Hope everyone is doing well into the New Year and staying out of trouble with all the new products coming out. I have been very busy with being a dad and trying to balance my time with that and the many projects to be filmed. This past week I had a few days to get away with Marley so decided to do a little backpacking, something I had not done in about 15 years. When I was younger this was a regular thing and on occasion would be gone for weeks at a time, usually during winter months. As part of the Airgun Survival Challenge series I plan to venture into the wilderness with an assortment of different brand Airguns and use them as tools for small game hunting. I needed to do a test run with some of the gear I acquired and to basically get my boots dirty and re-acquainted with carrying some weight. The location Marley and I headed into sits at just above 6000' elevation and had recently received a good amount of rain with several inches of snow. The plan was to park my Jeep and backpack in 7 miles to a vague location I had spotted on Google Earth, a wonderful tool that has really helped me in finding many of the spots I hunt.
Marley and I set out on foot at 7:30 am and followed the embankments of a river for awhile until it became to thick to continue on the same path. This area was beautiful and had not been touched by man since the early 1930's where several small mining operations took place. The views were spectacular being able to see a good amount of snow on the mountains just ahead of us.
As we headed a bit more West away from the river embankment we came into a big open field with scattered Pines and giant Junipers, a very sub alpine type ecosystem. The goal of this trip on top of testing gear was to scout a new area that we could return to in Spring as Winter is fairly scarce with animal activity.
Hiking through this big field I could see a ton of Rabbit droppings, footprints from coyotes, Deer and even Bobcat. None of the tracks looked fresh but it was hard to say as the area had just received a good amount of rain that washed the ground well.
The hike was fairly easy and we were able to make it within the area I planned to camp within 2 hours, stopping frequently to film a little. I found a nice flat area that was nestled between some Junipers that I felt would be good for helping keep the wind off us.
My total pack weight was around 32lbs with the majority of that being the camera gear I would need to document this adventure. Most of my camping is done out of my Jeep where I'm able to bring everything without worry on weight and space, so this was a good test to see what works. The temperature was a high of 41 degrees with the low expected to be down into the teens at night. For this trip I brought a 10x15 tarp that I would configure into an A frame using my shooting stick as the front pole, this has been one of my favorite setups in the past.
Both Marley and I have our own sleep systems that go down to 15 degrees fairly comfortably, I'm willing to bet not many people have a dog with they're own sleeping bag. This setup a charm and would allow us to have a fire out front that would hopefully reflect back into the tent. The ground was a bit damp and sandy so I had to find some rocks to place over the tent stakes to keep them from pulling out of the ground. Although the ground wasn't ideal this was an excellent spot as it had many fell trees that I could easily process for firewood. The worst is to setup camp and then have to hike forever to find dry wood to collect for the fire, as cold as it was we would need a ton. I quickly dugout a good size firepit that I kept within reason of the tent, building up the back wall as high as possible to reflect the heat.
I collected as much firewood as I thought I needed and then tripled that to be sure we wouldn't run out early into the night.
After spending around an hour collecting a good size pile of firewood Marley and I took a much needed lunch break before heading out to do a little exploring of the area. For this trip I brought my Daystate Redwolf Safari in .30 caliber that has proven to be a great rifle over the past two years. This rifle has been on countless trips and has even been left out in the rain and snow purposely to test the durability of the electronics that it's certainly surpassed.
I have the Safari setup with a Hawke Airmax 4-16x50 and I'm currently shooting the 50gr JSB's on medium power putting out almost 80 fpe. Although not lightweight nor compact, this is however an extremely power versatile rifle, being I have used it to take anything from squirrels up to 220+lb big game animals.
This area has a huge history of mining with a few settlers that called this very spot home in 1853 with “Cabin sites” (lots) that could be bought for $2 down and $2 a week for a total of $50. These heavily wooded slopes surrounding the area offered some of the greatest hunting and the nearby streams full of trout and gold fields made this place a paradise to the few tough enough to settle here. The winters were and still are extremely harsh here, with the nearest available supplies being more than days away. Many chose to only live here seasonally, and would leave the first parts of December and return sometime in April.
Marley and I didn't venture to far from camp but I still wanted to get familiar with the surrounding areas and to scout for the signs of both small game and predators. The many ridgelines gave ample opportunity for viewing the vastness of this territory and excited me for future expeditions into this beautiful land.
We sat on the top of this ridgeline for awhile just enjoying the scenery and hopefully to be able to spot any animal activity. Although we spotted nothing I did see plenty of signs that the area had a huge population of both rabbits and hares. This time of year they usually hunker down in the thick brush covered hillsides and are sparsely active in low temperature months. As it was into the later part of the afternoon the temperature was dropping and it looked as though a nasty storm was on the horizon with the possibility of snow. We headed back to camp where I gathered some more items to get a fire started and filmed for a few segments of the enclosed video.
Our camp was quite cozy and had that feeling of aloneness that is one of the main things that draws me to these such remote places. The low of the night got down to 27 degrees fairly quickly as soon as the sun dropped over the horizon. We had ample wood and I had even brought a nice steak and some seasoned rice to make for dinner.
