Hunting the great Meleagris gallopavo

The elusive and cunning meleagris gallopavo.

For those of you who do not know I took up hunting this fall. I decided to make it as hard as I could on myself and hunt using a traditional bow, a Fred Bear long bow to be exact. I decided that turkeys would be a good animal to start with since they are more plentiful and hopefully easier to figure out than deer or elk. I will save everyone the suspense by telling you now that I was not able to bag one of these wild birds. I spent about 10 days total over two months trying to get one and had a ton of fun.


Here I am on the hunt. This is a good pic of the type of terrain I was in.

I pretty much did everything short of bringing one home. I was able to find a good spot to hunt them on public land, was eventually able to find them every day I went out, stalked them, ambushed them, was able to get numerous shots off at them, and eventually found where they roost at night. Here is one of the more exciting days that I had out.



My quarry, in early morning light, at about 80 yards. These guys got away, damn!

The day previous I was unable to locate a single turkey so I was discouraged heading out this day but by 11:30 I was in a group of them. I hunted this group until about 3:30. I stalked them, tried pushing them in a direction and then running around them and waiting in ambush, and was eventually able to split them into two groups which they really do not like. They prefer to stay in a flock and will run a louie-with-bow-and-arrow gauntlet to be able to get back together. I was able to get three shots off during all of the running around and stalking. I finally spooked them enough to fly to a different area. I immediately followed in pursuit. As I came over a rise I spotted my quarry and…a three point black talk deer. The buck did not hear me approaching because the turkeys had already spotted me and were causing a ruckus in the leaves as they walked off. I was already within 40 yards of the buck but in the complete open. I moved slowly and quietly towards a bush for cover aa the buck moved towards me. We got to within 35 yards of each other. My effective bow range is within 25 yards so I was not able to take a shot but it was very exciting none the less.

Jasmine and I saw lots of wildlife while out looking for turkeys and the experience was something entirely new and full of unsuspecting realizations. I had a great time and am looking forward to heading back out in the spring although maybe this time I will head out with a compound bow.


Here is a pic of Mt. Mcloughlin which Jaz and I had a view of during clear days while out hiking. It was very striking once it was covered in snow.

Wyoming

Sydney and Brandon have been living in Lander for several years now and we had not been to visit them. Now that Jasmine has finished graduate school and we are free to roam a visit to Lander was high on the list of desired places to go this fall. So once again we headed east on I-80, that makes three I-80 transits since September.
I was incredibly excited to get to Lander. Syd and I have been best-buds since we were 5 years old, and they had just moved into their new house. We arrived in time for dinner on Wednesday. Syd make scrumptious enchiladas to kick off four days of good times with good friends. Friday, Syd and Brandon hosted a holiday party. There also was a group celebrating the completion of a 6 week biggest loser competition. The top four in the competition had all lost over 10 lbs, they all really got after it. It was a great party, Sydney and Brandon have a great friend circle in Lander. Syd and Brandon looking good and ready for their guests to arrive Friday.

Saturday we took our time getting going, but made it out in time for hike in Sinks canyon. We followed the river up the canyon admiring the ice forming over the flowing water. The trail ended at large frozen waterfalls.


Sunday, we made the most of our last day and headed to Tioga Pass for some skinning and to get in the our first turns of the season.
We love the winter.
Skinning in we heard several good whoomphs. One was big enough that I felt the shift underneath me. Brandon dug a snow pit to check the stability of the snow pack. It didn’t take much for the upper crust ~30cm to slide off the base at a 26 degree slope. There was also a rain crust on top which made skiing down a challenge for some of us.
And when I say challenge I mean a lot of face falls, one in particular where I discovered face slamming rain crust will leave a mark. See my forehead. It was a beautiful day to be out. Lou and I particularly enjoyed seeing portions of the divide we will be hiking in 6 to 7 months. Quite possibly we will be hiking on the same snow base we were skiing yesterday. Returning to Lander that evening Syd cooked up some chicken rice-good for the soul- soup. Before dinner we got suited up and walked the half block to the public pool and hot tub. Arriving at the door our hearts sank at the sight of the sign “HOT TUB CLOSED TONIGHT”. Drat. Thankfully the hot yummy soup warmed us up from the inside out.

