Obstacle course in the woods

Kim and I are not really getting any younger, sorry honey, but it’s true and this becomes apparent when we start plowing through parts of the forest that is really not meant for anything but little scurrying creatures.

We had a great idea to hunt from our camp up to the ridge across from camp, follow the ridgeline across the top then head down the ravine and down the mountain to the road down below. OnX said it was only about three miles as the crow flies so no worries. We had to see what it was like on the other side of the ridge.

It was easy breezy climbing up our hill and along the ridge. We’ve done it many times and always see something, whether it be cougar, a herd of elk bed down in the pines or a big buck. All of which have not given us the opportunity to shoot at. Except the cougar and that was just my bad.

It wasn’t until we started going down the ravine on the other side of the ridge, did we start getting in to some sketchy territory. On the upper down hill slope there were amazing elk beds, hidden away from the road and people. We were able to follow pretty good game trail down 100 yards or so and then we veered off to a different finger. Downed trees everywhere and trees upon trees precariously leaning on one another, waiting for the other to fall.

We struggled through the underbrush and climbed on, over and along the downed trees like bigfoot might until we made it across the hill to the other side. Only to find a cliff. That’s fine, we carry on along the cliff looking for our next trail. Along the ridge we unexpectedly came across a group of blue grouse. They flew up under Kim’s feet and the roar of them about gave me a heart attach. They were big and beautiful and would have made a good dinner but flew over the cliff much quicker than we had time to fire our bows at them.

The cliff wasn’t giving us any relief so we moved back across the hill to the ravine we had started at and followed it down through islands of rock and ledges and clearings. It was really beautiful and I had seen a big bodied buck run off the rocks the previous morning when we were up there. No one comes down there so they are pretty safe.

After a break about halfway through, we head down the hill again. We find a game trail that goes down in to the steep ravine that we need to move to. So here we go. This is an image looking back up the trail about a quarter of the way down and Kim heading down in front of me. Let me tell you, the pictures don’t do it justice as to how steep it was. But it was fun and we made it down and all was good and dandy. Until we lost a trail and made our own.

We struggled our way down and through creeks and stinging nettles and thistles and over downed trees and piles of brush until we saw a meadow. On the other side of a bog. We make our way down to the water’s edge to see if there is a trail around the water. The smell of cat is intense and we are in an overgrown marshy area with a lot of hiding spots, so we reverse and head back up through the masses of fallen trees to get a little higher on the mountain again, hoping to make our way around the bog.

There is a point where the water narrows and there are downed trees through it amongst the brambles. Where does Kim go? In. He wants through and that’s it. Okey doke. The viney trees are two feet over my head and the trees I’m trying to walk on are three inches at best with moss and wet leaves caking them. The viney branches seem to grab our legs as we struggle through them, trying to keep our bows and ourselves from getting snagged and trying to stay on the trees keeping us from falling into the marshy bog.

Finally we push our way through and land on the meadow ground. ‘We win!’ we yell back at the swamp. Hot, sweaty messes covered in nettles and leaves and branches that we took with us.

If there’s not one thing I know, it’s that when I go out on an adventure with Kim, it will be just that. We don’t know where we’ll end up or how we’ll get there, but the challenge is getting through it and that’s the fun of it.