Labour Day Holiday Hunt, Clinton BC

Gilbert woke us at 5 am.  Yesterday it was 4 am. It’s getting better. Little doggy moans.  I worry he has to poop.  I get up. Walk him in the pre dawn. He is more interested in peeing on everything but eventually does poop.  His schedule is off.  Maybe he remembers earlier hunting years.  It’s this time I’m up, having coffee and gearing up.  I know if I go back to sleep I wont be up till after 8 like yesterday.  So I make coffee.  Stove top espresso maker.  The furnace has kept the camper warm all night. I’ve had a better sleep.  Gilbert is happy when I lift him up onto the bed so he can sleep with Laura.

T shirt, shorts, jeans, socks and hiking boots. I’ve a camp flannel shirt and camo fall coat.  The electric bicycle is loaded up from yesterday. It’s rained all night but I had a black large plastic bag over the spare battery and arrows on the back rack.  I’ve got my long hunting knife, folding hunting knife, leatherman and hunting tags for bear and mule deer on my belt. I’ve two helmets with me, the lighter bicycling one and the heavier motorcycle one. I don the bicycle helmut, and turn on the little computer read out on the handlebars.  Then I swing the Excalibur Cross bow with attached bolt quiver over my head onto my back.  Then I swing my leg over the bike. I really do need to do more ballet stretches.  The electric bicycle throttle is on the left handle bar.  I turn it on and I ‘m heading out of the campground.  

The forest road is the other side of the RR#6.  It’s rained all night and the mud is greasy.  It takes a lot to keep from tumbling even going slow.  Each open field I stop and look about. I even walk for a bit then I”m at the next logging road and go fast on the gravel till I get to another forest road. This has more gravel so is less greasy.  I ride along slowly enjoying the morning.  When I’m a half battery down on power I stop to switch batteries.   I don’t want  to run out of power and find the second battery is empty too.  Five bars light up on the second battery.  I’m good to go.  

Locking my bicycle to a tree I walk along a deer trail for some time until it connects with a road that runs along marshy lakes with a beaver damn and lots of ducks.  No mule deer. No bear.  

I almost don’t find my bike when I come back. I have to back track on the bike trails to see where I took it off track and locked it to a tree in the woods.  I always get anxious about doing this. I once did get lost, not find my vehicle and slept over night until I found it I the light of morning.

I didn’t see any animals.  It was a short ride home. I really did appreciate the instant coffee Laura made. Warmth.  When the sun came out it was hot but when it was behind the clouds it seemed to become suddenly chilly, like Modor.  We moved inside.

I began reading a Wilbur Smith novel.  We had barbecued buns and hot dogs again.  I napped a bit.  

5 pm was the time the evening hunt began. It’s always a kerfuffle to find the stuff again.  Despite having just had most of it in the morning. I switched to the KTM 690 and had more storage in the panniers.  Green Garbage bags for carrying livers and hearts back.  Lots of bungee cords for tying a deer or a quarter of a deer across the back of the bike.  More layers of clothing.. It’s cold at night on the bike with the windchill. I’ll have long johns next time. I’ve worn panty hose when I didn’t have long johns.  The hunt must go on. 

Finally with the cross bow bungee’d down on the back of the bike and the Winchester Coyote carried on my back I mount the very tall KTM.  When I switched on the key and fired up the ignition the bike purrs into life.  I head out once ,twice, thrice. Each time I come back for something else, another sweater layer, a rolled of towel to stop a rattle of the cross bow and finally a flashlight.  I’m off.

I still don’t like the slippery muddy roads and try to find more gravel side roads. C Road seems best.  It goes for miles. I spot some mule deer way ahead.  They stop and watch me. I expect the last to join is a buck.  But now they’re moving down the road away from me and into the woods to the side.  When I start the bike and come along where they left they’re gone.  Ghosts, my friend Bill Mewhort called these great big grey northern mulies. If it had been rifle season I might well have got that one, assuming it was a buck.  I didn’t even get out my binoculars  knowing I’d not get close enough to use my cross bow once they’d spotted me. With my rifle I’d have been able to scope the horns and fire as it turned to leave the road.  I generally hit what I shoot at.  That’s been a good certitude. But not at this distance with the cross bow, even the Excalibur.  The rifle I carried was only for black bear. I had ‘t even seen scat.