It's official

On December 14 at 10am Jasmine turned 28! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, I felt very loved. This year my birthday had additional significance. I printed and turned in my finished thesis for binding. There is nothing more for me to do to complete my graduate degree. I am officially a marine biologist. Woohoo! Any trips to California in the future will be all play no business.

Merry Moose

Lou and I have been spending a lot of time with Jake this fall, playing cards, hunting, going on jogs, all sorts of fun. As we got closer to the holidays I noticed Jake’s moose rack could use a little holiday cheer. Jake, as many of you are aware, is big on holiday hats. So I found a pattern for a knit santa hat and got to work. It was a really fun project to make and fits the moose rack, and Jake, well.

Turkey week

At the moment we are in Oregon. We spent last night at Jake's after three days of turkey hunting (details from Lou soon). For thanksgiving week we were in Colorado for the 2nd annual Thanksgiving in Boulder.
Getting there proved to be more challenging than we expected. Just outside of Renno we started to lose lights in the dash board. Lou quickly determined we were dealing with alternator failure and pulled off at the next truck stop. Welcome to Fernley, NV, a dying town just off I-80. Although we were doubtful any of the local auto shops would be open the next day, Sunday, it was unlikely the car would make it the 33 miles back to Reno. With the help of the truck stop tendant we found the nearest hotel, 1.5 miles down the road. As we pulled up to the lobby to get a room the car died, and wouldn't restart. Lucky for us they had a room available and the parking spot was down hill from the lobby. With a little push we rolled the car into the parking spot right in front of our room. Sunday morning we went for a walk about of Fernley. The autoshops were closed, no movie theatre, but they did have a NAPA and it was OPEN. The fellas at NAPA were friendly and helpful, they had the alternator we need, yippy. and gave us the number for "best mechanic in town" that might be per$uaded to install it for us. We were back on the road in an hour and a half.
The first night in Boulder go the week kicked off in the right direction. Graham and Jake also were in town for the week, Alison made some yummy cookies and there was card playing.
Tuesday night Keith hosted a 20 person feast. He cooked up a delicious 7 rib roast! We brought a keg of hard cider and after dessert everyone got their dance party on.
Wednesday we started a little slow but made it to the track for a timed mile. I don't think any one PR'd this time, but Graham and Jake are a fun match to watch.
Thursday, more feasting and merriment! We began the day by participating in the 5km Turkey trot. I borrowed Al's chicken suit, it was a real hit. I was someones hero and met a lot of people fluent in turkey gobbling. There were 9 of us for dinner, but we could have fed 18. Everything was very tasty.
Jake wearing his turkey hat and carving the bird. Look at that spread!Keith made the worlds best stuffing, Lou made layered jello, Mel brought the mac and cheese, Phebe provided appetizers, Marie and Christopher made bacon wrapped scallops, and the rest of us provided support. The pie making turned into an all day thing, lesson learned be sure you have all ingredients before getting started. I love thanksgiving with friends, let's keep it going! Besides getting to hang out with everyone for a long weekend, I really enjoy sharing all our family traditions. Post dinner we played games, cards, hand stand competition, leg wrestling, you know, the usual.
Marie and Christopher getting ready to dig in. Christopher was a little under the weather most of the week, but rallied for the events.
By Friday we were all a little exhausted, but managed to get in a few climbs before Graham and Jake went to the airport. The rest of the weekend was spent lollygagging around a day in Rocky Mt. park and a day in Boulder.
Mel and Lou getting to the tippy top of the peak we climbed in RMNP.

All smiles and winter layers for the Maurer/Horan peeps.

