Using (hopefully?) first-hand information from (seemingly?) credible sources, I'm packing up guns, ammo, flyrods, & all the other necessary accoutrements this morning to support a few days in the field. Headed out in pursuit of the "Dusky" grouse (formerly known as "Blue" to the twinks at our lowly Division of Wildlife). The plans had included the use of a fine bird-dog in the pursuit as well, but a recent warm spell (combined with a niggling concern about poisonous reptiles) will have us riding shanks-mare (and little else) in the search for our prey. Having previously encountered other galationus species in the general region (Columbian Sharptails and Sage Grouse), I do have some small hope for a back-up plan. Said information included reports of a relatively-nearby (& formerly unknown) impoundment that (theoretically!) has catchable numbers of Artic Grayling.

Bodes well, eh?

Not only does your game plan bode well, Lloyd, it also augers well! RWTF

Consider taking the pup anyway, leash them if you have to and maybe do little twenty minute hunts in birdie looking spots. If you have the rod with you, there might be more water around than you have to carry for the dog? Snakes, oh well? Have fun.

How many gallinaceous birds have you shot from the couch?

It’s not a boondoggle at all.

Foxy: Oh, I like that one. Not to be confused with "augur"? I had always thought that "auger" was the one with the spiral flutes used to displace dirt, or even ice? FWIW: almost took a later M12 (in 20) instead of a double when I heard the dog wasn't coming, but I'd already packed things up for the trip.

craigd: Yea....this dog is more child than pet. I've never seen any snakes up there and I strongly doubt that we will up high like that, but of course, I've never hunted (haunted?) this part of the world when it was still warm. I'd even gotten special dispensation from the local hotelier for the pooch (not normally allowed). Oh well....one does what one can. This should be an interesting scouting mission if nothing else. I'd say it will be nice to "get away from it all" except for the fact that it's a holiday and anywhere with water will likely be overrun by transplanted Californians.

CZ: Gallinaceous...meaning "chicken-like"! Thankyou for that as well (couldn't find the spelling anywhere).

Have a safe trip, Lloyd. The dog and snake thing is something I luckily have not had to consider-one of the regulars here lost an American Water Spaniel, from a breeder local to me, to a Great Basin rattler a few years past. Such would break my heart.
Maybe the only thing worse than the dog being bit, would be you being bit. A kid took a hit in Southeastern Minnesota a few years past from a Timber rattler, was transferred to HCMC, a level 1 trauma center, from a small hospital, and died about three days later. Your chances of being bitten in Minnesota are small, but, small is different than not possible.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

Chances here of being bitten by a rattler, or a cottonmouth, are not small, unless you're very careful. But, we that have grown up with them all around us are very cautious where we put our feet and hands, and we never do so where we cannot see beforehand. An upturned boat beside a lake or stream is a haven for toads, thus snakes. Anything laying on the ground under which a snake might find shade and cool is suspect. High grass and weeds are suspect. Heck, my wife has called me twice in the last four years with news that "there is a big rattlesnake on the patio". A acquaintance once hid some doves in the woods alongside a dove field, so he could surreptitiously kill more than he should. When he went in to retrieve the pile from the woods later, he reached down for them and a big rattler nailed him on the arm. The rattler had a half swallowed dove in his mouth preventing it's fangs from contacting his arm. His wash lady knew something had happened that afternoon, for sure.

Do I infer, Stan, that this dove "bandito"--crapped in his Carhartts?? wow-what a hell of an experience for him, to say the least. RWTF

Francis, I knew a man who claimed to have been bitten three times by rattlers while scouting his cotton fields, and all were dry bites. He had "Somebody" looking out for him, eh?

Halfway through a mornings limit.
10 buttons.



Too many of us walking about to let it be.

Prolly


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I’ll chop a Canadian up.

When I had a chance to do a fair bit of quail hunting in Texas, I used to condition the pointer during dove season.It was fun taking a few opportunistic doves, instead of just dog work. I really didn't care for the water snakes, in the heat, they would coil up beneath the surface of small stock tanks that we usd to swing by to water the dogs, with just their nose breaking the surface. The dogs couldn't tell they were there, like they could rattlers.

In the Rockies though, I have seen two very large rattler dens that probably had hundreds of snakes in them, both pretty high up in elevation.

Hi,croigd

In your corner every time


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Hi, Jimmy

I’ll punch you in the head, boy


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Looks like the bar closed early in Del Ray tonight.

Best,
Ted

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Or the bouncer had his way with him. Again.

Teamster fayg


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Detroit vs Everybody

Chop you up , Toad





__________________________
Faygaty Minnesota fayg

No rattlers here in N ID and hunting the dove opener in S ID, my friend had to remind me a time or two to keep my eyes open for them, particularly around the basalt outcroppings bordering some wheat fields and stacked rocks and boulders around some of the canals! Nice not to need to give them a first or second thought here in the north!

You, Sir, have a keen eye- it is augur, as a "happy augury of a well planned mission. An auger is, indeed, based on Archimedes for a tapering pitch to a thread shaft, and is indeed, used in well drilling. Happy hunting/fishing, etc. RWTF

Well...it was a bit if a boondoggle. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people there are out in the backcountry anymore. It's been nearly untenable here since the COVID experience and I had hoped it would return to something resembling "normal", but no, now it's full of these "overland" vehicle types driving equipment that costs more then a house. I realize that it was Labor Day and everybody was getting in their "last hurrah". It's also bow season for big game here and there were plenty of those folks out there too.








