Some fresh pictures for youse guys.

Yukon Mike

Well-known member
I was a travellin' man over the break there as we all flew down to Calgary for a few days before Christmas to see my stinky little sister, then drove to Edmonton for a wedding, then drove out to Jasper for a few days of skiing and Christmas Day, then drove back to Edmonton to fly here, then drove out to Jane's cabin for a few days including New Year's Eve, then flew down to Vancouver for a visit and a Dr's appt. I got back late last night and wanted to share a few pictures. This is how dry it was in Calgary. We saw quite a few mallards and geese on the Bow.

DSCF7589.jpg

Lots of snow over in Jasper a few days later. My kids are quite the little powder hounds apparently. Mac took me down a black diamond run that managed to knock one of my skis off, but he just flew down it on his little snowboard. Meg was way more cautious and stuck to the greens mostly.
DSCF7771.jpg

The coolest thing was walking into the Maligne River canyon. We'd have been under 20 feet of water had that been summer time. I know it doesn't look like it, but we were headed upstream at that point.


DSCF7796.jpg



Lots of frozen waterfalls.

DSCF7813.jpg


DSCF7818.jpg
 
DSCF7820.jpg

Lots of tasty beasties wandering around that park.

DSCF7842.jpg


DSCF7861.jpg


DSCF7870.jpg

When we got back here we had even more snow to play in. This was to be a fishing day, but we hit 8" of water on top of the ice under two feet of snow about 100 feet out on the lake. Me and Mac made it across but Jane got bogged down. When we tried to get back to shore Mac got piled in. I learned a lot that day. I've been stuck in overflow before, but never that bad. I figure it took us about 3 hrs to get out, so we all went back to the cabin and had a nap.

DSCF7890.jpg
 


I had put a box of moose sausage in the shed the day we got there and the next morning something had snuck 2 or 3 bags. I was thinking red squirrels, but we never see any tracks around the area. The next morning I was washing some dishes when I saw this little guy sneaking out of the shed. No wonder no squirrels!

DSCF7912.jpg


The kids all piled outside to catch the marten and I had to snap a picture of the girls.


DSCF7918.jpg

New Year's Day I flew down to Vancouver to visit Ian and go see the doctor. I had a whole day to kill so we went sight seeing. I got a good shot of this pteradon.


DSCF7921.jpg

Not like the world needs anymore pictures of park ducks but I couldn't resist. How can homeless people be hungry when there is so much easy food around?!


DSCF7929.jpg

DSCF7931.jpg
 
Saw some really nice pintails and tons of widgies. Even saw some with funny paintjobs. Where's the gun!?


DSCF7998.jpg

So today I had to go back to work for a rest.

I've been having some back and sciatic issues the last few years and the Doc says I have an "L5 Isthmic Grade II Spondylothesis requiring an instrumented fusion with a posterior lumbar interbody fusion". Anyone ever had that? Sounds kinda scary to me. Seriously, if anyone has had that, I want to talk to you about the surgery.


Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
Mike


DSCF8025.jpg
 
damn dangerous if you ever got a digital camera! Great photo's as usual Mike. Looks like all of you had a great Holiday break from school. So, it was a pine marten that was the culprit in the case of the missing sausages huh?

They are crafty critters and pretty easy to trap if you put a little work into making a cubby set for them.

An old trapper I met 20 years ago had spent the spring and summer of 1920 building 3 trapperes cabins around the perimiter of Waldo Lake here in the Oregon Cascades.

In the Fall of 1920 he got himself a partner that said he'd like to trap Pine Marten with him that winter. The cabins were built a days hike apart and each day they would check their cubby sets as they hiked along on snowshoes. Each late afternoon would find them at one of the cabins hwere they would build a fire, cook their supper and spend the evening skinning out the days catch. My friends partner lasted about a month before he quit and hiked out to the nearest road to get a ride back down to Bend, Oregon.

After the guy's booze ran out and he got the shakes so bad, he had to give up the trapping for more booze. My friends sage advice to me was to always choose your trapping partners carefully!

My old friend trapped marten from his cabins for several years and always made enough from his winter marten trapping to carry him over to the next fall. He never did look for another partner and faced the snowy winters by himself until he got married and his wife started trapping with him. They just about don't make women like that anymore......except for our Dani!

Thanks for the great photo's Mike, I always look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Dave
 
Mike, I forgot to mention your back problem. I think it's the same thing they wanted to do to me years ago. basically what they do is fuse two (or more depending on the condition) of your vertebras together. The pain is caused by the lack of disc/fluid or disc between the vertebras.

They wanted to fuse FOUR of my lower back vertebras together to stop the pain, but that would also have limited my bending over by a large margin, so I did not have it done and just suffered with teh pain all these years. It is now so bad that I have to get into a hot shower every morning if I want to do anything outdoors.

