Strike one! :-(

Well, I'll avoid the suspense again on this post and just let you know up front that I struck out Antelope hunting in New Mexico.

After a few hiccups getting over there (busted water line on the travel trailer, driving into a headwind, leaving the trailer keys at Walmart, etc.) we got the trailer dropped off and drove over to do some last minute scouting on the ranch that I had been assigned to. We got there a couple hours before sunset and started driving around the ranch a little to get our bearings on everything and low and behold we actually saw some antelope! Even better was the fact that they were actually on the ranch I was assigned too! There were about 6 or 7 does and 2 bucks, one was pretty small, but one was pretty decent. They ended up going by us at about 125 yards while we sat in the truck and I got a few pictures of the bucks.

The nicer buck stopped and shook his head around for a little bit a couple times while we were watching. Not sure exactly what he was doing, but the rut was starting up a little so I figured it was something related to that.

Here's the nicer buck in the front and the smaller on behind him.

Not the best picture, but you can get a decent feel for the length and width of the horns from this blurry picture. He wasn't a monster, but I would have been proud to have him on my wall if I had gotten the chance.

We watched them move off to the south and decided we should probably just leave so they aren't spooked and made out plans for the morning. Had a few more hiccups as the battery on the trailer was dead and it was out of propane, but we were optimistic that it wouldn't matter much anyway as we would hopefully be tagged out in the morning and headed home.

The first morning of the hunt arrived and everything was looking good. Nice cool morning, and right off the bat we spotted the antelope. It looked like they were going to do the exact opposite of what they had done the night before so we moved over to intercept them on their way. After about 30 minutes of waiting, we started to wonder where they were and went over to where we had last seen them. They had disappeared! How 8 or 9 antelope can just up and disappear is a mystery, but it can happen. We drove around the rest of the ranch and saw some other hunters standing on the fence line looking onto the ranch we were assigned to and asked them if they had seen anything and they said that they hadn't. Seemed like they were looking at something, but we drove around and didn't ever see what they were looking at.

We headed back to the spot that we had started out that morning and after a while we did see the small buck by himself headed our way looking lost. The rut was just starting and the night before we had watched the larger buck chasing the smaller buck off on a regular basis. The small buck was trailing the group, but evidently they had even lost him when they disappeared. I put a stalk on him and got about 150 yards away, but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on such a young animal. I ended up walking back to the truck and the small buck moved off to the north.

The ranch that I was assigned to was 4,640 acres, but most of it was sand hill country that didn't seem like the antelope would be very likely to go. After a few more hours of not seeing anything we decided to check out the sand hill country anyway. We did end up seeing a buck and 4 does but they were north of the ranch we were assigned to and moving away from us. After a couple hours of that, we went back to the area where we had started out that morning.

If it seems like there is a recurring theme here, believe me, it seemed like it in person too. There just wasn't much area for us to hunt and we could see nearly the entire place sitting in one spot, so we would park there and glass the ranch and periodically drive to the few spots we couldn't see and then return to the high spot where we could see most of the ranch and then repeat, repeat. I'm not very fond of road hunting, but it seemed pointless to walk the property when you could sit in one spot in the truck and see most of it and then you could drive to another spot and see the rest of it.

The way the state of New Mexico does it's ranch assignments, the ranches are classified as "Ranch Only", or "Unit-Wide". For the most part the larger ranches are "Ranch Only" and the smaller ranches are "Unit-Wide". The one benefit to being on a small ranch that is Unit Wide is that if you aren't seeing antelope on the first day, you can call the local game warden and he can reassign you to a ranch where there are antelope. At least that's the theory. After not seeing anything else, I called the game warden around 2:00 and asked him if I could be reassigned to a ranch that had antelope on it. He said he needed to do some checking around and he would get back with me. We decided to go ahead and stick around just in case that original group of antelope ever decided to appear again.

Probably not even 15 minutes later, I look out and they are crossing the road about 600 or 700 yards in front of us! I hesitated and wasn't sure if I should try to drive up to them or if I should get out of the truck and try to walk up on them, but they were moving pretty good and so I started the truck and started toward them. I was pretty indecisive and drove too slowly and by the time I got there they were about 300 yards away. It all happened too fast and I didn't even have my range finder out to know how far away they were for sure. The wind was blowing pretty hard and they were milling around pretty good and I never felt like I had a great shot so I decided to hold off. They didn't seem too spooked and hopefully they would just move off a little way and I could walk them down.

