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- Jan 28, 2003
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Life changing events in then field part 1. North America & part 2 Africa
I got to thinking the other day about things that change your outlook and opinions in the field. Things that happen that alter your habits making you sit up and take notice. Events which change the gear you carry the way you do things or your opinions on the rifle you carry or the caliber you use etc.
Flooded out in the Guadalupe’s.
About 10 years ago I took several friends on a desert mule deer hunt in the Guadalupe Mountains of NM. We got a bit of a late start and my normal camping spot was occupied. I was tired and wanted to get camp set up before it got to late in the evening. The whole area was covered with rocks and cactus. I was in a hurry and being lazy so I decided that I’d just plop a tent down in a nice sandy dry arroyo bottom. That is a dry wash for you folks not from the South West. I know all of you boy scouts out there are cringing right about now but I’d checked the weather and there wasn’t supposed to be a drop of rain within a hundred miles of our location, plus it’s NM in November it NEVER rains in November.
Well it didn’t rain at our location that night BUT it did rain about 40 miles or so from us in the high mountains which drain into the Crow Flats where we were camped. In any case about three in the morning I woke up to freezing water running into my sleeping bag . About the time that I woke up I could hear a roaring sound. There was no question in my mind what that was. I woke the other two guys, grabbed the rifles and some essential gear and evacuated . I was able to go back and snag the rest of the gear and the tent before the real flood hit. And if we would have been in our tent we’d have been dead. The main flood hit with a violence that had to be seen to be appreciated at one point the water was running 8 to 10 feet deep and was roaring so violently that we had to yell to each other to communicate standing shoulder to shoulder. It took all the next day before the torrent subsided enough to allow us to get the truck out and head out of the now flooded flats to higher ground.
Lesson learned and any outdoorsman should know better, no matter what the forecast ALWAYS camp on high ground. BASIC stuff but we tend to get complacent at times. Just don’t camp in a flood plain DUH!!
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Tent collapse on the Mac Arthur River Alaska.
It was about 1991 I was living and working in Alaska as a bush pilot and had taken my vacation in October. I had planned to do a brown bear hunt down on the Mac Arthur River. The first day was uneventful except that we didn’t see a single bear and the weather starting to turn nasty. After a full day of hunting we happily returned to camp.
Let me back up here a bit. Before we’d left we found out that our normal tent was missing and had been left in another town several hundred miles away. So I sent my hunting buddy out to get another one. Instead of spending the bucks on a decent tent he went to Wal Mart and bought a cheap one after all we were only going to be hunting for a week why spend a bunch of money?
Well my friend and I were about to find out. After a quick freeze dried meal we sat by the fire and spun some tales and sipped a bit of whiskey before turning in. At some point in the night I was woken up by the wind not just any wind mind you but a roaring, ripping, howling banshee, tearing itself down from the Ak Range into the title flats where we were camped. I noticed that the tent was stretching and pulling but it seemed to be holding up. I drifted off again and slept for while that was until my rude awakening some time later in the night. It had started to snow a wet heavy snow mixed with rain. My wake up call was when the tent ripped open with the weight of the snow and the combined force of the wind. Dumping several feet of wet snow our collective heads and soaking everything in the tent.
I won’t tell you that we were in severe danger as we had very good rain gear and warm weather gear. But I will tell you that it was one of the most miserable wet cold nights I’ve ever experienced in my life. We stayed up all night under the makeshift shelter we made with the remnants of tent and some fallen timber.
Lesson learned. Don’t EVER go out into serious country with cheaply made gear. It may well cost you your life.
PS we didn’t get a bear. And the next day we had to evacuate because Mt Spur was getting ready to erupt. We were camped at base of Mt spur. Also I bought a North Face expedition grade Everest rated arrowhead wind penetrating tent as soon as I got back . I still have it
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Tracking a wounded bear in NM.
No drama here and the bear was dead when I found it. I was elk hunting on my in laws ranch in northern NM. I sat down to cow call and was almost immediately faced with what I’d call an aggressive black bear. He wasn’t human aggressive necessarily as he never saw me but he was close and he was posturing in way that made me think he could be trouble. I just happened to have a bear tag in my pocket so I introduced him to a 180 gr Nosler behind the shoulder out of my .30-06. The bear took off at the shot and made it into some thick brush before I could slip another bullet into him. Remember a couple of things when bear hunting. They don’t always go down to the shot and if they do get out of sight before going down always give a bear plenty of time before following up. The general rule of thumb is to wait for at least 30 minutes maybe more. I followed the blood trail for about 300 yards. When I found the dead bear he was facing his trail in a perfect ambush spot. Bears are not like deer and when they feel they can’t go any further they will often set up for an attack even a little black bear. Don’t ever rush a blood trail on a bear.
