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The tiny or Mini Excavator (I call it "teaspoon") is pretty handy and with my tractor I can really get some stuff done. It's not mine, at least not yet but I think I might need to buy it off a friend of mine. Really handy to have around.
Headed back to the coast this weekend for probably the last fishing trip.
Good afternoon Rich and...
I bought a mini excavator about that size for about the price I was quoted for doing the digging for my water line. It's been super handy.
Good afternoon Oregon and everyone everywhere else. Just a quick flyby to let everyone know that I made it home from the off-grid camp of the last near 3 weeks.
Have to take Snoopy into the Vet for Rabies and annual checkup and then on into Bend for a supply run. More later with pics.
Good afternoon Oregon and everyone everywhere else. After 430 miles, a 24° morning day before yesterday to finish packing out, I returned to Bravo Compound Friday night and the land of cell phones and internet. Pretty good hunting trip, all though it could have been a little bit better. We started off with a subdued bang on day 2 after wolves run us out of the unit we were hunting, (actually, ran the game out so no reason to waste time there), and we moved about 5 miles south, which was actually closer to camp. ODFW / April 11, 2025 – New resident wolf activity was documented in northern Wallowa County. The Kuhn Ridge Pack produced at least four pups that survived until the end of the year and was counted as a breeding pair. A total of eleven wolves were documented in the winter count. (Personally, and according to local area ranchers with grazing permits on roundups they are way low on that count). I know for a fact that the pack of wolves in our meadow a couple of years ago numbered a lot more than eleven. Raised quite a ruckus and howled their heads off.
We left two bears on the mountain (1rst tags unused). I'd like to say we left them for the elk hunk, but the truth is after the first couple of days of the deer hunt, they went dark and deep into the forest and canyons. One was shot on "the breaks" of Joseph Canyon the day before deer season ended and one of our guys got one on Kuhn Ridge 4 days before the deer season ended. We got several bears off of that ridge.
Turkey over there is done. We were allowed one per season in Sled Springs, and I would like to look for one in Trask when I go on the Doe hunt next week. Too many things going on so I'll probably only get to hunt the Trask for Doe, Turkey (& bear) for a couple-three days.
A couple of the guys missed their opportunity for a buck. One of the guys forgot to chamber a round, then he forgot to take the safety off. Not the first time I've hunted with someone who forgot to take the safety off. Can't ever recall someone not having a "hot rifle" when in the field hunting though. His buck got tired of waiting and departed the area especially after he heard that bolt operating.
The other fellow just flat missed. He's hunted with us for a few years and I have never seen him miss a shot before, but it happens. He did not miss his bear. I tracked it down for him. No cut hair, no blood at all. I found the bear, DOA, about 100 yards away. He covered my back while I went into the thickets looking for broken limbs and disturbed pine/fir needles on the ground.
Some pictures to recap the last 18 days of mostly off grid life....(my wife says the beard has to go!!! So much for Grizzly Adams)
Most ATV trails were closed but there was some back country open beyond the range of hiking. Almost as good as having a horse again, but refuses go to some of the same places.
Even the Kawasaki Ridge bucked and balked at the program and said "go fly a kite! Ain't no way I'm wheeling my way down there! Go take a hike!" This pic was taken from about 5-6 steps over the edge.
The Old Kuhn Ridge pioneer schoolhouse. Rancher and railroad workers kids used to go to this school. The old communities in the area are long gone, marked only by a dilapidated historical marker on Hwy 3 about 10 miles away. Used to be a Geo Cache in an ammo box under the corner of the building, picture left of the door.
If your grandparents or great grandparents talked about having to travel to school in snow that was **** deep on a horse, this could have been one of those schools!
A day before season opened for deer. Young mule deer buck on the left and a doe in the 'watering hole'. She was licking wet rocks as there was no standing water left in the hole. This was two days before season opened when I was out scouting and hunting for grouse and bear. They both went into the trees where it looked like he was trying to mess with the doe. They disappeared out of sight and then she came back without him.
A couple of White Tail Ladies asking why I was interrupting their breakfast. I did not shoot him down in Buck Creek (very deep) Gulley - canyon. He ran down there then started up the other gully wall. We started out to just pull him out to a point within 400 feet of the top of the gulley (mini canyon wall). The Ridge has 75' of winch range and I have about 400' of rope. Once we got him over the deadfall, windfall and creek in the bottom, the canyon wall was smooth with grass. Wasn't a cake walk but we got a head of steam in the boiler and with a few rest stops and switching out between 3 of us, we got him out hole.
I hit him with a 150 grain .308 Hornady SST at a MV of 3000 fps at approximately 130 yards our of my Smith and Wesson M&P10LE. When I was field dressing him in the canyon, none of the 3 of us could figure out how in the world he managed to run off and go so far. Heart, shrapnel hole, lungs gone, Liver blown apart. Nice size deer, (102 hanging) small WT 2 pt rack. Essentially a Spike with eye guards.
Fortunately, it missed the belly and intestines but did hit some of the meat in the right rear ham. Billy Bob Meat Shop packaged that up for me. Told me most of that should brine out and make for some good jerky and maybe a couple of roasts. They just had too much meat to meat to cut (locker was full of elk from a special hunt.) I wasn't going to disagree after they gave me a look inside their cooler. I was pleased with the cuts and hamburger they had ready for me on the 16th. I also noticed that they were able to get most of the damaged rear ham into hamburger. I’ll only have about 5 pounds to clean up and turn into jerky. I was fully expecting and had made arrangements to pickup it up next month on my way home from the elk hunt.
No visible racks and they were already tagged so I couldn't add them to the meat count.
