Got back into the field yesterday! For those of you who saw my previous thread, I’d been held back by so much lately. Needing new boots, needing to exchange those boots, F-ed up paperwork leading to a delay of picking up my rifle, rain, work, and gear failures.
Yesterday, before dawn I made my way to the “11” to follow a trail that I had identified had good potential for water and wildlife. Some apps I use showed comments that people had seen multiple deer and coyotes along the hiking trail itself. Packed my bag, laced up my boots, slung my rifle, and headed out from the trail head about 45 minutes before sunrise.
My goal was to get up on a peak/ridge where I would have a pretty good view to glass from just as the sky was lightening and I could see without needing my headlamp.
During the hike up, there was a decent amount of coyote sign, and I even saw one in a municipal park (no hunting) on my drive in just a short distance from the trailhead. When I got to my spot, I spent a good amount of time on my butt looking for anything in my binos. Nothing for quite a while, time to move to a new spot.
Moved up to a spot that had a great view over multiple ridge lines and a small pond being utilized for construction. Water is water, I was sure I’d at least see something. Quite a while later, still nothing.
The day, in my mind, was perfect for scouting because it was rather cool and had some decent cloud cover so it wasn’t getting hot or even warm, and the sun wasn’t breaking through so it wasn’t getting super bright.
Time to move even higher.
I’m now about 3 miles up the trail, and about 1/2 mile of elevation gained, I’m freakin GASSED from this hike carrying my whole pack with emergency supplies, aid supplies, snacks, 4 liters of water (about 10lbs of added weight) and my rifle.
Unfortunately I climbed too high, was in the clouds with no viz and temps rapidly falling toward freezing, despite my relative low elevation overall and it still being early in the day.
Stopped at a few spots on the way back down to glass some more, still no movement in sight.
Every point that showed water or possible water on maps was dry as a bone. Los Angeles, and SoCal in general, is dry as F lately so no surprise.
This was also in a recently reopened burn area, so maybe the animals hadn’t come back yet.
Overall, a good 7-8 hours out in nature. Not the nature I’d prefer (I’m more of a lots of trees forest type, as opposed to these “forests” I’ve hit up lately that are just SoCal shrub) but better than the concrete jungle I live in. Some great pictures too, they’ll be attached.
Thanks for everyone’s tips thus far, until the next outing (probably headed back to the 15 next) stay safe.
Yesterday, before dawn I made my way to the “11” to follow a trail that I had identified had good potential for water and wildlife. Some apps I use showed comments that people had seen multiple deer and coyotes along the hiking trail itself. Packed my bag, laced up my boots, slung my rifle, and headed out from the trail head about 45 minutes before sunrise.
My goal was to get up on a peak/ridge where I would have a pretty good view to glass from just as the sky was lightening and I could see without needing my headlamp.
During the hike up, there was a decent amount of coyote sign, and I even saw one in a municipal park (no hunting) on my drive in just a short distance from the trailhead. When I got to my spot, I spent a good amount of time on my butt looking for anything in my binos. Nothing for quite a while, time to move to a new spot.
Moved up to a spot that had a great view over multiple ridge lines and a small pond being utilized for construction. Water is water, I was sure I’d at least see something. Quite a while later, still nothing.
The day, in my mind, was perfect for scouting because it was rather cool and had some decent cloud cover so it wasn’t getting hot or even warm, and the sun wasn’t breaking through so it wasn’t getting super bright.
Time to move even higher.
I’m now about 3 miles up the trail, and about 1/2 mile of elevation gained, I’m freakin GASSED from this hike carrying my whole pack with emergency supplies, aid supplies, snacks, 4 liters of water (about 10lbs of added weight) and my rifle.
Unfortunately I climbed too high, was in the clouds with no viz and temps rapidly falling toward freezing, despite my relative low elevation overall and it still being early in the day.
Stopped at a few spots on the way back down to glass some more, still no movement in sight.
Every point that showed water or possible water on maps was dry as a bone. Los Angeles, and SoCal in general, is dry as F lately so no surprise.
This was also in a recently reopened burn area, so maybe the animals hadn’t come back yet.
Overall, a good 7-8 hours out in nature. Not the nature I’d prefer (I’m more of a lots of trees forest type, as opposed to these “forests” I’ve hit up lately that are just SoCal shrub) but better than the concrete jungle I live in. Some great pictures too, they’ll be attached.
Thanks for everyone’s tips thus far, until the next outing (probably headed back to the 15 next) stay safe.