They ended up moving off and I started after them. The biggest concern was that they were only 1/2 mile from the ranch boundary and I was hoping they wouldn't move too fast. I got to where I could see them again and sure enough, they had crossed the fence and then stopped about 50 yards onto the neighboring ranch. I watched them for a while and then they moved off farther.

It turned out that was going to be my only real opportunity for the weekend. In retrospect it is easy to see that I should have just driven right to them as soon as they crossed the road, but I hesitated for 15 or 20 seconds that would have probably made the difference. I second guess myself less on the shot. It was blowing pretty hard and I never felt confident in the shot and I don't want to just be throwing lead at an animal and hoping that I can hit it. I want to have confidence when I pull the trigger that the animal is going to go down and stay down.

Anyway, after a while we drove the ranch again, glassed some more and then decided to go back the the trailer to grab some drinks and snacks. On the way there we spot the same group of antelope from the county road. They are about 1/2 mile north of the ranch I was assigned to. We pull up to a gate and park to see what they are going to do. They were 375 yards off and after watching us for a while, they end up moving toward us to a windmill to get a drink. We watched them for probably 15 minutes and then another hunter that was assigned to that ranch showed up and the antelope took off, but they went north instead of south back to the ranch that I was assigned to.

That the last time we saw a buck. We hunted hard from before sunrise to sunset (I was surprised to learn from the guy I was hunting with that New Mexico legal hunting only goes to sunset instead of 30 minutes after sunset like most places do) and only saw 2 does the last day that were not even on the ranch I was assigned to. I ended up putting a few miles on my boots the last day doing anything I could think of to try to scrape up an antelope sighting but it didn't happen.

Overall it was pretty depressing that I was assigned to a ranch with very few antelope and those were mainly just passing through. Generally if that is the case you can just move to a different area, but that wasn't an option so we just stuck it out. I doubt that I will be applying for another public land antelope license in New Mexico in the future. The luck seems to be more related to which ranch you get assigned instead of just drawing the tag. I'm really curious to see what the final success rate ends up.

That's it for now. Nathan

The blind is back on top of the hill!

Well, I guess I’m not much of a suspense writer with a title like that, but I’m just very happy that it is back on top of the hill, and in one piece. It took plenty of work and some creative thinking, but it’s done.

I got a little cocky when I was able to get there early by myself and get the floor loaded up on my pickup, haul it up the hill and get it setup and leveled out by myself. I figured that if I could do that by myself, then the rest would be easy with a helper. Here’s the floor back up. I talked my friend Ben into coming down to help me, and his wife Tabitha came with him as well, and it turned out to be a very good thing because there were a couple times that we really needed her help. I put a pop-up blind on top of the floor that I had setup and we were hoping that some hogs would come in, but we struck out. Saturday morning started off with a flat tire and getting the spare lock to release is always a joy when changing out a tire on a pickup. The we started out collecting pieces of the blind from the bottom of the hill and hauling them back up to the top. Here’s the first load.

After we got everything picked up and hauled up to the top of the hill, we sorted out the broken and unbroken pieces and started putting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. We would set the plywood down on the floor and then line up the pieces and assemble the frame, then flip it over and screw the plywood back to the frame. Lots of bent and broken screws and the reciprocal saw got quite a bit of use sawing ends off of screws that we couldn't get out. Lots of liquid nails used as well on some of the cracked and splintered wood. The worst part was just getting started, once we got going we had all the walls repaired in just a couple hours.

