New Shoes!

I finally got the shoes I've been waitin for, for so long. Ever since I first read about these about hmmm, six months or more ago I fell in love. They have a minimalist sole on them and are supposed to give you the health benefits of being barefoot with some protection. Funny story about em though. In January I was looking at another minimalist trail shoe called the "Trail Glove" by Merrill. I found that only three stores in AZ were gona be carrying them on their release, one in Flagstaff another in Prescott and the third in Tucson. I could have ordered them online but wanted to try them on for perfect fit. So I called The Summit Hut in Tucson and had them hold a size 13 for me. Well a month later, that's today, I got the call from them saying my shoes were in. As soon as work was done I headed down there, stink and all. I figured that I could justify burning all that expensive gas by playing a disc golf course while down there. When I got to The Summit Hut I asked for the pair of shoes I had on hold and a pair of Injinji socks to cover up the funk on my feet and keep it out of the shoes. On my way to the bench to try on the shoes the lady next to me saw that I was trying on the Merrill's and commented on it along with the fact that she was trying on the New Balance Minimus Trail Shoes. At that point I was like a kid in a candy shop! I had no idea that they had those in too! I asked "you have those in too!" The lady said ya and asked if I wanted to try those on also. "Yes Please" I tried both on and found that they were very similar. The difference was that the Trail Gloves were a little more rigid in the sole, had some arch support and the heal cut gripped your achilles more. None of the real bad. I'm sure they will break in just fine. I do intend on ordering a pair in the future and using them for more rugged terrain. As for now I will be putting the NB Minimus to the test and will report on those in the future. 

1/1/11 Good Start

This was a good way to start off the New Year. My Bishop asked a couple of us from the ward to join him on a rappelling outing and first thing I thought was to invite my nephews. Chanler wasn't able to make it due to a rash on his back that was bothering him but Saul made it and had fun. The idea for the trip besides having fun was to refresh ourselves on our set up. A couple of us recently were schooled and certified for the climbing and rappelling requirements of the Boy Scouts of America and wanted to be ready for the activities this spring. So ya we used our family members for those runs. Hahaha sounds bad but it's not.

  Upon arrival to Bulldog Canyon the temps were at or below thirty degrees and there was a slight breeze. That's kinda cold for desert rats. So you can imagine me in my vibram fivefingers with numb feet. By the time the sun came up things were feelin better. The rock was still cold under my feet but I had to shed the gloves and jacket.

  We had several boys out there all who have rappelled before accept Saul. That didn't mean a thing though. He did great. He went over the edge of the cliff slowly to get the feel of it and also the same speed on the way down. Which is good cuz you gota get a feel for it. On his next run he was doing jumps and 360's. A couple of the other actually went down aussie style, that's face first. Jacob Nash who was one of the instructors and one of hos nephews.

At one point some wild horses came through the area and Saul took off after them. Oh and also some of Bishop's friends showed up on quads from the south end of the area. After clean up I took one run up a hill near the cliff per request of the group. Then we took off.

  That wasn't the end of the day though. After getting to about Coons Bluff turn off I got a call sayin that Bishop's Suburban was makin a funny noise. Went back and long story short, he had lost a couple nuts that hold up the front center section and the cv shaft on the passenge side was binding. Luckily I found a ratchet strap when leaving the Bulldog Canyon area and wa able to use it in the temp repair to get home. If you want to read more on that you can find it on my other blog soon.