I returned on C road and headed back to RR6.  I rode past the bear looking places I’d seen before but was bothered by sprinkles of rain. I didn’t want to get wet and cold like last night so turned around early and headed back.  Barbecued steak was calling to me.  

It was to be the last hunt here with the motorcycle because when I got back I unloaded the bike then ran it onto the front rack on F350 to reduce the tasks needed for an early departure next morning.  Gilbert was excited to see me. Lots of squirming and barking.  Laura made up the peas and potatoes while I barbecued steak.  A delicious meal.  Sunset was lovely.  Just sitting and watching the colours change over the lake and trees.  No tv this long weekend.

We did get internet and enjoyed looking at the pictures of Belinda’ s family wedding. Her husband after began his KTM Adventure southern bike tour.  Laura’s neice Jade had a baby girl.  It was Labour Day so very timely.

With the furnace cranking out heat and the duvet  calling Laura and I were in bed early. A few pages of Wilbur Smith ‘s Leon hunting in Africa then sleep. Glorious sleep.  

A great hunt. It would have been better if I’d shot something but only marginally.  I’m almost thankful not to have to do the field dressing and heavy towing and lifting to get the animal out of the woods and back to a vehicle.  I’m pretty lazy at the beginning of hunting season but as the fall goes on I get more determined to shoot something and forget how much work that entails.  I do like venison stew and I’ve had a hankering for bear.  While I shot a deer last year it’s been several years since I had bear.  I do love the winter with a freezer full of wild game.  Next time.  With Gilbert blind I’ve been down a man on my team.  I’ll just have to up and get going when he wakes me next time.    

