Hide Report 2

Its very quite in the forest this evening. There are no birds songs and no little critter sounds. To quite if anyone knows what I mean. Now and than a dry leaf falls to the ground and its fall seems almost to loud. But the wind is blowing some now and the pines are moving as it passes by.

The hours pass and still nothing moves but the wind. A misty rain starts and we cover our cameras and handy cams and hope it doesn’t get any harder. The wind is getting a chill to it and the mist turns to droplets. Thunder rumbles through the air and the wind gets harder for a few minutes .

Somewhere a large tree limb makes a cracking sound and seems

to be thrown  to the side. I strain my eyes in the dwindling light to see but I cant tell what the cause was. Lighting strikes a tree close by. Travis looks at me and says so much for staying in the hide all night. Another strike gets us up and packing our stuff.

A hard rain hurry’s us along the way. That old white truck never seemed so damned inviting as now. More lighting lights up the forest and loud thunder follows.We are soaked and on our way home to some warm mama made soup. She will fuss we better not get sick cause she wont take care of us if we do.But she will, she always does.

              The Hermit

Hide Report 1

Well while the team is on holiday and having fun without us.lol Travis and I are hard at work in the field.

We set up hides in different areas of the national forest using all natural  materials. There is a lot of reports that come out of these places after deer season. That is the only time people are in here, and for every reported sighting there are many that aren’t. Its really easy to have an experience out here because after years of research we know that these are the places they live and hunt and move through on their way to the rivers.

All you have to do is  find a good place to hide utilizing the natural materials around you and sit down and Waite. O you may not see the big man but you are going to hear him. Its nothing to hear vocals out here and maybe a wood knock or three. Than more vocals. You can sometimes get a whiff of their stink, and its hard to miss their heavy steps in the forest around you.

The trouble is the forest is so thick with tall growth that makes it hard to get a full body sighing.But there are many places that are open to, and of course the big boss avoids these areas and keeps himself hidden.This is also why you don’t see them and can walk right pass and never notice them. It does make this hard work but we keep trying.

We have wanted to put up some high hides in the trees but its not allowed .I have not heard back on my request to do so and we are keeping our fingers cross the USFS will come through for us.

We just heard some gun shots and than something started having a loud fit and tree went down. I am trying to get there and get this on video. I am including the video here. So all can see what I found.

The Hermit.

San Juan Field Report 2

Well I had came off that little hogback and shadows were gathering in the canyon.Night comes early here, So I decided to stop and make my camp. I went about picking up wood and just looking at tracks to see what had passed around the spot I had chosen. I layed out a fire and went to gather more wood for the night. It was becoming clear to me that a fairly large camp was on the other side of the trail from me. I found a big fire ring made of stones, But it was mostly covered with dirt and sand now.

Anasazi or some other group camped here regularly in the long ago past. I poked around a bit and gathered more wood till I had a nice stack for the night.I lite my fire and poured water from one of my canteens into my coffee pot to heat water and made up dough with a little honey and raisins in it for camp bread.( camp bread is a good eat with honey in it put a little baking powder in it and shave some sticks of their bark stick the dough around the stick and let it bake over the coals, good stuff.) I made a thick broth with some jerky and ate good that night.

I lay back in my bag and used my pack for a pillow. Well my belly was full and my camp fire was warm. I was a happy man as I lay there looking up at the stars.

My night was very restless, I keep waking up to the sound of feet on the trail. I was so spooked that I took my little AR7 out of my pack, put it to gather and loaded it than layed it beside me. I had no idea what it could do about ghost but it made me feel a little better.

Well the morning couldn’t come fast enough for me, and at first light I was up and  on my way.For two more days I walked this little  foot path. It ran strait as an arrow to a rock wall with a small water fall that made a pool of fresh sweet water and it was ice cold. I was glad to find the water cause my two canteens were getting very low.

Well I set out to explore the canyon walls on both sides.The pine timber here was massive and old, it just  reached  the rim of the canyon in some places. I could see there had been a lot of activity here in the long ago past. I found where arrowheads and stone knifes had been made. All this lay on top the rocky ground seeming to have been washed by the wind and rain and snow for thousands of years. I spotted an arrowhead laying in dirt, I could see right away it was much older than the other workings and I picked it up to study it a while than put it in a pouch I carry to put special things in. I don’t normally pick things up but sometimes there is a small rock or arrowhead. Just something that feels special to me and put  it in this pouch.

I started looking at the big old tree that had grown up along the canyon wall. This tree also shaded the little pool of water and camping spot that was very old. Well I found that, that old tree had grown so close to the rock wall it was covering hand and foot holds that had been cut into the wall. I stood out from the tree and wall and looked up. Sure enough there was a big over hang and cliff houses up there.

Well I took rope from my pack and layed that pack down beside the tree and tied my rope on to it, and using the tree and what hand and foot holds I could in the wall went up a good hundred feet and my damn rope played out. I had to hull that pack up into the tree and balance it on a big limb. My pack weighted about 100 pounds. Well I did this one more time before I cleared the tree and my fingers could just touch the rim and I finally made it all the way up.

