14 degree snowshoe hike today

[Deleted member 107796]

Thanks, Eric. Now I have an easy project with a pair of Kastles in the garage!

 

[Australia]

Two friends and my dog accompanied me on today's snowshoe hike into the Cascades. It was a mite nippy at 14 degrees where we parked, but partly cloudy, and some nice sunshine time to time. We've been getting hammered with snowstorms for the past week. The snow was deep, fluffy, and just plain nice!

I was armed with my trusty 45 1911, carried emergency supplies in my pack. Used my small MSR snowshoes. ALMOST went back to my big old 10x56" wood & rawhide snowshoes, but I really like these light, small shoes. There were a couple of points today when the fresh snow would have been better handled by the big old snowshoes, but for the most part the new, lightweight, little shoes performed well.

One of my buddies caught me striking a pose and not smiling. Why I wasn't smiling in the face of such natural beauty, I don't know. It was gorgeous in the late morning sun.

Ya, despite my efforts, it appears that I may have put on (may?) some weight over the winter. Sigh... I figure if I hike year 'round, getting into hunting shape by September/October isn't as tough.

The Cascades!

Clark the German Wirehaired Pointer:

That dog loves his hikes, especially the snowy hikes!

We ran across squirrel, mouse, bunny, deer and coyote tracks, and some that looked like bobcat to me, but I wasn't sure. Clark was doing a LOT of air-scenting before and after we came across the deer tracks, which appeared to be being followed by coyote tracks... He knew what was going on and wanted to follow, but listened to my commands of "No bird. Leave it." He's a good boy. Though he's 65 pounds and strong, he's also 10 years old and a mere domestic dog. I don't think he'd have a chance against a couple of coyotes.

Let alone a cougar!

Good hike. Guy

Absolutely fabulous photos and you don't know how envious I am to see that kind of country although people tell me that living in snow is a pain but for someone who has never seen a white Christmas only 40deg C at Christmas it looks great
Snow shoes Hmm do they tier you out having your legs apart when your walking ?
Your dog sure looks like a pretty retriever but not much good down under as the only dogs that seem to survive in the bush down here are Kelpies or blue cattle dogs as a lot of others are curios about snakes and spiders
Really appreciate this post which makes a nice change from the Balistic chatter and is more about real hunting
Cheers from down under

 

[Guy M]

Well thank you sir! We've had really good snow this year, so my little group of friends has been out on snowshoes a couple of times a week lately. Yesterday was 5 miles, with a 1200' elevation gain - of course we lost all that elevation going back down to the trailhead later.

Modern snowshoes aren't too wide, so the legs aren't spread unduly wide, a bit, but not bad. Pretty good way for a retiree like me to stay reasonably fit.

We've been doing a lot of hiking in areas where I often hunt, and have seen some game at lower elevations. These bighorn rams were a nice surprise:

Regards, Guy

 

[26Reload]

Bighorns in the cascades.....hmmmm...only about one are that could happen in Oregon....maybe a few in Washington.....
But where's the Bigfoot pictures....keep that camera ready....

 

[Australia]

Well thank you sir! We've had really good snow this year, so my little group of friends has been out on snowshoes a couple of times a week lately. Yesterday was 5 miles, with a 1200' elevation gain - of course we lost all that elevation going back down to the trailhead later.

Modern snowshoes aren't too wide, so the legs aren't spread unduly wide, a bit, but not bad. Pretty good way for a retiree like me to stay reasonably fit.

We've been doing a lot of hiking in areas where I often hunt, and have seen some game at lower elevations. These bighorn rams were a nice surprise:

Regards, Guy

Great shots Guy
My name is Geoff so tell me are these goats good to eat? or are they just trophies
Over here we are either hunting for the meat or eradicating pests only some times some of my friends take a trophy deer
most of the hunt-able animals here are introduced species that have grown up like Samba deer or Fallow
We have a lot of goats,pigs, camels and sometimes domestic cats that have gone Ferrel plus domestic dogs that have gone wild and some have attacked farmers in packs like your wolves but the 308 or my trusty 243 mouser does the job
Anyway keep the photo posts going, there great

 

[Guy M]

Geoff - these are America's wild sheep, and these guys are pretty good sized rams. It's a difficult tag to draw. Here in Washington, it's considered a "once in a lifetime" tag. IF a hunter is drawn, that's the only time he'll be drawn for the bighorn sheep tag. Thousands of us apply for the tags every year, and only a few are issued, so it's a pretty special hunt. The mature rams can go 300 pounds or so, and are very strong.

Folks tell me that they are good to eat!

I content myself to hunting them with a camera, because I doubt I'll ever beat the odds and actually get drawn for a tag. Sure hope I do, there are several herds fairly close to my home here in Chelan County, Washington.

Young ram:

Couple of rams I came across while out snowshoe hiking. I didn't have much of a camera on hand, sure wish that I had!

Regards, Guy

 

[Australia]

Geoff - these are America's wild sheep, and these guys are pretty good sized rams. It's a difficult tag to draw. Here in Washington, it's considered a "once in a lifetime" tag. IF a hunter is drawn, that's the only time he'll be drawn for the bighorn sheep tag. Thousands of us apply for the tags every year, and only a few are issued, so it's a pretty special hunt. The mature rams can go 300 pounds or so, and are very strong.

Folks tell me that they are good to eat!

I content myself to hunting them with a camera, because I doubt I'll ever beat the odds and actually get drawn for a tag. Sure hope I do, there are several herds fairly close to my home here in Chelan County, Washington.

Young ram:

Couple of rams I came across while out snowshoe hiking. I didn't have much of a camera on hand, sure wish that I had!

Regards, Guy

Guy that's interesting about the Tag quote
Here we don't have any quoters except for professional Kangaroo shooters that shoot for human consumption
However they can clear an area or reduce the numbers by about 150 per night but they must be head shot otherwise its a $300 fine
With Pigs its as many as you have bullets
In one area the local rangers had to get helicopters in to reduce numbers and they got 4500 in two days in large herding type traps and then electrocuted and bulldozed them in a hole
I had to laugh at one of the people that posted that they like to hunt pigs with a knife - have a look at my avetar

 

[Guy M]

Ya, with the bighorn sheep - they're a native animal and not found in huge numbers. Meat hunters once nearly wiped them out, along with the very different mountain goat, but now it's "sport hunting" only, with very restricted tags.

Sheep hunting has become very expensive, and very rare. Most of us hunters here in the USA will never actually go on a sheep hunt. Deer yes, sheep, no.

Regards, Guy

 

[therifleman556]

I had to laugh at one of the people that posted that they like to hunt pigs with a knife - have a look at my avetar

I grew up on a hog farm; even raised domestic that would be a huge pig.

 

[Australia]

I grew up on a hog farm; even raised domestic that would be a huge pig.

yep some of these things are big because they get into oats and no body hunts them in some areas - most are only small and nasty but I heard of one sited in the gulf of Carpentaria (northern point of Australia)that the farmer there described it as a steer - all of these started out originally as domestic pigs that have gone Ferrel and they change after a couple of generations -Captain Cook was to blame same as we have a problem with Camels that the early explorers introduced - tried a long distance shot on one some time ago with a 7mmRem Mag measured at 800metres and it dropped like a hot potato but I must say it is very easy shooting Camels because its like shooting a side of a house