We saw some birds and even got one but...it was a serious circus out there. After it got too-hot to really hunt (95 in Craig on Monday) we headed down to explore that lake we'd been told about. It sadly turned out to as a mud-bottomed bovine latrine, ringed with campers and pickup trucks. I suppose you could fish it with a belly boat, but at 90-plus degrees that day we weren't buying. It was fun to see the country I normally hunt elk in without snow and... we were able to go places that aren't normally available to me then. But...it wasn't really worth all the trouble (and burn all the fuel) to get there, get a hotel, and then get up early to go up the hill. Colorado is sure a mess anymore.

If you can drive to it….it’s not “back country”. At least in my mind it’s not. I agree though, since Covid, it seems everyone is an outdoorsy person now. It’s been horrid here in Utah. The Uintas used to be a place you could go to get lost….not so much anymore. They wanna turn the main canyons in SLC into toll roads and build gondolas because of the gridlock. The country is getting full.

Nice writeup Lloyd. Looks like a familiar moustache and Westley Richards holding that grouse. Too bad the yuppies were out.

Thanks for rounding out the little adventure. I got a chuckle out of your comment about folks driving rigs that might cost more than a house.

There's a place I've hunted a bunch of times that when wet out has the tackiest clay based mud I've ever run into. The locals call one of the main access roads, O'reilly's. It's littered with parts and accessories, that get ripped of from the weight of the mud, from big land yachts that some folks try to bring in. Go back some time and try to get your grayling.

Your last statement is spot-on, Colorado sure is a mess anymore!

I'm fourth generation Coloradan & can't believe what has happened to the state. I for the most part quit going to the mountains several years ago due to the items you've mentioned above. I will be up in the Craig area in a couple of weeks for a pronghorn hunt, but it will be on a private ranch with a trespass fee involved. It's getting hard to even find ranchers who will let you hunt with a reasonable trespass fee these days because most of them have contracted with outfitters. I used to hunt public land back in the days when you could easily draw a license & still not have much competition on the million's acres of national forest & BLM lands Colorado has. Now it takes years to accumulate enough points to draw a license in a good area & when you do the public lands are crawling with different types of rig's & people driving around.

I'm still out there doing what I love to do, but I do long for the days in different times! Maybe our mutual friend Mr. Cobb has it right & it's time to look elsewhere for a place to live!

Looking at that picture of the lake sure makes one appreciate Lake of the Woods. And, a 28’ Sport Craft to get around it on.

Enjoy September, Lloyd. I’ve never heard the claim that Greyling eat better than a Walleye, but, you never know.

Best,
Ted

I fish right off a forest service road near the Appalachian trail. Tons of hikers on the trails, but no fishermen or otherwise in the water because you have to clamber over glacial boulders. If an area is crowded here, just a few dozen feet off the road or less down a very steep and forested embankment tends to result in complete solitude. I have the good fortune of being a young-ish and spry-ish forty though. Still concerned about having a bad fall and getting hypothermic in the cold water before someone finds me...However, for me, a little bushwhacking always yields good results. Probably also helps to be a very hyper technical fishery where most get skunked.

I gave up on fly-fishing in CO years ago-- unlike Montana and Michigan, the river access is controlled by the landowner, and it is not always to get on to some good trout waters. Wanted to hunt elk in Co. but never got my number drawn for a tag (also the case here in MI) C'est La Vie. Le Reynard

limapapa: Not a Westly this time, but an H&H Royal that started life as a 2-inch gun. It's now one of the nicest 16s that I've ever seen or handled.

Dogon: Change is hard, it's even harder if you're stupid about it. Colorado has become California in so-many ways. I've considered our time here as very fortunate but I'm not sure that this will be where I make my last stand.

Foxy: Yes....I've got lots of tackle that I don't really have a place to use anymore. I have been told that I'm overly-fussy and that I should be grateful for at least the opportunity to get out, and in many ways that is true (I suppose). My problem is that my memory is still too-vivid, still too-fresh, of lovely, open, & uncrowded rivers and streams. When I go now (& I do so very deliberately to avoid said crowds by going mid-week, in off-seasons, and very early) it is occasionally still some of the fun that I recall. But.... the experience pales by comparison to my past adventures and I haven't been able to fully get over that.

Ted: Even the LOTW isn't immune from crowding anymore. I've had several occasions where I'd set up on a piece of structure, drop my anchor and start to fish and then... find myself in a crowd shortly after catching a few. LeFusil is dead right, things are clearly filling up in this country. The lonely places are getting ever-harder to find and then (selfishly) protect.

"Dogon: Change is hard, it's even harder if you're stupid about it. Colorado has become California in so-many ways. I've considered our time here as very fortunate but I'm not sure that this will be where I make my last stand."

Just curious, are you calling me stupid?

For years now I've done many of the things you mention to try and avoid the crowds while perusing my outdoor adventures and I've been pretty innovative with how I go about things. I know our mutual friend who you've worked with at Marks shop has joined me on many of these adventures for years without a complaint. I really don't know why you felt the need to throw in the stupid comment.

Dogon: I'm sorry, perhaps I wasn't very clear. Not calling you stupid at all (actually, I'm fairly certain we're quite like-minded). I was referring to the general policies of our home State, of late.

Thanks for the clarification!!

Here's link that pretty well explains why I feel the way I do about present-day Colorado.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...mp;cvid=86bb8f1eab1049958dd851f12693cf49

Dogon: That about sums it up. I've been here since the 80s and it's been hard to watch. I can't even imagine being a 4th generation Coloradoan and seeing it all unfold.