Copper Feather Outdoors: March 2008

Monday, March 24, 2008

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Not Where Your Mother Wants You to Be...

RUSSELL FORK GORGE

That doesnt look dangerous does it?....

Kevin has had his eye on this one for quite some time now. I never really put much consideration torwards it. I was wrong. This was the meanest river I have yet run, but one of the best. Kevin and I met up with some ace kayakers from around the area and took a tour of the gorge. Edgar, Matt, Trevyn, Clinton, Kevin and myself headed out for the daytrip. Only Matt had run this one before and it made for some great scout and run creeking in the class "dont swim" department. At the level we ran it, it is a class IV+ run which means that it has some V's in it along the way. It is a dam release river, but we were only catching it at a moderate flow due to rain. At release levels, it is a true beast. Not a good place to be if things go wrong. Lots of undercuts, sieves, caves, pins, and other bad things waiting for unfortunate souls.

I loved it. Had two beatdowns, won both of the battles, Nobody swam, didnt break any gear, didnt even get scratched up bad. It was a good day on the river. Not terribly challenging, but very serious in nature due to the danger factor. Apparently, lots of good paddlers have met their end here - at a rate of at least one per year. Dont mess up....

Here is the crew scouting Tower

Me entering Tower

Me boofing around the hole at Tower (had to "launch" off this rock to avoid a big ugly hole)

Me landing after the boof at Tower (sweet rapid)

Edgar coming through the last drop at Triple Drop

Matt running through somewhere on the river

Edgar cutting into the eddy at Triple Drop

Me turning the corner into the final hole at Triple Drop

Me finishing the boof at El Horendo (10 footer - slide to boof). About to land in a world of White

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The Hounds

This is the world famous pack of deer-finding dogs that mostly just keep our laps warm. From top left clockwise: Sasha, Ruger, Jackson, and Heidi. Jackson enjoys stirring up sibling fights and is a world champion face licker. Sasha mostly enjoys sleepin and laying on hot sidewalks catching some rays. Heidi has two great loves in life - Trän and food. Ruger enjoys good mystery novels, sudoku, scrabble, his favorite subject is math and is doing very well in ancient chinese language studies. He also enjoys biscuitville on saturday mornings.

View from the Top

Andrew and I pulled the 4runner over and picked a mountain to climb to the top of. There is no trail, no sign of humans, nothing but 5000ft of up. There's no much to do when you get there but look through binoculars and take pics. We saw sheep, and mountain goats, and small planes way down below us. I think you can see the curvature of the earth from here. Pictured is the Turnagain Arm just outside of Anchorage. This is the sound that several glacier's runoff and other rivers meet the sea.

Stringer

This a stringer of salmon caught in a short spurt. When the fish are in, they are in. We camped at the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers. Pictured l-r Me, Julie (Andrew's wife), and Andrew. Trän is behind the camera. We stayed here a few days and fished and hiked around in the area. Cooper Landing is the only thing around and is one of my favorite places on earth. Everyone should eat at Gwins Sushi Bar (the only restaraunt in a one horse fishing village - they do not serve sushi). We call this picture "the leg"

Boone and Crocket Caribou

This is a big caribou. It fulfilled the requirements to be considered a trophy book animal. There is no way to caption this whole story, but it includes a 17 day hunt in arctic Alaska, living for a few days in an eskimo village, boating 35 miles up the noatak river, getting inside info from a native as to the best hunting grounds, being 500 miles from the nearest american road, eating MREs for 7 days straight, patching a zodiak raft, realizing the same raft is now irrepairable due to a bad valve, getting rescued by a family of natives that were testing an empty boat to buy (had room for all our gear), shooting 16 bullets and running 3 miles in a mad chase to complete the hunt and finish the kill (knocked scope and didnt know), living in a tarp after the tent was destroyed in a sustained 50 mph windstorm, being left out in the bush a few extra days due to inclimate weather, 17 days with my best friend making a GIANT memory that I will never forget.

Old Droopy

My friend Pat acquired a small piece of land just outside the city limits. We saw alot of deer and smaller bucks in this little overlooked patch of land. I hunted one afternoon and sat through a violent rainstorm (mostly to test my goretex suit for upcoming trips to Alaska). Low and behold out walk about 15 to 20 does right after the storm passes at dusk. Along with this big, wide Buck. This buck was very old and had lived his life eating out of gardens and backyards. I'm glad the goretex suit was working. The story doesnt stop here. My first shot went through the top of a small tree that I didnt see in my scope. Somehow the bullet still hit the deer at about 100 yds. You can see the hole in his shoulder. The buck then ran into the ONLY spot in the grown up weed field that I could shoot. I made a clean second shot and was able to recover the first bullet from the leg. I call this my magic bullet. The Buck had split his entire bottom lip on something. The wound had healed up just fine, but left his bottom lip in two distinct flaps. He looked a little bit like Droopy.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Full Circle

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

breath

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Russell Fork Gorge 2008

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Not Where Your Mother Wants You to Be...

Falls Creek Falls

Airing It Out