Getting ready for the hunt always brings on interesting things.  Lately it’s been getting the driving rigs ready for the mountain roads.  The Blue Goose appears to be ready since Magpie put almost $700 into fixes that it needed.  A full tank of gas will cost another $100 or so and it will be ready to go!  On the other end of the line, The Rack had right at $400 put into it with new tires and some steering bars and alignment…it’s ready to go!

I have not heard anything about Zeke, but I’m sure Fat Duck has it ready as well.  At least my atv is ready and this year it is carrying The Cocoon!  What with the weather changing drastically in a downward trend this week, the heat from the engine just might be the ticket to staying warm and comfy!

Our little hunting camp trys to come up with something new and fun each year and it will be interesting to see what happens this year.  One thing for sure is the price of gas will have us doing more walking, glassing etc. and not so much driving around, even though a certain amount of driving around is always done.

I’ve been looking at satellite imagery of the area lately and have some hikes in mind.  I have discovered patches of pines and quakies that have been so obviously in my face this whole time I was surprised when I noticed them in the imagery.  I’ll be hiking into one of them and probably will do that on the second day of the hunt.  That hike will be both a hunt and a workout so I don’t lose the conditioning I have built up so far in my workouts.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is the coyotes!  $50 bounty on each one and that sure would help with some of the expenses of this hunt.  If you shoot one, you have to have the gps coordinates to record on the paperwork, so make sure you have a pretty good idea as to where you are.  You can get those off Google Earth back home if need be, but you will have to place the cursor over the spot where you killed the coyote.  And for those of you who may not know, only the skull cap and lower jaw are needed to collect the bounty.  So, you don’t have to take the whole animal off the mountain.  Just start at one ear and skin it across the top of the animals head to the other ear and cut it off.  Then pry open the mouth and remove the lower jaw.  Of course the jaw bone has to be cleaned up really well before the DWR will accept it for the bounty.  You can do that in your spare time.  Lots of coyotes live in our deer country, let’s collectively take a bunch of them off the mountain this year!  Kill a coyote, save some deer.

Back to the fixing of the rigs, I found this little site that sells some interesting devises to mount on your 4X4 driving rig…Why buy tires when you can buy these?

http://www.alpinesurvival.com/4x4_tracked-jeeps_tracked-trucks.html

Three more days until the hunt begins!  Happy dreams!

Bears Butt

Sept. 22, 2013