16ga.com ~ View topic - And so it begins again...more journeys into the unknown

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

It's that time again. That time of planning something new. I have always wanted to hunt ptarmigan and have finally decided to give it a try in Utah. The hikes will be very, very long according to maps and trail reports. I've spent hours gleaning information where I can and staring at maps.

Of course that is part of the fun. I have been looking at maps since I was a boy and the fascination remains. Maps represent possibilities yet to be discovered. I still get every bit as excited when I study a map of someplace I have never been. Youthful jubilation abounds as imagination explores the unknown. Imagination and reality always differ, but one provides the motivation to seek the other and so it shall be sometime in October, probably after rifle elk season ends there.

This will mean doing hard hunts at 11,000'-13,000' of elevation on the way home from other hard hunts in Nevada with only my windshield time to recuperate. The risk of getting snowed out of that country is very real, but if things work out it will be an experience likely filled with solitude and hopefully birds that are turning white. How will it go? Only one way to find out...here's a toast to the unknown.

Rave on dude!
I love your adventures !! Smile

Mike

Joined: 14 Oct 2011 Posts: 110 Location: Eastern Washington

Inspiration for sure. Enjoy that solitude and a bird few have hunted in the lower 48.

I look forward to another picture tour of your trip. My escapades will be a little less daring, just some grouse and woodcock hunting for the month of October, maybe longer, in Michigans U.P. Pheasant upon my return home.

Good Hunting,
Mike

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1113

Looking forward to the story of your hunt. I really enjoy your writings.

Joined: 12 Mar 2012 Posts: 684 Location: Ontario

I'll be following with interest. Ptarmigan are on my list and am planning a trip for Fall 2020 to make it a reality. Not to Utah however.

Member Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 680 Location: MAINE

I envy you . Dreams when younger had me there with you . Then you let life get in the way and before you know it , you can't handle it . I look forward to your adventures .

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2346 Location: West MI

Sounds like some fun, certainly enviable, godspeed.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!

Chuck

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

Thank you...and that's a pretty good song by The Cars too!

Joined: 28 Dec 2017 Posts: 87 Location: Northern Utah

good luck. Take a pack rod the fishing is fun too.

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

Thinking about it...

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

Wyo, I know what you’re talking about when you speak of the excitement when doing a map study. Especially when it’s the first few times of a place you are gearing up to go into! Don’t have enough altitude around my way to make much of maps, but I can remember years ago blazing my own trails in the Sierras, and the Andes. Very satisfying when you pick out a route that actually works as planned.