A Whole Lot of Shootin'

The rifle deer hunt this year took us back up to Wolf Creek area, and due to the fact that we had seen so many bucks on the bow hunt this year, we had high hopes that this hunt was going to be a successful one, and it did not disappoint.  Prior to the first weekend, Dad drove up a couple of days early and set up camp in the bottom meadow along the North for of the Duchesne.  In the first two days leading up to the hunt he spotted a nice three or four point buck across from camp early in the morning just before light, so again, hopes were high.

On opening morning it was Dad, Glen, Nick and I, and we all met up at the usual pull off area just before light.  Dad and Nick headed up the East ridge and Glen and I headed up to our usual spot along the West ridge.  Well right off the bat we were seeing groups of deer all over the place, but in usual fashion, we were having a hard time with the lighting and struggling to determine if there were any bucks.  Glen and I were ahead of Dad and Nick when we looked back to see Dad was sitting down and ready to take a shot.  With our binoculars we could see the group of deer they were looking at, but it was too far and the lighting was too bad to make out any antlers.  Dad started firing shots, he shot three times at about 200 yards, but was not able to connect (later on in the hunt we learned that the rifle he was shooting was quite a bit off).  We got on the radio and found out that the buck he had been shooting at was a big two point, but he was sure that he had missed it, as they saw it run up over the skyline and out of sight.

With that, Glen and I decided to continue up our ridge, we saw a few does and fawns initially, and then Glen spotted a single deer clear across from us, on the opposite ridge ahead of Dad and Nick.  We set up and watched the deer for probably about 15 minutes debating over whether or not it was a buck, until I finally got a glimpse of an antler and gave Glen the go-ahead to start shooting.  Well...that's where the fun began.  I realized that it was a far shot, but didn't realize just how far until Glen fired off his first shot, which was about 10 feet below the deer and a clear miss.  Then a second shot, again way off, a third, a fourth.....  Luckily the buck was on a ridge with absolutely no cover and for some reason was not sure which direction to go.  Now a new clip, Boom!....miss, Boom!...miss, Boom!....miss, well, at some point within the chaos, two clips later, and breaking into a new box of shells.... lets just say we worked together and were some how able to finally get a clean hit on this buck.

After lighting up the hillside and basically filling the mountainside with lead, we hooked up with Dad and Nick on the radio and over the next hour or so we were able to guide them to the buck.  Well when they finally happened upon it, we were all a bit surprised to find that it was the famous "Spike Buck Bull" that Dad and I had caught a glimpse of the year before.  This buck has a large spike on one side (kind of like an elk), and on the other a deformed antler that comes straight out sideways and hooks up.  Though the antlers were that of a spike, the body on the animal was quite a bit bigger, so we knew it was older than a one year old deer.  We got the animal off the mountain by about 1pm and headed back to camp.  The next day when we headed down the canyon, Dad stopped by the check station and by looking at the teeth, they were able to determine that the buck was actually about 2 and a half years old.  In fact, it wasn't the only deer to come through this season with a similar rack, there was another one that also had the same deformity in its antlers, so it was pretty interesting.

With a successful opening weekend in the books, we were ready for round two.  A few days later we headed up early in the morning around 4:30am.  From the get go the weather was awful.  Driving up Parleys was a mix of snow and rain and the forecast was supposed to do nothing but get worse, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  By the time we reached the area however, we were surprised to find that with the exception of some small snow flurries the weather was actually pretty good.  The plan was to have Dad hike up the bottom of the canyon while Glen and I headed back up to the usual spot.  It took us until about half way up the ridge before we started to see deer.  Suddenly we saw a group of deer out in front of us on the same ridge running through some quakies.  The first few were clearly does and fawns, but then the last one came through and we could tell it was a two point at about 100 yards in front of us.  The buck stopped, Glen set up, and Boom!! He fired off a shot, yet again, a clear miss!  The deer started running and angled away from us in a way that didn't allow for a second shot.  Glen was pretty disappointed that he started off the day with another miss, and was sure that he had the cross hairs directly on the deer.  Well after a few minutes, across the canyon there was another group of deer heading up into the quakies.  It was dark but we were fairly sure that the last one was a pretty decent sized buck.  Dad was still in the bottom of the canyon and proceeded to make his way through the trees while Glen and I worked our way up the ridge and over the top.  When we first got over the ridge we didn't see any deer.  We sat there in the freezing wind for about 45 mins until finally we spotted some movement on the next ridge over.  We quietly made our way closer, but the deer took off before we were able to get close enough.

