New Les Stroud knife

Can't wait for the "Tagamami," a new Helle Knife that is a collaborative effort between Les Stroud (Survivorman) and Helle, one of the best higher end Norwegian knife makers out there.

No pictures as of yet, but I have emailed the two Helle distributors in the USA asking to be notified when they get them in.

99.9% chance it'll be a much better knife than the Bear Grylls knife.... just like the shows I suppose, Bear is out for flash, Les is out to thoughtfully teach.

EDIT: Wow, I didn't realize Bear Grylls and Gerber had "teamed up" on so much stuff... there's a fixed blade, a folder, a parang, and a couple versions of "survival" kits.

Frozen Guides Fishing Service

Two of my brothers and my dad went out for our annual Owyhee River fishing expedition. For the last 8 years we have ventured over to the brown trout waters in hard to reach extreme south eastern Oregon. This year was particularly cold as we have been in the grips of a mid winter freeze in November.

Starting off with a hearty breakfast at a local greasy spoon, we enjoyed the company of a non fishing brother, his two young boys and an Uncle up from California. Fueled up with Belgian waffles, protein-special omelets and coffee, the four fishermen headed through Notus and Parma Idaho and Adrian Oregon into the beautiful Owhyee canyon.

The truck thermometer read 24* F and we knew we were in for a tough day, but still hopeful for a hatch of some sort should the sun choose to grace the canyon with it's warmth. Swapping out jeans for fleece pants and waders, we geared up and started on a stretch familiar to us. The water was low and much of the area was iced clear over, so the pickings were limited, but we managed to find some fish before too long.




Tossing a Clouser minnow

















Fish on!











Looks like the Krakken!














Bringing that brown to net













And letting her go.














Plop. Another Clouser Minnow toss.











Three frozen fishermen





























Fish on, brother number 2














And the 21" reward...

More Videos!!!

Elk videos

Finally got three of the videos uploaded. I have three more, and I am still working on uploading them, but until then, enjoy...

wow

Videos

I am continuing to work on getting my videos from my elk hunt downloaded to here or photobucket, but it seems my short two minute segments don't want to be shared...

Stay tuned, I'll get them up sooner or later, as well as the actual hunt report and notes!

Thanks for checking in.

BCB

Back from elk hunting.... report!

Had a fantastic time elk hunting this year! Saw more elk on the mountain than I have ever seen before, including a calf which I have never seen before (in my little corner of the mountain that is). Found a couple of great new water holes, made lots of notes, learned a lot....

On to the pictures and video!

Fires

I always get a little nervous about this time of year due to wild fires. Mid-late summer thunderstorms can create huge fires in no time, struck by lightning and fanned by high winds. This summer may be worse than some because of the long, wet spring and the ensuing high growth rates of the under story brush and weeds. I find myself checking the Forest Service fire map often during this time of year.

Thanks for checking in,
BCB

fitness hike

I went out for a hike in an effort to continue to get my legs in shape for the upcoming elk season. I headed out on a local trail into the local foothills. I had my daypack with my spotting scope, binoculars and a canteen of water. Saw a antelope doe and a peregrine falcon eating a fresh Hungarian partridge. Heard some coyotes and chuckars. All in all a good trip, my legs felt good, but I still have a long way to go...

Thanks for checking in,
BCB

Elk scouting trip 1

Wow, nothing like the first trip of the season to show me how out of shape I am!

About two months until I head up elk hunting, time to get running and loosen up the lungs, loose a few pounds and whip my legs into shape.

The high country was beautiful and absolutely chock full of bood quality browse for the elk, the micro stream where I hunt is spring fed and it stable year around... just perfect for a healthy herd of elk on "my" mountain. The long, cool spring and (so far) cool summer, it seems the stars are aligning for an awesome fall hunt. Speaking of the weather, I always check the Old farmers Almanac to get a prediction on the weather and it is predicting a hotter than average August (which bodes poorly for fire danger), but a much cooler than average September which bodes well, very well, for an active, vocal rut.

Other preliminary elk scouting trips I have been hearing about nearly all mention an abundance of calves this year, and from what I saw I'd agree! I didn't spend much time on the mountain, but I did see lots and lots of sign, so all in all I am pumped!

This is the year!
BCB

Banzai weekend trip

One of my hunting heroes, Cameron Haines, coined the term "banzai trip" in one of his Eastman's articles. That's what I am going to be doing this weekend. With my lovely and ever patient wife and tremendous son vacationing with her parents in Missouri for the week (while I am in school purgatory...) I am planning a quick hit trip to the high country to scout out my September elk hunt. I can't wait to share what I find, though I have to warn you , there won't be any pictures as I am going light and fast (and my wife has the charger and the camera I have is on it's last legs and has a nearly dead battery...)

At any rate, this'll be one of, hopefully, three trips to the area that I am planning to hunt, so it'll be fun!

EDIT: I'll be taking a night or two just backpacking into an area I really have enjoyed in the past. Saddleback Lakes, under the towering Elephant's Perch above Redfish Lake isn't an area I am going in search of elk, but rather, relaxation. Although it is climbing oriented (and thus, Elephant's Perch oriented, it gives a little taste of where I am headed)... here's a great rundown of the area.

This is the year!
BCBH

Bruneau Dunes Fishing Trip

I have been looking forward to a relaxing trip with my Dad to one of my childhood haunts for a couple of months now. We have been to the Bruneau Sand Dunes several times but not for several years. With the truck all packed and the time finally here, I was absolutely pumped. We had planned a trip to this desert oasis a while back, two nights of fishing for bluegill and bass, with the possibility of a side trip over to another place fondly remembered from my childhood, Wickahoney Creek.

After arriving and setting up camp and hanging my hammock I read some and relaxed. The sun was shining and I felt GREAT! Dad rolled in and after parking and leveling his RV we were off to the small pond for some fishing.


Immediately upon shoving off from the shore I spotted a nice 14 inch bass and knew the day would be a good one. My Dad almost immediately pulled in a 16+ inch bass on a "bloody Mary" fly. I was fishing a small white popper and giggling like a little girl at every strike. Other flies we caught fish on were a white foam spider, a chartreuse wooly bugger and a bead head hair's ear nymph.

We fished the entire perimeter of the lake and each caught 30+ bass, mostly in the 12 inch range, as well as a big fat bluegill each. We were meat fishing, which is unusual for us, and came up empty though, as any bass you take has to be 20+ inches and with only two bluegill we decided to release them.




The next day we decided to head over to Wickahoney creek, a small desert stream in a deep canyon that we hadn't visited in 20 years. It is now in a wilderness area and we had no trouble finding it. Or at least finding where it used to be. It was dry and we mulled over how it could be dry in late spring. It wasn't a banner snow year in the Owhyee mountains, but somehow, that didn't explain the lack of water. None the less, the views were spectacular and we enjoyed the hike from the truck. From the rim of Wikahoney we made our way to the confluence on Wickahoney- Big Jacks Creek and wondered at the depth of the canyon and the rugged beauty of the desert.

Blind Horse Knives Maverick

Took the BHK Maverick out for a little walk today and I have to say that I like what I see so far! I just took it out for a quick jaunt and a photo shoot, but I will report back with a more in depth review shortly. Until then, enjoy!

Western States Traditional Rendezvous and the end of classes

I am just about to head into my final for anatomy and physiology lab, and i can't wait to be done. Less than two weeks left of this semester, then it's on to a nice little break.

On break I will once again be attending the Western States Traditional Rendezvous, this year it is being held in Packwood Washington, just outside of Mt. Rainier National park. Its should be beautiful, my shoulder should be healed, and with my lovely wife and son in tow to their first traditional archery event, it should be fun. I am hoping to get a couple knives made up by then for some raffle prizes, so I'll be sure to take some pics of that along the way.

Until then, wish me luck!

school blues

I am slammed. School and taking care of my son during the time that my lovely wife is off making a living for us takes up the majority of my time and thus, no posting lately.

There is a saying about the best intentions and following through with them, but it escapes me at the moment and although this semester is going to be a tough one to keeping up with this blog (and despite the highly annoying spam comments that I receive that have nothing to do with this blogs main topics...) have no fear, I have not abandoned this blog and I do have great intentions for this little corner of cyber space, as well as the desire to follow through with them.

So keep checking back every so often, but know that this spring semester won't have much posting.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for understanding my friends!

And, if you have been watching the Olympics you'll surely have noticed the official Vancouver Olympics symbol, the inukshuk, just like I mentioned a while back.

Arrows

Next up in the gear Sundays column is the arrows. I currently am shooting 55-75 Gold Tip Carbons that have a nice simulated wood grain. The front is stuffed with 125 grain steel adapters and 100 grain muzzy inserts for a total of 385 grains on point. My FOC is 13.5% (FOC is another topic I have planned to write about, a interesting topic to discuss). Out back I have a set of cap wraps which will most likely be the last set I use, not one of them went on straight and matched up, but they do the job as far as personalizing and making them visible when I miss. Over that I have four 90 degree four inch natural left wing turkey feathers in barred and died red. Correct arrow tuning is something that I pay pretty close attention to and to this end I shoot paper periodically and not the orientation of the arrow flight.

Lots of information, I know, and if you aren't fluent in archery there is a lot of good information out there, but I cant recommend highly enough TJ Conrad's book "Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook."

Fitness Friday

Another potential regular column, this one a bit more of an update as I venture towards my fitness goals for this year elk hunting safari.

I'd like to share a couple of my goals in an effort to stay accountable as the year slides past. Currently I weigh 200 pounds, and by September I want to weigh in somewhere between 170 and 175 pounds. I can already run a 10K without really training for it, but I would like to run a sub 40 minute 4 mile run.

My current workout regimen is two or three days at the gym, two or three days of p90X, and two or three days of running.

Gear Sundays

This is the first installment of what I am planning to be a pretty regular series on Sundays (and yes, today is Monday, yesterday was a day of unpacking and lazing around).

Today's topic is the business end of my hunting arrows. A sharp broadhead is of paramount importance in a successful harvest, a quick, humane death and ultimately, the best table fare possible. Currently my arrows are tipped with a set of Stos 160 grain broadheads I ordered straight from the manufacturer without any bevel. That's right, completely unsharpened. I Built a little jig to create a left wing bevel; a single edge broadhead has been shown in recent studies to provide a larger hole as well as provide a deeper penetration, especially when used on larger, thicker skinned, heavy boned animals such as my main target, elk. To this end I will be using a really nice jig to enable me to create absolutely scary sharp edges. The KME broadhead sharpening system is the absolute pinnacle of broadhead sharpening technology and I have been very pleased with the results. It allows me to precisely create a flat, consistent edge. The system, combined with a Cabela's 325 diamond stone and a set of 800, 1200 and 6000 grit Japanese waterstones, I should be able to have razor sharp, mirror finish type edges on my broadheads.


So in summary, my plan right now is to maximize any available advantage by using a heavy, single bevel broadhead that is as sharp as I can get it.

Next week's backcountry bowhunting gear article will be about my arrows, and from there I will be discussing the bow, quiver, and the necessary archery and backpacking accouterments I plan on using this fall.