Bogen

Anyone know this area well? I have specific needs - my buddy is getting married in Jasper on Tuesday, he wants me to take him ice climbing monday, he has one day of experience on ice 3 years ago. We have to be back by late afternoon, probably need to keep it around grade 3/4 and keep the obective hazard really low. I had been thinking Kerkeslin falls, but the avy hazard is moderate to high right now. I have never been to Rigid Digitator - how's the terrain above that? Maybe I should post this on livethevision...

OMG that baby is funny! I can just imagine his friends coming up with that clip when he's in junior high school...

Very cool pic! Is that Fred?

Port Coquitlam, BC. I have as much experience with coyotes as anyone you'll ever meet. Don't worry about the dogs. Anyway, the main reason I haven't decided about the coyote is that I'm not sure if I have a problem with him eating my cat. I found her head, eaten right up to the base of the skull, and whereas a dog might kill a cat, it wouldn't eat it. I could tell from the tracks just where she was taken, and where the obviously canine attacker had approached from. I have seen and followed this coyote a number of times, before and after the attack. I loved my cat very dearly, she was my friend for 16 years, and my best friend through some hard times. I never denied her her freedom, and knew that someday the outdoors would do her in. One winter in Alberta she disappeared for several weeks in a particularly cold snap - I'd left her with friends and gone climbing. She left them and didn't return. When I got home, I searched the neighborhood adjacent to my friend's house for a week, finding familiar tracks in the snow and a place in a garage that she holed up in for a night, but nothing else. 3 weeks after disappearing, she showed up at the window of my house that she usually used for entrance, almost 40 blocks from my friend's house. She had a broken tail, frozen ears that later lost their tips, and was nothing more than skin and bones, but she made it home. I'm still pissed off at the coyote, but that's not a good reason to kill him. He's just doin what he does, outside at night where he belongs, and for the most part is a fairly respectful denizen of my neighborhood. In my heart I want to kill the son of a bitch to avenge my Kyrie, but I know it's probably the wrong thing to do.

If you go to South Africa, pm me I'll hook you up with my old climbing partner. Matter of fact, I think he's looking for someone to head up to Mount Kenya with...

I don't even see or hear owls at night much. I think raptors require at bit more open space to do well, and we have trees everywhere. The coyotes are bold, and smart. I have seen our neighborhood coyote waiting to cross the street on more than one occasion, and am getting to know his route. I can't shoot him, trap him, or poison him; he's too smart to get run over. I can't bait him, because the raccoons will get it first. I haven't used a bow in years, but I'm considering practicing up again. Then it will just be a question of creating a blind in my yard that won't let the neighbors know what I'm up too. I should have been ready for this time of year, I could have had a big Santa sleigh in the front yard, and replaced the Santa dummy with myself for a couple evenings. Imagine - Merry Christmas, varmint, THWACK!

I had to look that up! No, but that sounds pretty good. Maybe next time.

I have eaten squirrel, its not bad, a little...tangy? I wouldn't eat a CITY squirrel!!

I care much for "trendy" but my arc'teryx tweave pants are without question the most amazing tech clothing I've ever had.

Thanks! Live trap in the city just makes it someone else's problem. Cat was pretty old at that point. Coyote finally got her this fall. I haven't made up my mind what to do about the coyote, yet.

Squirrels! I try not to hate anything - but squirrels...grr! Well, except for one that earned my grudging respect... I killed 6 of them by hand in my house last year. For a few days I could hear them cavorting about the attic, and when the chewing started, I had to take action (the kids weren't home - all this takes place in the mornings after the kids go to school, but before I go to work so I have the place to myself.) They were getting in the attic, but wouldn't get caught in the rat trap - too big I think. The trap would go off, sometimes flinging the squirrels around from the sound of it, but never catching them. I sure did feed them alot of peanut butter in the first couple days! I started hanging out up there, leaving peanut butter around to get them used to it, and caught 3 of them just by being patient. One I grabbed by the hind legs, slammed down in the insulation to stun him, then broke his neck. One of them, when I missed my first grab, tried to attack my face but I got him anyway. After that I took my big knife, and got one more by whacking him in the back of the head with the back side of the knife- I didn't want to make a mess, I was just using the knife for extension. The remaining 3 were more clever - 1 black squirrel, sleeker and oddly slower in a more intent, graceful sort of way, was obviously the leader. He would always be sitting there, out of range, silently watching me as I killed what were likely his siblings. When there were only 3 left, I almost got one with my knife, but Blacky finally spoke up and warned him as he came within range. So...I couldn't get near them in the attic, and they could set the trap off consistently, though I often heard them knocked about by it when it went off. On a whim, I nailed the trap to a joist 1 foot away from the attic trap door in the closet, baited it in the morning and left the attic trap door open. Sure enough, within an hour I heard it snap, then some commotion in the closet. I opened the closet and there was Gray White-stripe on the floor, a little stunned. As I reached for him, he bolted into the kitchen, but with the cats help I quickly cornered him and finished him off. (aside - I grew up snaring gophers on the prairies, and have spent many hours playing with these toothsome rodents. Should you try this, be forewarned they are lightening quick, vicious little bastards) I left the trap baited with peanut butter, but unset and went to work. The next morning, I baited and set the trap. Within a couple minutes I heard it go off, and then the squawking of a wounded rodent! Up into the attic, to find the second last one trapped by the leg, and Blacky sitting in his usual spot, silently staring at me. I grabbed the trapped squirrel, and with my forefinger under its chin I broke its neck with my thumb. Out of the attic, into the kitchen for a bag. As I wrap the dead rodent in his plastic shroud, out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of black at the kitchen door. Thinking it's the cat I say "Look, Kyrie, I got another..." as I turn to see Blacky staring at me across the linoleum. In the next instant he bolts down the hall to the bedrooms, with Kyrie in hot pursuit and me just behind. He leaps onto my daughter's bed and turns to face us, chittering a warning. Kyrie crouches, tail twitching, and I, not wanting to take chances with THIS one, reach to the floor for a pair of jeans to grab him with. As I swing the jeans onto him with my right hand, he dodges left then leaps straight at me! I knock him away with my left hand, through the open door, and off down the hall the three of us go again, in the kitchen over the counter, around the dining area into the living room and back down the hall to my daughter's room again. As we run in the room, I slam the door closed this time. I swing the pants like a club, intending to sweep the rodent off the bed into the wall and stun it. It works somewhat, as Blacky hits the wall with a loud thump, but it doesn't slow him down. Instead he uses the rebound to leap back, this time straight at the cat, who dodges and swipes at him knocking him off balance. I jump on him, finally pinning him to floor as he tries to chew through the jeans to get at me. I have done squirrel behaviour research in the Yukon; I have shot, skinned and profitted from scores of squirrels as a kid back when the furs were worth something; I have killed thousands of gophers, and still consider a case of beer and an afternoon shooting gophers with my dad on a sunny prairie evening to be one of the finest things in life. But as I finally pinched the skin on the back of Blacky's neck, and lifted the furious animal to gaze into his eyes, I felt a moments hesitation, borne of admiration for this inimitable creature. For an instant I considered taking this proud warrior to the forest down the road, and magnanimously releasing him as gesture of respect. He had led an invasion on my home, and, as I dispatched the last of his comrades, had come down to face me Mano y rodent in an outrageous, absurd display of courage. I wonder if he knew he was going to his death, or following some bizarre instinct I can't understand. The moment passed - either way I couldn't deny him the honourable death he sought, or I couldn't allow such an unusually strong invasion instinct to be passed on inside the city. I still hate squirrels. My first instinct when they yell at me in the forest is to reach for a rock, though I never throw it. I never did patch the attic, but there have been no further invasions. I imagine that they know, and tell each other. Maybe they're not all that smart, but when I looked in that one squirrel's beady little eyes, I really thought I saw understanding. Sure, it was the vicious, hateful knowledge of a squirrel, but it was intelligence all the same.