We then decided to keep pressing on, and worked our way over yet another ridge.  Just as we were coming over the top of this smaller ridge, I looked out in front of me and spotted a doe and fawn not 100 yards in front of us.  Then behind them came another doe and finally a nice two point buck as well.   Once again, Glen set up, gathered himself and fired off three more shots.....All clear misses!! This was beginning to become a common theme for the hunt.  By this time the buck had taken off and Glen was now more frustrated than ever, and I think we both kind of figured we had used up our luck for the day.  We followed the trail of the deer over the ridge and found a whole lot of quakies, with just a few openings.  By this time we could see Dad ahead of us as well, and we all met back up.  We found a clearing and sat down patiently, hoping that the deer were still in the area, and that there would be one last opportunity.  Well within about a half hour, believe it or not, out came the same two deer just across from us.  "Here we go again", I was thinking to myself, and I'm sure Glen was thinking the same thing.  He set up to shoot, I told him to take his time, take a deep breath, and to not jerk the trigger.... BOOM!....miss,  BOOM!....miss....how could he be missing?!!  One more shot opportunity...I couldn't help but think to myself that if he misses this, it's going to be a lonnnnng ride home.  He took a deep breath, held steady and BOOM! Finally and clear hit!  The buck went down and I could tell that Glen was pretty relieved and shocked that he was able to finally connect, even after such a crazy morning.

Dad got to the buck before we did and we headed over to take a look.  Even before I approached the deer I already knew it was a really nice two point.  As we got to work on the deer, we couldn't help but laugh about the situation and think about how lucky we were to keep getting all these opportunities. Before heading out the bottom of the canyon, I sat down and took a practice shot with the rifle in attempt to determine whether or not the scope was off.  I took about a 100 yards shot and was at least a foot off.  So in other words, I think it's safe to say that the reason for all the misses throughout the day likely had to do with the scope being off.  We proceeded to drag the deer out the bottom, which was flat and rocky most of the way, and made for quite the workout.  We finally made it to the rode and dad went and got the truck.  All in all an awesome hunt this year, between the bow and rifle hunts, we have three deer down and a freezer full of meet.  I guess it's safe to say that the hunt was filled with a whole lot of excitement, luck, AND shots fired!  Until next year...

The Return to Payson

For the rifle elk hunt this year we decided to take a different approach and head back to the old spike only unit, which meant the return to Payson.  It had been several years since we hunted elk in Payson and I think we were all anxious to see how the area had changed, and how the elk and deer herds had held up in the time we had been away.

We hunted the usual area this year, started off around The Knob area, and proceeded to continually hunt, hike, and glass the surrounding areas until we could locate the elk, which was not any easy task due to the thick brush and heavy cover all throughout the area.  Fall was in full swing, the leafs were still changing, and every which way we turned the landscape was filled with bright color.  In usual fashion, the majority of the area was steep, thick, and hard to maneuver around in, but by the second weekend we had managed to start seeing elk.  In fact, early one morning Dad and I headed up the Bennie Creek trail and cut off into the meadow just before light.  When we reached the top of the ridge Dad spotted an elk on the ridge just across from us.  This area is famous for big bulls, which is one reason that the spike only hunt is so difficult. We were excited to see the elk and by the time it was light enough to see, it was not hard to tell that we were looking at a bigger bull.  We determined that it was a smaller six point, and continued to watch the bull for several minutes before we spotted another elk which came from some thick brush just above.  This was another bull, in fact, this was one of the biggest bulls I've ever seen.  We determined that it too was a six point and would have been one for the record books, had it not been a spike only unit....of course.  We continued to watch the two bulls for about an hour.  In that time we were able to watch the two spar and push and shove one another around, which was an awesome sight.  As we watched the two bulls wrestle around in the clearing we could hear the smashing sound of antlers every time they locked up.  Once we had determined that the two bulls were alone, we decided to have a little fun and use the bugle and cow calls a few times.  Though they were interested in our calls, they wanted nothing to do with another bull, and they proceeded to disappear into the brush and steep hillside.  We didn't see any other elk that day, but the two fighting bulls put on a great show nonetheless, and we were pretty satisfied that we were able to watch, plus we now knew there were elk in the area.

Within the next few days, Dad and I, along with Glen, Nick, and Austin, returned to the same ridge.  The morning started off slow, and nothing seemed to be moving, with the exception of the deer of course, I'm pretty sure I saw around thirty deer that morning.  After a few hours Glen made a trip to the other side of the ridge and happened to spot a heard of elk feeding in the pines across the way.  We quietly made our way over and found that there were approximately 10 elk milling around in some very thick maples and pines straight across from us.  The sun came up just as we saw the elk, which made it impossible to glass the ridge, so instead of spooking the heard, we decided to return to the other side of the ridge and check back in a couple hours.  So thats what we did, and when that time came, we sent Glen and Austin down and around the back side of the ridge the elk were on, Nick stayed put, and Dad and I slowly hiked over to get into a better position.

