Wayne in BC
New member
As i mentioned we planned to go back in a week for a late cow Elk hunt. As my luck went, two days before we left, a surprise blizzard and 4 ft drifts caused me to be pulling a neighbor's car out of the ditch on his long driveway. No problem, hook up the good ol' stretchy nylon tow cable, get a run and......crack! twang! Hook broke and cable ate my radio antenna!
Pizz on this, use the winch! Hook er up and slide on the ice, car aint moving but truck is cause i got no anchor. Get out the chain and extra winch cable, hook up to a handy cottonwood which his driveway was lined with. Now we got performance Car comes out slick as a nursemaids tit but is roaring some with no muffler, seems it was hung on a rock in the snow, telling us why it was tough to move Neighbor, good guy but did not belong in the country, right away steps on the gas to loosen up the cable and sideways back into the ditch
With a sigh i hit winch button again and as the car comes up on the road he is waving frantically through the windshield and i am
when a hell of a CRASH! happens and the truck shakes, hard! Stunned i get out and look at the 8 inch x 20 ft tree branch that had come from 50 ft up and flattened my camper, luckily the middle part and missed the cab, camper was 2 ft lower in the middle and the windows were busted, frame and all. Neighbor is suitably sorry but i tell him that i was stupid to forget about BAM trees getting top rot and not liking to be rattled
Too busy and no time to rebuild the camper so plan b, that being, since we would take a couple horses, a few extra bales of straw in the closed horsetrailer would make a fine bed, them old ponies are used to the cold anyway and would have hot feed, ground oats and barley with molasses along with their hay.
We left friday night, early this time, and pulled in to the gas station at Nordegg town about 9 pm, got out to gas up and heard.......sssssssssssss!
A tire on the horse trailer (single axle) was about flat! Didya ever get in such a hurry that you jacked up a horsetrailer with them still in it! Well it was nice and level pavement and they were quiet horses
it worked and we were off to travel 30 miles of icy backroads to our chosen spot near the Brazeau river.
The temp was 24 below at Nordegg and dropping the radio said, to 30 below, it was several degrees colder down in the river valley it seemed and we set the alarm clock to start the truck every two hours. We were nuts in those days for sure! A couple tarps off the side of the trailer and to trees made a barn for the horses and our snowmobile suits kept us going until we could light the coleman in the trailer and heat some water for hot rums. Seems we outsmarted ourselves cause there seemed no way to ride around on a horse at 30+ below!
I had brought my Brittaney spaniel Susie along as i often did and she crawled to the bottom of the downfilled sleeping bag as soon as i opened it, she was smarter than the average girlie dog The oat straw made a comfy bed and at 11 pm we turned in, quite warm actually. The alarm went off and Cliff got up to start the truck, muttering and shivering, when he came back in he said it was tough starting so we let it run, setting the clock for an hour then changing our minds, hell it could run all night, we had lots of gas. 1:30 am and Cliff nudged me awake, i heard the truck still running and also smelled it! Cripes! There was not a lot of exhaust coming in but any was too much, dumbasses! I got up and shut it down. Thats why they find bodies!
Back into the sleeping bag, steel walls of the horsetrailer sparkling with frost, and Cliff sez, i would kinda like to borrow your dog for a while.....i sez, you damn pervert! NO! My feet are freezing! Getcher own dog i sez.
The bags were 5 star Arctic but it was some cold in there! We piled some more straw on us and forgot about the truck.
6 am we wake up and i stay mostly in the sleeping bag while i light the coleman. We made coffee and breakfast and i suited up to go out and feed the horses as they nickered plaintively. They were fine in their shelter and bed of straw but it was bonecracking cccold! I knew it had to be 40 below!
I also knew, as did Cliff, that the truck would not start. It was good that way and would always start without being plugged in at about 30 below and i always had a can of ether along, this was way colder and i tried it anyway.....errumm eruuhh-click!
Not a dangerous problem but a pain in the azz, i would have to tarp her and put the coleman stove under the oil pan. 4x4 powerwagon was high up so it had lots of room. 15 minutes and steam is rolling out, vroom! We are good to go, but where i dunno. Then i heard a couple chirps and a tweet. Elk! Yep the cows chirp and squawk like birds. A herd of 20 or so was just across the meadow pawing and eating. We were going home soon! 200 yards, the 7mm and the 06 spoke together, two down! We didnt deserve such luck but took it!
Hard work for a couple hours, working with blood sodden gloves or freeze the hands, but drove the truck up next to the Elk. By noon the truck was full of prime Elk, covered with a tarp and straw and hay bales. We headed home. We stopped for coffee in Nordegg and the owner said it was 41 below at 6 am, and now only -36. He reckoned it was at least 5 degrees colder in the valley where we were. He seemed kinda jealous of our Elk or sumpthin too.
Now this is the God honest truth, when we got home and squared around, all full of brag and a couple drinks, i was looking at the regulations cause a friend who came over had asked when the last season was. To my horror i saw that the Cow Elk season in the zone we were in did not open till monday coming!.... EEEE! ......We had drove proudly and openly home with two illegal Elk in the truck!! Would have got busted if we had been stopped cause i would not have been smart enough to say we got them 20 miles north of where we did, where it was open!