It's Outdoors and Sometimes an Adventure

Bob recently turned me on to something that is highly addictive...disc golf. I love it! There's a course nearby and over 30 throughout the state and it's free to play, that is unless you loose a disc in the water. We've played quite a bit this past month at our local course at Emerald Park in Mesa and have played one in Scottsdale. We recently played some new courses. On Thanksgiving day my Dad, Bob and I played Emerald. My Dad had to go to a party and Bob and I still had time to kill before we had to be anywhere so we decided to try out Mouer Park in Tempe. It was a fun and challenging course. Challenging in terms of game play and terrain. There are plenty of trees and shrubs to hinder your view and gobble up your discs. There's also an abundance of loose gravel, jagged rocks and wash banks so it's almost like a small hike at the same time. The first three pics below are of Mouer. The last two are of Fountain Hills. On the day after Thanksgiving the three of us went and played Emerald again and again my Dad had to leave. After finishing the course Bob and I headed out to Fountain Hills to play the course for our first time. It started out great, with me wading in the lake for a disc that went in on someones first throw. Bob and I have a deal. If it goes over a fence he gets it. If it goes in the water I get it, mostly because I'm always wearing shorts and my fivefingers. It was some pretty cold water, I went in only as far as the legs on my short would pull up. I couldn't find his disc but found a decent replacement so it wasn't a total loss. I really like this course. It was very challenging with well placed tees behind trees and tees on the water's edge. There were also a lot of rolling hills and the scenery wasn't bad either. I'll definitely be going back there. I could have been more detailed in all the fun and events that happen while out there but then I would be on the computer longer than I'd like and be taking away from time that could be spent playing outside. See ya, gota go check out a course in Chandler!

Bob in one of the washes at Mouer Park.


 

This gives you a bit of an idea of how the course is.





I think they need to hire me to be the grounds manager at this park. The grass was terrrible. Hey look it's Bob again. This is the most open part of the park.



Well, It's A Start

A little hike up Siphon Draw with some good friends. That's a good way to begin this season and a good way to get back into the wilderness even though it's not that far off the beaten path. It's actually a well beaten path but hey, like I said, it's a start. Not all of the wildflowers were in bloom so I might go back in a week or two and take some of the different trails around there to see more of the flowers. Oh and definitely take more pics.

Oh, almost forgot! This was my first trail in my brand new KSO Treks! They were awesome, I'm never gona wear traditional shoes on a trial again. I'll post a pick of them later.

Time For A Change

Man it's been a long time since I've been on here...a long time since I've really done any outdoor projects or adventures. Well It's time for a change, in two different ways. First is to go on more adventures and finish some projects. The other change will be to my blog.

I want to turn outdoor adventures in to a blog that only reports on outdoor adventures and start another that has reports on projects. I feel if I have something new to do like the second blog, it might help me to be more motivated to do those things again.

So if you read this blog be ready for some action in the near future.

Happy Birthday Jim

Today is Jim's Birthday. He is one year old and was actually born while we were at Sunflower Mine. Like me he loves to be out doors. Here's a picture of him in the liberty on his first outing.

Hunting 09...Back in 17A

It's been a long time, I don't know if I remember how to do this and I don't even know where to start. So...hear we go. I'll start of with how excited I was to be able to back to hunt in 17A. The previous year we were drawn for our second choice,18A and it was terrible. You can read about that trip in the older posts. The reason I was so excited is because of the bucks we ran across in 07. We went up on opening day this year and found out it was a big mistake. There were way to many hunters up there and most of them were just driving the back trails I wanted to hunt like a highway. It was ridiculous! I could complain a lot more about that but have to save it for some other stuff.

The area we hunt in is on a ranch in the Prescott National Forrest. There are usually water holes all over this property but with the lack of rain this summer they were all dried up. Because of that the windmills along the power line road were the main source of water for the cattle. And with the most head of cattle I've ever seen up there those tanks were owned by the cattle. The second morning I got up early to walk to one of the tanks that looked like it might be promising, hoping that I might see deer before the cattle came. What I ended up seeing was an idiot driving up to the windmill right before dawn and then backing up a hill near by. I was frustrated at this point because I had been waiting for over a half an hour in the cold to not be seen and here this dude comes driving up at the time the deer would be moving in. Apparently this guy is dumb to think anything but a bovine is gona show up at that tank now. I figured I'd wait a few more minutes just to see the sun rise, well before that happened a dude we had seen the day before came speeding through that area and really figured that was it. But still wanted to see the sun rise. As that was happening I started to see some movement north of the area so pulled up my binos and saw that it was cattle. So I enjoyed a decent sunrise and almost got run over by a cow and decided to head back to camp. At that point I figured all the deer are watering in 18B on the private property south of us.

