The big thing this week was that I went hunting with Travis and his buddies, Dan Armstrong and Marty Miller
We headed out on Wednesday at noon, headed east, turned south at Exit 252
and ended up at "Top of Baldy" for the night.
The guys did a Thursday morning hunt and determined that there were no elk in the area....so we packed up and went down the hill to Baldy Creek Trail head. There is a nice place to camp there with a really good outhouse
Dan has one of those humongous hunting cabin tents....which was nice and roomy.
My cot is in the upper left corner - notice the nice yellow Thermarest sleeping pad - lightweight and very suitable for backpacking. However....and I'm really not whining, I think, ....sometime in the last two years, it sprung a leak and went flat long before morning - which left me on a stiff and inflexible cot. Bad first night. Then the next night - and the following two - I got positioned perfectly on top of the pad and as per my usual method of sleeping, I flipped onto my right shoulder to drift off to sleep - but as I did that the pad squished right out from under me, and I ended up sleeping on the stiff and inflexible cot....again.
The guys can take it easy in the afternoon.
Thursday afternoon we drove a ways to Baldy Trail which goes....somewhere. The guys hiked (hunted) for the afternoon while I waited at the car.
Friday was, for sure, going to be the day when they would all shoot an elk. Well, Dan's shoulder was killing him (he'd fractured it playing church basketball), so Dan stayed in camp with me, while Travis and Marty left FOR THE WHOLE DAY finally returning about 9 pm....with nothing. Dan, while he was waiting with me, decided to go back up to Top of Baldy and "glass" the area. He came back with tales of seeing lots of elk, so the decision was made to go back to the same place we'd been on Wednesday.
On Saturday, I didn't mind a bit because I love being on the top of the mountain. We parked here
Looked into the distance at a likely place
You can barely see Travis in the middle of the picture
They came back at lunch-ish, ate and then laid on the ground to take a nap....I sat in my chair. It was then decided that Dan and Marty would hike, cross country, over the the ridge to the trail which went back to the camp site.....we saw them at about 9 pm. Travis said he'd stay on the top with me and find a perfect place where any elk would most likely walk by. We sat and waited for four hours and heard some bugling in the distance---but was it an elk?or another hunter trying to sound like an elk? Travis is very good at waiting.
At bedtime (or, actually, bag time), the guys decided to do one last morning hunt before heading back home. But on Sunday, no one got up (oh, they all woke up), and by sunrise it was determined to break camp and return home so we could all get our stuff put away. On the way home we stopped in Cascade Locks for an ice cream at the East Wind Cafe. So good weather, good company, good scenery, good food.......but wily and skittish elk. There is always next year. I think Travis wants to take Shelby and Gretchen, and I can tag along with them.
To note the death of my favorite pair of pants that I've probably had for twenty years.
And the first use of my new long handle spoon which can easily stir a Mountain House Dinner.
Other highlights of the week. I had my second PT appointment on Monday. I am doing well..."keep doing the same same thing with two additional exercises." On Tuesday I had my final appointment with the podiatrist - :everything looks good, come back as needed."
Saturday was the Brunner Road Annual Bar-B-Q. The Foleys contributed brisket and salad and watermelon. Others brought sides. There were about 40 people in attendance.
Sunday was the family celebration of Logan's ninth birthday. The guest of honor was a shark fashioned by our in-house cake chef
While I was gone, Warren and Whitney and Holland (bless their frontier spirit) came over and helped Dad FINISH splitting the remaining wood and stacking it into the basement. There are now five layers of stacked wood - the most wood we've ever had ready for winter. Then Dad and I, put on our big boy and girl pants, and went out with rakes, snow shovel and tractor scoop, and cleaned up the whole area, cultivated it and raked it. Hooray For Us! Now, this winter, another tree will probably fall down, and we'll have to do this all over again.
We are ready to go to NYC next week.
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