My Trip to the B.B.S.

A few days ago Devin, Dillon and I went out for the afternoon to both B.B.S. #1 and B.B.S. #2. (Yes, there are now 2 B.B.S.'s. I'm sorry for my failure in mentioning that previously). Also, as an early warning, there are no pictures of B.B.S. #1-those pictures are in the first B.B.S. post. I did not get any documentation because of the extensive terrain we had to go through to get there...
Anyway, as far as our travels go:
You can see what a nice day it was for the most part, but we did have a little bit of rain (pictures at the left). We left about 1:00 p.m. and drove the hour-ish drive to B.B.S. #1. Devin drove and Dillon slept (pictures at the right).

On our way we passed thousands of white buckets that were hanging underneath the trees. I had no idea of what they were...I thought it was some kind of bear bait at first (that would be a lot of bear bait), but then Dev kindly informed me that it was for making Maple Syrup. Pretty cool huh??

We arrived at the pull-off to get to B.B.S. #1 and got all suited up to hike out there. Let me just say that this is not for the faint of heart. It's not a simple walk through the forest. We went through all sorts of terrain to get there (which is why I have no pictures of it). First was just mud, and then we had to cross a rather large swamp, then through thickets of devil's club (which I will show pictures of below), sticks, brush, logs, hills, trees... You get the idea. Don't get me wrong, I loved this adventure, but that doesn't mean that I was the caboose the whole trip because of my "turtle-like" walking through the mud and water. Devin was kind to help me along and make sure that I didn't get too far behind, and Dillon was nice to clear the area of any wildlife before I caught up to where he was a hundred yards ahead. Despite the difficulty of walking through deep mud, getting scraped by sticks, and bitten by mosquitos (you can tell that this is a man's world, right?) I think that the hardest part of it all was getting to the B.B.S., climbing up to sit in the tree stand and rest for a brief minute or two, and then finding out that it was already time to go back to the car because there was no sign that any bears had been there (I know that the boys would agree with this, because it is disappointing to see that the bears have not yet made it out of their hibernation to eat the doughnut greased dog food they have so generously offered them). So we turned around and went right back through all the same terrain. Let me just add here, that if we did happen to run into any angry bears, and did not have protection (aka guns, tree stands, etc.) there would be no running away from them. You can't run through those kinds of bushes, and that kind of mud. At least not very quickly. Thank goodness we had the protection.

Off to B.B.S. #2.

Once we made it back to the car, we drove up the road about 5 miles or so to our next pull-off. This hike was a lot more manageable. Still lots of devil's club and brush, but not nearly as much mud and water. Still mosquitos though.

                       This is the area of B.B.S. #2.

And this, is devil's club. I don't doubt that they chose the right name for this stuff. Jeans are not a thick enough barrier between this and your legs. I think you're gonna need some Carhartts to make it through these babies.

We got to the spot, scoped it out, and still no sign of any bears. This time however, the boys had to build the tree stand. I documented this part, and tried to keep myself entertained since they already knew what they were doing. Here is the tree-stand building process:

(you can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you are interested in the up-close shots)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

And then the boys climbed up to sit in the stand, and check out the rewards or their work.

Meanwhile, here am I trying to survive in a boy's world.

Haha, ok I have probably made it look way more dramatic than it actually was...