BCBOY's 2012 Family Adventures

BCBOY

Long Time Member
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Good to see the 2012 HAC is underway.

I always go into a new year with high expectations for what the year is going to bring when it comes to our family outdoor adventures. With how the winter has progessed thus far, I expect great things for 2012. I have already been able to acheive a goal of mine. I have always wanted to shoot a lynx but have never really spent any great amount of time hunting them. I have purchased a lynx tag several times over the years but at $7, it's not like it hurts when you don't cut a tag. Last winter I worked for several months in an area that held a lot of lynx. Some days I'd see 3 or 4 on the way to and from work. It was after the season had closed and these cats were pretty dang bold. I packed my camera hoping to take some good pics of them, but it always seemed whenever I'd have the camera, they would dart for the thick stuff and would never give me a good photo opportunity. When I wouldn't bring the camera, they seemed to sit there and pose in the sunshine and let me get really close. So this year, when I found out I'd be working in the same general area again, I set a couple goals. 1. To harvest a lynx and 2. To capture some live pics of lynx.

The season started in Nov and I packed the .22 to work with me many days. Before Christmas I saw a few lynx but they all darted fast with no shot opportunity. Then one day in early January I encountered a casual one at last light and of course, that was a day I didn't bring the rifle. I had the camera though and was able to capture this fuzzy image.
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Although not a good image, it was a start. I packed the rifle for several days afterwards but didn't get a look at that one again. Then one day in mid Jan I didn't pack the rifle and I had this lynx run across the road and then come to a stop and sit and stare into the treeline. I assume it was focused on a snowshoe hare that must have been holed up in that brush. It was just barely shooting light and I was kicking myself for not having the rifle. In the lowlight I was able to capture this photo with the flash on. The lynx remained focused on whatever was in the brush and wouldn't look my way even when it was hit by a snowball. While the image was better, it still was not great. But things were looking up.
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The rifle was riding with me again and 2 days later, on the way home from work, I was able to see that same lynx again and it provided me a good shot opportunity. One shot from my ol' .22 and I harvested my first lynx.
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With my tag cut now I had the rest of the winter to try to capture some better photos. Here are some pics I've taken thus far.
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I am fortunate to have Wells Gray Provincial Park as my backyard. It is 524,990 hectares (1.3 million acres) of pristine wilderness. The jewel of the crown of Wells Gray is Helmcken Falls, which plunges 141 metres and ranks as one of Canada's highest falls. I go to the falls many times a year and am always in awe of it's emense power and beauty. The majority of this winter has been mild but we did have a cold snap in January so I went up to see how the snowcone at the bottom of the falls was forming this year. In really cold winters it can get absolutely huge and is a world class ice climbing destination.
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Mist from the falls
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My hound, Timber, at another set of falls in Wells Gray, Dawson Falls.
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The Shadden
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Here are some moose pics I've been able to capture thus far this winter.
This little bull was still packin' bone as of Jan 26th. You can see all the bark on his face from him rubbing trying to knock his antlers off. Most other bulls were shed out by New Years.
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A shed out bull on Jan 29th.
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A shed out bull with some good growth for Feb 3rd.
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I've had some fun playing with our local Cali rams several times this winter. Here's some pics from Jan 8th.

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Here are some more pics from the winter.

Immature bald eagle on a roadkill muley
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Immature bald eagle on dead muley in the river.
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Black-capped chickadee
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Pine grosbeak
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Cedar waxwings
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Lion track
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Muley does
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Immature bald eagle
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More California bighorn rams
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Another winter sunrise
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Here's some pics from the last few weeks.

