Buttkickin' Country


Guest BCBOY

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Just got my buttkicked on an early season muley/mountain goat hunt out in the Ts'yl-os area of British Columbia with my mom and dad. We had never been there before so it was really a scoutin' mission more than anything. The country is very BIG!!!

Our Huntin' Rigs

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Base Camp

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Track on the Beach at Base Camp

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Chilco Lake Views

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

Had planned to solo backpack it for 6 days into the highcountry by using an existing trail network. WRONG! None of the trailheads were where the maps showed them to be, they weren't marked in the field either, so with hours of bushwhackin' through some serious blowdown, I found remants of a trail. The trail hadn't been cutout for several years, so the up and down of climbing over and under blowdown with a 55lbs pack on my back was very slow going. I finally hit some semi-open country but not the early season alpine I was wanting. I got a good view of the drainage I was hiking up and all I could see was kms of heavy timber bushwhackin to get to where I wanted to go. Figured with the condition of the trail it would have taken me a couple of days to get to where I wanted to go. So I bailed on that idea and formulated Plan B, climb the mountain right above me. A day of climbing up a tight chute between 2 cliffs, with a fare amount of technical climbing, I broke out on top with some serious vertical cliffs keeping me from getting to the lush alpine. Plan B failed.

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View of Base Camp from on top. It is located where the creek flows into the lake.

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

There was limited deer sign at the top. It was really just rock, dirt and a few stunted pines. With several chasms between me and the country I wanted to get to, I decided to head back down the chute I had climbed up. It was a hairy decent but I made it back to the timber just as it was getting dark. I was still a couple of hours from Base Camp so I set up my fly and decided to hunker down from another night. Just as I got the fly up and was starting to relax I was suddenly attacked by a bunch of wasps. Don't know how many times I was stung as I ran to get away. Then had to run back in and get my fly and pack. Which led to being stung several more times.

I bailed on that location to spend the night and set up a little further away. Just as I got the fly up a second time, the sky opened up and it started to pour buckets. I huddled under the fly all night and stayed remarkably dry giving how hard it was coming down.

In the morning, I threw on the raingear and started working back to base camp. When I hit the lake, I encountered the biggest windstorm I've ever seen. The lake was just pounding with huge waves. Just as I arrived at Base Camp, mom and dad were taking down the Wall tent and moving it furthur into the timber to get out of the wind. We finally got the camp set back up and then we waited 2 days for the storm to settle down. Thank God for a warm wall tent.

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New Camp

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Our Swamped Boat

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

The wind in this country normally comes out of the South, but we had a North wind and she brought plenty of rain and huge waves. We were able to Come-Along the boat up on some logs on the beach and pull the plug to drain it.

I was very happy I had bailed out of the highcountry as it was pounded by heavy snow and fog. It would have made that hairy decent even more scarier.

2 days of pounding the wind finally died down. We took down camp and decided to take advantage of the calm water and headed back to the truck and camper.

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We spent a couple of days boating from the truck and camper, glassing for goats and fishing and such.

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A Nice Bull Trout dad caught

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A Nice Rainbow Trout dad caught

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Even got some shed hunting in.

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Friendly pine marten

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Young Grizz

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

Overall, the trip was great!!!! Even though I didn't see that monster 200 inch plus buck in the highcountry that I dreamed about, I still consider the trip a success. I still have 3 months to kill a whopper around home so I'm not concerned. I did see a ton of goats, probably 40-50. The one side of the lake was open general season goats and did see some billys a long ways up that would have been impossible to get at. I've got a Limited Entry goat tag for around home so I wasn't about to kill myself going after those billys. I got to do yet another trip with my mom and dad, and given dad's heart condition, that in itself is worth it. I had always wanted to see this part of BC and got to learn the country a bit for possible future trips. It is amazing country that is so vast that it really makes your jaw drop.

"Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory,

Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?

“Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,

Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?

Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders?

(You’ll never hear it in that family pew.)

The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things –

Then listen to the Wild – it’s calling you."

-Robert Service

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It was real cool to see the Sockeye spawing along this talus slope. The water was choked full of them.

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

twodogs,

I was scouting and hunting at the same time. I find this technique works great to get to know the country and helps me on future trips even years down the line. I always like to explore new country, and my research tells me Ts'yl-os holds some monster muleys. If the trails had of been in better shape, allowing me to get to the alpine I wanted to get to, I think I could have really pulled a whopper out of there. But, knowing what I do now, I'll probably come in from a different dirrection and avoid the use of a boat all together by hiking in on some horse trails from the next valley over. Some more scoutin' will be needed to see if this is doable.

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Guest MarylandQDMA

Re: Buttkickin\' Country

fantastic! where about are you in BC? the wife and I went to BC a few years ago to ski (wistler/blackcomb). I have allways wanted to go back. your photos are amasing, makes me wish I was there. what vast country.

Frank

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

Awesome pics and story as usual BCBOY!

I'll admit I'm a bit envious that you get to witness such remarkable wilderness. I'm certain you pay the price for venturing into such remote places, but, by the looks of it, it's well worth it. That sure is beautiful country! Thanks for sharing!

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Re: Buttkickin\' Country

mdqc01,

I live in the small town of Clearwater, which is an hour and half North of Kamloops. Ts'yl-os is located in the Cariboo/Chilcotin and is a good 7 hour+ drive from here.

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