Sunday Morning in Paradise,Similkameen Valley, BC

I sure slept well.  I love the mattress in the Maverick camper. Quiet night. I was reading late and noted the neighbours in their campers and tents were all lights out by then.  In the distance there was the highway with an infrequent vehicle passing.  Night bird sounds.  Some breeze in the evergreens.  I dreamed fine dreams of friends and fondness. I awoke with light and fell back to sleep. More dreaming.
Then Gilbert grunted softly, his way of letting me know he was awake and bored.  I got up then and liked my little house on wheels.  Used the in house toilet. Then carried my little blind dog outside.  It was a moment of synchornicity.  My two nearest trailer neighbours were exiting their mobiles at just that moment. One had a coffee. The other was walking down to the creek with his towel.  I felt like I’d linked into the tribal consciousness.  We were the single guys here. The trailer with all the kids is still quiet and it’s been an hour or so.
I walked Gilbert. The older couple in the tent were up walking their little dog.  It seemed the thing to do. I thought yesterday was Sunday and fussed about going to church.  Only late in the day when I rode into Princeton did I realize it was Saturday.  Now it’s Sunday and the thought crossed my mind to take the KTM 690 and go to church but I expect I’ll pack up leisurely instead.  Another neighbour has come out of his trailer.  That’s the fellow with the pretty wife. The two played horseshoes down at the pit.
Gilbert liked the walk. Even though he was blind he handled walking among the rocks and boulders down to the stream where he had a sip of the water. Yesterday I’d washed him with Irish Spring soap, him standing belly high in the creek.  I threw water on him and rinsed him with crows flying overhead.  I was having a time with my flip flops getting stuck in the sand.  He got out ahead of me and proceeded to roll around in the sand before being visited by a really big German Shepherd.  Gilberts a social little fellow so having a meeting made up for the torture of being made to smell pretty.
I used the last of the ground coffee to make this morning’s cup.  I made toast on stove top toaster then smeared the four pieces with peanut butter.  With a couple of Iogo Yogurt I sat outside eating breakfast watching the birds flitting from tree to tree.  I finished off the Texas Paladin Rides Again western wondering about the minds of the guys writing these.  Pure fantasy.  Man hunting and killing and coming back to the bad woman turned good with marriage.  The marshall and the ex whore.  The marshall kills the man who reminds her of her past.  It’s horses and simplicity and revenge and morality.  Easy reading beside a stream surrounded by pine and fir.
I rode the KTM 690 again last night.  After barbecuing a couple of steaks I had with sticks of carrots and celery, Gilbert shared the steak but had no interest in the vegetables, I took the Ruger 22 Rifle and rode out on the bike.  Gilbert with a full belly was left to guard the home.
A Stellar’s Jay has just landed on the tree and then the ground in front of me.  Black tufted head and blue body.  Lovely bird. I’d been watching a couple of them flitting between the trees, now thankful to have this one come closer.
I rode the KTM up the mountain road, annoyed with the fresh gravel that makes the road a bit of a challenge. Cordoroy and lose gravel.  Once I got to the steep part I had more traction.  I decided I didn’t want to go all the way up and turned about to take the trail into the first plateau, chickening out with the first major dip off the road.  Further along I took an easier path only to end up in bog.  Now here I liked that the KTM was only 300 lbs.  I dismounted and  was just able to pull the bike out of the mud and turn it enough that getting back on I could gun it out of the mess I was in.  I gave up finding a place to target practice up there and headed back to the highway in the other direction.
I remembered a Canyon road from years past and headed up there as the sun was setting.  I’d not have a lot of light for shooting.  I also had to take a cattle trail up to the rock slide clearing maneuvering around big boulders. I stalled a few times still getting used to the gears and fearful of giving it so much throttle that it would send me off the road and down the mountain.  I really was pleased with the bike when I got to the plateau.  I’d brought a target and put that out where the rockslide would be a back drop.  I’d carried the break down Ruger in it’s soft case on a strap over my shoulder.  I put the pieces together and loaded in the Ruger semi auto clip.  Right off I was hitting the target at a 100 feet.  I set it out at the distance I’m mostly shooting grouse and rabbits at.  I was shooting a nice pattern but all a few inches low so I adjusted the sights till I was consistently putting a grouping just a half inch from the centre. I could have started on another box and got the grouping right around the centre itself but while a few had hit bullseyes the majority were still a half inch low.
Standing shooting I remembered my brother and I as kids competing for our target shooting diploma. I got the bronze for lying prone shooting, my brother got the silver for kneeling.  The range was indoor and up the street from us like a bowling alley would be.  As kids we loved it. I doubt the young people would have access to this now in Canada.  Sad really.  I remember my brother, Dad and I having a good time in that range plunking away at targets.  We didn’t have paint ball back then so maybe that’s the thing today. Different attitude.  Fantasy and war. Target practice was more precision,  like golf and putting and driving ranges.
I’d watched the sun go behind the mountain and the clouds go pink with colour. It was dark but still light enough to see when I broke down the Ruger and loaded it back into it’s soft case.  Getting back on the KTM I turned on the light and enjoyed the wide beam.  Riding over the open field trying to avoid boulders and pot holes and cow paddies I liked that light.  Going down the hill I really was cautious, first gear, braking with my right foot toes touching with my light grip on the forward brake, hard to see the rocks and holes in the increasing dark. Glad to be back on the Canyon road, pretty much a trail itself but really well lit up with the beams of light.  I liked that light beam  stretched right across the road. I worry about animals bounding out at night and a narrow beam wouldn’t pick up their eyes in the light. The KTM light was perfect. The high beam was fine too but I used he low beam as I rode out admiring the view of the winding river below as it appeared between the trees. .  Back on the highway I gunned the bike to 90 km and was back at the camp in no time. Gilbert was pleased to see me and we settled in for the night.  He stretched out on the floor. I lit a candle and read more about Jubal Cole in the western.
I’d read a couple of chapters of Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules.  I liked his reflections on the divisions of gender, yin and yang, then the next division, parental.  There’s depth in his writing.  An antidote to the superficiality that happens with so much history forgotten and all news apparently questionable as truth no longer is agreed and arts stadents want to argue the ‘facts’ of science. Fantasy so much easier than physics and chemistry.
Perhaps too many leaders are parachuted to the top.  I think of the British Navy where everyone rose from the ranks and even the admirals had climbed to the top of the rigging in the tall ships. It’s not just the radical feminists but more so the lawyers and bureaucrats who believe they can lead without experience.  So many political leaders with no experience of real life or even a sense of history. They sit in board rooms and come up with ideas and tell people what they want like the communists with their plans that lead to millions of Ukranians starving to death.  Mind and body. The drunks and addicts with all their ideas and over and over again the sober say, if you talk the talk, walk the walk.
I’m no longer a leader. I once was but didn’t like the politics I suppose.  A while back sitting in a cafe, a nearby man asking what I did wanted to talk to me about addiction, spouting lines from the media, ideas of marketting marijuana and I didnt want to discuss it.  I tell him that subject is work to me. I want them to register that when I an old man say, I’m a psychiatrist that I’m aware. He began to ask questions and showed the inherent disrespect for knowledge. I played the verbal ping pong, ask him back what he does. Do that dance for a bit but register the ‘social’ and ‘salesman’ ‘getting to know you’ and realize I don’t want to ‘make friends’. That’s so often my experience with strangers. I’m wrapped up in myself. Intensely with people in my work so off work at lunch in a coffee shop I want privacy and peace.  I can see the guy was miffed. Like paparazzi, he felt entitled to another time and space but wasn’t paying. I wasn’t buying. He was miffed.
I am glad however for the neighbour here.. He is a good neighbour and when he asks me what I do I say but also say I don’t want to talk about work,  he backs off. Nice man.  Lived in Mexico.  Works here.  I realize how ‘prickly’ I am.  I like the proximity of others now. Camping with Laura I’ve appreciated her pleasure in this but I don’t want to ‘get to know you’.  I’m too much with people, intensely, deeply in their lives, daily.  I want to be aloof here.  Enjoying my own company, the quiet. But interested in liking a picnic table and the proximity of others , each campsite a few hundred feet removed from the next.  I’d not like to be closer like other campsites. This government built one shows the wisdom and sense of our beurocrats in the ministry of outdoors and tourism.  I knock bureaucrats too much .  They do fine work but there are too many of them and I’m just disheartened by all the taxes and their tendency to vote for fools who give other peoples money away to lackies and other countries.
Yet here  I am enjoying the product of government, the clean sites and well arranged camps. All along the river there are places like this. Same for the Duffy lake  area. I like all these government wilderness campgrounds with just out houses, picnic table and steel pit for campfires.  I like the local woman who comes by collecting the $6  (regular $12 but as a senior I get half price)for a night maintenance fee.  I could have stayed where I was the first night for free but I’ve enjoyed this social experience.  On my motorcycle I’ve been off alone in the back country, at times thinking if I hurt myself how long before I’d be found.  I had some near misses on the motorcycle almost careening off the mountain as I gained experience with the new machine, the brakes and gears.  A couple of moments of very steep learning curve. My muscles ache today from the exercise and use of joints not pressed into such hard service for some time.