Bald Eagle at sunset
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Red-tailed Hawk
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Whiskey Jack (Canada Jay)
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California Bighorns in a late winter snowstorm
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A good sign spring is on the way when the Canadian Geese show up again.
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Trumpeter Swans
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Red-tailed Hawk
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A chewed oldie but still nice to find the first ATL muley shed of the year.
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A fresh track from a female lion. There were a couple sets of small kitten tracks with her.
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The lion's liar with a window for a view.
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The first bear track of the year.
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A sure sign of spring. A buttercup.
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Another sign of spring. A yellow-bellied marmot is awake.
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A mountain bluebird
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Throughout my forestry career and time spent in the outdoors I've noticed a trend. It doesn't matter where I am, Pine Marten love Chicken! Seems whenever I have leftover chicken in my lunch, one of these rascals shows up and wants me to share. Here are some pics of the one I encountered today.
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Here he is carrying away his prize, shake and bake chicken.
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On the Easter Longweekend my son and I hiked into the backcountry to check out some falls.

Cody and his Lab, Nahanni.
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Here's some more pics from the Easter Weekend.

Coyote
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Long-billed Curlew
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Mallards
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Common Mergansers
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Canadian Goose
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Mountain Bluebirds
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Here are some pictures of this weekend's shed hunting. It has been a pretty slow shed season for me due to how slow the snow is leaving. I did manage to find 14 moose paddles on Sunday though. No browns though.

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A fresh winter rub. A lot of times you can find the paddles right under rubs like this one. No such luck this time though.

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Here are some more pictures from the last couple of weeks.

More Cali Rams
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Western Meadowlark
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American Kestrel
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Ospreys
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Red-tailed Hawk
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Immature Golden Eagle
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Mountain Bluebird
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Hooded Merganser
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Ring-necked Duck
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Sandhill Crane
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Spring Muleys. The one buck has some good growth already.
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Some kind of moth
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A pile of toads. I'm assuming they were breeding.
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Skunk Cabbage in bloom. A sure sign the bears will be out soon.
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The first casual trip for spring bear.

This is the first bear we encountered this year. Both the kids decided to pass on it. They are both looking for something BIG this year. :)
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Coffee Break
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My daughter found this little guy.
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Trumpeter Swan
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Canadian Geese
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Ruffie
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Cow Moose
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Here are some more pics from the last couple of weeks.
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Cow Moose
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Young Momma In A Tree. Her yearling cubs went all the way to the top of this fir.
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Turkey Vulture
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Muley Doe
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Fairy Slipper
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May was a busy month hunting bears. My son, Cody, was the first to pull the pin on this big black. Was a perfect setup. The bear was on a switchback when we saw it and instead of bailing through it, it actually rounded the top side and stayed on the old logging road. It was heavily timbered between the switch so we cut through the timber to hit the road above us. The bear was looking over its shoulder expecting us to come up the road around the switch. Cody dropped to one knee and made another great one shot kill with his ol' Model 99 300 Savage.
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We had family and friends come from Alberta to hunt bears with us. Two of them were successful on their first ever bears. We had a great time with lots of fun and laughter.

Chris' bear.
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Bo's bear.
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I pulled the pin on this big boar. My daughter, Jesse, and I set up as he worked his way towards us. He was in a depression and we could just see the top of his head as he mossied up the hill towards us. I felt the wind on my neck and I knew it was just a matter of time before he would bust us. He crested the hill at less than 20 yards and instantly caught our scent. I was hoping for Jesse to pull the trigger just as his chest came into view but it wasn't much more than a second before he spun to bail. As he spun, I squeezed.
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Some more random pics from May.

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Early Velvet Muley
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Early Velvet Moose
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Bared Owl
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Big Ol' Black
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My wife, Shannon, and I went for a little hike into Dawson Falls.
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Here are some pics from the last week. We did a trip to a good bear spot of mine. I was surprised to see that spring was just starting. Seemed the bears still haven't woke up in any abundance.
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A rare 'bigfoot' track.
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Saw this wolf yesterday morning. It was a long ways away and hit the timber just as I got the camera on it. I worked my way over to that piece of timber and went for a little walk with the camera. I let out a few howls and had the wolf come in and check me out at 30 yards. I was disappointed no close photo opportunity presented itself.
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Here are some pics from yesterday. In the afternoon, Shannon and I decided to check some of the local waterfalls out.