Arch bishop wobblebottom.

By the time they have that much data, they'll have come up with algorithms to predict when you'll want a pizza, and you won't even have to call!

Touche! Yeah, OK.

Not trying to make you feel like an asshole. Hell, I guarantee I did things far more destructive, with less excuse than boredom. Probably guilt is the true root of my reaction to that sort of activity now. Anyway, you did your route in poor style, and tried to brag about it. Climb it clean, then you have something to spray about!

Your nails and screws may not affect the tree, but they might lead to infection for the tree. After many years spent wandering in wild (or at least non-paved) places, I am saddened and a little disgusted with the senseless, destructive things people do. Industrial damage is bad enough, but seems to have some purpose sometimes. Recreational damage is painful to witness. You have to draw a line somewhere. When faced with any similar issue, I ask myself "What would happen if 10 people did this? or a hundred? By this standard I can judge just how harmless something really is, and it reminds me that I am not so special that I should try to "get away with it." Try to temper your outdoor recreation with a little compassion and humility.

I was thinking of driving up sunday, just to get out. Think its worth it?

supposed to be clear and cold for the weekend

Perfect!

I know I may come off quiet, may come off shy But I feel like talking, feel like dancing when I see this guy What's practical, what's logical, what the hell who cares All I know is I'm so happy when you're dancing there I'm a slaaaaaaaaaaave for you I cannot hold it, I cannot control it I'm a slaaaaaaaaaaave for you I won't deny it, I'm not trying to hide it Baby, don't you wanna dance up on me (I just want to dance next to you), to another time and place Oh baby, don't you wanna dance up on me (Are you ready?), Leaving behind my name and age

I couldn't believe this was a real song... I never understood the cult following this guy has. Is it a celebration of the "downright silly," or what? Here is another of my favorites, though you would need to hear Sarah Brightman sing it to get the full effect. I don't know who wrote it, it's from a musical in the 30's or something. I used to sing this to my kids at bedtime, when they were young enough to like that sort of thing.

Light as the Breeze, Leonard Cohen She stands before you naked you can see it, you can taste it, and she comes to you light as the breeze. Now you can drink it or you can nurse it, it don't matter how you worship as long as you're down on your knees. So I knelt there at the delta, at the alpha and the omega, at the cradle of the river and the seas. And like a blessing come from heaven for something like a second I was healed and my heart was at ease. O baby I waited so long for your kiss for something to happen, oh something like this. And you're weak and you're harmless and you're sleeping in your harness and the wind going wild in the trees, and it ain't exactly prison but you'll never be forgiven for whatever you've done with the keys. O baby I waited ... It's dark now and it's snowing O my love I must be going, The river has started to freeze. And I'm sick of pretending I'm broken from bending I've lived too long on my knees. Then she dances so graceful and your heart's hard and hateful and she's naked but that's just a tease. And you turn in disgust from your hatred and from your love and she comes to you light as the breeze. O baby I waited ... There's blood on every bracelet you can see it, you can taste it, and it's Please baby please baby please. And she says, Drink deeply, pilgrim but don't forget there's still a woman beneath this resplendent chemise. So I knelt there at the delta, at the alpha and the omega, I knelt there like one who believes. And the blessings come from heaven and for something like a second I'm cured and my heart is at ease

All the grandeur and futility of the human condition in one easy lesson!

video. I liked it!

Good qualifier for the Darwins.