It’s been hot. Very hot. I’ve drunk a whole lot of pop and enjoyed the bottles of flavoured Perrier water. I get too much sugar in the canned drinks.  I’ve gained a manly pot myself and would like to see the pear shape go.  All this exercise helps. Just climbing in and out of the camper, riding the motorcycle on the trails. Lots of upper body action I can feel today.  Counter balance to the gluttony and sloth of winter.
I see fisherman out on the stream down from the rapids. I’ve got my fly rod and spin rod but have been lazy about getting out there. If I wasn’t packing up today I’d go now.  The sun is hot already.  Cleared the tops of trees and landing warm on my side.  Work tomorrow then I’m off to Reno for a few days of medical comference. Laura staying with the home and pets.  She finds being at my place holiday from her city life with all the traffic and people. My little community is off the grid.  I’ve liked places like that in the city. Staying at the marina I never felt the pressure I did living in an apartment downtown. The same is true for my place in Burnaby.  I liked the quiet beside the river, with the walk in the woods for the dog.
It’s been great. I could see just going across country like Brian did.  He loved that tour. That’s the dream.  Now I’m just outfitting for the adventure.  Open ended time. Like the summer vacations of childhood.  Off the clock and off the calendar.  My neighbour had already set up and is attaching his Scamp to the jeep.  I’m impressed with the speed. I’d better follow his lead and begin to load up. I’m worried about the bike.  I’ve yet to push it up on the back hitch all by myself.  This will be the third time. I’ll see if I can do it.  If I can it will be a good thing. Part of being here is knowing I can ask another human for help. It’s not a muscular thing, more about stability. I’ve got to be holding the bike while tying it down. It will go well. God is good.
Thank you Jesus.