Day two, hike, hike, hike, hike, hike. Not much sign though. Came back to camp a little tired and disappointed with the lack of sign we had seen. We all sat around camp tired from the long journey we took earlier that day and almost didn't go out that evening until a little before dusk. We all agreed that we would all just jump in the Liberty and take a drive down a little road south of our camp called Turkey Draw. Not even a mile down that road Vance spotted a bunch of does and the passenger side of the Jeep less than 100 yards away. We stopped and jumped out as they headed through a wash and up the mountain. With my naked eye I thought that i had seen some bright antlers through the brush. That got my adrenaline pumping and all of the fatigue had vanished. Off we were running uphill after this herd. We spread out and try to contain them a little and they stopped. Vance was on the right side of the line and said that he could see them. So I went to where he was because all I could see were feet. Between a couple of junipers about 100 yards out were a bunch of does going back and forth. When they had cleared, about 40 yards behind that opening was that little 4 point. I tried to point him out to Vance but he couldn't see him so I asked him if I could have him. As soon as Vance moved I decided to flip the bi pod out on my rifle and shoot from the ground...big mistake. As soon as I had got him back in my sights he turned around the bush and all I could see was his butt. Oh I was mad at myself! I figured that I should rest the gun because, 1 he seemed comfortable there like he would stay there a bit more and 2 I was a bit unsteady from running up that hill. Big mistake...the buck was only about 150 yards away and even if I was a little unsteady I think I would of still had a kill shot. Anyway we tried to run em north into a little ravine and up another mountain face but they felt a little to pressured and cut back west past Wiley and he said the were movin pretty fast.

The third day of our hunt fell on a Sunday. No Hunting on Sunday. Gota keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Because we weren't hunting that day we had a huge breakfast and just sat around camp all morning. While relaxing Vance spotted a fox walking into camp. I thought that it smelled the food and went to throw him some bacon but he ended up climbing a large, half dead juniper tree. See pics 2 & 3. He went up there to sleep! He was up there all day. The whole thing was pretty cool to see but what was more interesting was that he would move back and forth to two different spots through out the day. When it got real windy he would drop down to a limb that had a dead limb resting on it like a lean to. Pretty cool to see, also because I had never seen that kind of fox before. Maybe a mixed breed.

Day four of actual hunting Wylie and I went to go hike the fence line between the Yavapai Ranch and the Baca Float. We ended up cutting north to hike a mountain that Wylie had been on before and ended up in an area that he hadn't been in his many years there. We found some good area up there and tons of game sign but all the tracks headed south. I am gona go back there for archery season though, found a good spot on our adventure. Anyway back to that. We figured the mountain doglegged just south of the one we intended on taking but after a lot of hiking we found that is had multiple fingers that extended from that hub area. It's real easy to lose your way in the trees and with no gps. We were able to get a bearing of where we were when we hiked to the end of the mountain we were on. We figured we were just one off...turned out that we were three over when all was said and done. Later that evening Vance and I stalked that same herd we ran into on Saturday evening south into the Baca Float and that ended the hunt.

Tuesday morning while we were packing to leave Wylie went into the brush to take care of some business. Vance and I were rolling up the tent when he thought he spotted the butt of an elk and sure enough we walked around the shrub to get a better look and about 150 yards away in a clearing was a big bull with one tore up antler looking back at the brush Wylie was in and then slowly headed up the mountain out of sight. Now if I put in for that limited opportunity tag instead of 6A I would filled it. Oh and if I haven't mentioned it yet, that's the second year in a row that Vance and I seen elk in that area and Wylie's been hunting there since 59 and still hasn't seen one. Go figure.