Walking the Chequamegon

I spent five hours on the road (round trip) to spend four hours in Chequamegon National Forest on Friday.

I should have procrastinated the writing I did that morning.
I should have bought breakfast on the road.

It was a wonderful 42 degrees.  I should have done anything else necessary to get more time out there.

My efforts were focused on looking at 40 acres for sale that can only be accessed through the forest.  Even though the land is privately owned, it is part of a tax break program that grants access for public access, so I didn't need to contact a realtor before setting out.  I'd hate to bother anyone anyway.  I don't have the free cash flow to buy it.  If you're sitting on 30 thousand and looking for some ruffled grouse hunting land or a base for your Northland adventures, however, let me know.  My only finders fee is lifelong camping rights.

While we were out, we set out to check out areas where I might look for shed antlers in the spring and to poke our head out of the forest to see the East Fork of the Chippewa River.  It was an awesome day with some awesome dogs.

Terriers, Assemble!

The property has a fresh water spring, a great way to keep your beer cold and a good indication that a sand point well would be enough to provide fresh water.

Next to the spring

Another angle

A camp site with southern exposure.

The conditions were excellent for holding sign.  There was more wolf than deer or any other animal.  It mostly seemed to have been left by a pair traveling together.  Even Sparta kept close.  We did see a lot of ruffled grouse habitat, most of it just beyond "No Trespassing" signs.

Does Fidelity National Bank really check those alleged trail cams?  If so, how do I get that job?  Could I hunt grouse on my lunch break?

There was a trail on map that had not been maintained for years.  A cairn confirmed we were on the right track.

A raptor sized nest at eye level.  What nests at five feet high just ten feet off of an ATV trail?

Den!

East Fork of the Chippewa River.

A good hard "leave it" command kept the dogs off the ice.

Sun-setting on the East Fork.

We just barely beat nightfall back to the car.

Integrating Stoic into the Pack

At least when it comes to how to act in the field, the first dog is always the hardest to train.  This video is a little long at 90 seconds but it gives an idea of how I work with the terriers by trying to keep it fun and using one dog to teach another.

Sparta's joyful unreserved nature arises from the fact that she has never known anyway of living other than what she has now.  I expect Stoic spent his first few years in a household with a lot of negative reinforcement.  While it has it's place, too much can quickly damage a dog's spirit.

Can a pack have a culture?  I think it can.  I know it can when you add a human to the mix.  I set the tone for what we do and what we don't.  The other dogs reinforce that culture.

It was a simple river crossing.  I'm glad to say as we headed back to the car, Stoic jumped it without needing a single word of encouragement.  Its just what we do.

Lead, Follow, or...

After trying and failing to find his owner we adopted a terrier that showed up on the front door late this summer.

He is a great little dog: socialized, friendly, and, important to me, with a wonderful, if under-developed, prey drive.

He was great in the house but what I saw suggested he hadn't been taken out into the world that much.  We've been working on rectifying that deficit in his education.  While we were taking a walk along the Red Cedar River, hilarity ensued.

 

With great power

With great power comes unintended consequences.

An environmental cleanup of an abandoned mine in the mountains of Colorado went horribly wrong, leading to the spill of one million gallons of contaminated water into a creek that eventually drains into the San Juan River. 

The incident happened when workers for the Environmental Protection Agency were trying to clean the long-abandoned Gold King Mine, but allowed it to breach a berm, or small strip of raised land, and the toxic water flowed into the Animas River. It turned the clear mountain stream a mustard orange color, according to photos posted online. The local sheriff’s office on Aug. 6 closed the river to swimming, kayaking and rafting, and it remained closed Saturday. 

“It’s a sad irony that a program attempting to avoid harm to the environment, appears to have caused it,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit group in Colorado. As the polluted waste moves downstream, “it will dilute, but we don’t know what’s in this water,” McKinnon said. 

According to a statement posted online by the San Juan Basin Health Department, the acidic mine water contains high levels of sediment and metals. Officials warned downstream users to shut off intake valves.