Today - Thrush - Albion - Seven loads of seed. 3.8 R/T. Really nice with snow on the mountains (even some on the strip!) all around.
Tuesday - J-3 - scouting local @ 1 hr.

Backed the work flying with an hour long Husky familiarization flight tonight. Fairly sweet. I'm gonna feel this one out for a while, never flown one before.

Wednesday flew from Great Falls to Missoula for work. Great flight over, nice day for sightseeing over the mountians. Flew over Roger's Pass, over Lincoln then down the Blackfoot valley into Missoula.

Flew back to Great Falls today. Very windy. Man the wind over those moutains can make the plane bounce. Was very happy that Great Falls has multiple runways.

Today - Thrush - 3.8 hrs. (8 loads) of seeding right from home followed by about three hours of Elk scouting in the Husky.

Lowflyin' G3:

Well, don't leave us hanging, any elk?

10-4, Saw two herds of about 30 each. They both had a couple spikes and one five or six point boss each. Normally more seen easily. They are hard to find right now due to the fact that everybody and their brother are all over the hills shooting at them. After the season I'll see three herds of 100+ each in three spots low on the hills from northwest of town about seven miles to around the corner northeast of Mountain Home just out in the open sunning! That's why I'm going back to Graham, it's not to much of a free for all in there. Especially if we get some snow up high, the few that drive in have to go over the pass at @8500' so only the pilots will be left and my experience is that not many of them come either.

Just got back from a little day trip to Pismo Beach. (L52 oceano). Smooth ride home with a night landing. Try the Cracked Crab if you are ever there for dinner. The bucket of crabs dumped on the table with a tray of tools is quite the experience.

Can someone educate me on the procedure to post photos to this thread? Just got back from flying over the Royal Gorge. Nice flight. Smooth air all the way. I love flying in the winter

Tuesday - Husky - Elk scouting @ 2.0
Wednesday - 206 - Back to Graham for opening of Elk in unit 39. Saw some but couldn't get a shot at any with horns. 3 hours to hike up the ridge east of the runway though (ouch). My friends came along with the 180 as well. Didn't see anything that evening (except Keystone lights!) so we caught a couple of Trout in the North Fork instead. New Cabela's Big Horn II outfitters tent w/ woodstove, @ seven degrees that night, not freezing your balls off -priceless.
Thursday - 206 - Gettin' back out to home. Snow/rain showers to dodge. Couldn't get through above featherville, had to go down the middle fork - Boise and around the west side of the Trinity's over Smith's Prairie then home.
Today - Thrush - 11 loads of seed from home until 12:30 followed by Husky - Elk scout for an hour and a half just landed in the dark.

Thursday, 11-2, Hawthorne to Catalina. Not really backcountry, but still a great ride over the surf to the Island. Had the burger and then an great low level tour around the Island. Then plow back thru the practice area and basin traffic to Hawthorne. Great Day!

New Cabela's Big Horn II outfitters tent w/ woodstove, @ seven degrees that night, not freezing your balls off -priceless.

Hey G3, how about a review on your new tent. A friend of mine has a Arctic Oven , http://www.alaskatent.com/products/tents/arctic_oven.htm, but it is a bit pricey.
Erick

Friday- Went to OAK IFR. Botched the first approach badly. Second time was much better. IFR to WVI. Tailwind on the way 164kts.

Today - Another hour or so in the Husky scouting Elk. Saw a group of 30 or so right at dusk.
Big Horn 2 was $600.00 for a 12x14 (it's diamond shaped though so you lose a little room at the ends. The whole thing is about 75# with stakes which was one of my critical items due to the airplane factor (I'll still need a Broussard eventually though!). It has an external pole system that provides an open center which is nice. It got plenty warm with the wood stove (@$160.00) and I'm sure a propane heater would work fine as well. The stove required an hourly or so stoking to stay comfortable at that temp. but we were also burning pine so hardwood may relieve that neccessity a bit. Overall a good product at a fair price I'd say for an airplane camper. It's not as heavy as canvas tents, is big enough to feel as though you are in a big tent (the lack of internal center pole helps), three cots with the wood stove, wood pile, and an open center that would provide room for a fourth cot if need be, and most of all it has flip down CUP HOLDERS! built in, sweet.

Left the house about 10 am and flew up to Talkeetna. -5 when we left and -10 at the Tal. Had a bag lunch and hiked around a bit with the Labs looking for Spruce Hens. No luck but so beautiful!
Stopped in and paid homage to Don Sheldon and others at the cemetary. A very moving place what with all the memorials to lost climbers on Denali.
Flew home in the late (!) 3 pm afternoon. A spectacular day. Two moose spotted on the way home.

Just finished a 2 week loop through the southwest. Had everything from Mexican hurricanes to Colorado blizzards to 100 mile viz with smooth air and cool temps over the Grand Canyon. The trip from Page to SFO was definitely something to write home about, but pictures and words are like cave paintings compared to the real thing. I'm soooo glad I DID that!



Lake Powell, early morning.


Going to the east end of Lake Powell from Page


Marble Canyon


Grand Canyon from Zuni Corridor at legal VFR altitude.



Started with the meteor crater the day before...



...and ended with a lovely flyover at Yosemite.

Page to San Carlos was about 820NM of zig-zag and we landed with 15 gal. left from the fill up at Page. Not bad for a porky little dirt plane and that included at least 3 climbs to 12,500, including one from below sea level at Furnace Creek.

Nice Pics Yellowbelly!! One of these days I am going to travel the country in a light aircraft!!

Bear with me guys. I am going to test pasting an image into this thread.....Here goes.

Pic of the Royal Gorge bridge - Canyon City Colorado.

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/gallery ... idge_3.jpg

Here goes again....

Yellowbelly, Those are some super pictures of what looks like a great trip to go on. One day I'll actually get to go somewhere.
This week went like this; Wed.- elk scouting in the Husky, Thurs. - trip to Fairfield in the Husky for breakfast at the Prarie kitchen, Fri. - Seeding in my Thrush at Bear Trap (27 loads, really rough on the west end) , Sat. - Seeding at home in my Thrush (10 loads).
The weather is starting to get hit and miss so it isn't going to be the most plannable flying any more. Still looking to go Steelhead fishing though at some point soon.

Took a little shreddy ride in the 206 up to Graham but couldn't land due to the SNOW! In reality it probably wasn't more than a few inches but with the borrowed airplane thing and all, you know. Another reason to need my own 185 on Bushwheels! After the low pass I went around the corner to Weatherby and landed there instead. No snow down at 4500'. Had a fun little walk down to the river. Then we left there and went to Fairfield for a Wrangler stop (take-out for the whole family) to get dinner. Then back home. Overall, really nice afternoon/evening, lots more snow in the mountains than a few days ago.

Yesterday, from above, the long, low, amber light, illuminated the autumn colors and accentuated the folds in the last of summer's hills. Nearby, a breaking wave of fog was curling over the coast range, engulfing tree tops, and orange rays of the sun set sprayed across the clouds, as my old 172 descended towards the darkening airstrip below.

So sweet after two months on the ground. I'm one thankful guy to be able to experience this beauty. Enjoy, Berk