![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ruehlen.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/shooting-star1.jpg\" "\\"shooting")
<\/a><\/p>\nShooting stars<\/p>\n
The hike into the basin has looked like this since the Tripod Complex fire of 2006. This shot is from 2009<\/p>\n The next day we\u00a0did some off trail bushwhacking\u00a0we found two real good looking\u00a0locations for the cameras.\u00a0They were are at least one mile from a marked trail, near a game trail, food source, and water source. One was right along a game trail near a large strawberry patch. At this\u00a0location\u00a0we placed the larger and heavier Leaf River camera and baited a downed log with game lures. We then hiked on and found a small knoll with another game trail near a berry patch. Here we set up the\u00a0lighter<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Bushnell camera and baited the target tree with the lures. We recorded the data and set our location on the Garmin GPS unit they lent us.<\/p>\n Canine scat chuck full of bones and fur<\/p>\n Fungus<\/p>\n We were using two lures. One\u00a0specifically\u00a0for bear, it has a nice musky smell to it and we both found it rather acceptable to the nose. The other lure was for wolf and smelled like skunk with fresh cracked pepper corn. Not very pleasant. These and the cameras were provided to us along with instructions from CNW. We were super careful with these lures and pack them in small nalgine\u00a0containers, bring\u00a0surgical gloves along, a supply of ziplock baggies, and good ol’Dr Bronner’s soap. We also use these awesome odor-proof bags from ALOK. We bought them to use with our Ursack bear bag and\u00a0absolutely\u00a0love them. We had all the lures bottled and in at least four if not five heavy duty\u00a0freezer\u00a0ziplock baggies. Nevada and the cats could smell them the\u00a0instant\u00a0I brought them in the house. So, I then put them into their designated odor-proof bag and the smell was gone. Really cool and a testament to all the hype on their packaging.<\/p>\n \u00a0One, two, two lures.<\/p>\n Bushnell on the knoll<\/p>\n Regardless of our ability to keep the odors at bay I\u00a0inevitability\u00a0got some on my jacket. Bummer. We finished baiting the second tree and hiked on to a stream and washed out the lure from my jacket. Sadly, it was the\u00a0unpleasant\u00a0wolf lure and even worse we could still smell it after multiple\u00a0washings with Dr. Bonner’s (not as awesome as we thought) soap. The Jacket spent the night by itself.\u00a0The next day we hiked back out. This was a quick trip as we were returning again in September to change batteries and SD cards. Then in October we’ll\u00a0retrieve\u00a0the cameras before winter sets in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We spent this summer and fall volunteering with Conservation Northwest again. Like last year, we placed remote cameras in the Northern Cascades near the Canadian border. In July we hiked into an area where we’ve backpacked many times, really lovely … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Looking west at Windy the burn was devastating.<\/p>\n<\/a>And the forest is recovering<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Bear scat chuck full of scat<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>More of this bright orange fungus. Slime mold perhaps?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n