Moose Droppings

Jeremy Kirkpatrick slid down a 30 foot rock face ending up on a small ledge with a broken leg and weather conditions that were unseasonable cold. Temperatures were in the 20’s as a front moved across the state bringing conditions more common for January and not November.
Jeremy and his girlfriend were navigating their way through the woods in the dark after a day of bear hunting when the accident happened. They were able to reach Jeremy’s mother on a cell phone and she was able to contact 911 for help.

“He’s so upset,” the hunter’s mother can be heard telling a dispatcher in a recording released today. “He’s going to go into shock is what he’s going to do. He was screaming ‘Momma I can’t move and I am cold.’”

Volunteer rescuers from the Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department responded and was able to extricate Jeremy off the rock face.

Fire department Capt. Mike Messer said the rescue operation was technical and dangerous. Rescuers anchored ropes to trees above the ledge where Kirkpatrick landed and dropped down. From there, they swung side-ways along the rock face to reach him.

Then they loaded him into a special basket and lowered it down the other side of the rock face to an ATV. They used the ATV to cross the Pigeon River and get Kirkpatrick to an ambulance.

The operation, from the time his mother called 911 to the time Kirkpatrick left in the ambulance, took about three hours. The temperature was around 20 degrees

A tip of the hat to all the rescue personnel both paid and volunteer that brave the conditions and the dangers to help us in our time of need but especially these guys from Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

“This wasn’t some July hiking trip,” said Greg Shuping, Haywood County Emergency Services coordinator, “This was serious. Those volunteers saved his life. This was a heroic effort from the Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department.”

Citizens Times
We are glad to see that this has a happy ending.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Montana Fish & Wildlife has a program to rescue orphaned bear cubs and reintroduce them into the wild once they have a reasonable chance to survive.

Each year, a number of orphaned black bear cubs end up at FWP’s Wildlife Center in Helena. The bear cubs arrive anytime between spring and late fall during their first year of life. They have all been separated from their mothers (sows) for various reasons including:

* Sows killed by cars
* Sows illegally shot
* Cubs area abandoned by mothers because of poor environmental conditions, food shortage, or human disturbance

Orphaned bear cubs raised in captivity in Montana will be moved into man made bear dens in the wild soon so that when they wake up from hibernation this spring they’ll be in the backcountry. Then hopefully they’ll go on and live like all the other bears that were raised by a bear and not Montana wildlife.

“Our mission is to provide a temporary place for injured and orphaned animals so they can be returned to the wild. Our emphasis is definitely on orphaned bear cubs,” said Patty Sowka, director of the rehab center.

All of the cubs were born in January or February and all orphaned. They will be placed back in the wild sometime in December.

Montana Fish & Wildlife has a rehabilitation center that has been operating this program for a number of years as an alternative to euthanizing the orphaned cub and they have had some good success. Their studies show that bear cubs in their program have a 44% survival rate for their first year compared to cubs raised by sows in the wild that have a 37% survival rate.

Montana Wildlife reports that they discovered a sow that went through their program raising cubs on her own;

Success Story
In the fall of 2004, the Montana Wildlife Center received a sighting of a bear and her cubs, the sow had a conspicuous green ear tag. Staff at the center researched the bear’s tag number and found that it was a female raised at the center over six years ago. She had no record of human disturbance and had obviously proven herself to be successful in the wild. Though we will never be able to know exactly what happens to the cubs once they are released, stories like this one make us realize that efforts to return orphaned bear cubs to the wild is worth it, one bear at a time.

How many bears have they rescued?

Sowka says that since 2000, the center has taken in approximately 196 bears, 9 of which were grizzlies that ultimately were placed in captivity. Two black bears were also placed into facilities.

There plan is that once a bear is put back in the wild that they never see it again. They tag them so they can track any future encounters they may have. How many they have reintroduced that became “problem bears” ?

“The only bears we find out about are the hunter harvested, the management removals and the road-killed bears. We know that three or four of the 34 that we just put out in the spring earlier this year have been legally harvested in good situations. They were not removed because of conflicts; they were being good bears in good areas and legally harvested this year from last year. They were going on two years old.

