Our Astro must have heard this story, because she gives us no pushback with her swamp jacket!Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
Our Astro must have heard this story, because she gives us no pushback with her swamp jacket!
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Saturday morning, we returned to the spot Astro got lost a few weekends back. On approach we saw a very healthy coyote, beating feet from the helicopter. Astro smelled it right off, and stayed close for a while. It was 20 degrees warmer than the last time we were here, and it felt like summer not spring. The flowers were fully in bloom, and there were a bunch of Tarantula Hawks flying around. I had the Rattler in a Vertx Gamut, and it carried very comfortably for the 90 minute hike. Very low profile set up.
Later, I learned the Rattler works fine in a Vertx EDC, which is even smaller, and has a better pocket arrangement for dual use (Rattler and general purpose pack). Great view from out turn around point — photographing the Vizsla is a full time job.
Part way back, we ran into several jack rabbits, which were what got Astro into trouble last time. She stayed within sight, but our new Whistle Pro software was working great.
Pretty uneventful hike, high 80’s by mid morning, with summer and much higher temps bearing down.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
It was 100 this afternoon, and we took Astro out for her afternoon hike. Went with all four boots to protect her feet from the heat and her full on swamp jacket. Gave her water at the turn around point, but she had no issues with 40 minutes in that heat.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Felt like summer today.
Ran into another rattler yesterday, on our morning hike. Keeping our heads on a swivel now.
Astro’s fitness target is set at a minimum of 60 minutes to make daily goal, and with the 100+ heat of the last week, she has been dragging on the evening hike. Yesterday and today, we basically kept her in the neighborhood to just reach her 60 minutes. Today was fifty days straight of making goal, so we are going to give her the day off tomorrow to rest.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Did anyone else glance at this and think, “Coronavirus”? Geez... I need to get away from this computer...
Nah, but I was thinking about quail and rabbits up in that thing. It’s Arizona. You get used to the plants having angry bits.
My wife told me about a bear attack, and I thought I could come and read about it here. No entries in this thread since May.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gr...cid=uxbndlbing
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark
Funny to see this post. Her goal is still 60 or more minutes of exercise a day, and today was her 306th day of making goal.Ran into another rattler yesterday, on our morning hike. Keeping our heads on a swivel now.
Astro’s fitness target is set at a minimum of 60 minutes to make daily goal, and with the 100+ heat of the last week, she has been dragging on the evening hike. Yesterday and today, we basically kept her in the neighborhood to just reach her 60 minutes. Today was fifty days straight of making goal, so we are going to give her the day off tomorrow to rest.
This afternoon we flew in the helicopter to a remote lake, where we land just above the lake and hike up the ridge until we have had enough climbing and turn around. Here is the look coming into the lake, and the ridge is on the southeast end of the lake.
Where we touched down was just several feet from fresh bear poop, but Astro was completely mesmerized by ptarmigan and crashing through the brush pointing them. You start off in some medium height cover to join the backbone of the ridge.
Once you get onto the spine of the ridge, you are on tundra until you reach rock and snow up pretty high.
About half way up is a weather station, that is strapped down as the wind can howl out of the east from the Gulf of Alaska. You can see it below me.
Shortly thereafter, Charlie spotted a bear down by the weather station.
We watched it for a while, waiting for Astro who was well above us working more ptarmigan. We couldn't see exactly where the bear went, and wondered if yogi decided to take a nap in the shade of the weather station. Brenneke went into the chamber with the tube topped off, and sling removed from the Benelli. Reaching the building, the bear was nowhere to be seen.
Back down at the helicopter -- here is my rig.
Never know what you see out and about in Alaska!
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
Why remove the sling? Guessing you don’t want it to become a handle on you if you go hand to paw with a much stronger opponent?
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