I suggest you do SOMETHING about it now so you won't have to suffer more pain later. Just loading that bear up out of the canyon in November has still got me hurting. Those deer and bear have a way of getting back at ya, haha.

Take care of your back, you only have ONE of them.

Dave
 
awesome as usualy,i hope you dont have to remind the kids how very very lucky they are to be were they are.
take care
shermie
 
Great pics Mike. Those are some great shots of prime plumage green heads.

Bummer about your back. Did the doc's say how long the recovery period would be for a surgery like that?

Good luck to ya.

Hunt Safe.
Ryan
 
Mike:
Great pictures--what a contrast in weather in your area. Mike, as a physical therapist of over 30 years I've seen it all concerning backs and different types of surgeries and treatments. I've had back surgery myself and still have trouble with residual from the surgery. There is no complete answer so please check out all possiblities before you under go the scope or knife. Did you ever get your Mexican info you asked for?
Jim Bosanny (wis boz)
 
Mike great pics! Sounds like you had quite a bit of travelin there, time for a long rest. So thats what snow looks like almost forgot with the balmy temps we have been having in Illinois. Hope the back isnt causing too much discomfort and if you decide on the operation lets hope its the last. Thanks for sharing the great pics!
 
That pic of the girls swat & release marten trapping is pretty darned humorous.

I think southern AB recently got some snow but it's been amazing (and scary) how there's been a hole in the snow coverage in that area over the past few years. Pretty weird (and scary) that lately you don't see a mass exodus of geese and mallards from the grain fields until December.

We're gonna drive up to Calgary in March to catch an Eric Clapton concert at the Saddledome. Hope to get out and get some pics of those rams who think they own the road as well.
 
Last edited:
I thought you were gonna be ona sunny beach for holiday. I like these pics just as much. I would get a second and third opinion on your back before I let anyone mess with the spine with a knife. My back is shot after years of wrestling, football and being a lumberyard slug..I just put up with the pain which sometimes knocks me to the floor...I figger when I get old and can't get around..that I'll let them do something to it.
 
Thanks Mike, Thanks Dave, and Lee, I'm still going to Mexico in Feb. I'll try to get some good wild life photos down there for sure!

MIke
 
Mike, you sure those are park elk? I had thought that they had them all collared with reflective stuff so that you didn't hit them when they were on the highway? Maybe only in Banff? When I saw one on the road in 1987 I thought it was a UFO until I got closer and saw the horns - nice big bull. Yeah, I was really tired after starting the day in Nevada, so when the glowing yellow thing appeared in the middle of the road at 2am I was a little concerned. I came to a stop on the highway and watched the bull stand there in the road for a minute or two before he moved on.

If you can believe the internet trappers that martin is worth $80 US right now, better get it.

Park duck story: In the late 1970's or early 1980's a man was living in his car in Reno, NV. Reno has a nice park near the Truckee River, Idilwild (sp). It has lots of aggressive park ducks and geese. Well, this living in his car guy is hungry. He cuts a trap door into the passenger side of his car and uses bread scraps to "hansel and gretel" a trail up to his car and then under it where he would grab them by the head. He wasn't doing it for long before a citizen turned him in to the cops. He was busted for all the wildlife laws he broke so it was pretty harsh reaction for "living off the land."
 
Nice pics as usual Mike.

I've had back problems myself for almost 30 years now. I was butchering a deer and when I went to cut the hind quarter off I had to catch it with one hand before it hit the ground - bad move on my part. I tried chiropractors with no help and basically suffered until recently. I have been going to a massage therapist for the past three years and between her loosening me up and some new stretching excersizes my back rarely causes me problems anymore. My next step is to start yoga classes to try and stay limber. From what I have been able to gather the reason so many people have back problems is due to muscle tightness that gets worse and worse as the years pass. Personally, I'd try just about anything before having someone cut into me again.

Good Luck,

Pete
 
Mike,

On the back issues, Dave, Lee, Wis Boz and Pete gave you some good advice. I see patients before their back surgeries and then I have to follow up with them after.....I say that overall it seems to be a 50/50 at best. Here is part of the issue. Think about this for a few minutes. When you bend over, the entire spine flexes, allowing you the full motion. Now, when you fuse/rod or otherwise "FIX" the back into a permanent static relationship with other vertebrate or discs, you create a "hard spot" in the spine that does not flex. But think about it for a minute, where does the stress from that one spot transfer to.....above and below the fixation. Thus, further stress and very often rupture of discs above and below occur over time. 2 and 3rd opinions are good....

Physical therapy to strengthen your back and the stretching Pete mentions are overall the best until you can not take it. NOW, the one caveate is, there is no nerve impingement or damage occurring. ONLY a neurosurgeon should give you that answer after a through evaluation. For the most part, what you have mentioned is boney issues and not significant nerve issues. For my money/back, I would delay, but that is me and I have NOT evaluated you nor is neurospine my specialty.

Pics are awesome, thanks for sharing.

Eric
 
Back
Top