Well, Nevada and I love to get out and take long walks in the mountains. So we’ve began volunteering with Conservation Northwest to help them with their wildlife monitoring project. We were part of a team that was to plant two remote cameras in an undisclosed location to track grizzly bears, wolverines, and wolf packs to name a few. The main focus of the project we are working on is the grizzly bear population in Washington (presently less than 20), but they are tracking all the critters in the Northern Cascades. Our other team member was unable to plant the cameras that we were then going to retrieve this September. Wanting to fulfill our obligation we went out to place the cameras this past weekend (17.7.9). I was a little apprehensive as was Nevada because we were packing lure scents. The fish oil was no biggie, but having a few ounces of bear attractant in my backpack had me worried. We rationalized that other volunteers and hunters do this all the time and we’ve heard no horror stories (yet). Furthermore, we had the lures in multiple ziplock baggies and then placed them in an ‘odor-proof’ bag that we usually we keep our food and other stinky (toothpaste, lip balm, etc…) items in and promptly strung these up a tree once we made camp Friday night.
We retreated into the tent to escape the mosquito invasion and began to hear noises outside. We figured it was one of the many marmots we’d seen on the hike in, but it was a small group of deer. They had come to feed in the tasty green alpine meadow we were camping in. Whilst they were eating one got a rather serious look on its face as if it was concentrating, it then arched its back a bit, lifted its tail as it let out a big’ol fart! We erupted in laughter and scared them off, but their meal was more important and they quickly returned. It seemed they are used to us hairless apes and did not mind our presence in the middle of their salad bar.
On Saturday we had examined our maps and chose two locations around undisclosed peak and undisclosed drainage to place the cameras. We set off to undisclosed pass and followed a soft shoulder up the drainage. Nevada spotted an animal trail and we followed it until it came to a drop down to the creek. We decided this would be a good spot and planted camera #1
I then doused the ‘target tree’ with bear attractant and Nevada diligently collected data (Ruehlen’s love data).
We then broke for lunch and ate some amazing basil, tomato, and soft cheese sandwiches on crusty bread. Amazing lunches are a perk of short trips. We washed those back with some ice cold spring water, reluctantly put back on our socks & shoes, and headed out. From the undisclosed pass Nevada found another trail (a rather nice intrinsic of hers) it was not on either of our maps from ’86 or ’98. We thought it might lead to one of the two peaks we were between, but it just seemed to hug the 6000′ contour and meander through the forest. Nevada spotted another (!) animal trail, I must be looking at the mountains and clouds too much while she enjoys looking at the flowers. Regardless, we followed it a ways and found a nice location and set up camera #2.
We then scented the target tree and although the musky bear lure smelled very attractive it did not taste so good… Job done.
We planted two cameras and will return in September to retrieve them before my graduate classes begin. We’re looking forward to getting them back to see what critters we captured on film. We’ll post those later. We hiked back and made camp near the gassy meadow, but closer to a ridge and away from the bugs. Exhausted, we ate and hit the down. Nevada was hearing noises similar yet different to the deer eating in the meadow. We awoke to find that the chipmunks had satisfied their sodium fix by eating the straps and grips on my polls! Ugg. I was able to make new non-adjustable (and a few grams lighter) straps. I plan on emailing Leki to see if they’ll send me some replacements as the type I have are not offered for sale. odd?
We saw numerous grouse in this area a couple of years ago, but had not seen any this trip. As we were discussing this we came across a momma ruffed grouse and her kiddos feeding on the forest floor. How many babies do you see?
Cheers! M&N
I love this bottom photo!
This is great! Well written, very informative, and entertaining! Thanks guys!
Wow that’s a nice adventure.