As soon as we crept over the ridge we could see that the elk were still there, however they were in such thick cover that it was near impossible to determine whether or not there was a spike with them.  We glassed the hill for several minutes and though the elk didn't seem too spooked, they were definitely on to us, and were working their way up the hill and the opposite direction from us.  We strained to see if there were any spikes with the herd, but only saw a big bull and several cows and calves.  After a while the herd dissapeared up over the top and out of sight, at which point we got a call over the radio from Glen and Nick.  Apparently they were standing right in front of a spike on the other side of the ridge....figures, the only two guys that weren't hunting at the time ran into the spike, isn't that the way it usually goes?!

On the last day of the hunt Dad and I headed back up one last time to the place Glen and Austin had spotted the spike a few days prior.  Early in the morning way up on Loafer we saw a herd of at least 15 elk standing in the sun, but they were moving, and were out of our reach.  Dad saw a glimpse of a single elk out in front of us as well, but the country was just too thick, and though we sat there patiently for the majority of the day, we didn't see any other elk.  So, with that we headed down to the Daley Freeze, picked up a grease burger, and called it a hunt.  No elk this year....yet.  Never know what the extended will bring...

Backcountry Bear Hunting

Back in June 2012 I, along with my dad, hooked up with Clearwater outfitters and set out on my very first bear hunt in Northern Idaho.  The trip was great and despite some of the obstacles we encountered, including the weather, and our obnoxious Mormon counterparts, we managed to have a great time.  The food was great and the staff were some of the nicest people we've ever met.  Through the hospitality shown to us by Roger, Ben, and Anne, the trip would not be soon forgotten.  So, in light of the fact that I didn't see any bear throughout a week of hard work, and after spending seemingly endless hours in tree-stands and ground blinds, Roger, the owner of Clearwater Outfitters, invited me to come back on a fully guided backcountry bear hunt in mid September, free of charge.  I of course accepted and after heading home, began to plan out my return trip.



Well the next couple of months seemed to fly by and before I knew it it was time to make the journey back to Idaho for round two of backcountry bear hunting.  I set out on a Saturday afternoon at 3:00pm and started to make my way to Missoula Montana, this way I could drive the rest of the way on the following morning.  After several hours of driving through smokey sky's, followed by darkness, with my only company coming in the form of the Utah Utes over the radio, pulling out yet another win over the Cougars, I finally made it to Missoula.  I found a hotel and was in bed by about 11:00pm.

The next morning I woke up early and started the remaining leg of my drive to Orofino, Idaho.  As I navigated through Missoula and eventually made my was into the canyon I noticed the smoke filled air continued to get thicker and heavier until eventually I came across signs saying to "use caution" and "stay in your vehicle", so I knew right away that the recent forest fires were going to be a problem, but hoped that the smoke would subside by the time I got to my destination.  Well, after four more hours of driving I managed to make it to base camp by about 11:00am.  The smoke still lingered in the air, but seemed to have cleared enough to think that there may be enough visibility to hunt, or at least check out some of the incredible views that Idaho has to offer.

When I arrived at camp Roger was already busy packing the remaining supplies and saddling up horses and mules to start into the backcountry.  I unloaded all my gear and it was strapped securely onto a mule, and within about an hour Roger and I were saddled up and ready to start our 6 mile ride to backcountry camp. Along with the two of us there were two other hunters that had already set out to camp earlier that morning, Mike, a long time friend of Roger and experienced hunter who had spent 25 years in Alaska, and Mike's buddy Steve, who was mainly along with Mike to accompany him on his moose hunt, though he had an elk tag as well.   So in all we had 4 hunters, 14 horses and mules, and two dogs.

The ride was slow going with so many horses and mules to account for, but we moved slowly and steadily without any issues.  For the first couple of miles we slowly climbed through dense, deep, dark forest country, surrounded by huge pines that must have been hundreds of years old.  Eventually we made it to some clearings up on top and found that, though you could see the fires burning in the distance, approximately two big canyons over, surprisingly the smoke was not too bad at the time.  Once on top of the ridges there were incredible views in all directions.  Though there are not aspens due to the low elevations, there are many different kinds of brush changing colors in preparation for fall, including huckleberry bushes which are a dark shade of red at this time of year.  Roger pointed out some of the areas we would be glassing and hunting throughout the week, and we made a few stops along the way to break out the binoculars and see if we could see any bear roaming around in the distance.