We left early Monday back to CA. Lou had a potential contract in San Jose. We spent Tuesday night with Alexis. The contract wasn't suppose to start until tomorrow, so we spent the last three days in S. Oregon turkey hunting. Yesterday we found out Lou will not be working this month so we are back to pure fun for Dec. Check back to see where we end up this month

Seattle +

We had a great time in Seattle. Nikki made reservations for dinner at the space needle. It was great company, great food, and the view never got old. We did 3.5 rotations before we were ready to go. After dinner we spent a few moments on the view deck in the rain and wind, but still managed smiles for the photos. In the photo left to right, Edith, Nikki, Jazzi, Garrett, and Alex. Lou and I have heard many people talk about the underground tour of Seattle, but honestly we were skeptical it really existed. So while we were in Seattle this time we made a point to find out, and check it out. We really enjoyed the tour, learned about the craziness that is the history of Seattle. One favorite story was about the exploding toilets. Back in the day, 1880ish, Seattle didn't have the sewer system figured out all too well. They used gravity to move the sewage into the bay, ok sounds like that might work except at high tide the flows reversed. If you flushed your toilet during this reversal the pressure was released and voila, exploding toilet. YUCK! The newspaper published the tidal charts to help people avoid these incidents, but you can bet from time to time some out-of-town guest didn't quite believe it until they saw it. So next time you are in Seattle and have a spare 90 minutes, try the tour.
Lou and I are in one of the underground rooms, the floors are all warped because they were built on tidal flats.
As Lou posted earlier, we were in Seattle to hang out with my sister and other Homerites participating in the Pinapple classic fundraiser race. For this event each team must carry a pineapple across 5km of obstacles, costumes encouraged. My sister's team went with the superhereo theme, and they looked fabulous! If you are ever looking for that just for fun race the Pineapple classic is for you. Plus you are raising money for a good cause. There were some great costumes and great entertainment watching teams lob their pineapple over cargo nets or haul them through tunnels, all good family fun.
The last night we made a visit to the Pikes place brewery, Pete was hanging out, Clayton (another Homerite) came over from Bremerton, and Crystal, who I have known since before we were born, came down from Bellingham. It was really great to see everyone. The brewery was followed by a visit to the candy store and a delightful candy apple treat challenge. There are candy apples and then there are CANDY apples. Pete picked out the largest most sugar coated apple in the store, green apple covered in caramel, marshmallows, nuts, and two kinds of chocolate. The rocky-road topping was over an inch thick all the way around and it was delicious. A perfect treat for six, but can't imagine trying to eat all by oneself.
photo left to right: Gala, Clayton, Louie, Jaz, Garrett, Pete, Crystal, Alex. Thanks for taking the pic Nikki.
We are back in Santa Cruz this week, Lou was offered a few days of work and we decided to take them. I should be editing my thesis, so enough for now. Headed to CO on Saturday, for more family, friends and fun!

Trials

Our final stop in California before heading north once again was San Francisco. One of the coolest people that we met during out time in Cali is currently living in the The City and pursuing med school. We met with him Sunday morning and went to the Exploratorium to exercise our craniums. To our delight entry was free all weekend so we did not have to spend any money to run around and act like little kids while we did numerous tutorials to teach people about the laws of physics.

Eventually it was time to leave so that Erik could collect cadaver parts for his research with the UCSF orthopedic lab. Talk about a good job to have for someone wanting to become an orthopedic surgeon. Erik's cadavers would have to wait though because upon returning to our vehicle we discovered that some low life shmuck had decided that our car was a good one to prey on and had busted the window to steal all of our stuff.

Upon initial inspection we thought that nothing was actually taken which would have been amazing because pretty much everything that we own right now is always in the car. As we thought through all of the stuff that was in car we realized one bag had been taken, my old school bag. The same bag that was stolen out of a car 7 years ago as Lane and I were mountain biking around hag lake. Amazingly that bag was found by a good samaritan and returned to me along with the majority of its contents. Hopefully the bag still holds the same karma it did 7 years ago. There was not too much of consequence in the bag except for jasmine's newly edited thesis! Everything else was minor stuff like a head lamp, pocket knife, reading books, etc. I hate crooks. Often times they do not do any damage except to cause a major inconvenience. This jerk-off is going to cause us numerous hours of our life to get things back to normal while getting no profit out of it. There was no cash, credit cards, jewelry, or otherwise valuable things in the bag. So much for big cities. In all honesty, we feel lucky that it was not worse but I still do not like crooks.

