A cold wet walk

[hutcho]

Well finally got a leave pass from family duties so booked into one of the bowhunting only state forests - Wee Jasper for the weekend to have a look and scout out areas to hunt in spring and summer. This forest is a working pine plantation with pockets of remnant vegetation - out of the 11000 hectares there are large prohibited areas (where they are logging) and the one of the biggest exclusion zone is a very large, nice parcel of native vegetation, and being a working logging area, the main roads are built to take semi's the side tracks however were mainly red clay soil tracks. Slippery as frog snot.

Checked the weather reports.. Showers friday afternoon then clearing and some passing showers, then clearing and then a chance of another front due to move in on Sunday evening.

Heres how it played out.. Gale force winds and heavy rain (Still going at midnight friday night)

My hunting partner for this trip Dave turns up right on time -06:30 Saturday morning less than 5 minutes later and we are on the way, did I mention its still raining. Drive the 130km to the forest and its still raining. So the plan on the fly is to drive around a bit to check out and GPS mark spots worth checking out.

About 10:00 we find a nice scrub gully that has the "look" so we kit up, I take the left flank and Dave takes the right, we are about 100 yards apart - did I mention its still raining and now has warmed up to about 5 degrees celcius. The rain is giving one blessing, the leaf little and forest floor is a little softer and quiter than it will be in summer. An hour and a bit in and I have seen a couple of Roo's, a fox and then I see a rub tree that had been belted to death. Then within another couple of hundred yards I see two more. I then find some bedding area's, prints and scat. Did I mention its still raining and the same fresh temp.

I turn around and get back to the car and its time for a brew, drive and we find another spot. Its now between 1300-1400 and time for lunch and another hunt. This is were the fun starts. Dave and I get separated (we both have the car marked with GPS waypoints so its not a big deal) I head down this gully following a small stream. I check the GPS and I have finally dropped below 900 metres elevation and I am still having trouble breathing - an hour later I check the GPS and WTF according to the GPS I have only gone 200 metres. I must admit that most of that was either on my knees crawling through animal tunnels through the scrub or "silently" pushing my way through the undergrowth. I finally stop and have an apple and a drink and spend some time getting onto one of the forest side roads (the red mud type) I walk up the hill for about 500 metres and then drop back in through the ferns and piles of dead trees to the scrub and find a nice easy area to walk. In this area I find heaps of prints -either what I am guessing as Sambar deer or goat and heaps of scat. Did I mention its still raining and cooling down.

I finally get back to the car and Dave is already back. After a 20 minute drive which included 4wd sliding in the red mud and 1st and 2nd gear low range to get back up some of the sloppy tracks - we do a big circle and decide to camp where we had just left from. and its still raining.

So 1st order is to light a campfire to get some heat into us (thank you to one of my Aboriginal elders and Aunties who taught me over 20 years ago survival tips such as how to find dry kindling and timber when its been raining heavily) that and a mixture of diesel and paint thinners works well to give that initial "woof" you need. By the time we get some hot coals and get dinner started the sun has almost set and WTF is that snow???? Well we are above 950 metres. Thankfully it is melting as it hits the ground. Dinner done (a nice lamb and vegetable stew) and a few bourbons followed by a few ports and roll the swag out and get in. (I am still wet and it has finally stopped raining)

Sunday was another day.... It was a little better than Saturday and ....

[MICK_]

Nice work mate, great write up.

[acthunter]

Great story mate , geez you couldnt of picked a worse night , but at least you toughed it out.well done.

[macka]

nice write up mate, looking forward to the rest ;)

Macka

[hutcho]

Well I get up as the sun was rising Sunday morning.. Hang on a sec, Sun yep thats right no wind and the sun was shining.

So time to kit up again and go for a pre breakfast look just have to awalk over to the ute with no shoes to get some dry socks...... new I forgot something when I went to bed last night. Must have been the port.

Anyway, Dave is still in bed as I head of again and head back down where I went yesterday afternoon, but instead of following the watercourse and thick scrub I decide on a small 2-3 K loop that pics up the clearings where I seen some of the scat and prints.

No luck today in these areas but I can hear things bashing through the scrub, more than likely roo's but ya never know, however after another 2 hour stroll no sightings and no fresh tracks. I decided to to pull up in one clearing with the wind in my face to see if I could whistle up a fox or cat. After about 10 minutes I managed to attract heaps of little birds wanting to check out the scene but no foxes.

Back to camp for a nice breakfast of coffee followed by hamsteaks and eggs on toast and more coffee. So much for roughing it.

Back into the ute and we head to a place that is natural bush to the left, to the right and in front of us. This time Dave takes the left flank and I head straight ahead then to the right. I follow an overgrown road that is pure pleasure to walk on. After an hour or so pop over the North side of this mountain to get into the sunny side of the hill as I figure after all the rain and cold weather things might be sunning themselves.

Whilst this area was heaps more open than the day before, its nice and steep and covered in loose rocks about the size and shape of rockmelons. I head down the mountain for a while to try and find some sunny clearings, but to no avail. At this stage I decide it is time start heading back to the ute and keep meandering back in the general direction I need, when....

About 70 metres in front I get barked at see a tanny/coppery flash head into the thicker scrub at warp speed. I didn't get a clean look at it so I am not sure what it was but I am guessing it may have been a deer.

After numerous stops, sweating and cursing I manage to get back tp the crest of the lump I am on and decide to head into the area that Dave was in.

That blaze orange really stands out as I could see Daves hat from a couple of hundred metres away, so I decide to see how close I can stalk Dave. (I am wearing a blaze orange vest so its a bit hard to be inconspicous). Waiting until Dave moves I move slowly and slowy and set a course to intersect him. This involves me at the final stage climbing under a fallen tree to and then following a wombat pad closer.

Crack. even though it was barely perceptable, the sound of a twig snapping seems like a gunshot so I freeze and am thankful that there is a few big trees between Dave and me. Eventually I see that the path that Dave has set will turn him towards me so I let out a nice soft "meew". I am at about 20-25 metres so happy with that.

Back into the car and now we head around a few roads to see if we can see more patches of native vegetation, but end up at the bottom end of the first patch we scouted on Saturday. Boil the billy and some noodles for lunch and away we go.

Dave and I decide to head together on this stalk as it will be the last for the day before we head home and after we quiten down the alloy arrows rattling in Daves' hip quiver we set of in earnest.

I show Dave the rub tree and the bedding area and we continue on for another 100-150 metres when we have been sprung. No visual confirmation however the noise was defineately not a kangaroo and sounded like a cross between a warning bleat that a goat gives and the sound of a dear caller.

We keep going for another hour and then decide to take a short cut through the pines to the ute. My GPS shows 4.38k's back to the car however Daves shows about 600 metres in a straight line. It turns out I forgot to enter a waypoint...

Thinking the pines will be free of undergrowth turned out to be wrong. The bracken was nice and easy to walk through but the pushed up moss covered logs and blackberries made the decision to head backdown to the watercourse and follow out the game trail the easy decision.

Even though we didn't see any game except for fox we seen on Saturday whilst driving and the legs were aching and I had wet feet for two days it was a great way to spend a weekend and has given me a few leads for when the weather warms up a tad.

After all thats what the cold wet walk was for.

Cheers

Pete

[rory]

Geez Hutcho, was good that ya mate was there for company, bugger all game to hunt by the sounds...

[hutcho]

Yeh Rory,

I was gunna just go solo, am planning on taking a week of work when it warms up a bit and head out there again. I might also try and check out a few of the other close forests.

Cheers


Pete