I am currently drinking a refrigerated Alaskan Winter Ale after taking a hot shower, cooking real food, and drying my boots inside a room at the 49er along Highway 395 just East of 49 Degrees North, a place that I know quite well from the great days of riding there as a young skier and snowboarder. For at least the next couple weeks, and after working outside in Pacific Northwest weather living in a tent for months, it's god damn nice to be sleeping in a bed.
I had a roommate the last two weeks in Roslyn: Sasha. My 12 year old Labrador joined me on my journey West:
Over the years her rear legs have become rather decrepit, and she cannot jump into the car anymore(or make it up steep stairs half the time), but she impressed me time and time again with her enthusiasm for the outdoors and wonderful company. She hasn't been camping with me in a long time because of her lack of mobility, so it was great to see her out and about. She can't maneuver too quickly, or run too fast, but she was having a blast in the forest! Never a whine, and always on the watch.
We have about 8 more days of solid work to do here in North Eastern Washington to finish work for a deadline, and although I know there is a time crunch, and I am getting all my work done, it's Fall and it's a great season to check out the surroundings.
I have been constantly looking for Chanterelle Mushroom. I have yet to find any, but I know they are out there and I'd love to cook some of the fungus up for dinner one of these nights.
I have also been on the look out for Bull Moose. It's mating season for the largest member of the Deer family, and the Bulls can become quite aggressive and territorial in the fall. Yesterday I kept hearing a large crashing noise in the distance, like a tree falling down in the wind. However, there was no wind, so I kept my 'hoots' howling, not knowing what was around. As I was doing a plot of trees far from the first area that I had heard the noises, they came once again, much closer this time. Once again not see anything, I kept moving on. Finally, as I was walking between work points, I literally almost walked into a very large Bull lying down in the brush. From 15 feet away, this great forest herbivore was the largest animal I had seen all summer by far and I cautiously stepped backwards without saying anything. I honestly don't know what to do when confronted with an animal with virtually no predators. After staring at me for a good couple of minutes, he lumbered off, with a rather large limp coming from his rear legs. After surveying the area where he was laying down, I determined that the moose was either very old or hurt, for the noise I heard earlier must have come from when he hunkered down onto an area of mostly dead snags and branches, not a typical soft grassy area that moose would typically bed down on. Something was definitely wrong.
Today I must have smelled very good to those mating season Bulls, for two of them walked right to me! Hearing a lot of commotion up the hill from me, I quit what I was doing and checked out the area. Sure enough, a large hairy black animal was coming towards me, very loudly. It looked just like a bear in the brush, so I started yelling at the mammal. He kept coming towards me, so I backed off, and finally out of the brush a huge bull was in my face! Again, I cautiously walked backwards never taking my eyes off of him, as he stared me down. He eventually walked off, and I snapped a couple of photos:
Two hours later I heard this bull grunting at me from across a creek bed. He was making all sorts of noises towards me...
The summer has flown by. Although I have had a great experience, gotten in pretty good shape, and enjoy living on the land, it is getting more and more tough to get outside every morning to work. I just picked up a new snowboard, am looking at a condo on Schweitzer on Monday, and snow is flying all over the west. I can't wait...
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