“We have very few management removals. Those are the ones we mostly are concerned about. In entire history of the program — we can safely say 10 at the most that Im aware of.

This sounds like a great program giving opportunity to return the majestic bear back to the wild rather then destroying it or placing it in captivity.

Resources for this story

Great Falls Tribune
Montana Fish & Wildlife

Post & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee NC reports that a dead black bear cub wrapped in two Obama signs was discovered on the campus earlier this morning. The bear cub appears to have been killed by gun shot to the head. At this time there is no group or individual claiming responsibility for this act. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Enforcement division is heading the investigation. Currently bear season is open in the area around the area but obviously the illegal disposal and potentially other game violations are being investigated.

Why anyone would do this senseless act is unclear. The conclusions many are jumping to is that a McCain supporter must be behind this act. Of course one could surmise in an area of that the state (rural areas) where McCain appears to be doing better that an Obama supporter could have done this to stir things up. I don’t think laying blame on any group is the way to go and we should wait till the authorities complete their investigation.

Bottom line why anyone would kill a bear cub and dump it is a senseless act stealing from all the citizens of the state. I hope anyone with information on this or any game violation will call;

Report wildlife violations
1-800-662-7137

WYFF 4

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

For most of us as hunters there are few circumstances that we become the prey and extremely rare that we’ll face a life and death struggle with a predator but that was the situation the Leming’s faced this past September on a Wyoming elk hunt.

Ron J. and his father, Ron G. Leming, were archery hunting for elk up the South Fork of the Shoshone River in northwest Wyoming in mid-September, about 15 miles into the Washakie Wilderness from the trailhead. It’s an area they are familiar with, having hunted there for the past 15 years.

For three days they’d bugled, cow-called and worked the woods, hoping to arrow a big bull. Fall is when elk breed. Big bulls bugle to challenge other bulls in hopes of breeding more cow elk. Hunters imitate the sounds in hopes of luring the testosterone-amped bulls into range.

During the morning hunt they were working two bulls when they encountered the grizzly bear.

This time, though, something different happened. The bull elk that had been shredding the tree bolted away.

Leming stood up to walk down to his father when again he heard a sound behind him. Turning, he found himself 15 feet away from a full-grown, 11-year-old male grizzly. The Lemings often encounter bears in the backcountry. It’s a huge area that ties into Yellowstone and Teton national parks and the Washakie Wilderness. Last year, a six-point bull elk that Leming shot had been partially consumed by a bear when he returned to pack it out.

“I hollered at him,” Leming said. “I said, ‘Get out of here.’ He waited about a half-second, laid his ears back and came at me full speed.”

Initially, Leming thought about hooking his bow release, a triggerlike device, onto his bowstring and taking a shot. But as he fumbled to hook the release, he quickly discarded that idea. He ran around a tree and sprinted downhill, the big bear hot on his tail.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Leming recalled. “We always talk about what we would do if we ran into a bear. But you never think it’s going to happen to you.”

Leming said he considered standing his ground, but there was no way he was going to drop and play dead. If he dropped, he said, he wasn’t sure if the bear would maul him or just start eating him.

“I’m not going to lay there and let something eat on me,” he said.

Leming, a fence builder, is no small fellow. At 37, he stands 6 feet tall and weighs 230 pounds.

As he blazed past his father, he saw an arrow fly within a foot of his leg.

“The bear was two feet behind me at that point,” Leming said. “I just kept running. I made it three more steps and the bear knocked me down.”

As he was falling, Leming pivoted onto his back. As the bear bore down on him, he fought back, throwing punches and kicking to keep the bear away from his head.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the other end of those,” his father said. “He definitely fought for all he was worth. That kid’s Ford tough.”

But the bear seemed undeterred. Chomping down, the bear bit into Leming’s right arm, just below the elbow.

“I couldn’t believe the force,” he said.

Somehow, Leming managed to get back up and tried to escape again, this time getting tangled in the branches between two trees as he ran. The bear attacked from behind, biting into his shoulder and then pulling him down. This time, the bear bit through his gloved left hand. At the same time, his father was beating the bear on the back with his bow.

