Outdoor - The DIY Hunter

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 04 May 2013; Hits: 2900

My new favorite binoculars — Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars. These binos are nice.

I went back out again looking for some good exercise and hoping to find some shed antlers. I really enjoy mountain biking and combining mountain biking and hiking around looking for shed gives me a great workout.

This time out I hiked around a lot trying to find the location that the elk were at when they shed this year. Unfortunately I as unable to find any shed antlers.

On this trip out I was trying out a different pair of binoculars that I have never used before. I borrowed a pair of Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars. Can you say WOW! I didn't have any another binoculars with me to compare them with but boy were they nice, very well constructed and vibrantly clear glass. I would have to say that they are some of the best binoculars I have ever had the chance to glass with. Just amazing clarity and brightness. I have used Nikon EDG binoculars before and these Vortex Razor binoculars are very comparable.

I did compare them side by side with a pair of Nikon Monarch 10.5x45 binoculars of mine. Although not a apples to apples comparison as the Monarchs retail for half the price of the Razors however here are some observations. The Razors are much brighter, and colors appeared more vibrant. The Monarchs image quality is very clear but the Razors are a little better. In low light conditions the Razors exceeded the Monarchs and it should be noted that the Monarchs are toted for gathering light in low light conditions. Also the Razors are an ounce or so lighter in weight.

I liked the binoculars so well I got a little carried away taking pictures of them to remember them by, as it might be a little while before I own a set of them myself. They are a little out of my budget right now, but for the quality their price can't be beat. They sell for less than half the price of comparable pairs of Swarovski or Nikon EDG binoculars. For now they are on my optics upgrade list.

Testing some Vortex Razor HD binoculars while shed hunting with my new custom 36h MTX-33 29er wheels. The wheels performed awesome. The strongest wheels I have ever used and I love them.

Here's a close-up of the Vortex logo-type on the side of the Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars.

I was able to use a pair of Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars while shed hunting. The binoculars were plenty clear enough to pick out shed antlers if only there were any in the areas I was looking.

Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars.

My Alps Pathfinder pack with the binoculars.

Vortex Razor HD 10x42 binoculars next to my new Sun Ringle MTX-33 wheels.

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 27 April 2013; Hits: 4681

Testing some Vortex Razor HD binoculars while on my second trip out shed hunting with my new 36h MTX-33 29er wheels.

All mounatin, heavy duty 36h 29er wheelset. Sun Ringle MTX 33 36h rims, Shimano XT 36h hubs and WheelSmith double butted spokes... and six white spokes laced in for my own personal custom flair.

This is a welcome sight. I don't see as many moose around as I did in years past.

My first elk shed for the year. Unfortunately a whitey instead of a brown but still fun to find.

Clearance of about 3/16 of an inch between the front derailleur and the 29 x 2.25, Tioga Psycho Genius tires on my 2011 Trek Cobia 29er.

Back to the bike with a 5 point elk shed antler after hiking around a little looking for sheds.

In the middle of Dallen's rifle deer hunt I really messed up my knee. After two month's of crutches to get the crushed tibial plateau to heal I had lost a lot of strength in my left leg. I started doing as many exercises on my legs as I possibly could trying to get in shape enough for our cow elk permits. Unfortunately my knee was just messed up. I barely made it in for the two trips we made up on the mountain to fill Dallen's, Weston's and my cow elk tags.

After the last trip up the mountain I could hardly walk. My knee was so swollen and in a lot of pain. No amount of exercise was going to help — I knew I needed another surgery. Dr. Harrison went in and cleaned out a bunch of fragments of cartilage that was floating around and he trimmed /smoothed out some area and I believe even some of the bone needed smoothed out. When I got hit last fall it really messed up my knee. Luckily I had on my custom fitted DonJoy Defiance Knee Braces or who knows what could have happened. Whatever the case my knee is doing better now. This now make six surgeries that I have had on my knees.

Since I have such horrible knees I am no longer able to jog to stay in shape. I rely heavily on my mountain bike to keep me in shape. I have been riding a 2011 Trek Cobia 29er with a 23 inch frame for the past two years. It's a big bike, for a big guy (6' 7" - 260 lbs... yeah, I'm a heavy rider) and I love it. I have had some trouble with spokes breaking on this bike. Being such a large guy the straight 15 gauge spokes that these bikes come with easily snap at the J-Bend when I torque down on the peddles. I have solved that by replacing the straight 15 gauge spokes with WheelSmith double butted spokes with 14 gauge on the ends and 15 gauge in the middle. These spokes have done the trick. I'm not sure why Trek would sell such a large framed bike with the smaller gauge spokes. Large frames usually mean larger riders...