After we got all 4 walls repaired, it was a pretty simple matter of putting them where they went and screwing them into the floor and then screwing them together. The easy part was now done! I had been counting on the hunters that lease the property to the north of me to be on their place working on setting all their feeders up and getting in some dove hunting over labor day like they have for the previous 3 years that I've owned the property. I figured that with 3 or 4 of them plus Ben and I we could simply pick the roof up and set it on the top of the blind. I was a little worried when they didn't show up Friday night, but when they weren't over there by lunch on Saturday I was concerned. I figured we would just finish the walls and leave the roof for some other time, because there was no way we would get it put on assembled with just the two of us. We decided to see if we could even move it, and did manage to get it flipped over and we could actually pick it up about a foot off the ground, but once we had it picked up we couldn't move. We put a 2x12 laminated beam I had brought under it to see if we could slide it, but it was a no go. We could move it a few feet at a time, but it was going to take all day to get it the 30 yards or so back to where the blind was. We were stuck.
After talking it through, the only other option was to try to get my tractor up the hill to help out. I had actually brought some pallet forks with me that attach to the front of the bucket, but I had never had my tractor up on the hill before and wasn't so sure that I wanted to attempt it. The hill is pretty steep and tractors have a short wheel base and a high center of gravity and they can and do tip over pretty easily. I decided the safest way was to actually back the tractor up the hill since I had my shredder on the back and that would act as a counter weight to keep it from tipping. I made sure the tractor was in 4 wheel drive and started for the top, backwards! Things went really well until right near the top and the rear wheels started to spin a little and it started bouncing. I had the loader bucket set low so if it started to tip it would hopefully stop it, but after an anxious moment I was at the top! Once on top I was able to hook up to the roof and using a strap around the top, I used the tractor to pick up the roof and set it up on top of the rock outcropping on top of the hill where the blind was. This gives a good perspective on the size of the rock outcropping at the top of the hill.
The problem was that there was just no way to get the tractor up n top of the rock and get next to the blind. I got it as close as I could and set it down. After setting the roof on the laminated beam I had brought, we were able to slide it over in front of the blind. Now the work was really about to begin.
The next step was to get the roof tilted up and resting on the plank so we could slide it up onto the top! It sounds a LOT easier than it was. This was the first step where we couldn't have done it without a 3rd person. Ben and I picked up one side of the roof while Tabitha moved the beam underneath it. We took a break after this step!
Here’s a picture of the tractor at the top of the hill. Not sure if I will ever have it up there again so I went ahead and took a picture of it up there. Yes it is as steep as it looks!
This is where I just decided to man up and put the roof on! Actually this was the first spot where one of us wasn't required to keep the roof from crushing the other while we were lifting it up and we could get a picture taken. It is amazing what leverage can do, with just a couple feet of the plank sticking out the other side I could hold up one side of the roof pretty easily while Tabitha cranked on the come-a-long on the other side.
Here's Tabitha cranking on the come-a-long while I'm holding the other end up to help make it easier. You can see the extra 2x4 screwed onto the outside of the top of the wall, the top 2x4 broke on the first attempt to wench the roof up, and we had to reinforce it for the 2nd attempt.
Here it is all put back together and ANCHORED! It is a little worse for wear after taking a tumble down the hill, but it actually went back together really well and still seems to be plenty sturdy. The windows and door ended up in the worst shape and I've been planning on changing out the windows anyway so that won't be a factor for much longer. I used 3/8” eye bolts and 1/8” steel cable to anchor it in. The rock on the left is the smallest anchor point out of all of them.
I brought a masonry bit for my drill and was able to get a hole drilled in the rock outcropping to put an anchor in for the predominant Southwest wind. If the blind comes off this time it is going to take a tornado.
And my last picture. The finished blind up on the hill with my pond in the foreground. It’s about as full as the pond has been in a couple years, everything sure is green for early September in West Texas.

When it was all said and done it ended up costing less than $25 in supplies to repair it. I didn't do a good job of really looking it over to know what I needed and lucked out bringing 5 2x4’s and that ended up being exactly how many I needed. That and a few tubes of liquid nails and the eye bolts were all that I ended up spending in dollars, but it was a pretty hard day of labor getting it back together. Still, overall it did go together pretty smoothly and it probably took about 6 hours of actual work time getting it back together.

VERY happy that it is back up and very thankful to have friends willing to help out!

That’s it for now. Nathan

New Mexico Elk Scouting Trip

Okay, I finally made my first official scouting trip!

I hit the road after lunch on Friday afternoon headed for Ruidoso! After a quick 4 ½ hour drive I ended up north of Ruidoso Friday night checking out a spot that a MonsterMuley member had told me about. It doesn’t look that impressive on a map or on Google Earth, but I thought I would check it out anyway based on his tip. I was out of my vehicle at about 5:00 and by 6:00 I was already into elk. About 10 cows and calves and 2 spikes. I had brought my nice Nikon DSLR with a 300mm zoom lens since I wasn’t packing a rifle, but sure enough, the memory card that has been threatening to give out for a year or so now finally gave out completely and I was left with my little Canon Powershot SD1100 IS.

Here’s the first group of elk I came across. They were about 300 yards away and never did seem to indicate that they knew I was around. I watched them graze for about 10 minutes and then continued on.

