Archive for the ‘Hiking’ Category
Monday, February 14th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: #1 All because of love
At the Sweetheart Banquet this year, there was a story told about a couple who had just bought a new Ranger Trek which was built for rough terrain in the snow. It had a seat for 3 people and had a canopy over it to keep moisture off of them. Now, it was an unusual year as we had about 25” of snow in town by the middle of November, with probably 30”plus in the mountains. Along with the snow it rained at times and at night it froze, consequently most of the volume of snow we had turned to ice! One day the couple decided to take their trek which was on a trailer up in the hills for the first time. Once unloaded, the wife wanted to be the first one to drive and being the good husband He was; He let her drive but gave directions as to which way to go. They were some distance from the pickup when the Husband told his Wife to turn down a small grade and as she leveled off, the trek sank clear to the seat and high centered on the bottom of a small watering pond. They tried to place limbs and brush under the wheels and of course they could not see what was really needed because of the large ice blocks and snow floating around on the water. So they walked back covered in mud and soaked because of walking in the deep snow. As they walked to the pickup they discussed what they needed to do. On the way home they decided to call his wife’s sister’s, husband which was a rancher and discuss the problem with him. He in turn said, he would come by in the morning with a large tractor on a lowboy trailer to pick him up and they would pull the trek out of the small pond. Upon arriving at an old road that led to the little water hole, they took the tractor off of the lowboy and hooked it up to the trek but it was still hanging up on the bottom. They did not want to damage the under carriage of the trek so they waded in with large steel bars and shovels to break up the large chunks of ice to get them out of the way. After that, they proceeded to clear out what was holding the trek up off of the bottom of the pond; till it finally rested on its tracks to where they could drive it out. They then placed it on the lowboy along with the tractor. This ordeal had taken several hours to bring it to a conclusion! When they both got into the truck which was already warm they thanked God for helping them get the trek out. After that, all they wanted was to get dried off and get warm and both had plans of going right to bed when they reached home.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Snow, Tractor, Trek
Posted in Hiking, Humorous | No Comments »
Monday, December 20th, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 2 Vacations in the Past:
Goose Creek was around 10 to 30ft wide and held some fairly good size trout so it was sure a lure for me. I was ten now and was using flies as I had a ready supply of them for we had a Evens lure and fly assemble plant in our town and my brother and I as well as others would go through their dumpsters and sometimes find some fairly nice things to use fishing. I used only flies in mountain streams having fast clear water and always tried to place my fly at the front of extremely fast water you could not see into. My favorite fly was a Silver Doctor and No I never learned to use a fly rod. The largest fish I caught at Goose Creek was around 18 inches. One day though my dad went to the store to pick up some ice in New Meadows and was told someone had caught a 30”trout out of some hole there. Looking back I can’t remember a time where we did not have enough fish for supper and what was amazing was whether we were fishing or fooling around doing something we always knew when it was close to lunch time. After lunch my older sister took care of the younger kids and the rest of our family looked for wild Blueberries along the side hills in the shade of the trees. It got very warm during the day and you sought out shade any way and that’s for sure there no shortage of BlueBerries for they were everywhere. After supper I remember we always took a trail that led along the top of a hill to see wildlife; that is if someone was not acting up! Then when we got back to camp we would have some Blueberries with sugar and Cream on them which had a super taste. At the end of the week when we left to go home we took around 6 gals of Blueberries back with us.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Blue Berries, fish, Flies, Lure
Posted in Camping, fishing, Hiking, Vacatilon | No Comments »
Monday, December 20th, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 1 Vacations in the Past:
It has been quite some years since I had thought about our vacations in the past. Most of our Vacations were spent at Goose Creek located between New Meadows and McCall Idaho. Now the roads back when were not all that great and it was several years after the War before most every gas station had brand new tires to sell. Even getting retreads was hard to find at times, if you could afford them. So before ever starting out on any long trip, just like usual our Dad would say, I don’t want any one mentioning a flat tire, do you understand me? (He meant it!) This was only because it took an hour or better taking the tire off and patching it and putting it back on. We finally arrived at Goose Creek after a grueling 5 to 6 hr drive as my dad did not drive all that fast. All I could think about after getting out of that hot car and doing some exploring and fishing. Of course that’s not what my Dad had in mind. The first thing the three oldest of us had to do was help unpack, help put the tent up and find wood. So we did not do a whole lot that first day. We only saw about 5 people the entire week we were there. I was probably 10 at the time with me being the oldest of 6 Children. The first remembrance I had every morning walking back to camp after fishing or bathing in the hot springs up on the side of the hill was catching the aroma of Coffee and Bacon floating down the canyon; that smell was tantalizing. After breakfast we older kids did the dishes. Then we parted company with I and my brother going up the hill to explore and try to find caves and large over hangs to sit on and just look out over the mountains. Along the way we filled our pockets with wild Blueberries’ (with some being the size of an adult thumb nail.) That’s for sure anything captured our attention at that time. We would lay down under gigantic trees looking up at the sky and seeing squirrels or large birds at times. Then when we got bored we pulled out our pocket knives to whittle a while. As far as seeing much Wildlife most of the time we made so much noise talking, yelling and throwing things laying around that we rarely saw anything outside of Chipmunks.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Explore, fish, Tire, Vacation, Wildlife