“The bear took a couple of steps toward my dad, then he just slowly turned and walked away from us,” Leming said. “Dad put another arrow in his bow, but he didn’t want to shoot.”

The grizzly staggered down the hill about 80 yards and fell over dead. With his first shot at the running bear, the elder Leming had likely nicked the bear’s aorta, causing it to quickly bleed out.

“I was covered in blood,” Leming said. “I didn’t know if it was my blood or the bear’s.

“My dad pretty much saved my life there,” he said. “That’s the thing I cannot believe in this whole story. He stood there with a bow and made that shot at a charging grizzly bear. That’s amazing. You could take that shot a thousand more times and never do it.”

“I’m just glad it ended the way it did,” his father said “The only thing that went through my head was that bear was going to maul my boy.

“I just knew I had one shot. I never thought it would do what it did.”

The elder Leming said he was exceptionally unruffled during the whole incident.

“I was just calm as can be, and I don’t know why,” he said.

He said he prays often. He prays for his family’s safety. And that morning, before hunting, he prayed that God would guide his arrow, although he had a big bull elk in mind.

He figured the bear was about 10 feet from him when he shot, although he can’t remember using the bow’s sight to aim. He also had to wait until his son passed, so his target window was short and his target was moving.

“I knew I was going to hit him, but I didn’t know where,” the father said. “When you’re in a situation like that, it all happens so fast.”

According to Mark Bruscino, bear specialist for Wyoming Game and Fish Department who examined the fight site and the bear the following day, the bear was hit with the arrow in the upper right chest and the arrow continued horizontally into the bear’s body.

“He’s lucky the shot was as lethal as it was, because a wounded bear would’ve done more damage,” Bruscino said. “He lost a large amount of blood in a short period of time.”

Bruscino said the bear, which was in good condition, probably mistook the two for elk because they were calling. The two were also masking their scent with wafers that smell like cow elk urine.

These excerpts are from the full story in the Star Tribune that is certainly worth reading. An amazing story of survival wrapped in themes of faith and family. I’m sure the bond between father and son is stronger now after such an event. I’d be honest if it was me in this situation I’m not sure I’d want to hunt this area any time soon. However the Leming’s plan to return to the area and complete their annual elk hunt.

Ron was left bloodied, dazed and injured, but has healed in the month that’s passed since his ordeal with the large predator’s claws and teeth.

He plans to return to the same spot where the attack occurred, which is the family’s favorite place for elk hunting each fall.

And though bow hunting season is still open, this time the Lemings plan to hunt with rifles.

“And I’ll take my pistol,” Ron added.

He likely always will carry “little scars” on his left hand and right arm from his encounter with the grizzly.

“But I just like to go hunting,” Leming says.

“I don’t blame the bear at all,” he added. “I just think they need a season (on grizzlies) to put a little fear in them.”

Cody Enterprise

I agree with Ron’s statement that a hunting season needs to be put in place. With the reintroduction of predators into an area like the West hunting as a method to control the growth and restore the balance needs to be an option. Maintaining a natural fear of man in large predators like bears, lions, and wolves will help reduce dangerous encounters with humans.

On this hunt they will not go alone, a cameraman from Reel Outdoor TV will accompany father and son on the elk hunt. They plan to try to recover the broadhead from the bear remains if possible. This time their weapons will be firearms and they do not plan to ever allow a bear to get that close to them again.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Michael Comstock of Columbia NC has been found guilty of hunting bear during the closed season as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. The firearm charge was a federal offense resulting in a six and a half year jail sentence.

Surveillance and investigation into bear poaching in eastern North Carolina by officers of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has led to a federal firearms conviction.
Michael Augustus Comstock, 50, of Columbia, N.C. was sentenced Sept. 17 in U.S. District Court to six years and six months in prison for possession of a firearm by a felon, plus three years supervised probation upon his release.
Comstock pleaded guilty Oct. 6 in state court to hunting during a closed season, which resulted in a $2,000 fine, replacement costs of $2,232 and suspension of his hunting license for two years, effective beginning when released from federal penitentiary. He was also required to pay court costs of $121.

The press release on this case from the NCWRC gives us some of the details of what happened.

