Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Let's post some pictures

I'm laid up here after shoulder surgery and well, frankly it IS the middle of winter. Gonna be a month before planting any salad and peas and two months til turkey season.

Let's post some pictures! Anything, last year's hunts, backpacking trips, fishing, hiking, scenery...anything will do. I just like seeing others' photos. I'll start, and yes, most of you have probably seen most of these:

Rock Chuck packing in our camp last October with "the boys" during our Idaho mulie hunt.



We were camped about two miles back down in that "hole" in the background. This morning we were hiking back to retrieve our previous days mule deer kill with the two largest llamas, Jack and Blue.



We hunted some beautiful country




The last day was cold with a little snow.



An overnighter with my little gal



Last spring's turkey.



Her first trout!

[img]http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k562/bigtroutphoto/2013/SAM_1698copy.jpg[/img]

First hike early last year.

[img]http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k562/bigtroutphoto/2013/2013misc-5.jpg[/img]

I'm sorry to hear that... heal up quickly!

Idaho trip, 2012


Turk's Cap lilly in N. Carolina


A rain shower of Looking Glass Rock in NC




Ivester Gap in Shining Rock Wilderness, NC

Thanks, doing okay and already working on moving it some per Dr. orders.

Narcotics are good!

What's the surgery, and what's the doc's prognosis for backpacking?

I had calcification in my shoulder joint and juncture where the collarbone meets the shoulder. This crap rubs muscle and tendon tissue and some positions would about bring me to my knees. I've never felt pain like that. I had to be extremely careful last Fall when mounting a pack on my back!

Doc is aware of my outdoor activities, backpack hunts, etc. His 2nd grader is classmates with mine and he's always been interested in my Idaho backpack trips. He has a 10 year old that deer hunts. The Doc isn't a hunter, but takes his son and encourages it. He also know I've been taking my girl on short backpack trips.

He conveyed to my wife, post surgery, he was alarmed at how much my shoulder had stiffened. He said get out of the sling in 24 hours, start moving my arm, and start PT next week. He indicated that when that stiffness is present to the extent it is, the muscle can quickly "shrink wrap" the shoulder joint causing lockup.
He told her "as active as he is, he needs to start moving tomorrow, I don't want that joint to lock on him."

He also gave me another Prednisone pack, which can be some nasty stuff, but is very effective against inflammation. This I believe he did so I can get started NOW on PT.

So I'm already moving and today (48 hrs) I will remove the bandages. I should make a full recovery but I have to get busy and serious now with PT and be diligent about it.

I won't see him again for 1 1/2 weeks but start PT Wednesday.

Not really sure what causes this, most likely osteoarthritis related. I have some friends who very much is involved in more natural cures and preventive diets. Magnesium seems to be related to calcium absorbtion. I'm looking into that but being active and staying in relatively good shape for my age, I think sometimes it's just the "luck of the draw".

Brad, here ya go.(and anyone else interested)

Here is a couple surgical photos of my joint showing the calcium deposits in the joints. Doesn't require much imagination to understand results of that crap rubbing against tendons and nerves. Ouch!




This is after cleaning it out. You can see inflammation. I have no concept of the orientation of these photos but you can clearly see the joint cleaned of that nasty calcium deposits.






Anyway, that gives some idea. Clearly not the intent of "let's post some photos" but for those of you who are active, and everyone on this forum is, especially those middle age dudes, be aware of pain and if it steadily increases, don't ignore it.

And you younger guys, take care of your joints while you can. "No pain, no gain" is BS. Use your head or you may end up paying later on. There's ways to stay in shape without damaging yourself.

Agreed with all the above.

Thanks Snubbie... sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, but any surgery is a tough thing, and I wasn't aware you were lined up for it.

Do what your PT says and heal quickly... looking forward to more of your trip photos from the future!

Best,

Brad

I ran into these guys a couple years ago while bowhunting deer (didn't have an elk tag). That 6x6 would have had his own harem anywhere else but he was a satellite bull to a huge one further up the hill. That one had 20+ cows and he wasn't sharing.