We were able to get the window fixed the next morning and we were off again on our way to Oregon. We should be there by Monday evening and then be working our way to Seattle via Ashland, Eugene, and Portland. We are going to attempt some more turkey hunting on our way north so wish us luck.

Tribulations

We made it to Tahoe with out any incidents and had 5 days filled with perfect temps and sunshine. So far on our loop from Portland to baker to Tahoe to San fran and back we have encountered every kind of weather. Plenty of rain in Portland, snow in baker, and sunshine in Tahoe. We love it all. It is wonderful to be experiencing weather and the seasons again. We had a group of six converge on the condo in Tahoe for Halloween and had a great time drinking wine and playing cards. Unfortunately the casino tables were not as nice to us but thats how it goes.

After getting in some nice evening runs on the lake as the sun set and a few days of climbing we made our way over to Santa Cruz. On the way we had a great lunch with Emily Campagna and met a friend at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield which I would recommend to anyone going through this area. It is conveniently located right off the freeway at the interchange of highways 80 and 505. The tour was great and who does not like some free Jelly Bellies. By Saturday we were with friends in Monterey sailing around the bay with more surprisingly nice weather.This is Jasmine's major advisor Captain, and Dr., Greg Cailliet, with Zach and Barrett behind him.Lou took his turn sailing the boat too. He expertly kept us clear of the sail boats that were racing that day and smoothly tacked to keep the race in view.

Before we left Santa Cruz for San fran jasmine was able to pic up her edited thesis (with minimal edits, good job jaz, wahoo!) and I stepped on the track in an attempt to run a personal best in the mile. When I came across the line I had run one second faster than my PR. I was hoping for more but I was still very pleased.

Thats the synopsis of another awesome week on the road. We are looking forward to heading back north. By next weekend we will be in Seattle for Nikki's, jasmine's sister, fundraiser relay race and then we have our first unscheduled days of our trip. Where will we go, what will we do? We do not have the slightest clue but I am sure it will be great. What a nice thought.

Baker City

Visiting my pops in baker city has been great. It snowed last night as we sipped tea, played cards, and caught up on life. I woke up before first light and went on a hike in the hills looking for rabbits but had no luck. Jasmine got up a little later and did a similar thing and between the two of us we did manage to find a fox, a few black tail dear (including a small buck), and dozens of quail. What a great way to start the day. Tomorrow we are leaving for lake tahoe and will be there for almost a week.

You may have noticed that we have not had any pics to post and I thought that might give a short explanation. Our camera is broken. That was short huh? We are looking into a new one and will hopefully be snapping away again soon.

Back to Blogging

Hello everyone,
So...Jasmine and I have overcome some major milestones in the past few weeks. In short, jasmine finished her thesis to a point where she could take to the road and we were able to successfully extricate ourselves from California. We sold, donated, or gifted away every piece of furniture that we owned and stuffed the rest of our belongings into my mother's attic. We only kept out as much stuff as we can fit in our new toyota corrola wagon. Which reminds me of another milestone. The Jetta finally deteriorated enough that we decided it made more sense to move on. We had a very tearful goody and left it in california which is ironic because in the three years we lived there I some how avoided changing the plates with the idea that it would someday be back in oregon.

We have been on the road for about two weeks now and it has been absolutely awesome. So far we have visited friends and family in portland, painted my grandparents house, gone turkey hunting, and began cleansing our souls with wonderful northwest sunshine. We visited Jake in eugene and are now in Baker city visiting my father.

Ok, lets cut to the chase. We are going to try to start keeping our blog updated. Our intention is not only to allow people to stay updated on where we have been but also on where we are going. It has been increasingly difficult to keep tract of everyone over the years and so we may end up passing through areas and not getting in touch with people. If anyone reads this and finds out that we will be passing close by and has not heard from us please drop us a line so that can connect. Our biggest focus over the next few weeks is to spend quality time with people that we have not been able to visit over the past couple years. Over the next two weeks we are traveling down to tahoe for halloween, then to the san fransico bay area to wrap up some school things and visit some more people, and finally to seattle for a race that jasmine's sister is doing. We hope that everyone is doing well and that we see everyone soon.