Posted in Camping, fishing, Hiking, Vacatilon | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Wildlife Out of Place:
One morning
my Wife was making her rounds as a Guard for Snow Mountain Pine LBR. Co. and got to see some Wildlife that was totally out of place. What she saw was 2 extremely Small Buck Deer with large racks on then with Her standing within 10 ft. of them. Both Bucks had a six points on each side and there was a a Doe with them that was a little smaller than the Bucks; but none of them were larger than a big Labrador Dog. I was surprised that someone did not get a pitcher of them for the Newspaper as many people saw them going in and out of the Mill Site. This was not the only time my Wife saw the Bucks though as they hung around that area for a no. days before moving on. When she told me about them I could not believe it as the only place we had ever seen them was on the West Coastal range. It was amazing, for we lived 300 miles from the coast in our little town of Burns Oergon which is a desert Area 4,000 ft. high and is inhabited only by Mule Deer. A couple of weeks later I stopped in at the Game Commission and told them about them being out there. They said they may have gotten loose from someone’s private collection or someone possibly let them loose after someone found out they had them penned up,as it was against the law to have them in possession. Which ever it was, it sure was an oddity!
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Bucks, Desert, Guard, loose
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Encounter with Nature in the Strawberry Wilderness # 3:
We proceeded to set up
our 3 sided plastic tarp tents under a very large tree and had nylon rope to tie off to the tree or brush. The one I built was quite a bit larger and could hold 4 people and had a thin canvas tarp to put over the top of the plastic as well as under my sleeping bag. I also dug a ditch around it. We each had been piecing on the food in our packs so I said a prayer out loud thanking the lord for bringing us there safely and we called it a night. I told them then there was plenty of room for others where I was. It was not 15mins later someone asks if they could come over on my side as water was reaching their sleeping bag and then I see someone reach up to push the wall of water gathered over head, over the side the tent. If that were not enough, now there were 2 guys in one large sleeping bag because their bag got wet. So we got up and put more plastic over it to drain the water off so it would not settle in one place; but things has a way of happening! About 30 mins later a wall of water came down and covered all the sleeping bags accept mine and the fellow down at my feet. To say the least that ended the trip except for walking the mile and half back to
the rig and listening to all the Complaints. It was very hard to contain myself from busting out in laughter especially with what these guys’s had gone through; but by now they were used to me doing that any way! After we got the rig warmed up and were driving home, I was joking with them saying after all the Complaints I heard tonight I can see you fellows are all ready to face the World. They all laughed at that but no one ever thanked me for the Memories they would hold on too for a good share of their lives!
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Bag, Complaining, Memories, Tarp
Posted in Camping, Hiking, Humorous | No Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Encounter with Nature in the Strawberry Wilderness # 2:
As we loaded up,
I ask them have you everything you need. Each one said yes! (What I should have done is have the parents supervise their packing, ha.) Once we got on the highway heading toward Seneca the conversation was on what each of them were thinking of doing with their lives. Of course along the way I put my too sense worth in once in a while too. By the time we were ½ way there the clouds were cold black. As we entered Seneca it was raining big time so I ask, are you sure you want to camp out as it’s going to be fairly close to dark before we get to a place to set up camp. I don’t know if they were in total agreement or not but we walked up the old logging road with rain gear on or plastic bags over us as the rain would not let up. Myself, I would have bagged it but with 5 High School Graduates urging one another on just to prove they can do it, who was I to stand In their way. As we took off, I dropped to the rear and looked at the pack each was carrying. Two of them had at least one hole in their pack and I plugged them. For a mile and 1/2 they walked in a steady down pour of rain with each one complaining for one reason or another with me trying to contain myself and not laugh. As we got to the camp site each of us tried to find some dry wood that would burn but everything in the area was totally saturated and none of us had anything that would burn. Talk about complaining big time, there was hardly a sober work spoken among any of them without a complaint in it. Inside I Was hacking it up till I could not stand it any longer and busted a gut laughing out loud and that was just the beginning.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Bags, Complaining, Pack, Seneca
Posted in Camping, Hiking, Humorous | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Encounter with Nature in the Strawberry Wilderness # 1
A few months before my son,
Dean Graduated from High School, I told him about the Barrier that I found up close to the Strawberry Wilderness Area. Evidently He told 5 friends and got them Hyped up about it. So they decided that a trip up to high lake is just what they needed when they graduated; seeing they may be parting company with each other a few months down the road. None of the Boy’s Dad’s volunteered to come along and I was not all that enthused about it when I found out I was the only Adult going. I knew it would be tough backing out especially with my son being the one who got the others to go. With the day being set which was Saturday, they decided they wanted to go up Friday night and campout. I worked day shift at that time so I took off early and got home at 1: 00 in the afternoon. On the way home I saw dark clouds over the mountains. So I had my son call everyone and ask them if they wanted to walk a mile & 1/2 in the rain just to get where we will camp for the night, or would they rather wait and go up in the morning. They all agreed they wanted to go up and campout. There are two things I told them they would do, for there were some boy’s I did not know. 1. Obey me and do just as I tell them to do; where we were going was not place to play around. 2. make certain all your food and clothing and sleep bags and ground cloths and something to make a lean too out of or a tent are all wrapped up in plastic bags; and have spare plastic bags to put over you for walking .
