, but then everyone in the car pool would have to have the same work ethic.  The work place could promote car pooling and give extra money to those who do!  There is an enterprising tool….management….Green thinking, green palming!  Work places could alter their start and end times to miss the major commuting hours!  Here you go management folks!  I guess the bottom line is people need to give up “their freedom”, in order to gain more time to themselves!

Happy Mothers Day all you mothers!

May 7, 2016

Bears Butt

Last week word came out that the Utah Department of Environmental Quality was offering a special “exchange” for gas powered lawn mowers and weed eaters.  In their writeup it said that a gas lawnmower polluted the air about the same as driving over 100 miles or so (I don’t recall exactly the distance you would drive a car to equate to mowing your lawn, but the distance was substantial).  With that, Windy, Weasel and I began our dialogue.

Do we want to play in this program or not…yes.  Do we want a couple of lawn mowers and a couple of weed eaters….yes.  Ok, let’s work out the logistics.

I read and re-read the rules and came to the conclusion that in order to “play”, we would have to put up the full purchase price on our credit card to the tune of $550 for a lawn mower and a weed eater.  Then after the exchange of a gas mower and weed eater (gas and oil removed), they would credit us with a substantial amount of credit for both and the end result would be a lawn mower for $100 and the weed eater for $25.  The credit would be applied back to the card in one weeks time after the exchange.  Windy read and surmised the same as I.  They had roughly 1,000 mowers and 500 weed eaters for this program.

So, this morning was the day for pre-registration and the paying of the money.  Beginning at 8 a.m. and only on line at the DEQ website.

Windy showed up at 7:58 and we logged into the site….at 8:01 (our time), the site opened for business and Windy was rocking his purchase of one lawn mower and one weed eater.  In the end he reserved his two units and only had to pay for the two finished price units plus sales tax, $133 and some change.  A very welcome surprise for both of us.  When he logged in, we found we had to pick a time for the exchange on April 23 (Saturday).  He chose 9:15, as the 9 O’clock time was full.  Now it was my turn to log in and make my purchase of one weed eater.  The rules would only allow one household to purchase one mower and one weed eater or one only of your choice.  Well, we really wanted to end up with two weed eaters and one lawn mower anyway, so I was to go on and buy one weed eater.

He logged out, I logged in….but the wait for the website to upload was not going well.  We waited and the little wheel on the tab turned slowly on my Chrome browser.  Then it crashed.  I tried again with the same results.  So I switched over to Firefox and tried.  It came up!  YEAHHH!  But then when I went to register the earliest time was 1 p.m.!  NO WAY am I going to go back down to Salt Lake city at 1 p.m. to pick up my weed eater!  I opted out.

By my computers time it was 8:19…19 minutes from the start of registering and they had only 23 lawn mowers and 4 weed eaters left!  19 minutes!!!!!

So, what did we end up reserving?  Well, of course one lawn mower and one weed eater.

A Kobalt 40 volt electric lawn mower!  And a Kobalt 40 volt electric weed whacker!

We will see how well they hold up, but the lawn mower comes with a 5 year warrantee.

Not a bad morning if you ask me.

Bears Butt

April 13, 2016