The vagabonds,
Louie and Jasmine

Worth sharing

This was just too clever to keep to myself.

Spring Break

From time to time I am reminded how wonderful still being in school is. One of those times is spring break. This year my cousin, Grant, came to visit for the week. It was great to get to spend some time with him and to show him a small slice of California. Which includes a stop at the over crowded golden gate viewing area. Grant and Louie tolerated my requests for photos. They sure are handsome devils!
Grant had never been back packing before so we made sure that happened on this trip. We spent three days in Point Reyes national sea shore. This is a great little area, much more scenic than I had expected it to be and there is a lot of wildlife within the park. We started out with a short hike in on Saturday to a campsite with a beautiful overlook to the ocean and the some of the park. It rained on us that night, and we woke up to dense fog, the kind that gets you wet in five minutes. We decide to stay and as we moved out closer to the coast the fog lifted and the sun came out. After a sunny lunch break we played on the beach by Arch rock. Fun place, Grant and Louie climbed up and down every which way racing the waves as they crashed against the beach. Our second night we were right next to the beach and spent a long time exploring it before dinner. The beach was littered with agets, and perfect skipping rocks. We walked down to a waterfall skipping rocks in the surf and beach combing. Grant, despite the not so warm weather stayed in his shorts and walked almost the whole way in the surf. To be 14 and feel no pain. We managed to stay dry between short rain showers and hoped our luck would last.....it didn't. It rained all night. We made breakfast under the rain fly and rushed to pack up camp when it let up. Back on the trail we didn't get five feet before the rain started again. Despite the less than perfect weather conditions we had a good time. Much of the hiking was under the cover of trees so we didn't get the full force of the weather. Most importantly Grant really enjoyed it and wants to go again. Mission accomplished.
The rest of the week was full of more exploring. We spent a day at the aquarium, did some ocean swimming and visited SF. We had a wonderfully sunny day while in SF. It is the first time I have been there and been able to see the whole golden gate bridge. We did tea tasting in China town, rode the cable cars to and fro, walked Lumbard street, enjoyed some street shows, and had a sundae at ghirardelli's.
Spring break, yeah I will miss it, then again maybe I'll just keep going to school.....
To end this post I have to include a picture I just couldn't help but take. My most favorite fish, Eumicrotremus orbis, the spiny lump sucker! Normally I wouldn't take pictures of animals in exhibits, but they were really putting on a show while Grant and I were at the aquarium, smimming all over the place. And did I mention they are my favorite fish, I had to try to get a pic. One day I will find one in the wild and THAT will be big news.how could you not love this fish?!