I got my pack up and just lay back on the rim with my legs still over the rim and found new respect for the Anasazi. These were some tough people, Ill tell you!

I layed there looking up at the ceiling of the over hang and out at the deep blue sky with its little bits of white clouds. I was glad for the cool wind that whistled through the over hang.Picking myself up me and my rope and pack went over to a bigger waterfall and pool. I could see that the water had over time  dug out a small channel  in the rock and let the water spill over the rim forming the pool below.

I looked out over the canyon and watched the trees swaying in the wind and I felt the cool breeze as it came  up under the over hang. I could smell the pine that grew  below in the canyon and I smelled the cold and snow cameing from off the mountains.

God how the ancient people must have loved it here. I thank I will make this my home for a little while.

I made  camp near the water. As of yet I had not gone into the dwellings. But they looked to be in very good shape. there was two long houses and some, what I thought  might be storage and two large round buildings and than some smaller houses all in excitant shape.

I rolled out my bag and got in. Tomorrow I would do some exploring.

The night was full of sound, and I would wake to a flute and sometime the voices of people. I would look around and see what looked like shadows moving in the shadows if that makes any scene to anyone. All night was like this, Voices and flutes and the shuffle of feet. There was the laughter of children ! But that flute the sound it made was haunting and beautiful at the same time. I can tell you that I wasn’t scared I just felt odd I guess. Maybe out of place is a better way to describe it. But I was glad to see the sun when It came into the sky.

Well I was amazed to find there was no dust in the dwellings and as I walked through each one their things were there as if they just left everything.I touched nothing I had no right to if you can understand that.

I stayed here for two months and the nights were always the same. This had been a great experience one that I will remember for all my life. Oh and I made a friend of a little chipmunk who had a great fondness for camp bread, and taking naps in my jacket pocket. There such little pest, but make great buddy’s.

The Hermit

 

For Thomas and Jo

San Juan Field Report 1

In 1978 I was in the Durango Colorado area. I had spent some time in Mesa Verde and out on the Ute reservation.There was several thousand acres of private land that I was staying on, in some Anasazi cliff dwellings. How I found these dwellings is a story in its’ self and I would like to tell it in this report.I am sorry but there is no sasquatch in its telling. But it does have some spookiness  you might like.I will get to the Big Man in a while.

Well I had just come down from about 8 thousand feet and started cross country into what I thought was more BLM land. I was heading into this canyon . I just had to stop and take in the ancient beauty of it all. The shear rock walls and blue sky above and the sudden heavy smell of pine coming at me, being pushed by a strong wind blowing thru the conyon. The  trees danced in the strong wind and I closed my eyes to let it wash over me. Sand and small bits of things stung my skin, and somewhere I could hear large rocks falling from the canyon walls dislodged by the clawed fingers of the wind. Soon it was past me and was spilling out into the forest itself.

I stood there in silence and my mind wondered how many ancient eyes has seen this event. I realized I was walking in a truly ancient land.

The trees had stopped  there dance but the smell of pine still hung in the air. The canyon was quite now and I walked on into its depths. I felt like an explorer who was seeing this all for the first time, and I guess I was in a way.

Three days, I walked out on the land, and the sun would get warm and I would take off my coat . The season was still early and there was snow in the shadow places where the sun didn’t reach.The nights got quit cold.

On that third day I found a small bit of trail. A foot path etched into the rocky ground over probably hundreds of years. I turned down the narrow path and looked down at my feet as I walked knowing that my feet were possibly the first human touch this path has felt in, well many many years. And I had cold bumps because of it.

I have to tell you I love the natural world. The discovery’s I make out here are memories I can give to my children and grand’s. I would rather sleep under the stars hugging a camp fire on a cold night than live in a house. The most beautiful song I can think of is a coyote singing his song on a dark and lonely night. The sound the wind makes blowing through the trees, and the soft sounds of the night critters passing by in the forest is what makes my eye lids heavy with sleep.

I walked on for many hours and the foot path was a strait line to somewhere. Over rocky ground and through the forest it took me. Now and than I would stop and look behind me for I felt I wasn’t alone on this path. Call me crazy but the hair on my arms would stand up for no reason I could see. But if you thank about it the Anasazi had walked and hunted and died here before the Spanish had even seen this land.I walked out onto a small hogback of land and found places where arrowheads had been chipped from the rocks. I discovered a striker stone left behind absent mindedly probably. I wonder how long it had laid out here untouched by nothing but time. A thousand years, maybe more. I didn’t touch it I never do. It just doesn’t seem right some how to move these ancient things.

You can feel the oldness of this land. It’s like it has its own sprite and has a story to tell. I want to hear that story! This is where my sprite finds its peace, and the natural world is a home to me.

I know I haven’t gotten to the dwellings yet but I am going to end here and do this in two parts. Thanks and please stay with me.

The Hermit

For Thomas and Jo Anne you are great friends.