Going old school and heavy on a memorable hike tomorrow.

[HaveGun]

I'm driving two hours into the Idaho mountains tomorrow with my late grandfather's best friend. My grandpa died in 2003 when I lived out of state and I couldn't be there for the memorial. His best friend took his ashes and went to their favorite hunting spot in the mountains and affixed a brass plaque honoring my grandpa to a boulder where grandpa had shot a few elk from over the years. His ashes were then spread around the rock.

I've never been there.

I tracked down his buddy and he agreed to guide me up there. It's 45 miles of dirt logging roads, then nearly a mile hike in, in grizzly country.

Should be an interesting day. I decided to forego the usual Glock 29 in favor of something more old school in memory of grandpa. Bringing my Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.



The 9mm shell was to show my girlfriend the difference between a cartridge for defense against humans, and one for defense against bears. She was impressed.

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[HaveGun]

Made it back safely and mostly one piece.

Left at 10 am and didn't get back to town until 8:30 pm. Long day!

Parked the rig on the road nearest the spot where grandpa's ashes were spread and hiked up the mountain slowly. I was honestly pretty worried about our guide, being 85 years old, and hadn't been to the site in a couple of decades.





We got sidetracked, confused, and thought there was no way we were going to find the memorial when suddenly our guide spotted the dead tree that he marked on a map years ago. The memorial was roughly 200' North of it and across a boulder field that a glacier deposited thousands of years ago.





A large tree had fallen at the base of the rock where the memorial was, partially obscuring it and changing the landscape. Our guide passed it by and said it didn't look right, but I had a feeling and was the one who spotted the plaque.







We all got a little teary eyed as the man who honored his best friend said a few words and said his goodbyes as he realized this would be the last time he would be able to get to the site before he was called home.

The way back down the mountain was just as tough as we tried to follow an overgrown logging road that soon disappeared and we thought we would pop out on the mountain road a few hundreds yards from the vehicle. Nope. We ended up breaking brush most of the way and came out on the dirt road about a mile to the East.

That last mile did my knees in, being 50 and nearly 100lbs overweight, and the old man was obviously in great pain, but I was amazed at his tenacity.

It was a great day and I'm so thankful to my grandpa's best friend for honoring him in such a way, and allowing me to share and pass down grandpa's resting place to my kids and grand kids.

 

[HaveGun]

On the way up to where we parked for the trek in, we were shown the camping spot they used for hunting camp over the years, and the remains of the outhouse my grandpa built 50 years ago. I grabbed a rock from the site as a keepsake.





On the way out, we stopped a few miles down the road to take in a beautiful sight.