Even thought the double butted spokes are working for me on the 32h Bontrager rims I have never been real satisfied with the durability of just having 32 spokes on these large 29er wheels. For instance whenever I ride through a rock garden I can't help but feel an unnerving flex to the wheels. Since I ride a lot on the road to stay in shame I decided to build a really beefy set of wheels for the mountain and keep my Trek wheels for the road.

My all mountain wheels are built with Sun Ringle MTX 33 rims that have 36 holes, not the standard 32 or 28 holes that most mountain bikes have now days. This is also an extra beefy rim used for downhill bikes that are jumped a lot. I won't be jumping, but I do like and demand the extra strength. Again, for these wheels I went with double butted spokes and to add my own flair to them, I laced in 6 white spokes giving the wheels the appearance of three white lines. For hubs I went with Shimano XT 36h hubs. These hubs are pretty nice but I prefer Sun Ringle hubs and Sun Ringle doesn't offer a standard j-bend quick release 36h hub so Shimano it is.

Finding 36h 29er rims, and 36h hubs are not the easiest. There are only just a couple of options. Almost everything out there is 32h and 28h variety. I understand the craze for going lightweight but I'm not racing and I weigh in at 260 lbs right now. I want wheels that are going to stay true longer, not flex in the rocks and not snap spokes.

For tires I decided to go with 29 x 2.25, Tioga Psycho Genius tires. Going with a 2.25 is about as wide as I felt comfortable with getting enough clearance with the front derailleur.

My first trip up the mountain looking for shed antlers with the the wheels and tires was awesome. I really like them. The Psycho Genius tires provide excellent traction and stopping power. No wheels flexing on the rocks and the tires grabbed the ground well. I was surprised how they would grab the sides of truck tire ruts and pull me out of the ruts or keep me from sliding into them.

I've had these wheels out many times since and had just loved them. They are still as true as when I first built them and no fear of getting broken spokes. :)

Details: Written by The DIY Hunter; Category: Outdoor; Published: 26 July 2012; Hits: 3795

Dallen paused to notice the 5 more miles to go sign while we were hiking into the Stough Creek Basin.

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to backpack into the Stough Creek basin of the Wind Rivers that is in the Popo Agie Wilderness of the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. The trailhead is at Worthen Meadows Reservoir that is at 20 miles west of Lander Wyoming.

It has been probably 20 years since I last stepped foot into the Wind Rivers and I was excited with the opportunity to go with Dallen my oldest son and other young men his age on their scouting High Adventure trip for this summer.

It didn't take long to study the map that I knew fishing could be really good in this basin. There are many, many lakes in the basin all within roughly 2 miles from one end to the other. Dallen and I made plans and equipped ourselves with plenty of lures and fishing equipment for the trip. Also in preparation for the trip, we needed to upgrade some of our gear from the camo hunting packs and bivy shelters. We picked up a couple of nice backpacks and a tent from Alps Mountaineering for the adventure.

Dallen stopped to look at a stream coming out of the Stough Creek Basin.

The drive from Morgan, Utah took a good four plus hours. With stops for food, gas, and fishing licensees our group made it into the Worthen Meadows Reservoir campground just before dusk. We camped there for the night and early the next morning set out up the trail leading to the Stough Creek Basin.

Dallen and I took our time hiking in taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. The trail steadily climbs up many, many switchbacks until you reach the pass looking across at Wind River Peak (13,192 ft.), Lizard Head and other awesome looking peaks of the Southern portion of the Wind Rivers. The pass is at an elevation of 10,600 feet giving a healthy 1,700 feet of vertical climbing from the trail head.

After crossing the peak you drop roughly 400 feet before climbing pack up to around 10,400 where we camped at the first Stough Creek Basin Lake. I believe our total hiking distance to where we camped was right at 7 miles.

Here is a view of one of the Stough Creek Basin Lakes with the Alps Red Tail day pack.

We caught a lot of Brook Trout in this lake.

For two solid days Dallen and I explored the many lakes in the basin looking for fish. We didn't make it to all of the lakes. This basin is just loaded with lakes all within roughly a two mile radius. Most of the lakes we hiked to where loaded with Brook trout and some of the lakes also had a few Cutthroat trout. Each lake was a little different. Some lake's average fish size was around eight inches, others around 10 inches while a couple lakes had some really nice Cutthroat trout in them. The largest I caught I would guess was 15 inches long.

