Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Took the bioweapon to the vet today to get him weighed. I’d figured he’d have to be pretty close to about 60# or so. Nope….the ‘little’ furball weighed in at an even 70#. Thats at the tender age of seven months. I think a 90# dog may be in the works.
Took him for a stroll out into one of the recreation areas outside of town. In town, the law is that dogs must be leashed. This is, in my opinion, a sensible law although many people flout it regularly. However, I care about what happens to my dog so I do not allow him to run around off-leash in the city except under very tightly controlled circumstances. (For example, there is a fenced-in schoolyard near here that we sometimes use for exercising him and since it is fenced in we can take him off leash without worry.) The rec area is a no-leash area and many people take their dogs there. So, we packed up and took Nuke for a romp through the snowy hills. It got to an amazing 51 degrees today. Short sleeve weather! I packed my Kifaru bag with a few incidentals and therein is the meat of todays post.
Montana is a lovely place but the unfortunate truth is that you can go from sunny and summery to deadly cold and wet in less time than it takes to type about it. This state, in fact, holds the record for extreme temperature variation within its borders..187 degree spread between 117 and -70. Some places are hotter, some are colder, but none have as great a distance between the two as the Treasure State. So, even for a short sojourn of low-impact hiking within eyesight range of a fairly large population center it is still a good idea to pack a few things.
Since I only wanted to grab a few things, I took the Kifaru Scout pack that I got for my birthday last year. I originally got it as a small pack for hunting but it really seems to fit into the role of being used for short outdoor day trips…hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. Since I had only a few things to throw in it, I left the waistbelt at home. I threw in my down vest (which compresses nicely, a major plus), a pair of wool mitts, a hat, and an UnderArmor poly turtleneck just in case the weather turned. I wore a longsleeve shirt, my Filson vest, and a ranger cap for the initial hiking and as things warmed up I packed the vest and hat away. I also brought along a couple bottles of water, a sheath knife, and a .357.
What I should have brought with me, and I’m kicking myself for this because I know better, was a poncho. If theres one piece of kit that should always be tucked into your gear, its a poncho. Yes, for the love of Crom, pack firestarting and a solid-quality knife but a good poncho is right there on that list. Why did we need it this trip? Well, once we hiked a good bit it would have been nice to sit down and take in the view for a while. Problem was, theres a foot of snow everywhere. We managed to find a tree with a good bed of pine leaves underneath and hang out there for a while, enjoying the day, but if Id remembered to bring the poncho we could have spread it out, pretty much anywhere, and sat around and been dry.
Nonetheless, it was a nice little excursion. The missus took a bunch of pics and heres a good one of me and the BattlePup:
