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Post by mr. finch on Jul 2, 2008 21:07:02 GMT -6
You boys come on out..... y'all AINT seen nuthin...... OR experienced what it'll be like going home w/your tail between your legs.... 110% WUPP'D. I'd help ya out...but the COUNTRY will beat you down...humble you...then destroy you. Sometimes..50 to 100 mi between set locations...best be prepared to bring your "A game" cuz anything less... and you're DONE before you start... BY ALL MEANS... if it was ME... I'd come give it a shot... SERIOUSLY... get yer "man card" updated and COME ON OUT!!! i would like to at least give it a shot at least once it looks real nice out that way and i have never been up there
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Post by lynxcat on Jul 2, 2008 21:18:18 GMT -6
I agree... it's 110% God's country...and borderline Hell... all wrap'd in one... I LUV it there.. HOWEVER the first year I trap'd there it SCARED/INTIMIDATED me EVERY SINGLE DAY... I felt a presence looking over my shoulder..stalking me...and WAITING. It was NOT a "nice" year...CONSTANTLY looking over my shoulder... DEAD SERIOUS. Brent
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Post by mr. finch on Jul 3, 2008 0:13:51 GMT -6
are cats that spread out up there?is that why such a distance in sets? or are just avoiding people the main cause?
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Post by bobwendt on Jul 3, 2008 4:23:50 GMT -6
lynx is exxagerating a tad. heck a couple highschool kids caught 80 or something like that. it`s like anywhere, work like a dog and you will do good. find a track and he is yours. no tracks, then set where they should be and they are yours. ma`be not 80 but I`m sure a dozen would be easily do-able for most anyone if they applied themselves for a few weeks.
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Post by mostinterestingmanintheworld on Jul 3, 2008 5:29:32 GMT -6
Lynx is right in some regards, you can get far enough out there that you might not be able to walk out.
I like to have 2 forms of transportation in case of breakdowns (ATV or snowmachine). I rented a satellite phone a couple of years ago just for peace of mind while trapping some remote country.
I remember Bill Ilchik and I having a conversation with a fellow at a rendevous one time. He was all wigged out that we got 100 miles from home and didn't have an ambulance handy in case we got hurt. lol!!
I've experienced the presence Lynx talks about. I remember one afternoon on the Pequop Mtns. I was about 15 miles back in on snowmachine and it was so damn cold the air just had a blue haze and felt oppressive. My little voice in the head said time to get out of here so I turned her around and followed that advice.
Probably the worst time I had was on top of the Buffalo hills North of Reno. I stopped the snowmachine in knee deep snow and slogged down to check a trap. Blue skies but about 25-30 below but an insidious ground blizzard was blowing.
When I got back to the snowmachine it was covered with drifted snow, I looked at it and laughed.
Well I started digging it out and it started to dawn on me that it was drifting faster than I was digging.
Beisdes that I was getting hot and sweaty and worn out, anybody that's ever had hypothermia knows that ain't a good situation.
So I sat there for a minute and said Joel, you just have to make this work or your in big trouble. A real gut check I'll tell you.
So I just set my mind to it and dug like a madman, pulled the rope when I got that far and thank god it started. Dug with fierce intensity and finally pulled it up out of the hole.
I turned it around that day and got out of there as well. It would have been 5-10 miles of knee deep snow with drifts and crust to walk out and it was getting along in the afternoon.
Being all lathered up and exhausted might have done me in.
Joel
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Post by bobwendt on Jul 3, 2008 6:03:33 GMT -6
those are the exceptions. I see all the pictures you guys post and it`s dust and sun for the most part. I`ve been in similar situations also in wyoming, but truth known, the weather is much much worse here in the east, just always a house or road close by, relativly. maybe a mile at the most. if it was as bad as you two are scaring folks, heck , no one would do it and we would be reading about dead guys all the time. lol, and no warden would be cking on lynx to see if he was cking his traps regular. to me the thrill of wyoming is knowing I am 20 miles off road, or maybe better said off paved road. and no house or other human for that 20. I can piss or shoot or whatever I want and nothing but me and the sky and the good lord to see or hear anyrthing. I get to where after being out few weeks if I see a person I avoid them, go the other way, like they scare me kind of. I think I turn animal if I stay out very long. thge danger for a family man is you don`t get lonesome after awhile. you just arethere and think it`s ok. there have been times I got so lonesome I could cry, then it goes the other way, you get "hermit-ee" after awhile. you finally get back to civilisation and not having spoken aloud for a long time, your first words you think,can I still talk ok? do they notice I`ve been "out" too long maybe? those been there understand. those never been there think I`m talking silly. th e guys on the far out ranch`s understand. folks think they are stand offish, but no, they lose social skills and talk abrupt, short, chopped up. lots of pointing and gesturing, sign language, few words.
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Post by Bob Jameson on Jul 3, 2008 6:11:50 GMT -6
You certainly said alot of truth bob there. I have gotten that same way and just thought I was the strange one. Never really talked about it to anyone until now.That time alone has a unique effect on you and the mood swings and your thoughts certainly can go from one extreme to another.Its hard at times to fit back in to the social skills when I return after 2 months. I try to limit the stays to 4 -5 weeks now when I travel alone. May cut that back to periods of 3 weeks come home and head out again after tending to the home fire for a bit.
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Post by lynxcat on Jul 3, 2008 6:25:34 GMT -6
Lack of access is a MAJOR issue in many area's.... just NO roads!! EVEN when it's "dry"... oftentimes that's ONLY till 11am when it thaws... THEN it goes to 9" of gumbo mud... OR deeper... You're right Bob...any kid can come out here and catch a dozen... or two... OR three... That's why if you hit 30 you're probably in the top 3-5 in the state. lol
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Post by thebeav2 on Jul 3, 2008 6:39:23 GMT -6
I spent 7 weeks In the Canadian bush and we were off the road. We or I should say I ran a 20 mile boat line. I had put together this small survival kit my Canadian buddy said what's that for. I explained what I had put together. He rummaged around a bit and came up with a length of wire he said this Is all you need. If you go out of the boat just tie yourself to the boat so they can find the body In the spring. This was big and bad country with no one but us out there. But I never felt Intimidated by It. Did some stupid things that might have got me Into trouble but I survived. The experience was unbelievable. There are times when I get out my journal and re live that adventure.
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Post by Montana on Jul 3, 2008 6:41:21 GMT -6
There is no way to understand what winter in the high country can do to a man without having been there. Some days are sunny and mild, which may mean its really cold with no wind. A storm will blow in without warning and make conditions unfit for a man that does not have shelter so quickly that one will often not realize the conditions have even changed until it is too late. Some of these storms may last only a few minutes, some for days. If a trapper has gotten into an area, he may not get out due to many variables that a winter blizzard can bring. Temperature swings of 60 to 80 degrees in a few hours are not uncommon. Windchill will kill you even when prepared with the best of clothes and intentions if you are in a tough spot when these events take place. Most do not even know it. Hypothermia takes away a mans power to reason, and one will not understand that unless they have been in a similar situation prior or has learned from someone who has. O'Gorman has stated in print that only one man in thousands has what it takes to work the high country in winter. He also states that he is not one of them.
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Post by lynxcat on Jul 3, 2008 6:50:21 GMT -6
SHEEEEEYYYYIT.... Bob could do it in a tank top .... shorts... and sandals... DONT believe me? ASK him....lol
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Post by robertw on Jul 3, 2008 7:08:22 GMT -6
I always believed it is how we were raised. If you were raised in rough country & weather out side then most everything just comes second nature. Joels snow machine adventure is not much different than dozens of predictiments that others on here have been in. We just resolved the situation, got out of it and laughed about it afterward. I always just considered it as making your own adventures and just part of the life we chose.
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Post by bobwendt on Jul 3, 2008 7:11:09 GMT -6
I could do it . but no not in a tank top . it`s nothing to brag about . probably real dumb as the reward is not worthy of the input in risk and etc. most of the animals go down anyway. the money isn`t there anymore. lots of reasons other places make more sense. some folks do things just to prove they can. I`m one of them. like that fool millinaire that took the baloon round the world and finally dusted himself somewhere in the nevada desert. usuallky it is just stipid or stubborn ness. I `ve got several pics of trucks of mine hanging off a cliff or in a sinkhole to the axles, way out, where getting a dozer or tractor was real difficult, or cost more than the truck was worth. so we got them out by sweat and ingenuity. some real lulu stories there . I`d imagine any non resident coming to idaho to trap is doing it early, close to the road where they can drive or walk, and bailing at the first sign of weather, JUST LIKE MOST OF THE RESIDENTS DO. never saw a pic yet of the cody 80 cat boys with a single snowflake in it, nor you either lynx. and mud, we in the east laugh at you western boys when you talk mud. we know mud, and you don`t have mud. you call slimy gooshy dirt mud. we ask, what`s dirt? ever hear of iowa, or 10" rain in 8 hrs like we get here in indiana? know what blue or yellow clay is. sure, yoiu have gumbo. lol!
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Post by trappnman on Jul 3, 2008 7:17:02 GMT -6
whats ironic, is the terrian is so bad, the ocndiotions so strong- that ony la rock hard local would evne have a chanceo f surviving...
yet- most of those states, refuse non residents..
Skeered?
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Post by SteveCraig on Jul 3, 2008 7:32:16 GMT -6
I know a couple guys that were out in the high country at over 7000 feet in Jan., 3-5 feet of snow, and temps 30 below at night. ALL IN A TENT TOO! And one of those two was stubborn enough to do it 4 more years in a row! I look back on it and really believe the Good Lord was watching over us.
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Post by robertw on Jul 3, 2008 7:36:47 GMT -6
The tent thing in 30 below is something everyone should do at some point in their life. I have some very nice memorys of trips like that!
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Post by lynxcat on Jul 3, 2008 7:37:03 GMT -6
No....we just CANT UNDERSTAND YOUR FREAKIN ACCENTS!!!!! lol You're right Bob...just DIRT to the frame...
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Post by robertw on Jul 3, 2008 7:41:26 GMT -6
Lynxy, After posting that picture we are going to have to start calling you the "kitty" trapper.
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Post by bobwendt on Jul 3, 2008 9:07:08 GMT -6
that`s kid stuff lynx. when the snow is up to your armpits , or you can`t see the mud as it is under 3 feet of water, then you will have graduated. first you talk about 60 below and then mud after 10 a.m., hmmm. you should have been in the tent at 30 below, then you would know at 60 below exposed skin freezes in 1 second or less exposure, you can`t take a glove off to reseta bumped snare even. that pinky turns white as a sheet and turns to glass if you get it out to pee, lol, if you can find enough of it to grab onto at 60 below. the lord does protect our weiners by turning us into women squatters at 30 below.
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Post by lynxcat on Jul 3, 2008 9:28:12 GMT -6
HMMMMMMM.....been outside at 58 below...must be something wrong with me...didnt freeze!!! Been snowmobilin at 38 below...NOT FOR LONG (DM cold) besides....wasnt me talkin about 60 below.... JUST you and your pet trouser snake.... It can be 20 deg outside..and when the SUN HITS IT...it thaws... you're LUCKY where you're at ...you have that SMOG sheild to protect you and your womanly soft skin!!!
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