Mrs Chuck on a trip to some lakes at about 9k.
Snubbie - if you were to get out here sometime in the summer, I'd take you up up there. It's about my favorite spot. The 2d pic is the 2d largest of 4 lakes up there. However, I've NEVER seen a deer in there. Not one.




elk hunting with the Mrs. (there's a long story with this pic)


...and finishing off the day with a creek cooled long neck.

Great pics!!

Snubb- sucks about the shoulder. Get after it in PT! Muy importante, especially with shoulders!

We hiked the Chilkoot trail mid August of 2012.

After a couple days on the flat you start up. This is looking back down the trail.





Looking ahead from "the scales" where miners had to weigh their ton of materials before they could cross into Canada.



And yet more climbing with a false summit.




Over the top now heading down into Canada.




Looking back up at the summit. That box at the top is an outhouse.




We lucked out and had great weather the whole trip.



[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e130/mycalypsogreen/P1010356_zps306741f4.jpg[/img]



Bear Loon lake.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e130/mycalypsogreen/P1010377_zps9ab9bee8.jpg[/img]

Then on to Bennett to meet the train back to Skagway. I think we did it in five days, 33 miles starting at sea level. I think the summit is 3,600'

http://www.nps.gov/klgo/planyourvisit/chilkoottrail.htm

No pain no gain is true til about 35

After that, getting to the point of pain is the trick without exceeding that level. This in my opinion is where the damage threshold is complicated

At 50, injury recovery is brutal. What hurt or made me miserable for a week in my 20s is now many weeks of recovery.

Not sure what 60 or 70 has in store for me yet, I'll let you know.

I'm 65 and so far I haven't had any serious stuff to recover from. I did jam my left ACL about a year ago at work but it healed without surgery and I was able to do the pack trip with Snubbie in Oct.

Snubbie posted this pic of me with 2 of the llamas but he failed to mention that the trail is every bit as steep as it looks. Even with no load, it'll get you puffing. A couple weeks before the season, I took 2 partially loaded llamas up it on a scouting trip and they got a workout. We ended up camping below this stretch because it was so steep that I couldn't find a decent camping spot with both feed for the llamas and enough flat space for the tent.

OK

I really want to do this trip sometime! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Hey I'm game.
Snubbie, hope the shoulder is healing well! I knew I was having my knee replaced about a week after modern in WA this year.
Was really hoping not to hike too much or have to track and drag anything too far.
Day one, afternoon one I'm walking through a wheat field to a hay bale blind on the edge. Never got to the blind!
I saw doe ears just over the rise in front of me and backed off before spooking her. Cut down the draw to the edge of the field to see four deer moving onto the field in front of me. They had no idea I was there.
I hustled up the hill behind them, got low as I neared the top and this old buck was feeding his way up the other side. I went to ground on my fanny pack but was too low. Got into the sticks, ranged it at 286, turned my bdc dial to 290 and pulled the trigger on the Winchester 88 in .308. Never had a boom flop before but I was so grateful to see this guy go down with his hooves about 3 feet in the air before falling back to earth.
Best part was driving out into the field and throwing him in the Suburban by 4:00PM!
For an old deer the meat has really been good.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder. I have been thru the whole frozen shoulder joint thing. Its a real SOB. Stay after the PT as much as you can stand and hopefully you can head off the joint freeze up.

My 26 year old daughter and I backpacked in the Sawtooth Nat Forest.

Here are some photos she took with a little point and shoot Lumix waterproof camera.

Daybreak from the tent:



She took this photo while landing this little brookie just to try out the waterproofness of the camera.

Nice shot. Early morning shots often catch water at it's smoothest. This sun rise is one that I took a couple years ago at a high elevation lake.

Here are some pics from my fun (but unsuccessful) solo mule deer hunt in the Pecos Wilderness:

Spent the first night getting snow + rain + hail. I was packing light with just the rainfly and poles, but it did OK.


Hiking further up canyon into one of the creases


HOPE!






Final morning. Had seen a few deer on this ridgetop and set up for an sunrise opportunity. No deer that morning...