Spahats Falls
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Saw this fella on the way up to Silvertip Falls.
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Silvertip Falls
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In the evening the kids and I went out above the house to look for some bears. Didn't find any but we did see some sign.
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Ran into this lynx which provided us with some good entertainment. Seeing these critters in a snowfree period is pretty rare.
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Here are some pics from yesterday.
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The Clearwater River was rippin' through Baily's Chute.
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Some nice sized Western Red Cedar
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I hiked into the south rim of Helmcken Falls to see the falls from a different point of view.
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The Fall 2012 BC Limited Entry Draw was conducted today. I was able to pull Grizzly, Nov. Any Bull Moose and Muley Doe. My son got a muley doe draw and my daughter got NIL. This is the second year in a row that I have pulled a Bull Moose tag, granted this year I drew on my Second Choice, which means the unit had less than 1:1 draw odds. It will be a tuff hunt and I will be needing lots of SNOW or else the hunt will be an epic fail. ;) I will giver a good try regardless. The Grizz tag is a low odds unit and it too will be a hard one to fill. I reallly would like to get one above treeline in Sept. Come August, I'll be doing a bunch of highcountry scouting to see if I can find one stuffing his face with blueberries. If I can't find one in the early season above treeline, I'll focus on the late season when they are eating Kokannee along the creeks and rivers. I've had this draw before, back in 2006. That year I only saw one grizz during the season and he was way way up in the highcountry. I glassed him up from the valley bottom and had my then 10 year old son with me. It wasn't in the cards for me to try to make a play on that bear. But now my son is 16 and he'll be more than game to tag along on an epic backpack hunt with his ol' man.
 
Here are some pics from yesterday evening. Some good early season growth.
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I really like this freak. Lookin' forward to see what he turns into in the next couple months. As far as I can tell he is a 8X3 with what looks like a double mainbeam configuration on his NT side.
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This weekend we decided to do a little road trip 3 1/2 hrs up the highway to Jasper National Park. Here are some pics from the day.
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I was hoping to see more elk but we weren't really there for primetime. Did manage to find this guy though.
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We saw several black bears but these two decided to give us a little show.
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Athabasca Falls
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Back to BC I was hoping for some good shots of the setting sun on Mt Robson, but the peak was pretty much covered by cloud. The kids posed at the park sign though.
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Moose Lake
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On Sunday we decided to go for a hike above the house and have lunch in the highcountry.
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Some highcountry pics from the BC Day Longweekend.
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As you can see the bugs are still pretty bad.
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I had found this old mountain caribou shed a few years back and it was still right where I had left it.
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Enjoying the view
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Some pics from the last week.
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My camera doesn't do to well in low light but I kinda like how this capture turned out.
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I snuck up on this young yote as he was mousing.
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This past weekend we took advantage of the good weather and decided to do some scouting for my fall grizzly tag. Cody and I hit a piece of highcountry that I have seen grizz in before. The last time I had drawn this unit was in 2006. My brother and I glassed up a whopper grizz that summer chowin' down on blueberries in this piece of highcountry. This year the berries are really late. They have just started to rippen in the low elevation over the last week. I thought I'd check the highcountry anyways and my suspicions were confirmed. No berries at all. Another indicator of grizz in the area I was looking for was fresh diggings, which normally can easily be glassed up. This weekend we saw no diggings whatsoever. This is all part why I scout. It helps ya make the decisions of where and when to focus your time. Now knowing what the conditions are in the highcountry, I don't think I'll bother wasting a bunch of time hunting the early part of the season. With a marginal berry crop even down low, the bears should be good and hungry in the later part of the season. They should be focusing on the kokanee run in Oct and Nov in order to build up their fat stores for a long winter's sleep.
Regardless of not seeing a grizz in the highcountry this weekend, Cody and I had a great time in some spectacular country. Here are some pics.

