Weekend Scouting Trip (Pic Heavy)

Pritch

Pritch

Joined
May 3, 2006
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Hi Guys,

Saturday my hunting partner and I headed down to a new are to scout in preparation for hunting season. Our old unit has been overrun by offroad motorcycle riders and they ended up really freaking the elk out last season. :mad:

We had some general ideas of where we wanted to go but first we stopped in to the USFS ranger station to see what maps they ahd available. We ended up scoring several really detailed topos at 1:24000 with 40ft intervals - FOR FREE! :thumbup:

We selected an area to check out based on the maps. We wanted an area that looked "elky" but wasn't too easy for people to access. It was raining lightly most of the time.

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The trail we chose starts off with over 800ft of elevation gain in under a mile! I found out I was in worse condition than I thought! :eek: The mosquitos were really bad, and there were several trees across the trail. We saw no evidence of recent human use.

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Along the way, I found some interesting fungi.

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http://pritch.smugmug.com/photos/176299547-L.jpg

When the trail flattened out up top, there as a pretty large dead area. I think it had been a blowdown which was subsequently scorched by fire.

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There was a lot of really big lava around, which we are guessing was from the last time Mt. Rainier blew.

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Up top, we found a small pond that had a LOT of prints in the wet sand/mud. Tons of deer and elk, plus some really clear bear prints.
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This a lot of pics. I'll post some more in a few minutes.

-- FLIX
 
In this pic we have Rocky Mountain Elk, Blacktail Deer, Black Bear and Flixus-gasp-for-airus.

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Here are a couple of more bear pics. This guy must have been there just before us!

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Elk
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Originally, I thought this one was Mountain Lion, because of the symetry of the prints. In my opinion, they were too big for coyote. (Bigger than the prints of my 90lb. Akita.) After looking at the photo, I'm not so sure. I see the claw marks, which indicate against a feline, but maybe it has to do with the soft sandy mud.


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Of course, there was no shortage of flowers, either.

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After we got out of the blowdown/burn area, we ran into several other ponds with evidence of a lot of animal activity. They didn't have the convenient beaches for clear prints, though.

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We found this mining operation. I guess those bugs taste pretty good.

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We saw one doe up top, but didn't encounter any game while in the area. We both had family commitments in the evening so we had to get down the mountain and back home. As it turns out, the only elk we saw were munching shrubbery outside of an esspresso stand! :p

-- FLIX
http://pritch.smugmug.com/photos/176299781-L.jpg
 
Great pics bro and would I be right in guessing those tracks are Black bear and not Grizzly ?
 
I have been doing alot of scouting latley, its a great excuse to get outdoors and your workin towards a goal not too far away. Great pics, good to see someone else is preparin too.
 
Thanks guys.

PitDog, yeah, I'm pretty sure they're black bear. I haven's seen griz in the wild for years, but IIRC, they would be bigger and have much more obvious claw prints.

Barrabas, I feel totally unprepared! Bear season is only a week and a half away and early archery season opens Sept. 8!

-- FLIX
 
Great Pics....I would guess that the canine tracks are wolf. I would base this on the size of the toes and overall track size, the location and presence of the toe nail marks, and the negative space in the track forms an "X". The tell-tail "X" is also present in several other canine species. If it were I coyote I would have expected the front two toe nails to be much closer together, almost forming a single imprint. I would also expect to see that the two outside toe nail marks would be almost right against the inner toes and possible not even show.

If the track a feline species the negative space would for a downward “C” shape as apposed to the “X”


All Good Medicine.
 
Great pictures! I have been keeping a close eye on my local whitetail population. I will start scouting heavy in September, and do some squirrel hunting at the same time. Archery here starts October 15, I can't wait!
 
Pyriel and Bwilson - Wolf? The area I was in hasn't had any wolf sitings that I'm aware of. Part of NE Washington has "enjoyed" some spillover from the reintroduction program in Idaho. This was WAY south of that.

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I looked at Bear-tracker.com and agree that these are canine, not feline. Wolf looks right, but maybe it was just a really big coyote or domestic dog. :confused: I would love to put a game camera on that pond but I live too far away and it is a public trail. Maybe while I'm hunting/camping up there.

Anybody else have any ideas?

-- FLIX
 
Flix, that "canine" track looks like a wolf track to me, too. I've seen quite a few of those tracks of the Canadian Grey wolves that were transplanted here to Idaho. :mad:

Even though the "spillover" into Washington from Idaho, is more up to your northeast, be aware those those big boys can travel a great distance with no trouble.

These wolves that have been hammering Idaho's, Wyoming's, and Montana's elk and deer herds, are already moving into Utah and Colorado. Some have crossed the Snake River into Oregon and Washington. Don't be surprised if you start getting some sightings -- and game kills -- in your area. :eek:

FWIW.

L.W.
 
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