The very next draw I saw another group of about 6 cows and calves and I circled around and over them. Some young bulls were bugling a little and I assumed that it was the spikes that were with that first group. I made a few cow calls and got some answers which I thought was neat. Where I hunt in Wyoming I’ve never actually heard a cow talking, I assume due to the heavy wolf predation. On the way back to the car in the dark I heard what sounded like a larger bull bugle a few times and I bugled back. He ended up starting to circle downwind of me and I decided to quit calling since it wasn’t going to do me any good and might make a more cautious bull for others.

I spent the night in my trailblazer and moved about 2 miles up the canyon to continue scouting the next morning. I found plenty of sign that elk were in the area and plenty of sign that elk had died in the area as well, I just didn't see any elk that morning.

Here was a skeleton of a cow that looked like it had been quartered out. Within 50 yards was another skeleton in the same draw.

Some really pretty country and I really enjoyed getting out and putting some miles on my boots, although I did end up with blisters again and am going to have to change something up or maybe even return the boots if I can’t figure something out. They are nice boots and seem to fit well, but when I climb I end up on my toes and the boot is so stiff that it doesn't bend and so my heel rides up and down a little bit and that's where I'm getting the blisters.

Here's a couple pictures I took when I was out walking around.
I moved to the other side of the unit on Saturday around lunchtime and hit the trail about 2pm. (actually my only time on a trail either day was walking back to the car in the dark) I had thought the other area I was scouting was pretty steep, but this area was STEEP with a capital S T E E P! I climbed over 1,500’ in elevation before I got a mile from the trailhead! I was seeing lots of elk sign but most of it was pretty old. When I got to the top I got really discouraged when I started to see horse poop. I had planned and selected where I was going to hunt based on the steepest roughest spots where I didn’t think I would have to worry about any competition from an outfitter on horses. I decided they must have a trail someplace up higher and be coming down the ridges or something. I was pretty dejected.

2 hours into my hike I decided that either I was not in near as good of shape as I thought I was or the terrain was way steeper than I expected and I decided that it was both. I was sweating profusely and having to stop and catch my breath every few minutes. I found a neat saddle between two ridges and ended up climbing up to a really nice overlook. I took this picture of it when I was on my way up.

I was dejected about the horses and the lack of current elk sign, but I figured I was at least getting my exercise. I decided that I would at least make it to the top of this point before calling it quits for the day.
Here’s a picture across the canyon. The area I was climbing wasn’t quite as steep, but it was pretty close!
I got to the top of that particular ridge, I was a little over 8,100’ and there was still plenty of room to keep climbing. There was a nice overlook and I sat down to rest and was surprised to hear a bull bugle. I got situated and started glassing and didn’t see anything for a while then spotted a cow, then another then a spike, then a raghorn, and finally ended up seeing about 20 head of elk on the ridge over from me. They were about 600 yards away and they were on the reservation. First I only saw some raghorns and couldn’t figure out which one was bugling. Finally I found the bull who was bugling, and he was still laying down in his bed. After watching them about 30 minutes to an hour they were pretty much all up and moving across the ridgeline. A few of the smaller bulls and some cows headed toward the wilderness area but the bigger bulls headed farther onto the reservation. While watching them I also saw at least 30 elk grazing on Sierra Blanca which is well onto the reservation (probably about 2 miles from where I was).

As I mentioned before, I had brought my Nikon DSLR with a 300mm telephoto lens specifically to take pictures of elk if I saw any. With the memory card on the fritz I ended up having to improvise with my Canon Powershot free handing through the spotting scope. Of course I forgot the piece that goes with my tripod to hook up the spotting scope to the tripod so I was holding the spotting scope on my backpack and taking the pictures through it with the Canon Powershot. I thought they actually turned out decent considering everything.

Here's an full frame picture before any cropping.
Here’s the biggest bull of the bunch, nothing spectacular, but a good solid 5x6. I figure somewhere around 280 – 290”. Would be hard for me to pass him up if I saw him in shooting range on opening day off the reservation, but I think I would.

Needless to say, my spirits were lifted considerably since I was actually into elk and legal bulls at that. Of course I wasn’t happy that they were on the reservation, but I figure that in the next two months their patterns will change and there is a good chance they will be moving around quite a bit. At least I saw some elk.

I decided to try to go down a different way and follow a ridgeline to the trail and didn’t want to be covering new ground in the dark so I picked up and headed down the mountain. It turned out to be a really good decision since I ended up hitting cliffs a couple times and having to re-route around them. As I started down I saw the answer to the horse poop I had been seeing. Wild horses!
Actually at first I thought they might be someone’s stock that was turned loose, but I talked with the guy at the campsite and he said there were quite a few wild horse in the area. That made me feel a little better that my plans were not going to be completely shot by some outfitters riding down the ridgeline that I was working so hard to climb up.

