Steven Drake’s 2010 Montana Hunting Season Slideshow
Posted in Backpack Hunting, Dana DNA, Mountains & Trails, Skiing
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My Rifle Gives Me Little Advantage
The elk have moved out of the high country and into the thick and dense low lands. The bulls are grouping up and have quit bugling. My sight and sound advantage has been taken away. A positive attitude and the liklihood of snow are all I’ve got now.
This year I’ve been blessed with drawing a limited entry elk permit in a unit with high potential for big bulls. I am able to archery hunt AND rifle hunt. Previous years I’ve only been allowed to archery hunt. Last September, I was fortunate enough to take a beautiful six point bull the third week of the bow season, in this unit. My success left me optimistic about this fall’s opportunities. So far, that opportunity has been just out of reach.
Elk season started off with me walking up on another archer’s kill that was never recovered. The meat was too far gone by the time I found him. I left the bull hoping that the hunter would eventually find him and punch out their tag.
I hunted the low country the first two weeks of the season with a few chances on smaller bulls. The rut was slow to start so … READ MORE >
Preston Edwards. A Hunting Industry Insider’s view on the Crew Cab
I’ll admit, I had my doubts when Mark Seacat of Mystery Ranch Packs started his sales pitch about how great his packs are. I have tried a lot of packs and liked very few of them over the years, and I didn’t expect much different out of these ones. Mark wouldn’t back down though, and I did know from previous conversations with him that he was not just another salesman pitching a product. He is a hard core hunter that, unlike many sales guys, actually really uses the products he sells, and he takes it to extremes when he does. A quick glance at the photos on his iPhone had proven that.
I kept listening. Before I knew it he had me fitted, had a Crew Cab pack loaded with 80 pounds worth of sandbags, and made me pack the thing around the floor of the Western Hunting Expo where he was giving me this rundown. After carrying this huge pack around for awhile with relative ease and comfort Mark had my attention for sure, but carrying a pack around indoors on nice carpeted floors is hardly a test to write home about. I was still skeptical, but I liked … READ MORE >
Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Trip Reports
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2010 Montana Archery Antelope Hunt – VIDEO
The learning curve in hunting as an archer is steep. Many seasons of spot and stalk techniques have left me close but empty handed. After years of hard work and persistence, I was fortunate enough to harvest my first Pronghorn Antelope with archery equipment. This short video documents my first two weeks of the season – from stalk to harvest. Enjoy!… READ MORE >
Big Fish and Lasting Memories
Sockeye Salmon on Lake Creek
21 years ago in April, while my mother was in labor with me, my dad was out fly fishing the Missouri River. Perhaps I was born to fish. When I turned 21, I held my dad to a ten year 21st birthday promise – we’d go to Alaska for a fishing trip.
Growing up, my hunting and fishing buddies were my Dad, Paul, and my Dad’s two friends, Phil and Denny. Every summer Phil, Denny, and my Dad, would go on a fly fishing trip into Yellowstone Park. I was never invited. They said that when I turned 21 I’d be of age to join them on such a trip.
Recently, in the first week of August, I found myself along with Phil, Denny and my Dad, in Alaska in pursuit of big fish and an unforgettable experience.
We started our trip in the small town of Hope, on the Resurrection River, catching Humpies on fly rods. Humpy is the nickname for a pink salmon. The Humpies were running hard. We had no problem hooking and inadvertently snagging dozens of these fish with our fly rods. Male pink salmon have enormous hump backs, hence the … READ MORE >
Camp Patriot’s Summit Challenge 2010
Mystery Ranch is proud to have sponsored Camp Patriot’s 4th annual Summit Challenge, an attempt by 4 disabled veterans climb 14,411 ft. Mt Rainier in Washington’s portion of the Cascade Range. As part of the marketing team at Mystery Ranch, we went along to outfit the veterans and organizers with U.S built backpacks, and to assist the team with photography and cinematography during the 4 day climb.
This year’s team included a heroic squad; Navy Seals Mike Day, Jason Redman, and Brian S, and Corpsman Kevin Ivory, all of whom received Purple Hearts for their services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their inspiration to climb Rainier was facilitated by heroic stories from past attempts, especially the iconic summit by Camp Patriot Vet Ryan Job.
The kickoff to the event was hosted by the Seattle Seahawks at Qwest Field in downtown Seattle. The event featured speeches from previous summits, other Camp Patriot adventures, and a spectacular presentation by climber and astronaut Scott Parazynski, who joined the team on the mountain. His inspirational presentation about his 5 shuttle missions, an Everest summit, and life as a medic was a motivating speech that stirred adrenaline in all of us as we prepared … READ MORE >
Posted in Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Trip Reports, Uncategorized
Tagged G5000, G6000, Glacier, Trance XXX
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Bears Bows and Backpacks
I started the spring season with two goals, one: see more bears than I had ever seen in a spring season, and two: kill a spring bear with my bow. Goal one would be easy. I had been working hard to get ready for the spring season. Talking with good friends about how they bear hunt and how to find more bears along the way. I had also been working hard making sure my new Hoyt bow was up to the task at hand.
The season got off to a bang when good friend Brain Barney and I spotted a huge boar five minutes into our first glassing session. The hunt was on! I bailed off 1500 vertical feet of steep hill crossed the river and made my way up the other side. After a very steep climb my stock was cut short by some very fickle wind, my first hard learned lesson of bear hunting. Bears have a nose that makes an elk look like he has no sense of smell at all! If you don’t have the wind right you might as well not even try it. You will be done before you even get started.
The next … READ MORE >
The Blaze
Featuring: Fuze
Nothing like springtime in the mountains. You ever been sitting around early on a Saturday morning sipping black juice with your buddies trying to come up with a plan for the day? Should we head to the Gally? Maybe run the Kitchen Sink, ride Leverich, or try to find some north facing couloirs to boot up? It’s the fortunate problem we all run into living in Bozeman, and especially during the spring months. As the snow continues to melt faster and faster with the warming days, we thought it would be wise to try and get in some big lines prior to full blown summer. Gallatin Peak looks good, as does the Y Couloir on Big Black, but we thought that instead of the classic descent in the later months of July and August, we decided to have at the big NW Face of Blaze Mountain.
I was off the couch after a 3 week stint of travel and work so needless to say I was psyched to stretch the legs a bit. The sun was blazing by 9 am and we trudged through the venerable stream that was the Spanish Creek trail, past one fork, and approached another. Years … READ MORE >
Hellmouth Couloir
Featuring: Fuze
Hellmouth Couloir is the thin aesthetic line dead center on Alex Lowe Peak.
In the Spring of 1997 Alex Lowe and Hans Saari made the first descent of an anemic ski line they nicknamed “Hellmouth Couloir” in the Gallatin Mountains of Montana. For years the exact location of this line had been lost and it gained mythical status. On September 15th 2005 a peak in the Gallatin National Forest was named “Alex Lowe Peak” for the memory of Alex who had unfortunately passed October 5, 1999 in an avalanche on the slopes of Shishapangma in Tibet. It was then unveiled to many that the Hellmouth Couloir was located on this peak. Kyle and a partner through research found a Summer photo of the peak and along with a brief description that Saari and Lowe had made they discovered the location of the line. Then in the Winter of 2006 they made the second known descent of Hellmouth Couloir. Over the past 4 years a few others have made the descent. Kyle has visited the area many times since 2006 but has been unable to make another descent of the couloir.
Jump to present day. Kyle just got back from a month long ski … READ MORE >
