^ Glad you are enjoying it.
So… went to the 520 today. I had just over 2 hours before sunset and decided to take advantage to check out one of the spots I was planning on visiting. About 60 km one way. For those familiar with the area, I went to the East Haul Road, just past Cadotte River. Pretty much the first pullout once you enter the WMU. Hit some quad trail in order to get the vehicle off the road, parked just inside the wildlife corridor and hit it on foot. Not much time, only about 1 3/4 hours till lights out.
Quite amazing how much of a difference 60 km can make. I have been quite a bit further down Peace on the west side, but never on the east. First impressions… there is moose around, lol (duh?):
Quite a bit more visibility than I am used to:
That visibility comes at a cost, however: there is so much deadfall that it is almost impossible to move around with minimal noise. There is also lots of this going on:
That grass is waste-tall (or taller). With deadfall within. Heard a deer running away, twice, lol (probably the same one). Quite a bit more spruce than in my usual hunting environment. Doesn’t really look that moose-y to me. I noticed there is less sign the further it is into the bush from the Cadotte valley. The closer to the valley, the more “trim” on the bush. Overall, in the short time I spent there today, I couldn’t say that any moose was there recently. I only found one pile of poop and a pretty old one too.
Frankly, to hike for over an hour and half and only find one old pile of moose poop is a little discouraging.
The Cadotte valley looks like a mini Peace valley, just more of a monotonous downhill rather hilly terrain. I guess it comes with the size.
By the river, there are some areas that have some pretty good trim, while most weren’t worked on by moose in a long while, if ever.
Some old tracks on a quad trail, likely left by a cow (possibly followed by a calf, hard to tell):
Found a couple of elk tracks on the same trail as well. I was most likely the first one to walk the area today. There haven’t been anyone with the vehicles today either, no disturbance to the leaves or frost that was on the trail. There have been someone there yesterday (my guess) and someone successful in whatever it is they were after. I heard the ravens at a distance coming from the valley. Then saw one flying above me with a huge chunk of red meat in its beak, lol. I would say about a quarter of the size of the bird itself. With only about 20 minutes of hunting left and no plan, I decided to follow the noise and see what it is all about. I walked a quad trail at a fairly fast pace, the birds quieted down (it was getting late), so I didn’t find anything. Not that I was really interested or really looking. I walked some more, saw another raven with a smaller chunk of meat, lol, and headed back to the vehicle. I did confirm that someone was successful in their pursuit though, lol:
Not sure. Can’t say it was a “bad” outing, as it was fun and I got to briefly see a new area. Not sure I will be back in the next few days though. I have (for now, hopefully nothing comes up) tomorrow free after 10-ish in the morning and I was planning to head there for the day. Kind of doubt now. On the one hand, I wasn’t “impressed” with what I saw today; on the other, I didn’t have much time to see more and there is
a lot more to discover. Clearly, there is moose around and it just needs to be found.
Thinking I will hit Harmon Valley area instead tomorrow and see what I can find there. If that looks less promising, I will probably go back on Saturday to about where I went today and see how full day(s) feels like. Would be nice to find an access to Peace Valley from there, I would then be set, little doubt in my mind about it.
That’s about it for today, I guess.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Ran into a scrape today:
And I just relieved myself literally five meters earlier. Always feels like a huge disappointment and missing out bigly when that happens, lol.
To add a couple of pics just because…
A beaver damn on Cadotte:
Walking back on the trail:
Night is on it’s way:
I guess might as well mention, on the way back home, I almost hit a bear on the highway. Really close call.
Definitely way less than a second between the life and death for the bear. It is a second close call for me in just as many weeks. Last week, I stopped extremely hard about 0.5 meters short from hitting a doe with it’s kid, her in the butt and the youngster in the head. Don’t remember the last time I had to break that hard. They ran away after I fully stopped that close to them, lol.
Anyway… Hope you all are enjoying what is left of the hunting season. Imma gonna get that moose tomorrow, lol.
And I will still welcome any tips in regards to 520 since no one still came through. Laughing.