The road less traveled 5

After my ordinary hunting area became overrun with people a couple of years ago I was forced to look elsewhere. In the process of fumbling around scoping out an off-the-beaten-path area that didn't get heavily pressured my hunting partner and I stumbled upon an extensive area of roads with locked gates. "Why didn't I think of this sooner" was the first thought that went thru my head. With one more tag to fill we hiked in behind a gate one evening and while we didn't get anything there were plenty of mule deer around to keep things interesting. It was obvious that outside of some light foot traffic and perhaps some horses the area didn't get much pressure. We vowed to come back a little better prepared next time.

Two years later I finally have the mountain bike all rigged up and ready to go, at least I hope it's ready. After shopping around REI yesterday in search of the perfect saddle bags I decided everything they had was far too fancy-schmancy to be used on a hunting bike. Even though the nice lady at REI's bike shop was mildly horrified that I would use my bike, complete with fancy-schmancy saddle bags, to pack out a "harvested" animal she sent me to Home Depot where she had just seen some metal baskets that would do the trick. Shor'nuf, I found the baskets and some hose clamps to connect them to the rear rack on the mountain bike. I figure a hind quarter will fit in each side and if I have to make two trips so be it, easy as pie and a helluva lot slicker than carrying it out on foot, which I have done 14 times now. 

Next I bought a CleanH2O water bottle complete with a built in filter system for an emergency in case my two big jugs run out, a headlight, and a product called "Slime" that nearly reduces flats caused by thorns and small rocks. I wasn't so sure about this stuff, but the guys at Old Town Cycle in Gig Harbor raved about the product and installed it within my tires today.

I really didn't want to paint the bike camo, so instead I purchased some No-Mar camo tape made by Hunter's Specialties at Sportco and applied that to the bike to break up the pattern and cover up the bright-and-shineys as much as possible. It took two rolls totalling about 20' of tape to cover everything up. The nice thing about the No-Mar tape is that it can be easily removed.

The bike with it's chrome decals and yellow forks prior to getting the No-Mar tape.    

The side racks installed with hose clamps to the rear rack of the bike.

The finished product with as much of the shiney's covered as possible.

I made sure to cover up the reflectors. With only an 8 day season this year I'm not taking any chances.

I've been on the treadmill three to four days a week since returning from Alaska and plan on doing enough riding the rest of this week to at least take the edge off. Next week is all about putting myself in the best possible position to harvest an animal and one things for sure, I'm not afraid to work for it!