Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
- Messages
- 699
One summer, then the next summer about 45 years ago, I visited some friends in British Columbia, Canada. They were all very active outdoors men and women. We hiked glaciers, mountains, kayaked rivers.
One place there was this weird, spooky, landscape,eroded down to these fins and narrow ridges. They were officially called the “Hoodoos”.
Years later I was living in a remote area of California. Hard to call any place there truly remote with 39,000,000 people.
There were a whole series of very dry eroded big sandy canyons. They reminded me of those eroded areas in British Columbia so I called those eroded canyons, “The Hoodoos” and the name stuck with locals.
It was one of my regular areas to hunt and get a few mountain quail. There were lots of Pinyon Pine trees and the pinyon pine nuts were a favored food of Mountain Quail. Pinyon pine nuts are so sweet. Not at all pitchy like the ones bought in stores. These birds were so sweet too.
In a sporting goods store in the nearest big city, they had lots of game animals mounted. The mountain quail they had mounted there seemed simply enormous compared to the ones I was taking.
I asked about that and the old timers said that they were simply too over-hunted to get big, just like fish in a stream or deer. The old store owner said that not only were they much bigger back then but there were so many more of them
These Hoodoos were all on National Forest land and looked like a sandy wasteland. They became a favorite area for off road vehicles. Without stressing or stretching you imagination too much you can image what the entire area looked like. In the distance it was beautiful, up close it was one trashy campsite after another, Any steep slope was cut up where off road vehicles tried to drive as high as possible. Of course extreme erosion followed.
There was a push by the Sierra Club to get it officially designated as wilderness, solely to keep out the off roaders. That wilderness designation was the only tool they had to keep them out.
Eventually the environmentalists prevailed and it was mostly designated as wilderness
The trash was cleaned up, vehicle caused erosion was mitigated and after the word got out that heavy fines were being levied for off road vehicle violations, “ The Hoodoos” were left in peace.
I was upset about not being able to use my Toyota Land Cruiser there myself,,,and I felt that designating such a place as wilderness was a waste, a trick,,,what good would it do, the place had been so beat up.
I stayed away from there for several years, then one day I drove to the wilderness boundary and grumbled as I was hiking up a wash that I and everybody else used to drive on.
By a little creek in the sand I saw lots tracks of mountain quail,,,the tracks seemed really big. I lost them quickly on dry ground but took a sagebrush covered ridge up to a small grove of Pinyon Pine trees dropping nuts. This grove was once a place where off roaders camped, drank beer, shot up their beer and soda cans,,,and bottles and often let their city dogs run around,
I recall more than once seeing fully loaded “pampers” stuck under rock in that creek
On the way up, real close to me, like virgin birds, I flushed two mountain quail,,,,in that first micro-second somethings seemed wrong,,,,they seemed too big,,,were they chuckers ???? but chuckers were not here.
I was carrying a side by side Ithaca SKB in 20 gauge. Truth be known I am a very poor wing shot.
Much to my total surprise I did a double, the first of my life, a hard double too, as one flushed forward and at my shot a holder flushed behind me.
I was amazed, at my shooting and at how huge these mountain quail were. More hunting trips there later,,,,walking past where I and every body else once drove, showed that there were now plenty of huge quail where once there were just a few small ones,
Left in peace the deer came back too. The following year I took one on a muzzle loader tag. Of course I had to hike in, but I shot a decent forkhorn,,,where once there were none.
One place there was this weird, spooky, landscape,eroded down to these fins and narrow ridges. They were officially called the “Hoodoos”.
Years later I was living in a remote area of California. Hard to call any place there truly remote with 39,000,000 people.
There were a whole series of very dry eroded big sandy canyons. They reminded me of those eroded areas in British Columbia so I called those eroded canyons, “The Hoodoos” and the name stuck with locals.
It was one of my regular areas to hunt and get a few mountain quail. There were lots of Pinyon Pine trees and the pinyon pine nuts were a favored food of Mountain Quail. Pinyon pine nuts are so sweet. Not at all pitchy like the ones bought in stores. These birds were so sweet too.
In a sporting goods store in the nearest big city, they had lots of game animals mounted. The mountain quail they had mounted there seemed simply enormous compared to the ones I was taking.
I asked about that and the old timers said that they were simply too over-hunted to get big, just like fish in a stream or deer. The old store owner said that not only were they much bigger back then but there were so many more of them
These Hoodoos were all on National Forest land and looked like a sandy wasteland. They became a favorite area for off road vehicles. Without stressing or stretching you imagination too much you can image what the entire area looked like. In the distance it was beautiful, up close it was one trashy campsite after another, Any steep slope was cut up where off road vehicles tried to drive as high as possible. Of course extreme erosion followed.
There was a push by the Sierra Club to get it officially designated as wilderness, solely to keep out the off roaders. That wilderness designation was the only tool they had to keep them out.
Eventually the environmentalists prevailed and it was mostly designated as wilderness
The trash was cleaned up, vehicle caused erosion was mitigated and after the word got out that heavy fines were being levied for off road vehicle violations, “ The Hoodoos” were left in peace.
I was upset about not being able to use my Toyota Land Cruiser there myself,,,and I felt that designating such a place as wilderness was a waste, a trick,,,what good would it do, the place had been so beat up.
I stayed away from there for several years, then one day I drove to the wilderness boundary and grumbled as I was hiking up a wash that I and everybody else used to drive on.
By a little creek in the sand I saw lots tracks of mountain quail,,,the tracks seemed really big. I lost them quickly on dry ground but took a sagebrush covered ridge up to a small grove of Pinyon Pine trees dropping nuts. This grove was once a place where off roaders camped, drank beer, shot up their beer and soda cans,,,and bottles and often let their city dogs run around,
I recall more than once seeing fully loaded “pampers” stuck under rock in that creek
On the way up, real close to me, like virgin birds, I flushed two mountain quail,,,,in that first micro-second somethings seemed wrong,,,,they seemed too big,,,were they chuckers ???? but chuckers were not here.
I was carrying a side by side Ithaca SKB in 20 gauge. Truth be known I am a very poor wing shot.
Much to my total surprise I did a double, the first of my life, a hard double too, as one flushed forward and at my shot a holder flushed behind me.
I was amazed, at my shooting and at how huge these mountain quail were. More hunting trips there later,,,,walking past where I and every body else once drove, showed that there were now plenty of huge quail where once there were just a few small ones,
Left in peace the deer came back too. The following year I took one on a muzzle loader tag. Of course I had to hike in, but I shot a decent forkhorn,,,where once there were none.
