Well, first of all, it was bloody hot up there. Even at high elevation (6000’~) it was still too dang hot. The sun was just relentless. Good news was that there were no mosquitoes to worry about, bad news was the flies were terrible annoying. This was as good an opportunity as any to tryout the Summer Combat Hoodie that I picked up a few months back. The idea behind it is that, being made of mesh, it can be worn it hot conditions without making you feel warmer. It offers camouflage as well as keeping bugs off you. I’d been meaning to try it out and…worked pretty well. There was a very slight perception of a bit of heat retention but it was way, way offset by keeping the bugs and sun off my skin, Recommend.

So, I had picked up a 125-gallon water tank last week and hauled it up there to situate it for further use. How to fill it? Well, if I pull the truck up alongside the creek is about 15-20′ below the suface of the road, and the slope from the truck to the creek is about 50′ of linear distance. My plan was to use the Milwaukee transfer pump but I wasn’t sure it would move water that far and that high. One way to find out, right?

Worked fine. I need to make a separate post singing the praises of this thing.
Having secured water for the projects I had in mind for this visit, it was time to move on to other things. I had brought up a small barrel of freeze drieds to stow in one of the underground..hmm..what to call them….caches?Bunkers? Hides?…that I had put in a few weeks back. Although they are not deep, standing in one would only come up to your shoulders, I still needed a small ladder to make things easier to get in and out. Problem is, the opening is a 24″ circle. A normal width ladder would not leave you with enough room to mount it and climb down. I had toyed with the idea of taking some 2×4 and making a very narrow short ladder but my brain worked the problem and gave me a solution before I had a chance to hit Home Depot for some lumber.

I need something short, narrow, lightweight, and ladder-like. Hmmm. Hey, what about one of the ramps I use to load my snowblower into the truck?

Yup, that’ll work.

You know what I discovered? When its 100-freaking-degrees outside, five feet into the earth is blissfully chilly. I mean it was cold in there!

Yeah, I need to clean it up a little. Thats waste paper from the backing for the tar strips used to connect the riser to the tank. Next trip Im bringing the shopvac and some other cleaning gear.

Situated the first of many barrels, and closed things back up.

Also brought along a few cans of spraypaint to change the color of that lid from day-glo green to olive drab green. Next trip will involve some burlap and other camouflage. However, things seem to be working in terms of providing a hidden storage space.

Also marked off an area where Im going to have the conex people drop a 20′ container. I may need to see if I can impose on my buddy to go up there with the miniex and flatten it out a bit. I should have done it a few weeks ago but I wasnt 100% sure on the conex thing. Thats gonna bite me because I’ll need to rent the stupid thing again.

Also got to try out the camp shower under real world conditions. Lemme tell ya, it is a weird thing to be standing in the middle of nowhere, jaybird naked for the whole world to see. Intellectually I know theres no one around but for a few minutes I was a bit self-conscious. After that it was like “Screw ’em, let ’em see who the real heavy hitter is around here” if you know what I mean. Shower worked as advertised. At the end of the day it was great to be clean, climb into fresh briefs and socks, and climb into the sleeping bag.

Slept well enough until 530a when the coyotes/wolves started howling. I have no idea which form of canid it was but I can tell you there were at least six or nine of them and they sound nothing like what the movies make them sound like. How far? Far enough I really wasnt concerned. But, it was an experience Id never had before, so theres that.

After waking up, I put all my gear away, checked the cameras, did another walk through to make sure everything was secure, and left. On the way out, I ran into (almost) some locals:

All of Montana is open range country, which means is you don’t want someones cattle walking through your piece, its up to you to keep them out. My philosophy is that I’m not going to discourage ribeyes from being in my neighborhood. Might come in handy someday.

Every trip to the Beta Site is a lesson for me. Lessons this trip?

• I need a lanyard for my 10mm to keep it handy in the tent
• Bring better drink mix. Electrolyte mix, though necessary, gets old. Bring iced tea mix.
• I need a smaller cooler for these one-man overnight trips
• Bring shower sandals, a towel, and a travel soap container.
• Bug spray and suncscreen, dang it.
• Bring some basic tools (screwdrivers, pliers, vide grips, etc.) to leave up there

All in all, a good trip. No major failures, truck survived the trip, I survived the trip, got some things done. On a sad note, I’ve noticed that my treasured Arsenal AK is starting to show some wear from these repeated trips….finish wearing off the high points, scratches, etc. But, thats the price for keeping my place on the food chain.

It’s tough doing a blog post strictly from your phone, but here we are.

Did pretty much everything I had a mind to do. Will have a detailed write up when I get back to the house tomorrow. For now, watching the sun set and wondering where all the bears are.

So whats the plan for the weekend? Well, I’m planning on two things. First, I need to select a spot for the 20′ conex and convey that info to the conex people. Second, I need to experiment with the Milwaukee transfer pump and seeing if its got enough oomph to move a column of water up a hose from the creekbed to the 125-gallon tank I just purchased for the back of the truck.

Little side quests for this trip include bringing up a couple 15-gallon blue barrels full of Mountain House pouches to stash in the underground tanks, change camera batteries, move some dead logs around using a hand winch that I’ll have another post about in a day or so, and a few other tasks. Oh, and try out the shower in ‘real world’ circumstances.

Getting the conex situated would be a big step towards ‘improvement’, it gives me a more secure (keyword there, guys…’more secure’…as in, ‘more secure than whats there now’) storage option. If nothing else, it’ll make the place look neater to have everything in one place.

We had a pretty heavy storm blow through here last night, so I’ll definitely be bringing the saws and rope/tackle gear in case the roads need some work. S’posed to be a hundred degrees this weekend, so should make for an interesting trip.

And, of related interest, here’s the report on a hiker who was killed by a grizzly two months ago in Glacier. Apparently this guy did a few things that were of bad judgement…being out in the evening when bears are more active, hiking alone, etc. They found a completely discharged can of bear spray near his mangled corpse. Bear spray is fine stuff, but if it fails, for whatever reason, you’re probably out of time to go to Plan B. I always carry something when I’m…well…anywhere. But up at the Beta Site its 10mm/.44Mag. and/or Arsenal AK w/ steel core. I have no intention of my life ending like the last 45 seconds of “Legends of The Fall”.

ETA: Animal Advocates Ask Montana to Force Hunters and Trappers to Carry Bear Spray