Wayne in BC
New member
for a good reason! These pics were the happy part of the 10 days that i guided this hunter. Sorry the pics are kinda poor, i lost most of my good pics as that was the year that i fired the vengeful "cook" HWMBO.........I will back up a week first though.
My buddy and top guide Cliff, (whom you have heard about in previous stories) and i had been scouting a new area. The last several years of my outfitting/guiding career was mostly dedicated to guiding out of country hunters for Trophy Elk, Mule Deer and Black Bear.
This time however, the hunter that had contracted me wanted a trophy Moose and a Black Bear.
I had guided for Moose for many years in the northern part of Alberta where there was a very good population. The mountainous area i operated in at this time had Moose in huntable numbers but not nearby to my base camp. Because the hunter was willing to pay the extra, i was prepared to spend the time to set up another comfortable but temporary "camp" some 60 miles north, in an area i knew had the minerals and genetics to produce trophy Moose, which i had seen there, info i had locked and filed away for future profit.
We spent a couple days in that area with our quads and three wheelers. It was rugged country but crisscrossed with seismic trails from old oil exploration attempts, very few people knew how to get in there. Only one grown over and hidden access trail between bloody awful muskegs on the south end. On the north was an inpenetrable mountain range and to the east a mostly uncrossable large mountain river.
The Quads worked fine for covering ground once we cut a hidden access trail. The hunt would be horseback and on foot of course but the tents, feed, food and gear would be hauled in the three miles by quad, saving time when dealing with a temporary camp and three days prior to the hunt, we left home with two 4x4's (the last 10 miles to the jumpoff point sometimes needed some winching)too late in the day for the 100 mile drive to haul in the last of the gear. Cliff's cousin "Larry" had volunteeered to come along and help but i was not thrilled as he was not very reliable liking the "sauce" way to much..........
The weather had been fairly dry and after navigating several bog holes without winching, we arrived at the jump off point around 11 pm that night. I backed up to a bank to offload the quads and got out of the truck to stretch and get organised, only to see Larry fall out of Cliff's truck......staggering drunk he was and i scolded Cliff quietly after we had him sitting on a bank muttering and singing
Problem was that he was one of those guys who would not seem to be drunk and had a huge capacity, until that last "tip over" drink. Cliff had not known how much he had drunk before picking him up and had not been concerned enough as Larry had been nipping at a bottle during the trip, but seemed ok. No point now in making much issue so we loaded up the first batch, intending to go to camp and crash, finishing in the morning. My machine was the more stable and i had a trailer behind while Cliff's was heavily loaded on the front and back racks and tough to control, so i took Larry on behind me. It was a slow torturous few miles of navigating hills, bogs, and brush with a swaying drunk on behind me but finally we arrived and deposited and blanketed Larry in the one tent that i had put up the week before.
Being kind of concerned about the weather forecast, wet, we decide to make the last trip even though we were tired and it was 12:30 am, we could sleep late tomorrow....
Back we went and got the rest of the equipment, arriving at camp, we quickly tarped and stowed everything and crashed at 2:ish am.........
continued........hopefuly more pics also
[attachment 40266 moose.jpg]
My buddy and top guide Cliff, (whom you have heard about in previous stories) and i had been scouting a new area. The last several years of my outfitting/guiding career was mostly dedicated to guiding out of country hunters for Trophy Elk, Mule Deer and Black Bear.
This time however, the hunter that had contracted me wanted a trophy Moose and a Black Bear.
I had guided for Moose for many years in the northern part of Alberta where there was a very good population. The mountainous area i operated in at this time had Moose in huntable numbers but not nearby to my base camp. Because the hunter was willing to pay the extra, i was prepared to spend the time to set up another comfortable but temporary "camp" some 60 miles north, in an area i knew had the minerals and genetics to produce trophy Moose, which i had seen there, info i had locked and filed away for future profit.
We spent a couple days in that area with our quads and three wheelers. It was rugged country but crisscrossed with seismic trails from old oil exploration attempts, very few people knew how to get in there. Only one grown over and hidden access trail between bloody awful muskegs on the south end. On the north was an inpenetrable mountain range and to the east a mostly uncrossable large mountain river.
The Quads worked fine for covering ground once we cut a hidden access trail. The hunt would be horseback and on foot of course but the tents, feed, food and gear would be hauled in the three miles by quad, saving time when dealing with a temporary camp and three days prior to the hunt, we left home with two 4x4's (the last 10 miles to the jumpoff point sometimes needed some winching)too late in the day for the 100 mile drive to haul in the last of the gear. Cliff's cousin "Larry" had volunteeered to come along and help but i was not thrilled as he was not very reliable liking the "sauce" way to much..........
The weather had been fairly dry and after navigating several bog holes without winching, we arrived at the jump off point around 11 pm that night. I backed up to a bank to offload the quads and got out of the truck to stretch and get organised, only to see Larry fall out of Cliff's truck......staggering drunk he was and i scolded Cliff quietly after we had him sitting on a bank muttering and singing
Problem was that he was one of those guys who would not seem to be drunk and had a huge capacity, until that last "tip over" drink. Cliff had not known how much he had drunk before picking him up and had not been concerned enough as Larry had been nipping at a bottle during the trip, but seemed ok. No point now in making much issue so we loaded up the first batch, intending to go to camp and crash, finishing in the morning. My machine was the more stable and i had a trailer behind while Cliff's was heavily loaded on the front and back racks and tough to control, so i took Larry on behind me. It was a slow torturous few miles of navigating hills, bogs, and brush with a swaying drunk on behind me but finally we arrived and deposited and blanketed Larry in the one tent that i had put up the week before.
Being kind of concerned about the weather forecast, wet, we decide to make the last trip even though we were tired and it was 12:30 am, we could sleep late tomorrow....
Back we went and got the rest of the equipment, arriving at camp, we quickly tarped and stowed everything and crashed at 2:ish am.........
continued........hopefuly more pics also
[attachment 40266 moose.jpg]
Waitin' for the rest !
