Solo exploring trip
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:28 pmI made a last minute decision to head up to the woods to do some exploring today. Carina had a wine tasting trip with friends and since I can't stand the stuff, I was free for the day. I had two goals, first was to find a bear, second was to find a good place to camp in the future that had water. I started out at 4:30 this morning and headed up through lake pillsbury and the game refuge, once I was past that I tried to find a way to applewood springs. I went until I ran out of trail and tried hiking around to find a path, it wasn't ten minutes until I spotted a bear. It was probably 100' out and saw me at the same time. The bear high tailed it out of there and my wonderful guard dog never realized that it even happened. I couldn't make it to the springs so I continued north, I explored quite a few trails until I found one that isn't on any of the three maps that I have. It's a nice trail that has a few good challenging spots, I completely underestimated one and almost rolled my jeep while looking at my GPS. I was so far over sideways, that I lost all my rear diff oil out of the breather, luckily I brought extra. After that little mis step, I found an awesome campsite that will definitely be the destination of a future run. It has a great fire pit, seats, outhouse, horse shoe pit, flat ground and a spring that flows right next to it.
I left the campsite and tried to find some more springs, in the process I found another good trail that isn't on the maps, this one even had a mud hole! A few springs later I came to one that I couldn't quite get to with the jeep and decided to hike the last 100yds or so. I was walking up to the shaded spring and about 30 yds away when I realized a dark shape in the grass, cali spotted it at the same time and started growling. It turned out to be a bear sleeping in the cool grass, when it lifted its head to look at us Cali took off after it barking and growling. The bear jumped up and hauled ass out of there and I was able to stop Cali before she chased it down the canyon. On the bright side, once the bear was gone I was able to check out a very nice spring with good running water!
My next goal was to find the pond below spruce grove, after quite a few dead end trails I managed to find the one that heads to it. Unfortunately I came across a gate that didn't look very "official". Since it looked like it had been put up by tweakers and I knew there was a water source on the other side, I decided it was the wrong time of the year to push my luck.
I made my way back through spruce grove and to M-1 where I headed back to hull mtn. On the way down I took a few side trails and managed to get myself stuck, I was sitting flat on my skid plate and couldn't go anywhere. I was able to get out by sticking a log under the tire to get just enough traction to scoot me forward, a tummy tuck would have come in handy there. After spending all day in the woods I have a good plan for another run. I'll have to do a "pre run" taking the actual route to check the timing of it all and make sure I can tie everything together.
I left the campsite and tried to find some more springs, in the process I found another good trail that isn't on the maps, this one even had a mud hole! A few springs later I came to one that I couldn't quite get to with the jeep and decided to hike the last 100yds or so. I was walking up to the shaded spring and about 30 yds away when I realized a dark shape in the grass, cali spotted it at the same time and started growling. It turned out to be a bear sleeping in the cool grass, when it lifted its head to look at us Cali took off after it barking and growling. The bear jumped up and hauled ass out of there and I was able to stop Cali before she chased it down the canyon. On the bright side, once the bear was gone I was able to check out a very nice spring with good running water!
My next goal was to find the pond below spruce grove, after quite a few dead end trails I managed to find the one that heads to it. Unfortunately I came across a gate that didn't look very "official". Since it looked like it had been put up by tweakers and I knew there was a water source on the other side, I decided it was the wrong time of the year to push my luck.
I made my way back through spruce grove and to M-1 where I headed back to hull mtn. On the way down I took a few side trails and managed to get myself stuck, I was sitting flat on my skid plate and couldn't go anywhere. I was able to get out by sticking a log under the tire to get just enough traction to scoot me forward, a tummy tuck would have come in handy there. After spending all day in the woods I have a good plan for another run. I'll have to do a "pre run" taking the actual route to check the timing of it all and make sure I can tie everything together.
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