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A little peek of the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, Mt Robson.
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This golden-mantled ground squirrel was right up on top the mountain.
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Here are some more pics from the weekend.
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A view of Mt Robson from the bottom.
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This past week we spent several days up at my wife's family cabin in the highcountry. Her great grandfather, Nels Nelson built it in the 1940's. It is truly a blessing to be able to enjoy such a wonderful place of peace, solitude and beauty with the family. The cabin is located on a high mountain lake with no access but your own legs and a strong back to carry your gear. It is quite the hoof up the mountain and even though the trail has been there for 70 years, at times it is difficult to follow due to the thick understory of the Interior Wetbelt.
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The early morning view from the front deck.
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An early morning view from the lower sleeping quarters.
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Some more views around the cabin.
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A large snowcave right above the lake.
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I did a lot of hiking and hit a couple summits above the cabin. Here are some of the views from up on top.
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Here are some more pics from the week.

Back in the 40's and 50's the family backpacked rainbow trout up the mountain and stocked the lake. While they ain't got much for size they are fun to play with and are rather tastey too.
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One night I heard a loud noise on the outside of the cabin that sounded way bigger than a packrat. I turned on the flashlight and was surprised to see this guy munchin' on the door handle. If he had of pushed open the door it would have been chaos with the hound in the cabin with us.
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Some of the mountain critters that we saw in abundance.
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I figure I'll take the opportunity to share more about the cabin's history. Nels Nelson and his friend Ken Cook built the cabin in 1942 as a highcountry retreat for their outdoor passions of skiing, mountaineering and hunting. They were hardcore outdoorsmen that lived, worked and played in some of the roughest country that BC has to offer. The cabin was not only a family retreat but they hosted tons and tons of other outdoorsmen who had heard of their oasis in the mountains. Skiers, Mountain Climbers, and lovers of the great outdoors all came over the years to share in the Nelson's generosity and friendship. The cabin log books are full of notes of adventure. Here are some pics from some of the early logbooks and even some writings. I am still in awe at the outdoor heritage my wife and kids are a part of.
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It is really cool that the rack of the dropper buck still hangs inside the cabin.
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The Youth Deer season has finally arrived and my 14 year old daughter, Jesse, saw opening day success. We have been trying to get her a buck for several years now. She has been able to shoot several bears and 1 muley doe but muley bucks have alluded her until yesterday evening. One shot from her iron sighted Model 99 300 Savage and the buck dropped. She is very happy with her first buck. Needless to say, I am one Proud Dad!

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On Tuesday, Cody and I went out for an evening hunt to see if we could find him a Youth Season buck. We hiked into a hidden back corner of a cutblock to sit for the evening. Just as we sat down on a rock outcrop that overlooked the corner, a nice sized black bear bailed from underneath us. I quickly set up the shooting sticks and Cody layed his Model 99 300 Savage in them and got comfortable as I started to make a 'fawn in distress' call with my voice. The bear went into some thick stuff and then came back out into an opening and paused broadside. The Savage barked and the bear disappeared out of sight. We worked our way over there and found it laying dead in a bunch of blowdown less than 15 yards from where it was standing when Cody shot. The kid certainly knows how to whack and stack the game. This is his second bear of the year, as he harvested a nice sized black in the spring. This bear was plenty heavy and had obviously found some good berry patches.
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I got to work skinning and did the gutless method on the bear. As I got the first 2 quarters off, Cody packed them back to the truck as I continued to skin. I got the rest of the bear skinned and packed out the head and hide as he packed out the rest of the meat. Here is a pic of him with his Eberlestock J105 doing the last pack out.
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Yesterday morning, we specifically went out to find the kids some whitetail bucks for the last day of youth season. We hit some low ground that holds some pockets of whitetails but only ended up seeing does. In the afternoon, we hit some highcountry to look for a muley buck for Cody. Instead of finding a muley, we found this whitetail buck. The last thing I was expecting to find at that elevation (1720m) was a whitetail. Cody dropped the buck with one shot with his Model 99 300 Savage. This is his first whitetail buck. He has killed numerous whitetail does over the last few years but had yet to kill a whitetail buck until yesterday. It is shaping up to be a great season for the Dana clan with 3 critters hitting the ground just in the last week.
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Here are some random pics from the last week of youth season.
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Coffee Time Again.
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Muley does turning grey.
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Chinook Salmon leaping the rapids.
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Another lynx with a summer coat.
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Here's some pics from the last couple of weeks.

