For the first backpack trip of the year I decided to head into an alpine basin I've hunted a few times. I took the Friday off work so I could have the better part of two full days of hunting, I'd stay in two nights and make my way out Sunday afternoon. The weather forecast was not great but I could hope it would not be too bad. Well Friday at 4:30am I'm up, I hadn't slept well partly due to excitement about getting out into the mountains hunting my favourite quarry and partly because the sound of rain all night on my much more comfortable than a tent roof. Not ideal. Hourly forecast calls for it to stop by 9:00am, and according to my wife it did, pretty much right on time. The mountain I had the pleasure of being on didn't watch the Weather(Wetter) Network.
By the time I've arrived at the trailhead it's sort of snowing, keep in mind I've gained 1000m+ since home. I have another 300-400m to go without the truck. I sit in the truck wondering if this is really a good idea, I'm solo with about 4.5-5km of wet, slippery mountain to navigate before dropping my pack in camp. I'm not really debating going home mainly due to the fact I'm a cheap bugger and there is no way I'm wasting the fuel I spent getting there without at least leaving the truck.
I head up the trail which winds along the creek through a couple of kilometres of 2-3m tall willows and alders before breaking out into more open mature forest. Every leaf, every branch, every blade of grass has an inch of heavy wet snow just waiting to slide off on the next mammal to come along. ME!! I'm not sure I could have gotten wetter standing in the shower, a no hot tap type shower. The snow gets deeper and dryer as I gain elevation and two and half hours later I'm dropping a significantly heavier pack, pack covers help a bit, sort of ,I guess. Luckily everything of an important nature is in waterproof stuff sacks inside. I quickly set up my tent, crawl inside and brew up a hot cup of tea while changing into dry gear. Amazing what a hot drink, dry clothes, and a warm tent will do for a guy.
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Did I mention the fog, you'll notice that my lens looks like it's fogged up, it's not, that is thick fog moving through the trees just behind my tent a few meters. Pretty hard to glass an alpine meadow if you can't see it. I decide to do camp chores, you know wood, water, fire ring and hope it clears off a bit for the afternoon.
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It does and by 2:00pm I'm off heading south to loop around the basin on the easterly side, essentially circling the basin in a big circle which will put me back in camp whenever I want. It's a day of ice pellets, sudden hard cold downpours, driving snow, sun, and fog moving through at a good clip. Watched a moose that caused me to make a big detour trying to not bump him up into the meadows.
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I cut a big set of tracks and followed them until they bailed off the mountain on the west side of the bowl, it was just on "still shooting light" but moving quickly to "head back to camp and get a fire going time". So that's what I did, it was a good fire, a warm much needed fire. The single malt tasted pretty good in my tin mug warming my hands over those flames. I was beat so I was in the bag by 9:00pm, being woken up by driving winds, ice pellets, rain, when it got quiet it was snowing.
It was pouring rain at 6:00am and dark, I had decided if the rain did not stop by the time I was done my breakfast I was packing out. It stopped raining and the day turned out for the most part decent. Still had to find shelter from driving ice and wind but not an all day rain. Found the moose again, I know where I'm going if I ever get the draw and convince 2-3 friends to tag along. But once again it was tag soup for me. Followed really fresh tracks for a couple of hours again to no avail.
The scenery when you could see it was as usual stunning.[ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH]
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The next morning came early and it was fogged in again. This time it didn't let up by the time I was done my oatmeal, tea, and my coffee. Packed up and it was sunny by the time I was 3km down the road in my truck.
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Mountain Mule Deer Part Two
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