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Bags, Camp, Graduated, Volunteered
Posted in Camping, Hiking, Humorous | No Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Hiking in the Strawberry Wilderness # 2:
We made a wise decision
in turning around for what we were to face going back! I did not bring a watch with us but we knew it was getting late in the afternoon just by looking at the sun. One thing that was in our favor is that I knew that we were going up Big Creek just because of the volume of water in it and I knew approximately where it came out on the main road down below. What I didn’t know was how far we were from the main road and also how far it was from that point on down to the Car on Lake Creek. So I was sure hoping and Praying that we would remember which log it was that we crossed Big Creek on, but alas we did not recognize it as there were too many downed logs! So we knew we would have to hurry. Fortunately for us, the closer we got to the main road the less brush and downed trees we had to go over or around. All along the way I reminded my Wife not to pick up Peanuts any more than necessary as she was about 3 or 4 years old. So she was picked up to put her over a log or just to hold her for a bit but then she was put back down on her feet. For the most part she did fairly well up to about the last mile and half on the main road. When she saw the Car though, she went berserk and ran as fast as she could around and around the Car as well as voicing her Approval and was ready to get in the Car. By that time it was short of being Dark; so we praised the Lord for His Protection and allowing us to get back before dark and took off for home.
Yes, I did go back again with a group of High School Boys that had just Graduated and was ready to face the World; or were they? That’s another story!
Written By Christian outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Creek, Log, Peanuts
Posted in Hiking | No Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2010
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Hiking in the Strawberry Wilderness Area # 1:
It has been years,
since my wife and I decided we would take a Hike in the Strawberry Mountains Wilderness Area of Eastern Oregon. I had hunted in the area a number of times for Deer and Elk. One day I happened on to an old logging road and discovered a Barrier in the middle of road that had been there for many years, as there were some fairly good sized Trees growing up in it. Written on it were High Lake and the number of miles to get there. Yes, there was another road that went clear up to the lake some miles away but the road was not all that great at that time. Now I and my wife was a lot younger then and got to talking one day and decided we would go up to where the barrier was and Hike in to High Lake by going up one of the Creeks which runs out of the Lake. The first thing we should have done though was look at a map of the terrain, for a lot of that country is in a wilderness area and I also would have found out that farther up the mountain some of the creeks run very close to one another. We started out fairly early with our little dog named Peanuts, which was mixed between a dachshund and Chihuahua and she got around far better than we did going through or under logs. She barked at most everything that moved so we did not see much wildlife that trip! After we had walked about 2 miles the creek started changing direction to the left and in short order turned into a large spring area. It was very unusual and Beautiful for there were a large variety of mushrooms in the area of all sizes and colors. We had never see anything like that before! As we went over on the right side of the springs we heard rushing water much louder than the creek we were following. It looked like far more open country so we crossed the stream on a large log holding on to branches and kept on going for quite some time. I ended up slipping on a wet log and having my back hit a knot but it did not bother me much at that time. As we got to an open area we could see that the creek was running for a long ways before turning much uphill so we knew we would never make it to the
Lake that day and get back before dark.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Barrier, Creek, Hike, lake
Posted in Hiking | No Comments »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Hiking Tidbits:
Before you start out on your hiking trip you should make sure you are prepared. I cannot stress this enough. Hiking can be a very fulfilling experience but also be very dangerous if you are not prepared. You are responsible for yourself, so bring your knowledge and gear. To be a hiker you need to be self reliant by learning about the terrain, conditions, local weather and your equipment before you start out on your trip. Make sure you leave your plans and or tell someone where you are going, the trails you will be hiking and when you’ll be returning. Always, always have an emergency plan. If you are hiking with a partner make sure to always stay together. When you start out as a group it is a good idea to end up as a group. You should always pace your hike to the slowest person. Weather changes quickly in the mountains. Turn back if conditions start to change. Know when to turn around and go back; follow your instincts. Listen to your body, dress before chills or undress if you are hot. Make sure you eat and drink often and regularly. Fatigue and unexpected conditions can also affect your hike. Know yours and your partner’s limitations, even if you are planning to hike for just an hour. An injury or severe weather can become life threatening. So come prepared.
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Posted in Hiking | No Comments »