Sgt. Mark Cagle of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission led the Tyrrell County investigation, which began April 2007. A stakeout led to apprehension of a suspect and collection of evidence, including a recently killed bear, a stolen 12-guage shotgun that had been recently fired, a 55-gallon barrel of peanut butter, a 55-gallon barrel of bubblegum and 55-gallon barrel of peppermint candy, as well as observation of hunting dogs released at the bait site where the bear was killed that same morning.
Forensic testing by State Bureau of Investigation revealed the slug that killed the bear matched the stolen shotgun.
In addition to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Wildlife officers involved, along with Sgt. Cagle, were Sgt. Mark Rich, Robert Wayne, George Owens, Sgt. Ed Alston, Tim Wadsworth, Jim Schreckengost, Brian White and Nathan Green.
A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment on Nov. 17, 2007 charging a felon with possession of a firearm. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bragdon served as prosecutor for the government. On June 16, 2008 after a four-day trial before a federal jury, Comstock was found guilty.
U.S. attorneys recently sent a letter commending the diligence, investigative skills and ethics of the wildlife officers to Col. Kenneth Everhart, chief of the Division of Enforcement for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
“I appreciate this recognition of our officers and their role in this case,” Col. Everhart said. “The level of commitment and hard work by these wildlife officers was outstanding. I also appreciate the efforts by federal prosecutors and the cooperating law enforcement agencies in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.”

A tip of the hat to the wildlife officers that worked so diligently on this case and work hard every day to protect the resources of the state.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

This is the part 4 the conclusion of my Maine Bear Hunt. If you’re just joining the story you might want to check one of the early posts; Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
Thursday I knew was the last time I was going to get to hunt with the schedule I had. I had much anticipation going into the final hunt, while it hadn’t been the best week for bear hunting there was no doubt that as the week went on things seemed to improve. Some guys in camp were tagged out and just about everyone had at least one bear encounter to talk about. Many of those were encounters with sows and cubs so they had past up shots others were animals not giving good opportunities for shot placement.
I got to the field where I parked my truck for the daily hike into the blind site. As I done each of the previous days I sprayed down good with Primos Scent killer and then sprayed on the special cover spray the guides make. I got into my blind around 2 and like all the other days I had to reconstruct the blind because the bears had torn it apart the night before.
I settled in and was entertained with the antic of the squirrels and the birds all around me. About 5 pm I caught the movement of a bear coming in and once again it was the small bear I’d been seeing all week. I watched him feed and hang out at the bait site for 15 minutes or so and then he left. Realizing this maybe the only bear I see this week I was still confident with almost 3 hours to go that something bigger would show up.

With just mere minutes to go in shooting light I heard something coming off to my left. The bear popped its head out just a few feet from the bait bucket. It was real quiet but the bear paused when I clicked the safety off. I was afraid I blew it and expected it to spin and run but it didn’t. After a few seconds it stepped out into the opening giving me a clear shot. I wasted no time in making my BAR 30/06 bark. The bear dropped in its tracks and didn’t move. I waited about 2 minutes then I started to step out of the blind and the bear jumped up and ran I got another shot off before it disappeared into the brush. I went back into the blind and sat down and listened. I waited 5 minutes and by now I couldn’t see. The woods were quiet so I walked up to the bait bucket and clicked on my flashlight to look. I heard the bear get up again and try to run but then I heard it crash. Not wanting to push it I backed out to get help.

We went in about 45 minutes latter and despite the lack of a blood trail we recovered the sow within 40 yards of the bait site. I had caught her a bit high but my bullet took out both her lungs. My second shot as she tried to run caught her in the back just missing her spine I owe a big thank you to Brian, Daniel, Russ, and Chip for the assistance of getting my bear out of the woods.

This is a 4 part series on my Maine Bear Hunt, in part one I covered some of the background information and the hunt set up, in part two I talked about my first day on stand and some of the products that helped me be successful.
Bears and bear hunting for whatever reason is a lot different then many of the other hunting we do. Unless you have a lot of experience judging the size of a bear is extremely difficult. Hunters will know the term ground shrinkage and with deer it usually means you shoot what you think is a nice 10 pt and when you recover it you discover a basket 8 or maybe even a 6 pt. Hunters usually judge bears by their weights (record books actually use skull measurements) and they tend to over estimate the weight by a lot. Maine has a very good bear population with the average bear weighing in around 150-200 lbs 300 and up is a trophy bear.