My Chilean Family

When I was in high school I spent my junior year on foreign exchange in Chile. It was an incredible year and my host family had everything to do with making it that way. By the end of the year they had become family. My exchange experience was unique at another level, it was a true exchange. The same year I went to live with the Varas's they had sent their oldest son Ricardo to live in the US. He started in Texas, but the program couldn't find a family that was willing to host him for the whole year. So while I was settling right in, Ricardo was bouncing from family to family. At this point the Fry's stepped in and offered Ricardo a place in their home and hearts, if he was willing to spend a winter in Alaska. This was a big deal, Ricardo had never seen snow before, he grew up in Vallenar which is on the Southern edge of the Atacama desert (big spider country). After a little thought he decided to go for the whole experience, Alaska and the Fry family.
Leaving Chile after a year was hard, not knowing when I would see the Varas's again made it even more difficult. I returned to Homer, to my senior year in high school, then college, and now grad school. I'll do the math for you, that is 10 YEARS! Being that Chile was the jumping off point for Antarctica it presented the perfect opportunity to see my family again.
During the flight to La Serena to meet them, I was filled with so much excitement I was shaking. I have to admit there was a little nervousness too, 10 years is a long time, would the connection still be there? I knew the moment I saw them all waving down at me from the airport balcony that nothing had changed. Well almost nothing, Gera went from cute 7 year old to a grown 17. I was only able to stay four days, but we had a wonderful time.While I was there it was Vecko's birthday. He was ready to eat the cake.Hiding from the sun at an artisenal fair. Gera, Loreto, Vecko, and Tina. We were watching local dancers perform traditional dances from the numerous Chilean regions.We made cinnamon rolls! Loreto is very artistic with layering the sugar on the dough. I had made cinnamon rolls for them many moons ago, but forgot to leave the recipe. Loreto was very happy to get it after waiting so long with the memory of cinnamon rolls and no way to make them. While I was there the Coquimbo soccer team had their first game in the new world class futbol stadium. The stadium was completed in December 08 in time for a game between US and Brazil's women's team. The game we went to was the first local game. Ready for the game to start. Tina, Vecko, Loreto, looking at the camera. Gera, Ricardo next to him in yellow, at the end Cynthia and Antonia.The old stadium had high fences with barbed wire on the top to keep people off the field etc. The new stadium has a trench all the way around it and the track. The distance to the field seemed to keep the field clear of debris thrown by the crowd. I did notice that there wasn't nearly as much stuff thrown by the crowd as there was the last time I went to a game in Chile.Abuelita and Mama cooking up fried fish for lunch. I really enjoy having large lunches with the whole family, and the food was wonderful. Nothing compares to home cookin!The crazy sisters
One more birthday photo.Ricardo, his almost 1 year old Antonia and Cynthia. I had a blast meeting Cynthia and Antonia for the first time. The whole family taught me a few new songs. Antonia really enjoyed listening to us sing, she would clap along and dance in her chair.This is the Millinium cross, it wasn't here 10 years ago. It was a surprise to see such a large structure in an otherwise small town. It is 30 stories high and on top of the tallest hill in Coquimbo. You can go up to the top for a fantastic view of the surrounding area.
I am very much looking forward to returning with Louie to Chile to introduce him to my wonderful Chilean family. We had so much fun together in such a short time, I really look forward to spending more time with them in the near future. One more big reason to graduate this summer.

Antarctica (el fin)

Two and a half weeks home, time to get up the one last post of my trip.
Back to Cape Shirreff, here are some photos of the Southern fur seals. They were laying all around the camp and chasing each other up and down the hills. A group of pups near the water kept busy playing and chasing eachother around the rocks. A few of the pups were very curious and came right up to Amy to check her out.The elephant seal below couldn't be bothered by all the activity, she barely opened her eyes as we hauled boxes past her up to the camp.


These two chinstrap penguins were an entertaining pair. They took turns leading eachother around in circles and zig-zags for the duration of our time on shore. See the video below.
Wet baby fur seal. They are cute, right up until they bite you. No one suffered a bite while we were there, but we did hear a few horror stories. Moral is, watch out for the cute ones.


I find penguins to be endlessly entertaining, on land or in the water. I love the way they have to hop over every little rock because their legs are too short to step over the rocks, makes me chuckle everytime.
Besides all the cool wildlife, there is also some spectacular landscapes and large amounts of ice.
First tabular icebergs we saw. They are incredibly large, and very beautiful. I couldn't get enough of them.Joelle making sure you notice the LARGE hunk-o ice in the background. photo by Kristen A.This one had trapped its own cloud. last two photos by Mariaphoto by MariaWe had some pretty nice island views throughout the cruise, but it was really enjoyable the last few days when the clouds lifted and we could see the tops of the ridges.
Joel in the black downy, Kim has the lolly pop, Tony in green, and Dug in the back with the red coat. This isn't everyone, but you can see it was a fun group. photo by MariaHere we are hanging out, during a bad weather day I think. As you may have noticed this is the intelligence center. NO DRINKS ON THE TABLES! photo by KristenAmy and I getting ready to go to shore at Copa. photo by Kristen
There are many more photos, as it was a wonderful trip and we saw many wonderful things. If you want to see more be sure to ask next time you come to visit us.