Morning with Gilbert, Maverick and the Austrian

The Austrian is the new KTM 690 Enduro I bought yesterday at Holeshot in Langley.  The bike needs a name and that will have to do for now.  The salesman Derek Vanderkooy really knew his motorcycles. He was incredibly helpful with my trading my Honda Pioneer 500 Side by Side Quad ATV for the KTM 690 Enduro.  I liked that at Holeshot I could sit on and compare the KTM, Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda machines.

It was a truly a whirlwind day. A call from Belinda, the office manager, saying the clinic had computer problems so the afternoon was cancelled.  Belinda’s husband has the KTM Adventure.   When I was asking around and comparing motorcycles I told her, “I think your husband’s right about the KTM being the best off road on road motorcycle today. Besides a man who picks a good woman is likely able to pick a good motorcycle.”  Belinda laughed. She’s amazing managing all the doctors and patients and the constant flow of data and people. Now she would have IT  there all afternoon.  What a nightmare!  I felt sorry for the patients but a sunny day and a motorcycle waiting. Well I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  Thank you Jesus.

I finished my morning clinic and made a quick run with Gilbert to the storage locker to pick up old motorcycle gear.  I’ll likely need to get new luggage and such fitted for the KTM but wanted to see if the old stuff fit before giving it to Paul. He has a big Triumph and it looks like my old Harley Roadster soft luggage and leather will serve him better than me now.  Part of the trading in the Pioneer was lightening up.  It sat in storage all last year only being used a couple of times for hunting.  Only a 1000 km.  If the Quad’s could be street legal like they are in Europe I’d get a lot more use out of them. That’s the beauty of the KTM 690 Enduro. I can use it as a commuter in the city and off road hunting and just having fun.  

Gilbert used to hunt with me in the side seat of the Pioneer but now he’s blind he’ll only come along in the truck.  

The girls at Holeshot were really efficient and friendly handling the finance and licensing.  As always there’s some extra to pay but the convenience and savings from a tax point of view for a trade makes the whole thing better than my trying to sell the Pioneer first and then buy the KTM with the extra money I’d make eventually. Dave, the big bearded, laughing, father of Gilbert’s buddy, Emory,  was glad to offer his help.  He’s  got a Harley and an ATV and has been doing this for years so is a terrific source of information .I even got to discussed it with Mack, the father of Max, Gilbert’s neighbour. They bark together when ever anything new comes round.  My neighbourhood friendship network is defined by dogs and vehicles.

The KTM 690 Enduro has won all the really tough races over the last few years.  The UTube videos of these crazy guys on their variety of machines going over huge rocks, straight up little trails and across desert has been a staple in recent years, not that I plan to imitate these nut bars but it’s amazing to see what the Bikes can do.  Evil Kneevils of the motorcross.  