I don’t know about anyone else but hunting predators can be a bit unnerving if you really think about it. No matter the size of the bear when it gets inside your comfort zone it makes your hair stand up on end and gives you an adrenalin rush. Tuesday’s hunt was going to do this because of how it all came to be.

I arrived at the blind site around 2pm to find that a bear or bears had discovered it and tore it down. I quickly and quietly as possible put the ground blind back together and put my pack in it and rested my gun against a tree. I then took the bait I brought in to the bait bucket a mere 11 yards away and dumped it in and started to return to the blind. A few feet from the blind I noticed some fresh bear droppings probably from the culprit that rearranged the blind. As I was looking at it I heard a noise I turned and looked and caught a flash of black behind the bait site. The bear was coming in fast and I wasn’t even in the blind nor did I have my gun with me. Looking back it seemed like a foot race between him and I, he going for the bait and me for the blind. I’m not sure who won because when I looked up he was at the bait.

This turned out to be a small bear probably one of last years cubs he had to stand on his tip toes to get into the bait. His initial arrival was certainly an adrenalin rush and he entertained me after that. He came into the bait early everyday to avoid any confrontations with other bears I’m sure. His approach to the bait from directly behind was not the typical approach other bears were using judging by the trails. I started calling this guy Booboo and was hopeful he would bring Yogi in with him one day.

The only other thing that happened to me on Tuesday was halfway out of the woods my flashlight died. I lost the trail out and ended up hitting a soft place in the swamp sinking almost to my knees. Luckily I had the bucket with me that I carried the bait in with that I could use it to pull myself out.
Other then Booboo I didn’t see any other bears on Tuesday or Wednesday. Everyday I arrived at the blind to find it dismantled by bears the night before and I found fresh scat close to it like he was taunting me. Thursday would have to be the day because it was the last one I could hunt. So join me for part four and hear how this hunt ends.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

This past week I was in Maine Bear hunting this is part two in what I think will be a 4 part series on the hunt. If you missed part one you may want to read that first.

The weather for bear hunting was not great; windy, warm, and threatening to rain. I packed my rain gear in my pack, sprayed down with Primos Silver XP,

load the gun and head for the blind. It is around 2 pm on Monday the hike in is not far but staying on the trail is important while maneuvering through the swampy terrain. I pour the bait I carried in with me into the bucket tied onto the tree and then I retreat back to my blind, which is only about 11 yards away. The blind is made out of burlap and is attached to three trees forming an L shape. Additional brush has been placed in front of the camo burlap to further break it up.

Once in my blind probably the best piece of hunting equipment that I brought with me is pulled out of my pack. The Thermecell is a portable mosquito repellent machine that works phenomenally well.

Within mere minutes of starting this up the pesky mosquitoes are gone. The Thermecell operates virtually silently and odorless off a butane canister that is inside the Thermecell and an external pad of repellent that is released when it is heated.

With the skeeters dealt with I go about making sure there is nothing to close that I can brush up against to make noise and that the chair is positioned the right way. Within a few minutes of getting settled down the woods return to normal as the Chickadees’ find the food in the bait bucket which sets off non stop flights to and from the bucket that would rival O Hare during the Thanksgiving rush.

Observing the wildlife is great fun and besides the birds the squirrels are now feeding out of the bait bucket as well. A couple of brief rain showers rolled through but I stayed pretty dry with the tree canopy overhead. The wind kept up though and none of the big critters seemed to be moving. Around 6pm I caught a flash in the woods but I wasn’t to sure what it was. I knew it was to small for a bear but it wasn’t a squirrel either. A few minutes latter a red fox exploded out of the weeds near the bait site catching an inattentive squirrel as it descended the tree the bait bucket was hanging from. With dinner in his mouth the fox trotted down the trail that past a few feet off to the left of my blind. A couple minutes latter he returned down the same trail and caught another squirrel near the bait bucket.