Good thing i was lucky cause that would have been the end of my outfitting license........
Pizz on this, use the winch! Hook er up and slide on the ice, car aint moving but truck is cause i got no anchor. Get out the chain and extra winch cable, hook up to a handy cottonwood which his driveway was lined with. Now we got performance Car comes out slick as a nursemaids tit but is roaring some with no muffler, seems it was hung on a rock in the snow, telling us why it was tough to move Neighbor, good guy but did not belong in the country, right away steps on the gas to loosen up the cable and sideways back into the ditch
With a sigh i hit winch button again and as the car comes up on the road he is waving frantically through the windshield and i am
when a hell of a CRASH! happens and the truck shakes, hard! Stunned i get out and look at the 8 inch x 20 ft tree branch that had come from 50 ft up and flattened my camper, luckily the middle part and missed the cab, camper was 2 ft lower in the middle and the windows were busted, frame and all. Neighbor is suitably sorry but i tell him that i was stupid to forget about BAM trees getting top rot and not liking to be rattled Too busy and no time to rebuild the camper so plan b, that being, since we would take a couple horses, a few extra bales of straw in the closed horsetrailer would make a fine bed, them old ponies are used to the cold anyway and would have hot feed, ground oats and barley with molasses along with their hay.
We left friday night, early this time, and pulled in to the gas station at Nordegg town about 9 pm, got out to gas up and heard.......sssssssssssss!
A tire on the horse trailer (single axle) was about flat! Didya ever get in such a hurry that you jacked up a horsetrailer with them still in it! Well it was nice and level pavement and they were quiet horses
it worked and we were off to travel 30 miles of icy backroads to our chosen spot near the Brazeau river.The temp was 24 below at Nordegg and dropping the radio said, to 30 below, it was several degrees colder down in the river valley it seemed and we set the alarm clock to start the truck every two hours. We were nuts in those days for sure! A couple tarps off the side of the trailer and to trees made a barn for the horses and our snowmobile suits kept us going until we could light the coleman in the trailer and heat some water for hot rums. Seems we outsmarted ourselves cause there seemed no way to ride around on a horse at 30+ below!
I had brought my Brittaney spaniel Susie along as i often did and she crawled to the bottom of the downfilled sleeping bag as soon as i opened it, she was smarter than the average girlie dog
The oat straw made a comfy bed and at 11 pm we turned in, quite warm actually. The alarm went off and Cliff got up to start the truck, muttering and shivering, when he came back in he said it was tough starting so we let it run, setting the clock for an hour then changing our minds, hell it could run all night, we had lots of gas. 1:30 am and Cliff nudged me awake, i heard the truck still running and also smelled it! Cripes! There was not a lot of exhaust coming in but any was too much, dumbasses! I got up and shut it down. Thats why they find bodies! Back into the sleeping bag, steel walls of the horsetrailer sparkling with frost, and Cliff sez, i would kinda like to borrow your dog for a while.....i sez, you damn pervert! NO! My feet are freezing! Getcher own dog i sez.
The bags were 5 star Arctic but it was some cold in there! We piled some more straw on us and forgot about the truck.
6 am we wake up and i stay mostly in the sleeping bag while i light the coleman. We made coffee and breakfast and i suited up to go out and feed the horses as they nickered plaintively. They were fine in their shelter and bed of straw but it was bonecracking cccold! I knew it had to be 40 below!
I also knew, as did Cliff, that the truck would not start. It was good that way and would always start without being plugged in at about 30 below and i always had a can of ether along, this was way colder and i tried it anyway.....errumm eruuhh-click!
Not a dangerous problem but a pain in the azz, i would have to tarp her and put the coleman stove under the oil pan. 4x4 powerwagon was high up so it had lots of room. 15 minutes and steam is rolling out, vroom! We are good to go, but where i dunno. Then i heard a couple chirps and a tweet. Elk! Yep the cows chirp and squawk like birds. A herd of 20 or so was just across the meadow pawing and eating. We were going home soon! 200 yards, the 7mm and the 06 spoke together, two down! We didnt deserve such luck but took it!
Hard work for a couple hours, working with blood sodden gloves or freeze the hands, but drove the truck up next to the Elk. By noon the truck was full of prime Elk, covered with a tarp and straw and hay bales. We headed home. We stopped for coffee in Nordegg and the owner said it was 41 below at 6 am, and now only -36. He reckoned it was at least 5 degrees colder in the valley where we were. He seemed kinda jealous of our Elk or sumpthin too.
Now this is the God honest truth, when we got home and squared around, all full of brag and a couple drinks, i was looking at the regulations cause a friend who came over had asked when the last season was. To my horror i saw that the Cow Elk season in the zone we were in did not open till monday coming!.... EEEE! ......We had drove proudly and openly home with two illegal Elk in the truck!! Would have got busted if we had been stopped cause i would not have been smart enough to say we got them 20 miles north of where we did, where it was open!
Good thing i was lucky cause that would have been the end of my outfitting license........
So you folks shot the Elk out of season? Thank goodness you did not get caught and lose your licence...it was probably too cold for the game wardens to be out checking on folks. 
