Events/Trails 6BT FJ80, Calgary to Northern AB trip (1 Viewer)

[cody c]

I'm doing a week long hunting trip to Northern Alberta, leaving the office shortly, driving near edmonton AB for the night and then the rest tomorrow. I'm planning on posting some pics of the trip, the road and the country, and not turn this into too much of a hunting thread...


Sidetrack, I got an email (via inReach) about an hour ago from my parents, who with my younger brother and a buddy are on the peace river in a boat. All I got was "Help" and long/lattitude. What a way to start a trip, they are a good 9+ hours from me...

Followed by another inReach email "stuck" and then another "Mal is coming"

If I don't hear anything via cell in an hour I'm contacting Fairview RCMP or the fish cops for a retrieval. Dad has a decent aluminum river boat with jet prop, but his back is pooched, my younger brothers isn't much better.

As I'm typing this I recieve another email... "almost out"

What a way to start a trip, that hasn't started..

I'll try and keep lots of cruiser pics in the thread to keep it on topic.

 

[cody c]

The first part of my trip, 24 speed and 12 km's home. Nice enough day though...

 

[cody c]

Loaded and on the way.

The parents got
A hold of me finally, they made it off the sandbar after a couple hours.

 

[Dork]

Hope you packed your warm clothes. We had snow here two weeks ago that's just barely melted. Enjoy!

 

[cody c]

I did pack some warm clothes. Been doing this trip for around 7 years and have seen both warm and cold weather.

Some pics of the drive to Devon. Stopped in gasoline alley (red deer) to get some A&W in me

 

[cody c]

Rolled out of bed (crashed at my brothers place near Edmonton) at about 5:50 got dressed and on the road by 6:00. It's dark early in the morning here, being in the north. The nice part about hunting later in the year, when the days are short you can sleep in a bit more before getting out before sun up, and out earlier for hunting till last light of the day.

The downside is that the weather is cooler. I hope my new Teton Mammoth sleeping bag is warm.

Tech: auxiliary fuel switch out of a junkyard ford. The fuel valve is also from an 80's ford truck.

I had a tray for an Acer Asus laptop for navigation but now I use an iPad so it keeps binoculars and sunglasses in place now

 

[cody c]

Fox creek, a one horse town and the weather is looking better for hunting then camping, a bit of snow falling now. It seems like there is mostly pickups and semi's on the road, one out of three looks like oil service workers, and another third is either hunters or surveyors by the quads and campers.

I think I'm gonna do a detour to a campsite location I always wanted to check out. Pipestone creek near Grande Prarie.

 

[cody c]

Made it back in one piece. Had a couple issues with the cruiser. Fuel/operator related. I'm gonna upload some pictures now and edit in some details later. I'm uploading while I take my kids through the Calgary science centre and the iPhone is a bit obtuse so forgive the content

 

[cody c]

Above pics in the drive, stopped at pipestone creek park near Grande Prarie, some sort of coal along the riverbed (pictures above)

Below, grouse for dinner, the little cabin we ended up staying in, and elk burgers brought by my parents (below)

 

[cody c]

Me and a buddy (James) heading out for a hunt.

I'm better at spotting game, my brother is exceptional at shooting them at distance. This mule deer (iPhone through binoculars) I spotted but didn't have a tag for, I called my bro and he came and smacked it.

 

[cody c]

Hiking/hunting, a pic of grouse in the trees and some river hunting.

I had an issue with fuel. It died in the bush. My fuel gauge stopped working a while back and I haven't been able to get it working. I did get the auxiliary tank and switch working though and check the trip odometer for how full the tank was. Turns out the fuel switch wasn't bolted down solidly enough and it was only running in one tank. Had to trouble shoot it and it seemed like a fuel issue.

 

[cody c]

Pictures

 

[cody c]

More

 

[cody c]

More also I brought home a 20 ton jack that was an uncles that passed away and mounted a burrito box on the exhaust.

Tech note: put insulating wrap on your exhaust manifolds!!

When you need to bleed fuel injectors you won't burn your wrists and knuckles when you lean on them.

 

[cody c]

Some more.

My family built an outhouse to replace the old nasty one while we were there, Kelly brought his Sako M10 / Cadex Lapua and we did some shooting at the 500yard range where we stayed

 

[cody c]

Retrieving a little moose with a winch, and pulling his antlers where they can't drag by putting your cable over the front bar is sooooo much nicer then the other way, had to back up a narrow ridge as I couldn't turn around

 

[cody c]

The moose in that picture had scars from being chewed up, probably by a grizzly. The bone was intact but easily twice the thickness of the other leg. I figure something chewed it up and it healed big, we should have kept it and had some leather made. Bumped into a Comanche on the way home...

 

[cody c]

It had a 2.8 cummins swapped in and some sort of monstaliner paint, it was a cool unit