#northern lights hike

[andymoss]

My first time seeing the aurora!! Wowowow!!! Absolutely stunning! Shocked at how vibrant and dynamic it was in real life!

[alexmurison]

Well that has just been the most ridiculous couple of hours of my life witnessing the most beautiful, vibrant and mesmerising Aurora Borealis literally a 5 minute walk from my front door.

[w0rrldly]

[indeedgoodman]

[organicmatter]

I just realized I forgot to post the photos my gf took when we hiked out to see the northern lights. These are all long exposure

[losech]

The first time I bear hunted was three years ago in West Virginia. I have been wanting to do that again for quite some time, but life just kept getting in the way. This year though, I was finally able to do it again. I've had this trip planned since last December and had intended to bring Cinder, but she came into heat a week before the trip so I did not bring any dogs. I was really bummed about that but I didn't let it ruin my mood, and not having to handle a dog was ok I guess.

Anyways, I drove down Friday after work and met up with Alex and his dogs Kuma, Sever, Zhulik, and a pup, Cody and his dogs Dixie and Chooch, Mike, and Matt and his son Nick on Saturday morning. We hiked some rough stuff, lots of sidehilling, straight downs, and straight ups. The dogs treed two smaller bears but nothing shootable, and we ended up not tagging a bear that day. It was a tough first day.

Sunday was easier hiking. Sever went off on his own adventure across the New River, twice, and Cody's two young dogs found and a treed a bear. Nick had the first shot and he took it and got his first bear. While he and Matt skinned and packed out the bear the rest of us kept hunting. The dogs followed some tracks but didn't tree for the rest of the day, and Sever eventually caught up to us, and Mike went home that night.

Monday we went to a new area. It was more of a hiking spot than the long abandoned logging roads we were on the first couple days. It had some nice trails in some gorgeous scenery. The dogs treed a bear shortly after getting to a flattish spot, and I shot my first bear of the trip. Cody and I watched the pup while skinning and packing out my bear and everyone else went on looking for another bear. Matt shot his first while we were still skinning mine, and while they were packing out that bear, the dogs treed again and Nick tagged out. Cody and his dogs and the pup went home that night.

Tuesday we started from camp, it was a bit rough with some brambles at first but the dogs found and treed a bear after we got through that. This bear was roughly the same size as my first but had a gorgeous coat, so I took her. Some hounds were running in the area and we got to listen to that for a while as we hiked to the tree and packed out the bear.

After getting back to camp, Matt and Nick packed up and headed home while Alex and I went to town to get some supplies and switch his phone service. Earlier on the way back to camp, the dogs had ran into someone who knew they were Laikas, and he messaged his friend who was hunting with him about them, and they messaged Alex. Matt and Mike were from Michigan and were still hunting and hadn't had much luck, and I had actually talked to Mike in the past. Since we had service now Alex responded and invited them to an afternoon hunt. I called my brother who was watching my dogs and got permission to stick around until the week was over. We took a couple hours break back at camp where we met up with them, then headed out to another new spot to see if we could find a bear.

This new spot had lots of neat rock formations, but it took the dogs a while to find a track. A couple miles in they struck one and trailed for a bit, then jumped and immediately treed a bear. Until this point we had been looking at smaller and medium sized bears and when Alex and I saw this one in the tree we knew it was big. Mike went in and shot this bear, and it slid down a ways almost to our feet. It dwarfed the dogs, and when we got to it, it really set in just how big this bear was. Easily 300+lbs, we were going to be here all night.

Alex had some other guys coming in that afternoon and messaged them that we were in a bit of a situation and if they could find a way to get to us, to come and help pack out. They drove around trying different roads for a while until Mike (yes three Mikes) talked to a landowner and got him to open a gate for us. By the time Mike, Robert, and Dave hiked in we had a fire going and the bear was deboned and ready to be loaded up. We managed to get that beast into all seven packs and made just one trip up to the truck. We got back at camp late that night and didn't get to bed until about 4am. Matt and Mike drove home and got there the next day.

Wednesday we called off a morning hunt since we all needed sleep. That afternoon we went to a different section of the hiking area I had shot my first bear and tried some logging roads that branched off from the trails. It took a while but the dogs did find a bear, but this bear wouldn't tree. It kept moving a ways, slowly, and the dogs stuck with it. They did that down to the bottom of the ridge we were on and started back up the other side into the hiking trails. Dave had gone back to the truck earlier, the pack out the night before had wrecked his feet, and we got him to come to a road above us and pick us up and take us back to the trailhead and cut a lot of time and hiking out. It was getting dark and we needed to get to the bear fast.

We hiked back in and came across a squirrel hunter who had heard the commotion. The dogs and bear had moved again since we'd driven around, and they moved another time when Zhulik who was still with us heard them and joined in. The squirrel hunter tagged along as we hiked to the dogs. Alex and Mike went in when they got close enough, but the bear spooked and ran. The next time we got close the rest of us stayed way back and Alex and Mike stalked up as quietly as possible. The bear had finally treed and Mike was able to get a shot. Turns out the bear had previously been shot at by a handgun, and the bullet had broken a back leg, and that's why it moved slow and wouldn't tree. Probably by an angry landowner. The squirrel hunter enjoyed watching us skin and break up the bear but said if he ever saw us coming again he'd head the other way. His wife was not happy about how late he was staying out.

Thursday we hiked around but didn't find any bears. Dave was still manning the truck and drive around to pick us up where we'd hiked out. We took a couple hours break then went to try where we had shot the mondo bear. The dogs did get on one, but it managed to lose them, and we tried hiking out to another road but it was full of brush and gates. We had to scramble through a bunch of junk to get to a utility road that finally led to where Dave could pick us up with the truck. It was late enough at that point that I could see the sky was turning pink. When we got back to camp the northern lights were going off, and while we didn't get a bear that day, it did end with a cool show. Viktor had driven out to pick up Alex and possibly hunt the next day, but everyone was whipped including the dogs, and we decided to just sleep instead.

Friday we got up late, packed up, and headed out. I drove straight home and slept almost the entire next day.

The first bear I shot had a neat white patch, which Alex scolded me for almost putting a bullet through, and the second had a lovely coat. I was hoping for a bear that was slightly bigger for my second, but the coat was very nice and I wanted a rug for a friend, and if I had not shot that bear, we would have kept heading north and the dogs would not have happened upon Matt and Mike and we never would have gotten the huge boar. Maybe we'd have found a bigger one later, but I didn't want to risk the rest of the bears being too small or having cruddy coats or not finding one at all, so I took it. Fate and coincidence is weird and that week the world was a very small place. I made some new friends and memories and really hope to be able to do this again next year.

[thingsdavidlikes]

Path of color by Steffen Walther

[midwestaesthetics]

Greenland

[vintagecamping]

Early morning basecamp before hiking into the Sierra Nevada mountains

California

1967

[gir1bong]

northern lights - alabama ‘24

[harminder]

☀️ Let the light in 🌲

[toherlover]

so something pretty crazy happened and i cried and cried and cried and cried and mother nature is so incredible

[alexmurison]

The most beautiful night under the most incredible sky

[w0rrldly]

[alexandramrobertson]

No new Northern Lights chapter this weekend. It was a long weekend and I went camping - saw the northern lights!

In other news, climbing mountains is hard.

Happy BC Day!

[problemsathand]