I got to thinking the other day about things that change your outlook and opinions in the field. Things that happen that alter your habits making you sit up and take notice. Events which change the gear you carry the way you do things or your opinions on the rifle you carry or the caliber you use etc.
Flooded out in the Guadalupe’s.
About 10 years ago I took several friends on a desert mule deer hunt in the Guadalupe Mountains of NM. We got a bit of a late start and my normal camping spot was occupied. I was tired and wanted to get camp set up before it got to late in the evening. The whole area was covered with rocks and cactus. I was in a hurry and being lazy so I decided that I’d just plop a tent down in a nice sandy dry arroyo bottom. That is a dry wash for you folks not from the South West. I know all of you boy scouts out there are cringing right about now but I’d checked the weather and there wasn’t supposed to be a drop of rain within a hundred miles of our location, plus it’s NM in November it NEVER rains in November.
Well it didn’t rain at our location that night BUT it did rain about 40 miles or so from us in the high mountains which drain into the Crow Flats where we were camped. In any case about three in the morning I woke up to freezing water running into my sleeping bag . About the time that I woke up I could hear a roaring sound. There was no question in my mind what that was. I woke the other two guys, grabbed the rifles and some essential gear and evacuated . I was able to go back and snag the rest of the gear and the tent before the real flood hit. And if we would have been in our tent we’d have been dead. The main flood hit with a violence that had to be seen to be appreciated at one point the water was running 8 to 10 feet deep and was roaring so violently that we had to yell to each other to communicate standing shoulder to shoulder. It took all the next day before the torrent subsided enough to allow us to get the truck out and head out of the now flooded flats to higher ground.
Lesson learned and any outdoorsman should know better, no matter what the forecast ALWAYS camp on high ground. BASIC stuff but we tend to get complacent at times. Just don’t camp in a flood plain DUH!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tent collapse on the Mac Arthur River Alaska.
It was about 1991 I was living and working in Alaska as a bush pilot and had taken my vacation in October. I had planned to do a brown bear hunt down on the Mac Arthur River. The first day was uneventful except that we didn’t see a single bear and the weather starting to turn nasty. After a full day of hunting we happily returned to camp.
Let me back up here a bit. Before we’d left we found out that our normal tent was missing and had been left in another town several hundred miles away. So I sent my hunting buddy out to get another one. Instead of spending the bucks on a decent tent he went to Wal Mart and bought a cheap one after all we were only going to be hunting for a week why spend a bunch of money?
Well my friend and I were about to find out. After a quick freeze dried meal we sat by the fire and spun some tales and sipped a bit of whiskey before turning in. At some point in the night I was woken up by the wind not just any wind mind you but a roaring, ripping, howling banshee, tearing itself down from the Ak Range into the title flats where we were camped. I noticed that the tent was stretching and pulling but it seemed to be holding up. I drifted off again and slept for while that was until my rude awakening some time later in the night. It had started to snow a wet heavy snow mixed with rain. My wake up call was when the tent ripped open with the weight of the snow and the combined force of the wind. Dumping several feet of wet snow our collective heads and soaking everything in the tent.
I won’t tell you that we were in severe danger as we had very good rain gear and warm weather gear. But I will tell you that it was one of the most miserable wet cold nights I’ve ever experienced in my life. We stayed up all night under the makeshift shelter we made with the remnants of tent and some fallen timber.
Lesson learned. Don’t EVER go out into serious country with cheaply made gear. It may well cost you your life.
PS we didn’t get a bear. And the next day we had to evacuate because Mt Spur was getting ready to erupt. We were camped at base of Mt spur. Also I bought a North Face expedition grade Everest rated arrowhead wind penetrating tent as soon as I got back . I still have it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracking a wounded bear in NM.
No drama here and the bear was dead when I found it. I was elk hunting on my in laws ranch in northern NM. I sat down to cow call and was almost immediately faced with what I’d call an aggressive black bear. He wasn’t human aggressive necessarily as he never saw me but he was close and he was posturing in way that made me think he could be trouble. I just happened to have a bear tag in my pocket so I introduced him to a 180 gr Nosler behind the shoulder out of my .30-06. The bear took off at the shot and made it into some thick brush before I could slip another bullet into him. Remember a couple of things when bear hunting. They don’t always go down to the shot and if they do get out of sight before going down always give a bear plenty of time before following up. The general rule of thumb is to wait for at least 30 minutes maybe more. I followed the blood trail for about 300 yards. When I found the dead bear he was facing his trail in a perfect ambush spot. Bears are not like deer and when they feel they can’t go any further they will often set up for an attack even a little black bear. Don’t ever rush a blood trail on a bear.
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