I've been trying to come up with a way that I could figure out what I could see at 120 yards, if I were looking down the side of a mountain. It finally occurred to me that I have a remarkably good example in my memory.
I was hiking up on Table Mountain (Mt Baker) a couple of years ago and saw a bear up on top of the table. That surprised me, because it seemed like both a strange place for a bear to be and a hard place for a bear to get to. Anyway, he was too far away to photograph, but I could see him plainly, so I watched him for a couple minutes and then went on towards the southwest end of the table.
Coming back, I stepped off the trail a few feet and went to look over the cliff. To my surprise, I saw the bear down below me, just sitting in the bushes about 40 or 50 feet above the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail ......... and just about 120 yards from me.
There was the usual parade of hikers on the PRT, but none of them noticed the bear above them. I could see them, I could see the bear, naked eyeball, no problem at all. And I could see hikers strung out along the trail for probably a quarter mile in either direction.
I watched for about five minutes. The bear never did anything but shuffle around a little. Sometimes he was partly obscured by bushes, but mostly not ......... but he was still too far away to photograph, usefully. He just would have been one of those black dots that you have to tell people, "It's a bear".
But he was very damned easy to see!
-------------- Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you....... Go and find it. Go!
Joined: 13 Jan 2002 Posts: 8808 | TRs | Pics Location: Long Ago and Far Away
Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:48 am
I do not think I will post on this thread any more except for legal questions. The thread has obviously deteriorated to name calling and inuendo spreading discord through the forum. Just remember Google is our friend
-------------- We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard
-JFK
I was on the trail the previous weekend (7/27) and there were low clouds and fog. At times, you could see down the slope and other times you were lucky to see people on the next switchback below. It was probably at the other extreme from Scrooge's photos. We don't know what it was like on 8/2.
The switchbacks do swing back into the trees a couple of times. Her partner could have been at the end of one of the large switchbacks or in the trees The vegetation on the hillside is also high - about knee high. My pants got soaked from the knee down due to the wet vegetation.
Visibility was apparently less than 100 percent that morning (some fog or mist)
This should not minimize the child's culpability in any way whatsoever. If your view of the target is obstructed or obscured, you move closer until visibility becomes 100 percent. If anything, this is another mistake made by the shooter.
I understand the fear of the irrational...Snowbrushy, by sharing your story a few pages back, maybe I understand some of your comments a bit better. I just hate wide paintbrushes is all
Also, twice I have been told (bluntly) by folks living on Highway 20 that they didn't want myself or my Seattle friends to move up there. They were serious.
Frankly, I was a little freaked-out that any person would say such a thing to another. One elder said, "We have too many of you moving out here".
The paintbrush was in their hands. The word "Flatlander" is in their mouths. Tell me please. Am I irrational by feeling unwelcome?
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 2972 | TRs | Pics Location: In the woods, by the big tree
Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:44 am
Cat Butt wrote:
Dave Workman wrote:
Visibility was apparently less than 100 percent that morning (some fog or mist)
This should not minimize the child's culpability in any way whatsoever. If your view of the target is obstructed or obscured, you move closer until visibility becomes 100 percent. If anything, this is another mistake made by the shooter.
Who said it did? I'm just making an observation about the conditions at the time.
-------------- "The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer." - D.H. Lawrence
Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 1100 | TRs | Pics Location: Arlington, WA
Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:49 am
I know it is illegal to shoot across a paved road, but never heard anything about not shooting across a dirt path. If that was the case, you couldn't shoot across a game trail.
-------------- "I would like to see things from your point of view, but I cannot get my head that far up my butt"
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
He just would have been one of those black dots that you have to tell people, "It's a bear".
We are elitist hikers - the last thing on their minds.