I made it to the trail just as it was getting dark and made it back to the campsite in the dark. My wife wasn’t feeling well back at home and my feet were hurting and I’d managed to wear a few blisters so I made an impromptu decision to go ahead and drive back home that night and skip the next morning scouting time. It took right at five hours to drive home and I was back home at 3:00am this morning.

Overall I felt like it was a pretty successful trip. I didn’t see a monster bull, but for spending just a couple days I felt like my time in person was matching up with the information I had received from others and what I was seeing on Google Earth and on my topographical maps. I wasn’t prepared for how steep it was, but it was very good to experience it to know that I will have to alter my plans a little to match up with realistic expectations of what I can accomplish. I had told myself that if I end up going without seeing any elk that I would break down and hire an outfitter so it looks like I’m still DIY for now on this one.

That’s it for now. Just two weeks until hunting season officially starts with my New Mexico antelope hunt. I’ll update on the status of that in another post.

Nathan

Whoops! Where did my blind go? :-(

Well, I thought that my blind was heavy enough to sit on the top of the rock hill without being anchored down. I was wrong.

Here's a trail camera picture from the morning of August 7th, look in the top left corner for the blind.Here's a trail camera picture from that evening. (Note that the blind is now gone!)
Here's what I arrived to find this weekend when I went down to the land to check on things.
The roof is still in one piece and near the top of the hill, but it weighs at least 500lbs and I am trying to figure out how I'm going to get it picked up and set on the top of the blind after I rebuild it.
Here's a picture of what it looked like when it was still on top of the hill!

The blind has been up for a year and we've had some 50mph winds during that time and it has done fine. I've even been in it when it was blowing 30 - 40mph and it didn't even budge. Looking at the historical weather from the nearest weather reporting stations on August 7th the highest wind was a 24mph gust but that is about 30 miles away from my property. Not sure if it caught a microburst or what.

I'll be attempting to rebuild it and try to figure out how to put the roof back on without taking it apart. The top has shingles on it so that is what really adds to the weight and would be a pain to remove them.

I guess maybe I could assemble it all laying on it's side and then stand it up and then put legs under it. That's the best idea I've been able to come up with.

I also need to figure out a good way to anchor it. The rock is a mixture of sandstone and caliche type rock and I'm not sure how easy it would be to drill anchor holes in it. I haven't ever tried but I will bring some masonry bits down next time and see if it can be done. I have the guy wire and eyelets already purchased but I didn't ever get them installed, procrastination did not pay off for me this time.

The floor and 2 of the walls are pretty much intact and I should be able to repair the other 2 walls with a few replacement 2 x 4's. Everything is screwed together so I'm hoping I can have it repaired in 8 to 12 hours of hard labor. If anyone has any ideas on the roof I'm all ears!

Nathan

Trail Camera Pictures

Well, in between our trip to Kentucky and our trip on Montana I did manage to run down to the land to fill the feeders and check the cameras. I was also hoping to shoot a pig or two, but they didn't cooperate on that aspect.

I was very happy with some of the deer that I got on camera this month! Several of them are going to end up being pretty decent bucks and one of them could potentially be a Booner! He is already pretty impressive and based on the way the tips of his antlers are still rounded he still has some more growth ahead of him. I'm really looking forward to my next trip down to the property to check the cameras and see if I have any more pictures of him. I think he may be the 3 1/2 year old 11 point that I passed on a couple times last year. He is definitely at the top of my hit list for this year!

Here's a couple pictures of him. From the front.
Here's another buck that would be hard to pass up if I saw him first.
I thought this was a pretty neat picture. There are only 3 spouts to feed out of and 4 bucks hanging out wanting to eat. Looks like a boxing match broke out over the open feed spout!
And it looks like the pigs are back from a hiatus this summer. Hopefully I'll be able to take a few of them out or I'm going to end up completely overrun!

There are 23 pigs in this picture.

Oh well, I'm pretty excited about the bucks I'm getting on camera. Getting a picture of one in the summer isn't anywhere near the same as putting one on the ground during hunting season, but hopefully I'll be able to seal the deal on a big one this fall. I counted at least 9 different bucks on camera on a pretty regular basis so I should have a few to choose from anyway.

That's it for this post. I'll try to keep catching up.

