Late monsoons, record El Nino...

[hank4elk]

4 inches in 2 days in July.
68 days 90-98, @7500'. Spit on.

5 inches this month, so far. Mostly the last 2 days.
Flood watch up for next 3 days again.

Perfect monsoon setup
Low off CA and the high moved to Tejas. Spinning moisture north thru Mexico into AZ/NM.
A series of hurricanes building and heading west have pumped the moisture content.
Excessive rainfall thru Sat. now.

Had to wait half hour for stream to go down 2 days ago. Walked out with shovel to check if culvert was there. Rock...good.
Made it to store in morning before it got going yesterday.

Unsuccessful the day before due to alternator going out on Ford, top of the hill next to guardrail...20ft from end and park spot.
Back of truck sticking out in lane, hairball.
Friend stopped and chained me out after I called neighbor. Dennis came as Carlos and I yaked. He had just been hit in the Hubble as the dark headed towards my place.
Dennis and I got to my place and a new battery as it hit.......................hard.

17 years since I saw this much come down. 24 for Dennis.
Lakes to doors and streams across road. One hr for 8 miles.
Stopped at hwy and we made it to my truck. Battery in after a battle with winch cables...started again.
Not bad going back until the lakes and our normally bone dry stream...LOL , we waited.

The storm hit at noon yesterday and went til dark.
Lightning strikes every minute or so.
Open Range.
Dotti and I just watched.
Stream flowing down my valley. Seen from covered porch.
Double rainbow glowing from Dennis' place.

Woke by a bull wanting out at the gate.
The elk are back. Seen some nice racks, not many but good ones.
Ran into a guy filling up in Datil last week.
16E tag,hunted it before and scouted it in Aug. ,plus 16A for his bros hunt. Had hunted the both with good luck prior.
Not many to be seen. Dry Aug. And he figured most were in the White Mtns., or Zuni or the Rio Grande I said.
He nodded and I said good luck.


Hoping for more rain before winter and El Nino.
5 feet of snow would be a good winter.
It will make the work to be done hard, but I have 10 cords piled.
And time on my side...some.

Forecast is for half of UT and CO all of AZ & NM to get above average snowfall. The Sierras.
Maybe the pinon IPPS beetle will leave.
Maybe the range recovers some.

El Nino, bring it!

Maybe some of you will fill tags.
Good Luck and Good Hunting to ALL!

 

[IDFireLass]

Send the monsoons to Idaho. We need it real bad. We all are waiting for some nimrod to start a late fire. We need 10-20 feet of snow in the mountains and at least 3-4 feet here in the valley.
Have a good season hank4elk.

 

[hank4elk]

Send the monsoons to Idaho. We need it real bad. We all are waiting for some nimrod to start a late fire. We need 10-20 feet of snow in the mountains and at least 3-4 feet here in the valley.
Have a good season hank4elk.

Will do.

Sadly El Nino does not favor the North US
.
10 years and one good monsoon in middle has been bad here in SW NM. NM in general.
The Rio Grande has never been lower. Elephant Butte lake is below 5%.

Light rains started as I got step footings dug. Hardpan. Moisture 6 inches down.
Cloudy,65.

 

[hank4elk]

60 deg. , 58 dew point, 89% humidity.

Gallup flooded, along with Ruidoso, again. AZ hit hard in spots.
Light rain most of the day here.

Worst chile harvest in 20 years, get em while their hot.
Lost the whole fruit crop here. No CO peaches too.
Gas jumped .35-.50 overnight on news...cuzzz...............

Saw a very nice early buck. Great mass. Local.
2 more good bulls.

Morning walk showed the bull tracks to the gate.
Dotti tracked him excitedly.
He did not go over at the low point. He went up to the rise in the middle and over.
Dotti went up along the fence and swirled around every spot he had stopped. Never went through the fence.
She went into chase me mode. Follow me, I know where the critter is...
I dug and she sulked, layed there and ate up a cow skull.
Soon Dotti. Not now.

The trip down to Apache Creek had showed signs of leaves yellowing. Cottonwoods, willows and eldars.
The leaf cutter bees have started on the locust in front. Wild plums going yellow .
My aspens have singed leaf edges from summer heat and starting to lighten.
Early fall? Sept. snow?

Heavy rains along the Great River and north this morning.
Will hit here later after it warms some. Light now.
2 weeks of monsoon season left.

You all know the drill.
Turn around,don't drown.
Stay out of arroyos.
Don't camp on streams.

3 dead north of here this morning. Swept away.

Stay safe, be prepared. Wait it out.

But...
Bring it on!

 

[Steiny77]

We've had a really weird growing season in IN this year.
Long periods of drought, then a day or two of monsoons. Had no rain from first of June then 12" in three days in mid July. After that it went back to drought nearly 60 days and now we're getting hammered again, close to 5" since yesterday.

 

[Don K]

I was in 16A the first archery hunt and it rained almost every afternoon. Then Monday afternoon it went for 8 hours straight and was pouring at times. Tuesday morning we almost didn't get out to the main road it was so bad. Thought maybe we should wait until the sun came out to dry things out until I looked at the forecast. If we didn't get out Tuesday morning, we probably where not going to get out for awhile. Was happy once we got on good gravel, and stress was relieved when we hit the blacktop at Apache Creek. I was amazed at how green everything was. Beautiful place and ran in to some great people.

 

[hank4elk]

I was in 16A the first archery hunt and it rained almost every afternoon. Then Monday afternoon it went for 8 hours straight and was pouring at times. Tuesday morning we almost didn't get out to the main road it was so bad. Thought maybe we should wait until the sun came out to dry things out until I looked at the forecast. If we didn't get out Tuesday morning, we probably where not going to get out for awhile. Was happy once we got on good gravel, and stress was relieved when we hit the blacktop at Apache Creek. I was amazed at how green everything was. Beautiful place and ran in to some great people. View attachment 417297

Many elk around?

 

[Don K]

Many elk around?

We had a huge herd come by camp day before season. I had about 4 or 5 good opportunities that where blown by either the wind, or cows. Most the bulls by second week had cows with them that where my nemesis. I haven't hunted this unit before so I have nothing to compare it to but some of the people I talked to said they where not seeing what they normally do. My buddy did manage to take his largest bull and ended up with 2 large coolers packed with processed meat. I do have video of that herd I will see if I can post it here.