Beautiful night in Hushed River Valley

[MrWolf]

I'm on my longest Interloper run yet, currently at 379 days.  50 of the most recent days have been spent in Hushed River Valley.  I ventured in somewhere around day 325 for the first time, having never seen the region (I was living in Broken Railroad when Vigilant Flame was released).  I left HRV recently to restock on cloth and craft some new arrows, then came back to explore more.  I'm working on mapping the entire region, but in no hurry and just surviving and enjoying the fantastic scenery.

I've read all the warnings about the wind and cold in HRV, and it's certainly true, usually.  I find it makes me really appreciate the rare times when the wind is calm and the sky is blue (or overcast and just not windy).  I just had one of those rare - rare for HRV - times when I went through almost 24 hours of pretty nice weather, and it coincided with a successful bear hunt.  I had spent maybe a week living in the Valley Cave in the lowest part of HRV, mapping and avoiding the moose (first one I've seen in HRV so far).  Finished mapping and exploring, I woke up to a fairly nice day and made plans to climb the rope and return to my base cave near Stairsteps Lake.  It was a fairly uneventful trip until I got close to the cave and heard angry crows signalling a bear nearby.  I looked around for a place to shoot the bear from and saw this log behind me (I went back later and took this pic).

I didn't know if it would be high enough off the ground to avoid getting mauled, but what the hell, I'll give it a try.  The bear appeared over a hill so I walked up to the highest point of the log, crouched, and waited.  I was carrying 6 uncured guts, so the bear was headed right for me.  When the bear was close enough that I knew I wouldn't miss, I shot and it looked to hit its midsection.  The bear charged and my sphincter tightened.  The bear had been approaching from the downhill side (to the right and behind in the pic above).  It charged around the near side of the log and I realized it was coming at me from the uphill side (which would put it closer to me), and I thought I was about to be mauled.

It was a relief when the bear stopped beneath me, seeming to get stuck under the log.

It would go back and forth and twist side to side, then break free, run around the log again and get stuck again.  I was freezing and luckily, was able to light a fire on the log.  I thought I would just have to wait it out.

While I was waiting on the log, I shot another arrow into the bear's head hoping that would end it.  I moved back along the log a bit, and the bear worked itself free and took off into the gloomy distance (night wasn't far off).  Great.  I came into the region with 7 arrows, just put 2 into the bear, and probably won't get them back now.

I waited to see if the bear would run back my way, but no such luck.  I headed off in the direction I last saw the bear and before long, there it was, a big dark lump in the snow.  I only found one arrow.  Damn.  I'd have to explore later and see if I can find the other arrow.

It was cold, snowing lightly, but calm, so I lit a fire next to the bear and figured I would start harvesting.  The fire was protected from the wind in two directions, but I was sure the wind would come up and the fire wouldn't last long.  I was wrong.  The snow stopped, the sky cleared, and an incredible aurora bloomed for most of the night.  When the wind blew, it blew from the protected directions.  Dawn brought fog, then a beautiful sky, then a fairly calm morning.

I made a few trips to take the hide, guts, and cooked and raw meat to the cave.  My condition was low at that point, and incredibly, I never saw or heard a wolf in several short trips back and forth.  I spent the day in the cave cooking the rest of the bear meat and boiling water.  Remarkably, the sky stayed mostly clear the entire day, though the wind howled more often than not.

I came into HRV with two cans and I've found a couple cooking pots and several more cans.  Every clothing and food item I've found in the region has been ruined or almost so, but I've been able to heat up a few ruined cans of peaches, eat them, and keep the can afterward.  I finished cooking the bear meat and decided to test the difference between the pot and two cans for boiling water.  The two fires had received identical fuel and had the same temps, though the temp probably doesn't matter.  I dropped all my water, put a can and pot on one fire, and a can on the other fire.  

I hadn't really used the cooking pot much and I was surprised to see how inefficient it is for boiling water.  In about the time it took to boil 2L of water in the pot, I boiled 4L of water in the two cans (the last two cans finished boiling 5 minutes after the water in the pot finished boiling).

The next day, I went back to take the snapshot of the log I had shot the bear from (the first pic at the top).  I walked around where the bear was when I shot it the first time and found my arrow.  It was broken, but at least I didn't lose the precious arrowhead.

Now I have food for days and a lot of water after the pot/can tests, so I think I'll just relax in the cave and finish mapping the south part of the region whenever the weather is decent.

 

 

[Drifter Man]

Great read, and congratulations on a successful hunt (and a successful run overall). I have some unfinished business with that particular bear. He treated me rather unkindly.

As far as I can tell, one can produces as much water per unit time as the pot, i.e. with two cans you should make twice as much water as in the pot, like you observed. The advantage of the pot is that you can easily leave it unattended for 2 hours.

[Hotzn]

Good  read, +1. I presume the 500 days survived achievement is beckoning? Good luck!

[MrWolf]

Thanks, @Drifter Man.  Your Snowball stories are a big part of what inspired me to write this.  Good point about the can and pot.  For some reason, I was stuck on considering two cans (probably because of the two cooking surfaces per fireplace) and overlooked that one can would produce about the same as the pot in the same amount of time.  The pot is handy for cooking meat a little bit faster, too.

Thanks, @Hotzn.  I'd like to get that 500 day achievement, and keep going, but I'm trying not to think about it.  I'm afraid I'll end up being too careful and die for some stupid reason.  I'm also thinking of working on the Faithful Cartographer achievement and seeing if I can fully map all of the regions.

Other topics have discussed the boredom and lack of things to do after hundreds of days.  I find I look forward to going back to regions I haven't seen in a long time.  I always gather things (too many things) when I stay somewhere for a while and I enjoy returning to those places and seeing what's there.  I don't keep track of what I leave behind, and I certainly don't remember everything, so it's like finding new loot all over again.  I'm at level 5 on everything but Ice Fishing and Rifle Firearm - both of those are level 3 (I've been reading any of the firearm books I find, just for fun and to see how high I can get that skill without a rifle).  Right now I'm eager to return to Coastal Highway and spend some quality time catching salmon.

[Drifter Man]

26 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Other topics have discussed the boredom and lack of things to do after hundreds of days.  I find I look forward to going back to regions I haven't seen in a long time.  I always gather things (too many things) when I stay somewhere for a while and I enjoy returning to those places and seeing what's there.  I don't keep track of what I leave behind, and I certainly don't remember everything, so it's like finding new loot all over again.  I'm at level 5 on everything but Ice Fishing and Rifle Firearm - both of those are level 3 (I've been reading any of the firearm books I find, just for fun and to see how high I can get that skill without a rifle).  Right now I'm eager to return to Coastal Highway and spend some quality time catching salmon.

Great tips for enjoyment of long runs. I like that once you are set up, you suddenly find you can afford to pause and just watch the scenery and have good time. I've just returned to Coastal Highway after a long, long time, and its blueness blew me away like it always does.

Have a safe trip to CH.