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Mountain Goat Nanny
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Sockeye Salmon
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I got velvet pics of this whitey early this summer that are posted in the HAC already. Here he is hard horned.
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Smokey Sunrise
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Spruceys
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Blues
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Mountain Ash
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Yesterday we decided to hit my grizzly unit and see what was out and about for bears and deer. It's been a pretty darn dry fall but we finally got some weather in the last few days. Thought that the critters might be moving about because of the weather change but everything seemed to be holed up. We enjoyed the day regardless. Here are some pics.
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The Kokanee were running but not much for bear sign was spotted along the creeks we checked out.
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A ton of eagles were enjoying the kokanee run though. They seemed to be in every tree. Here are a few I snapped pics of.
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Here are some pics from this weekend.
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I took the opportunity to harvest a nice sized whitetail doe to do my part trying to keep the whitey invasion a bay. This is mule deer country through and through. I've been seeing whitetails on a regular basis over the last ten years or so. In the last few years our wildlife managers have opened a GOS on whitetail does. I feel it is my duty as a mule deer nut to harvest these whitetails whenever I can to help keep mule deer country alive and well.
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Here is the end result, fresh tastey whitetail steaks on the charcoal grill.
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This weekend, my daughter and I hit my grizzly unit again to see what was moving about for bear and deer. Jesse was lookin for a whitetail. We encountered a few does but none stood still long enough for her. Here are some pictures from the weekend.
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A nice fire to warm up by and have lunch.
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The leaves were finally off the slide alder allowing me to glass for grizz.
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While we were pushin' snow, we finally hit some fresh grizzly sign. This bear has mossied down the road for several kms. The tracks were under an hour old when we first hit them where he had turned around and started working his way back the way he had just came. The snow was pretty wet and heavy and I didn't want to push it too much with my rig, but I really was thinkin we could come around the corner and have this bear right in front of us in the middle of the road. Finally his tracks mossied into some timber and then a km or so up the road we hit them again where he came back out and across the road and where he dropped down into a thick alder pit of an old old cutblock. The tracks were super fresh, probably only minutes old. Had they been made by a big ol' muley buck, I would have jumped out and dogged them until I caught up with the owner of the tracks. But.....this was a grizz, and it was in thick alder and I had my 14 year old daughter with me. Not the time or the place to be stupid. Here are some pictures of the tracks. Not a big bear, but not a small bear either.

