Well, my stats took a big jump today. Over 240 page views.

I'm sure over 200 of those were the wife, who has been down with a cold all weekend and today, and spent this afternoon and evening getting caught up.

Hi Honey!

In other news, the heeler sisters and I spent the entire day in the Seminoes looking for elk hunters (the late cow season opened today).

Found one.

Twice.

He didn't find anyone else, either. Think it was just our two trucks on the entire mountain.

So the sisters and I had a nice day exploring. Driving roads I hadn't been on for a couple years. And remembering why I don't drive them anymore. The truck spent a lot of time in low range. Quite a workout for the transmission and transfer case.

Did some road work. One of the nice things about being on land managed by your own outfit is that you don't have to go get someone else to fix something.

You can just do it.

Dug out a drainage ditch for the Markingpen road where it goes through the aspens. The place where beaver dammed the creek and flooded the entire road a few years back. Had to drive through two feet of water to find a place to park so I could go back and remove their dam.

Now it still occassionally plugs up, from mud squished out by vehicle tires, and fills with water again. Twenty minutes of shovel work fixes it.

Our early snow in September wreaked major havoc on the cottonwoods on Morgan Creek, covering the ground with broken branches and limbs. We're talking major limbs here, third of a tree or so, from almost all the trees.

Other folks had cleared out most of the debris, but were dodging around one main tree. Unfortunately, the bank was wearing down where we were all dodging, and I had visions of me and my rig being sideways in the creek down the slope.

So I sawed several branches off and fixed that little problem.

Water was running down the gravel road along the Mile, for almost a 100 meters. Everyone else was just driving through it, making mud and ruts.

The road had recently been graded, and the plow had filled the lower end of the culvert with gravel. Two minutes of shovel work, and another problem solved. Think I should send them a bill.

There is a place along the two track on the north face of the Seminoes where the road cross below a spring seep. The two tracks have been filling with water for several years, and are now a pair of mud holes for about 30 meters. And folks are driving around on the downhill side.

Creating another pair of long mudholes.

Dug a short trench to drain both sets.

One road took my past my jade boulder, so I stopped to give it a rub.

Little maskless heeler filled their half of the cab with pine boughs that she ripped off out the window. Nearly broke her neck when she grabbed one 2" branch and it jerked her from the front of the window to the back as we drove past.

She also scared the bejeebers out of me later when we stopped at the end of one deadend road. We got out to glass the canyons, and I got a better view by climbing up onto a ledge that went around to hang out over one cliff. Told the heelers to stay behind, but as soon as I was out of sight the masked heeler scrambled up onto the ledge to follow.

When done glassing, I went back to find her sister. But instead of following, she had circled behind and above us and then came bounding straight down a 15' face onto our ledge. With a lot more dropoff below if she didn't hit the ledge just right.

Played several games of hide and seek. I won twice!

First time, I climbed about six feet up into a limber pine. They circled twice before returning to the truck to regain my scent trail. And still didn't find me. Finally the maskless heeler just stood staring at the trunk of the tree.

"I know he went this way."

And finally looked up.

I win.

My second win was by the spoils piles for some old gold mines. As they made their dash down the road to give me time to hide, I circled behind and then over one pile.

By the time they circled back, got on my trail, and headed for the pile, I was back hiding behind the truck.

The last place they would look.

And we had a brief play on a major (50m long, 5m wide, 2m deep) snowbank.

Heelers love snow.

Another elk area opens tomorrow (actually today already), but it's in the desert.

Elk that have never seen a tree in their life.

Should be a little busier, but no running creeks, no pine boughs or aspen groves, and no gold mines.

Better get to sleep.