When I was in Saipan my friend Frank and his son did motorcross like this.  I’dwatch them together, father and son, going around the course and think Frank was crazy.  

I loved reading the Bikehedonia Grace MacDonalds Wordpress  blog this beautiful young Australian girl, travelling through Malaysia alone on her KTM 690 , something about beautiful women with their own bikes makes the tale so appealing. I confess too that I’m always dreaming of such adventures , whether it’s sailing across the Atlantic in my sailboat or driving down to South America with the motorcycle. I’ve got the truck and camper now so anything is possible.

After buying the bike at Holeshot I had to load it on the hitch carrier I’d bought at Princess Auto and put together myself with wrench and ratchet.  It sure helped to have Derek pushing the bike up the ramp and steadying it while I strapped it down.  Mostly I appreciated his reassurance that he figured it wouldn’t fall off.  And it didn’t.

I drove out to Chilliwack, to the RV storage, where I unloaded the KTM so I could load the Palomino Maverick Camper. I’d never done this on my own. Laura had previously stood at the back guiding me.  So here I was loading and off loading a 300 lb motorcycle then loading the camper. It’s all a matter of lining it up and gingerly backing up with my heart in my throat.  It just seems like it would be so easy to knock the thing over as it stands so talk and vulnerable on it’s struts.  

The owner’s son came by to let me know they were locking up.  Tall handsome bright young man with a fair resemblance of his father. We were putting together the hitch coupler, the hitch being 2 1/2 inch so needed a sleeve to change dimension to the 2 inch carrier.  It was a challenge to line up the holes and connect the pieces “If your dad were here he’d know the trick to coupling these things.”  “He would at that,” he said.

Nonetheless we got the bike strapped in behind the camper and found that the extender even left room to get into the camper with the bike out back. It’s awkward so I’m still considering a hitch at the front so I can carry the bike out front to balance weight and leave the camper easily accessible.

9 pm and I was just leaving Chilliwack. I’d wanted to get to Princeton where I could camp on the river and ride the logging trails I know up there.  I picked up food at the Superstore and thought for sure I saw the incredible Surgeon and Artist I’d worked with in Saipan.  He was with family and I wasn’t quite sure and I was on a mission. I loaded up and drank a Red Bull knowing I’d regret it when I was ready to sleep. But it was past my bed time already.  The full moon was beautiful in the night sky. Gilbert was sleeping on the seat beside me. I felt pretty good with my accomplishments, getting the bike loaded and off loaded and the camper loaded and the camper water tank filled, gassed up and rolling down the highway.

That’s how I ended up here , camped by this stream off a logging road this side of Princeton.  I just love being able to pull off the road and get into bed.  Gilbert liked the walk at night.  The KTM 690 looked great on the back of the white Maverick camper in the light of the full moon alongside the stream, pine trees all around, the air so fresh.  

I didn’t sleep easy thanks to Red Bull.  I forgot to turn off my iPhone weekday alarm too. So 7 am the alarm sounded and Gilbert began barking and oh well, I did have to pee. What a beautiful morning, sun rising over the dark green forest. This incredible motorcycle hanging off the back of the truck and camper.  Paradise.  

I’ve made myself stove top espresso with canned milk and honey.  The heater is making me hot water for a shower.  I’m thinking I’ll continue on to Princeton and the campground I’d planned to say at. I’ve got two full days.  I could stay here but I like going with the plan where possible.  Today’s big event is riding the KTM. Ready to Race. I won’t be racing but I’m sure going to enjoy exploring the back country.  I’ll also be able to drive into town leaving the camper on the truck.  By fall hunting season I may even have most of the kinks out of the system so that I can actually focus on shooting a deer with my bow or rifle. So much of the fun is the preparation and planning. I was as successful hunting when I had a Broncho II and a pup tent, rose before dawn and stalked the woods or lay in ambush.  Now I’m outfitted for an expedition. It’s not more fun. It’s less productive from a hunting perspective but it’s sure a lot of fun in so many ways.