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As we headed for home on what felt like a successful low odds grizzly hunt, we were passed by a flock of over 200 Canadian Geese that were headin' south. I caught up with them and got a picture of one portion of the V. It is a sure reminder that the best part of the season is almost upon us. The muley rut is just around the corner. My grizz tag goes till mid November, but I think that was my last trip lookin' for ol' long claws for the fall. I've just got muleys on the brain and can't sacrifice the best part of muley season lookin' for a bear in an easy to draw unit. Maybe I'll get lucky in the spring draw and I'll get to hunt them again when the geese are flying the other way.
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Today I took the opportunity to look for my moose before the muley rut really kicks in. With Oct being warm and dry around here, much of the moose rut was nocturnal and very quiet. When conditions are like that, sometimes cows are missed, and you can get some rutting action around the beggining of Nov. The other day I heard of a couple bulls that were seen fighting over a cow. So with this in mind, I thought I'd hit a meadow in my unit and do some cow calling. I called for about an hour and didn't hear a peep in response. I figured I'd do a little hike and see if I could bump up something in the timber around the meadow. It was raining pretty hard and I was getting soaked from the underbrush, so I cut my walkabout short and came back to the meadow. Low and behold there was a young bull about 50 yards from where I was orginally calling from. He had come in silently, probably cause he didn't want to get an asskickin' from a bigger bull. He's a 7x2 with his 2 point side being pretty funky. Funny how I always seem to find these young bulls. When I left the house this morning my wife said to me, "Bring home a tastey one." And that I did. He'll fill up the freezer just perfect. It was a solo effort and even a young bull is a ton of work when you are backpacking them out. I got it out in 5 trips.
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Some recent pics.

Was prepared to wade across this icy creek but was surprised to see a beaver knocked down this cottonwood for me to walk across.
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Last year's paddle
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A few old chalkers.
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More Bear Tracks
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Cozy lookin nest
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Sprucy Male
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Young Buck
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Short-eared Owl
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Here's some pics from this weekend.
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Some of the young bucks are starting to feel their oats. Never saw any big rubs yet.
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Another ATL moose paddle
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Yesterday the wind was starting to kick up and it seemed all the critters were bedded up tight. Found this lone doe in her bed. Been seeing lots of lone does lately. Strange with the peak of the rut ready to happen any day now.
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About an hour later the wind went absolutely crazy!!! Hundreds of trees were dropping all around me. Several times I had to flat out run to avoid getting smashed into the ground. Talk about scary!!! In my forestry career, I've had a few close calls over the years with trees coming down, but yesterday blew all those away. It was one after another after another after another. I had a long hike out and all I could do was look up and make sure I wasn't going to get pounded by a top or a full tree. Gotta love dead pine beetle stands in a sevre windstorm.
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Today I found this cool little cave.
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From the inside looking up.
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Thought it would make the perfect lion's liar. Even found this cat track on the wall. Can you see it?
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Definately some cool rock features.
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While hiking lookin for a big ol' muley, I encountered this little 3x2 whitetail buck. With a second tag in my pocket, I didn't hesitate and dropped him. As I've said earlier, this is mule deer country through and through and I want to keep it that way. This is now 3 whitetails we have harvested this year. Just doing our part to stop the whitey invasion. :) He was the perfect size to fit in the Eberlestock backpack and I was able to pack him out in one easy trip.

As he lay.
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Well it has been one tuff week of hunting muleys. Still hunting timber in warm crunchy conditions made deer sighting rare. In a 7 day period I saw just 4 deer, which is now my new record low. I burned well over 100 kms of boot leather and searched so hard for an elusive monster that my eyes hurt.
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The rut was incredibly late. Around these parts you can see some action as early as Nov 10th, but most years it really starts around the 15th. This year I didn't see any rutting action at all until the last remaining 15 minutes of light on the evening of the 23rd. I was able to glass up a 160 class 4 point pounding brush, chasing a hot doe and lip curling. I only got to hunt in snow the last 3 days and the snow has been very squeeky. But with snow, I was finally able to see tracks and I figured out rather quickly why my deer sighting were low, WOLVES!!!! A pack was working the same areas I was. Thus the reason I couldn't get a deer to stand still for me and would just hear the classic, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!
Here are some pics of 3 different wolf tracks with a 300 Win Mag shell for comparison.
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I also hit lion tracks as well.
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Regardless of the tuff hunting conditions, the old saying still rings true, a bad day hunting is far better than a good day at work. I truly enjoyed my time off and with 2 more weekends left in the season, I have high hopes that maybe I'll see some harsher weather come in and find that elusive monster before last light on the 10th. Here are some pics from the week.

