Mondays carry and small adventure.

Monday consisted of getting 3 hours sleep after getting gear ready sunday night, getting up at 330am, meeting a friend at 430am and leaving at 5am, driving 2 hours north of town(into the middle of the AK back country) and then spending a few hours hiking around checking out some mining claims, and doing some casual bear hunting.

Hiked about 5 miles in 2.5 to 3 hours, up hill, down hill, side hill, through woods, thick brush, along a creek, game trails, no trails… Swamp, muskeg(if you don’t know look it up… its a absolute Bitch to hike through!)  All while wearing a side arm, and carrying a rifle(I’ve found that there is a profound difference in hiking with and without a rifle… A rifle, even as small and simple as it is, adds a significan’t weight change and screws with your ballance, and having both hands free…  This was a Marlin 18” barreled guide gun in 45–70.

Quitting smoking has just in the last 3.5 months done absolute Wonders for my breathing, and stamina when working and hiking! Also found that my legs and back are in astoundingly better shape than I thought! Worlds better than it was for hunting last fall.  I am a little sore and tired today, but I can move without wanting to scream… Unlike last fall where 1/4 the distance in 500% better flat dry terrain was killing me and I couldn’t walk the next day without copious amounts of Vicodin… 

Always interesting when you have  big adventure for the day, several hours of driving, more hours and miles of hiking and hunting, Lots of fantastic scenery, and your done and home by Noon. 😉 Its amazing what you can fit into half a day!  

The only pics I managed to take were of the creek we were following for most of the hike.

Never ceases to amaze me, how you can be basically in the middle of no-where, and still find evidence of previous human activity… This was 2 miles u a creek, in a dense wooded draw along a ridge, no reason for anyone to be here except maybe the reason we were(gold mining) But also only about 200 yards off of an old CAT cut trail that is at least 50 or 60 years old… SO its not That strange to find…

But still, that particular spot on the creek wasn’t exactly easy to get to, nor the first choice you’d make for somewhere to go to the creek… so Still a bit surprising to find this.   Old roulg cut 2”x 10” x 4′ plank. Lots of weathering etc, its been there a While.  Embedded in the creek bank sticking up at a 45deg angle.  

No telling how long it had been in that exact spot, since last summer we had record rain fall and you could tell where that creek had been bank full, running Fast, and overflowing 30′ back up the draw around it for miles of its course…  Then again this sucker was embedded pretty good in the bank.

Most of my carry;

There was also a compass, my camera, some macgyver gear(electrical tape, kevlar compact survival cord) a bandanna, my Mechanix work gloves which I wore most of the time… Also rather fittingly I had my AK Adventurer tag on my neck cord with my cross and verse tag too. And of course the Marlin 45–70.

Sory, no pic of the rifle, it was on loan from my buddy. (he has TWO of those things! I need to try to talk him out of one of them! 😉 )

Also had my machete along and carried/used for part of the hike in the low land. I had packed water, food, and hunting knife, survival fire started, sharpener, and a few other odds and ends in my Black Diamond day pack to carry but it got left in the truck. Made a nice base station for all my gear/clothes etc in between the 2 hikes we made.