The lures that worked best where Jake's and Super Dupers in various colors. Dallen really liked a black Jake's with yellow dots however he only had one and lost that lure fairly quick. I was able to catch a few fish with silver and gold Panther Martin spinners but the silver and gold Jake's and Super Dupers worked better. I also had a lot of luck getting strikes with black marabou jigs. It was just hard to hook them as the fish would not hold the lure in their mouths very long.

The best lure that we found to catch fish was with a fly. I caught a few with a fly rod and we both both caught a bunch with a fly a couple feet behind an A-Just-A Bubble water bubble on our spinning rods.

Sunset showing the Alps Chaos 3 tent while backpacking in the Stough Creek Basin of the Wind Rivers.

The boys had themselves a friendly competition on the number of fish that they could catch. Dallen, never one to pass up a challenge, finished the trip with an even 100 fish to win the bragging rights. He really started pulling away from the competition when he decided to fish with what his old man was catching fish with — a bubble and a fly. Upon return my avid backpacking neighbor recommended using two flies behind the bubble. Hmmm... I'm going to have to try that next time out.

For the trip we decided to upgrade some of our backpacking gear. We decided to go with an Alps Mountaineering Zion External frame backpack and an Alps Mountaineering Red Tail internal frame backpack. We also switched using packs for our return trip back to the trail head so we could each get a feel for the two different packs. I took the Zion Pack on the way in and the Red Tail pack on the way out and vice versa for Dallen. Both packs where great, however push come to shove both Dallen and I would be fighting for the internal frame Red Tail pack on our next backpacking trip.

A beautiful dark colored Brook trout Dallen caught on a fly in a stream between lakes in the Stough Creek Basin.

I had filled Dallen's head full of stories of catching Golden Trout in the Wind Rivers in my youth near the Valentine Lakes. He thought he had one when he caught this beautiful golden colored Cutthroat Trout.

I have always been a external frame pack user and I have to admit this Red Tail internal frame won me over for backpacking with a internal frame, they are very comfortable. The pack is wonderfully comfortable and I had no trouble with it working with my large 6' 7" height and my long torso length. Some of the coolest features of the Red Tail pack was the removable external pouches on the pack that convert into a small day pack and a large fanny pack. These smaller removable packs worked great for our day excursions to go out and fish the many lakes and streams in the Stough Creek basin.

Another piece of equipment that made our life more comfortable on the trip was our Alps Mountaineering Chaos 3 tent. It rained on us a couple of times during the nights and I was amazed and how breathable the tent was. I fully expected when I woke in the morning to have oodles of built up condensation on the top and sides of the tent. Come morning I found no condensation. I also didn't have a wet toe area of my sleeping bag from rubbing against the side of the tent like I normally would with a lot of moisture in the air. I like the dual doors and dual vestibules to place our gear safely out of the rain. Not only is it a cool looking tent it also was light and very functional for us.

We took two ThermaCELL mosquito repellant devices. I love these things. Although many of the boys received a many mosquito bites trying to keep up with deet, I don't think I received a single bite for the trip. I did have a ThermaCELL with me and running most of the time. Unfortunately one of the ThermaCELLs would not run at this high altitude but it works fine back at 5,000 ft area where I live. This is the only complaint that I have with ThermaCELLs, I wished they worked better at higher altitudes and I have thrown away probably around four of them that would not work at even 5,000 ft in elevation.

One thing that was somewhat of a disappointment was that we saw several other groups of people in the basin. From stories of the area we heard from others, we thought that we might have the basin to ourselves. It wasn't a problem as there was plenty of room and lakes to choose from to fish at. It just wasn't as "secret" as we thought it might be.

Dallen and I had a great trip. Lots of great fishing, beautiful scenery and great exercise. We were also able to get some much needed exercise to help us prepare for my Utah Limited Entry Wasatch Archery Elk tag that I have coming up next month.

Dallen sitting in the sitting on a rock looking out at Wind River peak as we reach the 10,600 foot mark in elevation and start dropping off into the Stough Creek Basin on the other side.

Here is a panorama showing a fair amount of the Stough Creek Basin and some of the many lakes that are found in this basin.

This is the lake that we camped at in the Stough Creek Basin. If you look real close you can see a blue tent in the cliffs above the lake. This is Patterson's tent, one of the other leaders in our group of young men going in on this trip. Our Chaos 3 tent is out of view to the right of this blue tent.