Some ATL
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Another cave to explore
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The resident of the cave, a bushy tailed woodrat (packrat)
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Had a flock of cedar waxwings land beside me while I was glassing and feed on some berries.
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Downy Woodpecker
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A decent buck track that I dogged for awhile. Never did catch up to him.
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A young whitey buck I saw one morning in a field
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Well here I am on the evening of the 10th (last day) and I am enjoying a bowl of muley tag soup. I gave it all and hunted my ass off and never did turn up that elusive monster muley of my dreams. That's trophy hunting muleys! If you take up the challenge, you loose more times than you win. For me I find the pursuit is what drives me. Waking up every morning and thinking, "Today is the day!" Hunting a big ol' buck on his home turf puts all the advantage in the buck's court. It isn't meant to be easy. I could whine that the deer numbers are low and someone in charge should do something different. That seems to be the trend on internet hunting sites. I personally think most hunters that whine are looking for the 'easy' hunt, thinking that 200 inchers should be behind every tree. I, on the other hand, enjoy the 'hard' hunt and know that 200 inchers are extremely rare and incredibly smart! They don't get big by being dumb! I'm not going to blame anyone for the fact I'm eating this bowl of tag soup. I hunted hard and I got my ass kicked. Plain and simple. Maybe next year that ol' buck will make a mistake and I'll catch up to him. Or maybe, he'll win again. Regardless of what happened this late season, I've had a blast hunting my ass off in pursuit of a giant. Now that the season has come to a close, it's time to start doing my homework for next year. The snowshoes are going to see a lot of use this winter as I try to figure out where the bucks are hanging out. I will be pounding a ton of ground this spring lookin' for sheds and I'll be hitting a bunch of highcountry in the summer trying to find those alpine hidey holes that will hold a monster. Sept 1st is just around the corner. I can't wait!
 
My wife and I did our annual trip into town to do the Christmas Shopping. It is always a great deal. I drop her off at the mall and then I hit the hills and look for sheep.

I was able to see 35 rams and countless ewes and lambs. Here are some pics I was able to get before my batteries died.
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Saw plenty of these guys. I don't have much experience with Chuckers. They were super spooky and very hard to get pics of.
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I don't see these guys very often as I'm pretty much at their northern range limit. This morning I had the privilege of having a bobby pose for a photoshoot. He was feeding on a deer carcus and wasn't timid and let me get quite close. This afternoon, a cougar drug the carcus further into the trees, but the tracks indicated the bobby wasn't detered and still fed on it regardless that the lion was around. Not much meat left on the carcus, so I don't really know why the lion was bothering with it.
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Today I ran into an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen for almost 2 years. I had actually heard he was killed in the fall of 2011 by a pack of wolves. I guess you can't trust rumours eh? This old boy is alive and well although he has some good age on him. I have been able to take pics of this bull for numerous years.

Here are some pics of him in the low light of this morning.
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Here are some pics of him the last time I saw him, almost 2 years ago, New Years Eve 2010.
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Here are some pics of him from Feb of 2010.
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And here are some pics of him from Nov of 2007.
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This morning I located a tom track and decided to turn out on it and give my hound, Timber, a good run. We caught up to the tom in a tight box canyon. Instead of poppin' up a tree, he leaped from ledge to ledge and bailed. It was pretty sketchy trying to follow him up and out, so we had to back track and follow the edge of the canyon until it leveled out and turned into a crossable draw. Once on the other side, we went all the way back down to where the tom had bailed out and were on his trail yet again. Down, down, down he went and right into a much bigger and nastier canyon. It would have been an absolute gongshow if we stayed on him. Don't need to risk killing me or the dog on the edge of sheer drop offs just to tree a cat. I called Timber off and we made the long hike up and out of that hole. Was a good morning run regardless that we didn't get under a tree.
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The box canyon the tom was bedded in.
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We found this older 4 point deadhead on our run.
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