There's more antlers laying out there...

Well, I got up at 3 am Saturday morning and headed up to the valley for one more trip. It was a beautiful day and I started hiking about 6:30 am. As soon as I got to the first clearing it happened. No, not an antler, but billions of mosquitos! I was swarmed and had no repellant. I did not retreat though. I had just forced myself to get up early and drive 3 1/2 hrs to get here and I was not leaving. So I endured the attack but had to put my t-shirt sleeve over my head, my hat on and my sweater with the hood on and constantly wave my map to keep the mosquitos off my face. Talk about determination! It got up to around 70 degrees and with little or no wind the mosquitos and heat were my constant companion. I hiked over three ridges to my planned destination and managed to find 3 brown elk horns along the way. I had hoped to look for sheds longer, but the heat and mosquitos kept getting worse through the day so I had to head back even though I had plenty of time to look. On the hike back I took a different path so I wouldn't cover the same ground twice, but instead of an easier hike I ended up going through lots of downfalls in the timber. Despite my pants being ripped up by the trees, I made it out in one piece and I managed to find two more sheds, a big older elk horn (that the chizzlers also found) and the remains of a moose shed. I made it back to car around 2:30pm and got everything into the car as fast as possible so the mosquitos couldn't get in. And even after I was in the car and driving they were still swarming all around the outside of my car. Although this was a very physically challenging hike it was the most mentally challenging hike ever because of the mosquitos. I also found 5 ticks on me while hiking but that didn't bother me like the mosquitos. All I can say is that I'm glad I was able to find some antlers, but there are plently still on the ground and I hate leaving horns behind. Next year I will have to plan my trips before the mosquitos hatch.






Here's what I looked like: