WEEK ONE!

Friday:
All assembles on opening day eve, to discuss who, what and where the crew will disperse to, to chase down the mules that survived the winter.
A most wonderful beast loaf was constructed, with onions, soysauce and other unknown additives to make it somewhat palatable.

Saturday:
Off the gang goes, most up the hill, others almost to the barrel, one not even close! 😉 The gang marches up the hill to drive 50,000 square miles of woods to two watchers, awaiting at the bottom. Super secret frequencies were used to convey tactical information from the low crew to the high crew, much useful information was shared! Now all excited, the drive begins…almost.

BUSHWHACKED FROM BEHIND!
As the high crew wraps up the final plan, from the ridge behind them out of the blue and the back country voices are heard! Who could this be? In thirty years of chasing mules, not once was anyone ever encountered here, not even certain members of the gang. Upon interrogation, it was learned that these three inappropriately dressed hikers (no red, orange or even packs) were looking for a specific “summit”. This summit was actually a watch where the Leaddog took a 350lb plus bear a while back, and no view is near it…not even close. Two of the three appeared to be from the land north of the contiguous United States, and with them they brought the attitude and associated stench as well. It looked as if they swam across swamps, bogs, up cliffs and down them…how dare we, who’ve been here for over thirty years get in their way of bagging the 3000′ foot “peak”. Pierre and Antoinette, led by “BoB” who clearly was not from the land o’ the north, informed the gun laden crew that this was their objective. Cold, Dark, Blank stares between the crew wasn’t even noticed as Pierre voiced that “he must go to the peak”….peak at my ass you intervening smelly douche. (Note the vitriole) With that, the three says it’ll take just fifteen minutes to bag the “peak”, and scooch to yet another destination, led by Pierre who conveyed to the crew, and was told that was probably not the best way to go – up a cliff, down another, through two swamps that they didn’t know about and up the cliff to another 3000′ ft “peak”, but salutations were given and off they went, directly in the direction where the drive were to start. Chuckles were heard amongst the crew….I hope their stuck in the swamps.

Back to the hunt-

The gang does their best after being date raped, two mules are pushed off the top, Leaddog finds a new giant rubs, scrapes and Digger and Toucher at the bottom of the hill. All returns to camp for a soysauce limited dinner of mule steaks and trimmings.

Sunday:

RAIN WIND RAIN WIND……FA! See you all on Friday for the first FAMHC.

WWE 2019 SUCCESS!

A beautiful weekend!

Driveway cleared, firewood split and stacked, woods cleansed, watches set. The gang gets it all done, and now awaits daylight on 10-26 to begin the yearly chase. Will the Toucher finally get his own mule this season? He’s been oh-so gracious in providing mules for others, 😉 that it may be time for something bigger then a ten for the Touch. We’ll see!

Digger celebrates his TWENTIETH (20) year with the gang – so those things that were 20 years old then…..

Hobbit make his debut, and hopefully will return again. Send in those pictures so the Digger can memorialize this years efforts, including tube steaks at the Hilton and F-troop’s fine bar-b-qued smoked ribs and chicken.

See you all in a few weeks!

Work Weekend 2019!

The end of the month is coming fast boys, the leaves are changing, days getting shorter and colder! What wonderful woodsy related activities will our Den MaMa have in store for us this time? Will the Trailhugger make an appearance? The plan is to meet at the ‘Bow Friday night, throw our money around, let the Den MaMa do his social butterflying and then head to camp to place it in “Mule Mode”. Hopefully we won’t have the warmy-changy conditions encountered during last year’s season, so we’ll have to pray and send carbon taxes to Al Gore for relief instead of FYB winnings going to the camp!

Chicken and ribs is the main course for Saturday’s feast, let’s hope that the feathers are off the chicken….and the dirt is off the potatoes as well! We need to revive and implemet the newly tested and beloved redneck smoker from last year that worked so well….

Then there’s Probie…..

See you at the ‘Bow!!!

2019 Spring Hike – Success!

Post the photos – and I’ll write the post!

Pics Posted! – Write the recap!

Several F-Troopers aka: “Polecats Rangers” assembles once again to locate the remnants of where a local legendary guide-hermit-woodsman known as “Foxey Brown” once lived for over 25 years in the backwoods near the happy hunting grounds. Followers and lurkers of this site can rehash the waterlogged pictorial adventure of last year where a different route was chosen (not by choice) to take which resulted in a ten mile slog through swamps, wetlands, more swamps and even more wetlands, thoroughly missing the intended target. Told ya! 😉

The crew gets a good start, with sunny, buggy weather leading the way. A few miles of trail walking led to a predetermined spot where based on research, a GPS point was chosen due to it being the most likely spot for a hermitage. This spot once was the location of a long gone logging camp from the late 1800’s where Foxey hid in seclusion due to him thinking he was running from the law, which was not the case! On the stream is where he repurposed the foreman’s camp, built a multi level barn in the remains of a rock walled root-storage type cellar for his critters.

At this site are the remains of a dam which once held back a sizable pond, parts of woodstoves, farming equipment, and the actual plow that Foxey used to cultivate hay in the vly for his cows. Long gone is the cabin, only a small clearing is present with regrowth of the forest now taking command. No apparent road or path to this site was located, as the Troopers easily found their way through an open hardwood forest. Junior has great luck and gets the first ever “I caught a trout on a spring hike” badge! No fish were actually harmed in this expedition….

The gang performs their woodsy environmentally sound clean up of the site, getting rid of plastic and an old discarded tent that some #$%%#! left behind.

One could almost hear Foxey yell out – “Get out of here or I’ll send you lead for sinkers” as he once greeted interlopers as they trespassed on his homestead – but we imagined that he was smiling as we cleaned up the site, and found yet another “place” way far back in the woods! (Well…not THAT far!)

Spring Hike 2019

Our Den Mama has sent the official email announcing the date of May 18 for this years great expedition. A redo of last years misguided tromp is in order. Picture above pretty much sums up how we all felt during last years attempt. Hopefully conditions will not push our Gore-Tex to it’s limits again. For a refresher of how much fun we had last year go here:Spring Hike 2018