Finding Our Way

Finding Our Way... 

It all started this morning with a forecast of sunny, 10 degrees with a wind chill below zero. I decided we were going to find an unnamed pond that I wanted to explore. We would be going off trail and doing some bushwhacking in-order to get there. On our way, we came across a couple of obstacles. One obstacle, which from a distance looked like a fuselage hanging in a tree, turned out to be a huge piece of material from an industrial building, part of the fall-out from a 2010 tornado in the area.  

 

After investigating the area, we moved on to find our unnamed pond (which I named Hikah-Gaige Pond). Once arriving at the pond, the wind was so constant and making it feel like 20 degrees below zero. I took a few pictures and quickly ducked back down the hillside and out of the wind, burr!

 

We then proceeded to transverse the hillside and eventually came across a trail. Upon exploring this trail we came across a RTH (Red-tailed Hawk) screeching at us. It then flew off and I was able to ID the bird. It landed once again and gave off another loud screech. It then flew off out of sight. I have never heard a RTH screeching live, that was pretty neat. I decided we needed to head back so we followed the tail back down the hillside to Dean Pond. While doing this, I though I heard a couple grunts and sticks breaking behind me so I picked up the pace.The dogs were also air-scenting  into the area. One day I would like to go back and check that out (signs of track). 

We crossed over the pond and returned safely.

 

Map of the area with my track in red.