C.R. Langille's Blog, page 20

This is a Hunting 'stache.

60 days strong. Bring on the deer!

Salt Lake City Comic-Con

Salt Lake City had it's first ever comic-con last weekend. I went all three days. I'm glad I did too, because on the last day, there were so many people that the fire marshal had to deny access because our convention center was filled to capacity. They estimate that there were close to 70,000 people there.

There were a lot of great panels, and even better costumes. I felt out of place just wearing regular clothes. I can't wait until next year's con, it should be even bigger! Here are some pictures.

43 Days!

Just Over a Month

Scouting Adventures: Banshee Wails, Poop, and Wood People

I spent another night up in the Uintah Mountains. My goal—find elk. I failed. I didn't find any elk. However, I found elk sign (read poop), and I heard what I think could have been cow elk talking to one another (more on that later).

First off, just because I failed at finding any elk, doesn't mean the trip was a total failure. One, I covered a lot of ground while I was out there. I probably hiked a good four miles and covered a lot of distance on my ATV. What did this serve? It let me become familiar with the terrain and the locations I wanted to hunt. It also helped me prepare for when I go back. I now know where I want to camp (with back-up locations just in case) and I have a half-a-dozen spots I think could be good to try and get a good shot at an elk.

Two, I learned that I need to take something to mark my trail. Even though the trail was blazed with these markings (which was a life-saver), it was too dang easy to get lost. I went out twice on the same trail, and lost the same trail each time. You might think it’s easy, especially with the tree markings. Think again. Too many trees out there and that trail was grown over in a lot of spots. When I go back to hunt, I’ll tie small ribbons on the trees at regular intervals to mark my path. I figure I’ll be going out to the sweet spots in low-light to no-light, and having the trail marked could make or break the hunt.

Three, just getting out into nature is a win all by itself. I love the outdoors. I could spend too much time out in the woods if I didn’t have obligations to pull me back. I got to test out my new pack as well as brush up on my land-navigation skills (yes, it will atrophy just like everything else). Plus, you get to find crazy things like this burnt out tree trunk and this hidden wood person.


Will I fill my two elk tags? I don’t know. I do know that there are elk out there. I saw the sign, found wilderness that looked like great elk habitat, and I also heard a bunch of cows talking. Which, by the way sound like a pack of banshees wailing in a chorus. It happened in the morning while I was cooking my breakfast. Not more than a half mile from my camp, it started off as a kind of a cross between an elk bugle and child screaming. Within seconds many more of the same calls answered in a hellish chorus. Then they all died down to silence in about 40 seconds. Really kind of terrifying if you’ve never heard it before.

Elk are kind of sneaky bastards and this will be my second hunt. I’m somewhat flying by the seat of my pants again since I never did much elk hunting growing up. I’m working off what research I’ve done, advice from friends, and pure luck. We’ll see come October whether or not I’ll get lucky and have some meat for the freezer.

Together we can Rule the Galaxy!

It's almost a fully functional Death Star!

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes

"That is not dead which can eternal lie..." H.P. Lovecraft

Hunting Adventures: Hello? Stick Creatures and Return of the Cows!

I went out a couple weeks ago and took a look at my trail cam again. I was happy to find that I didn't have 300 pictures of cows. Instead I had over 1000 pictures of moving tree limbs. I guess I set it up too close to another tree and whenever the wind would blow, it would register the movement.

Regardless of the wind, I got some interesting pictures. Unfortunately, no buck deer pics. I guess the bucks didn't want to travel that path. However, I did get a close up shot of a doe. At one point she looked right into the camera and said hello, or what the hell is that thing?


Then, the cows returned to enact their sabotage! Once again, the 'effin' cows ate my salt lick! I didn't think they would climb that trail...guess I was wrong. I won't immortalize them by posting any of those pics. What I will post, however, is the strange, flying, stick creatures I caught on camera. Not sure if they are just falling sticks, or what. But I like to believe it was a Sasquatch throwing communication rods in an attempt for some Jacks Links Jerky.  I made it up to the lake this time. It was more of an overly large pond, but pretty nonetheless. Also, on the way up, I spooked a good amount of doe. One of them decided to not give a crap about me and keep on nomming on the grass. I got a decent pic with my phone.  Even though I didn't spy any bucks this time, it was fun and totally worth it. I'll be going out to scout again at least one more time before the hunt starts, plus I'll be going to scout in an entirely different region for elk soon. I'll post on both of those adventures.

Random Mystery Post

A couple weeks ago I posted two possible themes on Facebook for the next blog post. It ended up in a tie. So I reposted with the threat that if it remained a tie, that I would blog about something completely random. Guess what, it remained a tie. So here's the random post...and it's the post that will keep on giving until Christmas. I call it, The Human Bigote Growth Project. Basically, at random intervals between now and Christmas, I'll post the growth status of my mustache. I shaved it last night. Other than trimming it off my lip to keep it military standards, I will NOT be taking any of the bulk off. Let the project begin! Day 1

Hunting Adventures: Trail Camera Sabotage, Paranoid Cows, and Robot Deer!

Just a little under a week ago, I had the chance to head back up the mountain and retrieve the data from my trail camera. I had my ATV out of storage, a fresh SD card, and some new batteries. After work, I got my things together and headed out. I knew time was going to be a factor even with the longer summer days, so I didn't dink around. I found the spot to park, unloaded the ATV and headed up the mountain. It only took a little over 30 minutes to make it to the trail head with the ATV, which beats the 1.5 hours it took to hike up there last time. 

Here's a note to the wise on a matter of survival. Conditioning is key. Last time I hiked up the mountain, I hiked further. This time, it was probably 3/4 of a mile up and I got my ass kicked. The difference? Due to school and a trip to Vegas for a grappling tournament, I hadn't run for two weeks. In those measly two weeks, I lost a lot of conditioning and I could feel it. You always want to keep up on exercise. When the shit hits the fan isn't the time to take up a new exercise routine. Needless to say, when I go back up there, and definitely when the hunt rolls around, I'll be ready.

On my way up, I saw a few doe as well as a couple of cows (not elk, regular cows). That should have been the first tip-off that something wasn't right. I made my way to the trail camera and found it pushed from its original position that it was pointed directly at the trunk of a nearby tree. 

Sabotage! I was pissed and thought that someone had come up here, saw the camera, and decided to sabotage it. In a way, I was correct.

Curious to see what happened, I opened my laptop and threw the SD card in. The first few pictures were alright and included a couple captures of a deer. The saboteurs of my trail camera were revealed! Cows! A bunch of 'effin' cows decided to come by and eat the salt lick. At some point, I think these cows caught on that they were being recorded. They must have been listening to the current events and thought that maybe the NSA was spying on them. Well one cow didn't think that was cool and decided to shut down my deer spying operations. After that, all I had was about twenty pictures of the tree trunk. Chalking it up to a learning experience, I changed the SD card, switched the batteries and headed further up the mountain. I found a game trail on the hillside and planted the trail cam there, along with the remaining half of the salt lick. I'll go back up in a couple weeks and see if I have something more to show for my efforts than 300 hundred pictures of paranoid cows. Before I left though, I saw a buck which kept my hopes up. Means I've seen buck deer every time I've ventured up that way.

There was something else on my camera. Something dark and nefarious. It only caught a glimpse of the creature. Some sort of robot deer, or perhaps a Rocky Mountain chupacabra.