Bear Tree. Bear has been looking for lunch or dinner.....Oopss, Sorry, wrong Bear Tree!
Here's the REAL BEAR TREE, one of several we ran across. The damage (will kill the tree) all occurred in the last 12 to 24 hours. There had been a hard rain about 6 hours earlier. Most of the chips on top were bone dry.
One of our bears. Only a standout because of the diamond dot V in white. I should have pulled the head back so the top of the diamond could be seen. Not really all that common but really not what you could call completely unusual either. No hunting bears and cougars with dogs of any kind is allowed in Oregon, so now we have a bear & cougar problem. When we checked this bear in with the Regional Game Biologist, (has to be done in Oregon with bear and cougar) she was saying they were having a real big bear and cougar problem in the area we were hunting. Wouldn't elaborate, but we figured she was talking about wild game and cattle depredation for cougar and tree damage for bears since there isn't much of anything else around. We asked her about the wolves and she just smiled and changed the subject.
City folks think it is great, right up until one shows up in their yard then they scream bloody murder and accuse the state of not doing enough to control them.
I got to teach one of the fellows how to skin out a bear if you were taking the cape and skull to the taxidermist. Rear feet were left as he only wanted a quarter mount. I brought those home. Thinking of making bookends out of them.
Partners and I spent a lunch break deboning some of the Bear meat we had for Breakfast Sausage. A "local" gave us a reference to a meat shop about 45 miles away from camp our he had used. Said they make the best breakfast sausage out of any meat, especially bear meat that he had ever had. A couple of days earlier, I had called them about some of my bear and deer meat and they wouldn't take it. Too busy, so I had to go about 70 miles to Billy Bob's in Elgin. (I like Billy Bobs better anyway.) We dropped this "locals" name as referring him, and they said they would do it as long as we deboned the meat.
BTW, the fellow on the right went to school with my wife and we spent a lot of time in the same unit together in the Army after I switched from Navy.
Three others had left for home the day before. They had filled their deer tags and weren't bear, grouse or Turkey hunting.
A season limit in this hunt unit on Turkey's for us. Two of us had Turkey tags and we filled both. I'm going to be hunting for a doe and a 2nd Turkey (as well as bear) this coming week near Alpha compound where the season bag limit is two turkeys, so I got another Turkey Tag and will hunt Not sure why the bag limit is not 2 where we were at. We see many more Turkey's up in Sled Springs than we do in Central Oregon or the Coast Range, with the exception of the Umpqua Valley in Douglas County. There the use rocket nets to trap and transplant them. Maybe they need more wolf food in the Joseph / Hell's Canyon area!
My 870 12 gauge 3-1/2 inch Magnum. I was using 3" with #4 steel shot with a full choke steel shot insert screwed in.
By the time I got home I had another week of beard growth and was really starting to look like an ungroomed, untrimmed Grizzly Adams. Wife wasn't impressed. Told her it stayed until after elk season. That went over like a lead balloon. I was told I could grow another one for elk in 2-1/2 weeks. I lost and the beard is now gone.
Loaed up and ready to head out for home.
West bound and down.....
Not shootable. Not in Season (of Course) and we drew "second choice" tags this year which is spike only. At least it doesn't wipe out our 200 Series Points we have built up for the draw.
A few other pics of the trip........ My S&W M&P10LE (.308 Winchester). A straight shooter and has bagged several deer, bears and an Elk. We're guarding a stump on the side of the mountain. Supposed to be a pickup down at the Sheep corals to pick me up when I get down there.
One of my partners is about a 1/2 mile south heading down into the same canyon. Don't laugh. Dinner of the "mountain man Champions". Need toast (Okay, I'll admit it isn't hard tack) to slop up the beans in the bottom of the bowl!
This ranch was next door to the Lee Maines' Ranch. A lot of people want to call it the Circle Rocking K. It is actually "OK Quarter Circle Ranch". Brennans also had the Lightning Springs Ranch down in a canyon near Imnaha. I believe Lightening Springs was sold but no details other than what Cheyene told me. I believe a couple of the kids still run the OK Quarter Circle. Rest of the kids are scattered all over but some still live in Enterprise.
Lee and his wife have been gone for years and I've lost track of Melissa, their daughter. The folks would send me to Joseph and Enterprise in the summer to work on the Maines Ranch out of Joseph and another Ranch out of Enterprise towards Zumwalt Prairie for a month or so during Junior and Senior High School. Lee would send me over to this ranch, property line neighbors, to help them buck hay and chase cows on occasion. Usually moving cows from one smaller range to another. The ranch was owned by Walter Brennan and his son Mike. Walter was there quite often. He made sure that everyone on the crew got lunch. It was then that I learned he got the hobble in the real McCoys by putting a marble in his shoe. Wonderful people. In 2019 or 2020 (where does the time go), Diana and I were going to stop and visit with Mike back then. We were told he had dementia (Alzheimer's) and probably wouldn't remember or know me and he wasn't in a good mood because family (kids) had just taken his drivers license away and turned it in to the state. (I know how that goes, we had to do that with the MIL and my mother both.) So, we went on up to the cemetery and saw his wife's grave and what would eventually be his next to her. Beautiful Cemetary overlooking the Upper Wallowa Valley with a view of the Eagle Caps.
Mike passed away in 2021 and is buried in the Cemetary on the hill next to his wife. This gravestone pic is one a friend over there and went to school with a couple of the kids, just sent me today. The pic I have is near identical except the DOD for Mike isn't on it.
Last edited by Seabiscuit-P3; Oct 20, 2025 at 05:09 PM.
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