Nathan

Vacation in Kentucky

Well, I'm more than a month late posting this, but we had a great time visiting family in Kentucky and spending some time on the lake.

Eli is such a great little traveler, we flew on an unscheduled Southwest Airlines flight because they only let you change planes twice on a scheduled flight. To get from Lubbock to Louisville we had to change planes 3 times going and coming so we used some rapid reward tickets and with some very quick connections the flights all turned out great. Eli even managed to catch a few Z's on one of the flights.

After some family visiting, we went with one of my brother's down to Dale Hollow lake which is right on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. You actually drive into Tennessee to go the Marina where his boat(s) are. He just purchased a new 58' house boat and hasn't sold his smaller one yet so we were able to pack a bunch of folks on them. I think there were 15 of us there for supper one night.

Here's a picture of the boats parked in a cove. We had a lot of fun and spent a lot of time just relaxing. We spent some time knee boarding (and I either cracked a rib or pulled a muscle as it still hurts a little even over a month later) and the highlight for me was doing some diving. My brother has a subsurface air delivery setup where the air compressor floats on a inner tube and you are hooked up with a 100' long air hose. We dove along the bottom of the cove we were in and it was pretty neat. Between the 2 of us we recovered 2 boat anchors, 5 swim masks, a snorkel, 6 golf balls, and ended up picking up a 32 gallon trash can full of beer cans and bottles from off the bottom. It averaged about 30' deep and there was a thermocline at about 25' so it was pretty interesting going from the cold water down deep to the warm water when you surfaced to get rid of the items you had collected.

Here's a picture of me after unloading my catch. My brother is diving at the end of the other air line and my nieces are snorkeling above where he is diving.Overall we had a great trip and it was really good to see my brothers and sisters who live there. I'm WAY behind on my blog and I'm going to try to get it caught up over the next week or so.

That's it for now though. Nathan

New pair of boots!

Well, another riveting post coming up on buying a new pair of boots!

My previous experience with boots was to always buy the cheap ones for $40 and then end up wearing running shoes because they hurt my feet.

2 years ago I upgraded to a pair of Irish Setter Shadow Trek's, and a pair of Rocky Stalker's. They were a big improvement, but the Irish Setters leaked and tore up pretty quickly and the Rocky's did pretty well, but are nearing the end of their useful life.

Reading through some of the posts on some hunting and hiking forums I found that there are several brands of boots that I had never even heard of that are considered the cream of the crop. Kenetek, Lowa, Hanwag, Asolo, Meindl, etc. The common denominator in these boots are that they are all made in Germany or Italy. They are also all pretty expensive!

After a ton of research I ended up buying a pair of Lowa Ranger GTX's on sale and then went to Cabelas in Fort Worth over the 4th of July weekend and tried them on along with a pair of Meindl Denalis.

Here is a picture with both boots side by side. The Meindl Denali is an 8" boot and the Lowa Ranger is a 6 1/2" boot. The 8" boot is what I'm used to in a hunting boot and really seemed to support my ankles, the 6 1/2" boot was at just the wrong height for me.

Here's the Lowa Ranger:
Here's the Meindl Denali:
I ended up deciding on the Denalis simply because they fit me better. The Lowas actually appeared to be better constructed with stronger eyehooks and thicker leather and a better sole, but when you are going to spend hundreds of miles in a pair of boots, how they fit is a pretty important part of the puzzle. It's not like the Meindl's were poorly constructed by any means, they appear to be a very nicely made boot and hopefully they will serve me for many years to come.

Another interesting thing was that I ended up buying a wide boot in the Meindl Denali. Usually I wear a regular width, but the Meindl's must run narrow because the wide width fit just right. Another nice thing about the high end boots is that you can try them out (they prefer you stick to carpet inside your house) and if you don't like them you can return them with no questions asked.

I got the Lowa Ranger's at http://www.footwearoutfitters.net/ and would highly recommend them to anyone looking for some top notch boots. I really wanted to like them, but the lower boot just wasn't what I was looking for. They are coming out with the Lowa Ranger in an 8" boot within a month, but I'm ready to quit shopping and get started putting the miles on mine. I think I'll be happy with the Meindl Denali.

I'm thinking that by the end of the year I will have between 150 and 200 miles on them so it should be a pretty good test. If I think of it I'll post an update on how well they are doing. My first test for them will be hiking at camp in Montana the first of August.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure everyone was on the edge of their seat worried about which boot I was going to end up buying!

Nathan