While theses events were very entertaining it was also very reassuring that the Primos Silver XP was working. This fox had walked by me only 3 or 4 feet away and never reacted to me being there. He did this not once but three times so I knew my scent control was good.
The first day’s hunt ended without me even seeing a bear but that’s fine because on Tuesday all that will change when I have a foot race with a bear. Tuesday’s exciting hunt will be in part three of this story.

Where to begin the story of my latest adventure is always the question I struggle with. When your adventure involves a 1200 mile drive it seems to me you have to include something about that part of the story. Suffice it to say 2 hours to drive 14miles on the Massachusetts Turnpike will be burned into my memory for a long time. The rest of the trip is pretty much a blur but I’ll tell you the slight roll back in gas prices has put a lot of the folks back on the road.

Monday morning I met up with John from R&S Guide Service and rode along with him on his bait run to refill the bait sites. John makes this run daily and the other guide Russ makes a similar run to keep the bait sites up. John’s run is about 70 miles with about 20 or so stops where he refills the buckets with a bait mixture that looks like a mixture of granola & pastries.

At some of the sites that don’t seem to have much activity he sprays a secret scent attractant that smells like a mixture of a Starbucks Coffee Shop and a good old BBQ Joint. Don’t know if it works on the bears but I’m wondering what’s for lunch and how long has it been since I had breakfast.

The use of bait when it comes to hunting is often a controversial issue with some thinking it makes it too easy for the hunter. The reality is whether it’s bears in the north or deer in the south a bait pile does not guarantee a hunter a kill. Animals coming into a bait site do not ignore their senses and if one thing be it a smell, or a sound, or movement they will be gone in a flash. The use of a bait site is also a good management tool often giving the hunter the opportunity to observe the animal closely making sure this is an animal they want to kill. In the case of bears we want to make sure we only kill boars or sows without cubs bait sites increase the opportunity for the hunter to identify the bear and whether it has cubs with it.
The bears can access the bait at any time and more often then not will access it after it becomes dark and hunting has ended. Hunting bears is important to maintain the proper balance of nature so the population does not explode impacting other species as well maintaining the natural fear of man. Baiting and using hounds are the methods most often used to hunt bears in Maine. The rural economy gets an economic boost from hunters like myself traveling to Maine for the great hunting.
Bear meat is excellent table fare, despite what many say, my family and I truly enjoy the many meals a bear will provide us.

John takes me into the place I’ll be hunting this week it’s through a broccoli field, into an overgrown hay field and down the hill into a swampy heavily wooded area. I’ll be hunting from a ground blind a mere 11 yards from the bait site. There is a bunch of trails winding through this area with a few passing on all sides of my blind. Having hunted bears before I know how silently they can come in so the multi trails especially the ones behind me give me a bit of a chill up and down my spine as we complete setting up the blind. I’ll return in a few hours to begin my hunt in the mean time we have a bait run to complete.

In part two of this series I’ll share with you the hunt and whether or not a bear came down the trail behind me and joined me in the blind.

Story & Photos by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Success in Northern Maine on bear hunt. Last evening I had a 170lb sow come in just before dark. I’ll post the full story latter but for now I got to pack up and head South for the opening of the Canadian Goose Season.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Well I’m in Maine on my bear hunt so far no luck. The wind has been tough we had a couple of showers but the wind is really what is messing us up. 10 guys in camp and only one bear brought in on the opening day. Hopefully the wind will die down before this evenings hunt.

Well the last few days have been crazy as I get ready to head north for “God’s Country” and a little bear hunting. Needless to say my plan to put a radio show together has been shot to heck so I’m sorry there won’t be a show this week. I’ll have the equipment with me on this trip if I can get acess to high speed internet to do a show next week from the road.

My intention was to use my Mossberg 500 12 gauge with a slug barrel and the new Remington Core Loct sabot slugs but that won’t be happening. I was unable to get it sighted in so after shooting two boxes of shells and developing a sore shoulder I’m opting for my ‘06 instead. I need to invest in a bore sighter for sure.

Well I have a 20 some odd hour road trip ahead of me which should be fun except for that Jersey NYC streatch. Updates on the blog will depend on internet access.