The fire kept us warm and the ambiance of the several packs of Coyotes howling in the distance made for quite the relaxing night. The hunting is not always important rather than the entire experience as a whole, this was a most memorable trip in the solitude I experienced. The hustle and bustle of the city gets to be to much to handle so it's nice to just have one night of feeling away from it all. In some ways exploring these areas makes me feel as though I traveled back in time when things were all much more simple and free from the crazy world we live in. The rest of this story was very uneventful but on my end was just as well and left me much better off upon my return home. I hope you enjoyed this read and encourage you to get out and create you're own adventure. Cheers
https://youtu.be/3eMXUUTrH60
Marley and I set out on foot at 7:30 am and followed the embankments of a river for awhile until it became to thick to continue on the same path. This area was beautiful and had not been touched by man since the early 1930's where several small mining operations took place. The views were spectacular being able to see a good amount of snow on the mountains just ahead of us.
As we headed a bit more West away from the river embankment we came into a big open field with scattered Pines and giant Junipers, a very sub alpine type ecosystem. The goal of this trip on top of testing gear was to scout a new area that we could return to in Spring as Winter is fairly scarce with animal activity.
Hiking through this big field I could see a ton of Rabbit droppings, footprints from coyotes, Deer and even Bobcat. None of the tracks looked fresh but it was hard to say as the area had just received a good amount of rain that washed the ground well.
The hike was fairly easy and we were able to make it within the area I planned to camp within 2 hours, stopping frequently to film a little. I found a nice flat area that was nestled between some Junipers that I felt would be good for helping keep the wind off us.
My total pack weight was around 32lbs with the majority of that being the camera gear I would need to document this adventure. Most of my camping is done out of my Jeep where I'm able to bring everything without worry on weight and space, so this was a good test to see what works. The temperature was a high of 41 degrees with the low expected to be down into the teens at night. For this trip I brought a 10x15 tarp that I would configure into an A frame using my shooting stick as the front pole, this has been one of my favorite setups in the past.
Both Marley and I have our own sleep systems that go down to 15 degrees fairly comfortably, I'm willing to bet not many people have a dog with they're own sleeping bag. This setup a charm and would allow us to have a fire out front that would hopefully reflect back into the tent. The ground was a bit damp and sandy so I had to find some rocks to place over the tent stakes to keep them from pulling out of the ground. Although the ground wasn't ideal this was an excellent spot as it had many fell trees that I could easily process for firewood. The worst is to setup camp and then have to hike forever to find dry wood to collect for the fire, as cold as it was we would need a ton. I quickly dugout a good size firepit that I kept within reason of the tent, building up the back wall as high as possible to reflect the heat.
I collected as much firewood as I thought I needed and then tripled that to be sure we wouldn't run out early into the night.
After spending around an hour collecting a good size pile of firewood Marley and I took a much needed lunch break before heading out to do a little exploring of the area. For this trip I brought my Daystate Redwolf Safari in .30 caliber that has proven to be a great rifle over the past two years. This rifle has been on countless trips and has even been left out in the rain and snow purposely to test the durability of the electronics that it's certainly surpassed.
I have the Safari setup with a Hawke Airmax 4-16x50 and I'm currently shooting the 50gr JSB's on medium power putting out almost 80 fpe. Although not lightweight nor compact, this is however an extremely power versatile rifle, being I have used it to take anything from squirrels up to 220+lb big game animals.
This area has a huge history of mining with a few settlers that called this very spot home in 1853 with “Cabin sites” (lots) that could be bought for $2 down and $2 a week for a total of $50. These heavily wooded slopes surrounding the area offered some of the greatest hunting and the nearby streams full of trout and gold fields made this place a paradise to the few tough enough to settle here. The winters were and still are extremely harsh here, with the nearest available supplies being more than days away. Many chose to only live here seasonally, and would leave the first parts of December and return sometime in April.
Marley and I didn't venture to far from camp but I still wanted to get familiar with the surrounding areas and to scout for the signs of both small game and predators. The many ridgelines gave ample opportunity for viewing the vastness of this territory and excited me for future expeditions into this beautiful land.
We sat on the top of this ridgeline for awhile just enjoying the scenery and hopefully to be able to spot any animal activity. Although we spotted nothing I did see plenty of signs that the area had a huge population of both rabbits and hares. This time of year they usually hunker down in the thick brush covered hillsides and are sparsely active in low temperature months. As it was into the later part of the afternoon the temperature was dropping and it looked as though a nasty storm was on the horizon with the possibility of snow. We headed back to camp where I gathered some more items to get a fire started and filmed for a few segments of the enclosed video.
Our camp was quite cozy and had that feeling of aloneness that is one of the main things that draws me to these such remote places. The low of the night got down to 27 degrees fairly quickly as soon as the sun dropped over the horizon. We had ample wood and I had even brought a nice steak and some seasoned rice to make for dinner.
The fire kept us warm and the ambiance of the several packs of Coyotes howling in the distance made for quite the relaxing night. The hunting is not always important rather than the entire experience as a whole, this was a most memorable trip in the solitude I experienced. The hustle and bustle of the city gets to be to much to handle so it's nice to just have one night of feeling away from it all. In some ways exploring these areas makes me feel as though I traveled back in time when things were all much more simple and free from the crazy world we live in. The rest of this story was very uneventful but on my end was just as well and left me much better off upon my return home. I hope you enjoyed this read and encourage you to get out and create you're own adventure. Cheers
https://youtu.be/3eMXUUTrH60