Well after climbing trails, navigating mountain tops, and zig-zagging down ridges, we arrived at camp, which consisted of a wall tent for Roger and I, and another large Kelty tent for the other two members of our party.  The camp itself was situated in a kind of bowl area, with a meadow for the horses to graze and a spring for water throughout the week.  After getting situated in camp we came up with a plan for the following morning, Roger cooked up some dinner, and we headed to bed.

Durning the first night we were awakened by the sound of buggling elk in the distance as well as curious horses tramping around through camp and seemingly stampeding through the area every few hours.  When morning rolled around Roger was up promptly at 4:30am cooking up some breakfast and preparing a plan for the day.  I rolled out of bed at about 5:00am, ate some breakfast, packed up my gear and the old trusty .270, and we were off.  Roger and I headed up to "Blue Lake", which is one of a series of small lakes within the area that we would hunt throughout the week.  On our way to the lake I saw some amazing scenery, and we had some fun calling in a buggling elk as well.  Once we arrived at the look out over blue lake we could seemingly see forever in each direction.  We used spotting scopes and binoculars and sat there for a few hours, hoping to spot a bear in one of the large surrounding canyons, but unfortunately didn't have any luck.  After checking in with Mike and Steve over the radio, we bounced around to a couple of various other locations throughout the day, but no sign of any bear and by the afternoon the wind had changed directions which brought in the smoke.  After a long day of hunting we finally returned to camp.  Even though we had hiked all day and were pretty tired at this point, Roger cooked up a couple of steaks and potatoes and we had a great meal.

Throughout the next couple of days Roger and I continued to hike all around the area and look for bear.  We saw elk along the way, mountain goats, moose, and deer, but do to the increasingly heavy smoke we were only able to glass small areas at a time and therefore were having a hard time finding the bear.  We hiked to many of the surrounding lakes as well including; Blue, Larkin, Crag, Heart, Northbound, Nat, and Hero Lake.  All the while I could tell that Roger was a bit stressed over the fact that we weren't seeing any bear.  I continually did my best to assure Roger that I understood and that there was not much we could do about the hot temperature and the unpredictable smokey conditions.  So we came and went, hiking around the countryside and the days rolled by.  On the third night, just before dark, I stayed behind at the Larkin Lake overlook, while Roger headed back to camp to start dinner.  All of these "overlooks" consist of very steep and rugged country, and most are on the top of cliffs, which make for great Mountain Goat habitat.  While glassing with my binoculars I turned around to find a nice big "Billy" Goat standing right behind me....within probably 10 yards at the time.  Earlier in the week I was told that goats have a bit of a reputation for being aggressive on occasion, so I was a bit startled at first, but once I realized that the goat couldn't see me I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of photos and did a little bit of filming.  The goat was very impressive and I had never seen one up close like that.  They are strange, muscular looking creatures, with the bulk of their weight in their front quarters and upper body.  Well the goat never seemed too startled and he eventually came to within about 10 feet of me.  As soon as it got dark I headed down to camp and considered myself pretty lucky to have such a close encounter.

On the last day of the hunt we still hadn't seen any bear, but by this time I had seem some unbelievable scenery and was having a great trip.  We decided that the four of us would take our horses and head off to Hero Lake, where we would do some fly fishing and hopefully see some bear along the way.  Well lets just say that I quickly learned that horses and steep trails don't mix, and through a series of events found myself trying to control a horse while spinning around and jumping over a log on a steep backcountry pathway.  Though I was feeling a bit uneasy about my spooked horse, I did my best to keep my cool and was able to make it the rest of the way without any other issues.  The trail to Hero Lake had obviously not been traveled yet this year, and had thick undergrowth and fallen trees covering the vast majority, Roger walked in front with a chainsaw, clearing the path of any debris so we could eventually navigate our horses to the lake.

Once we managed to make it to the lake we had a great time, I have never been an avid fly fisherman, and tend to prefer to float a bait, but this was definitely the exception.  This lake was the most remote in the area and therefore had very rarely ever been touched by fisherman, and almost every other cast there was a fish on my line, or at least a fish rising from below to take a shot at my fly.  After fishing for several hours we were about to mount up and head back when we came across two guys that backpacked their way in to the area.  The night before they had shot a massive bull elk, and were in the process of coming up with a plan, and trying to determine how in the hell they were going to pack the meat out on foot for 10 or so miles.  We talked with them for a little while, and they tried to persuade Roger to let them use our horses, but we simply didn't have any choice, and we needed the horses to get back to camp.  We set off back to camp and after traveling for an hour or so, Roger and I split off from Mike and Steve, and tried to hurry back so we wouldn't miss the last evening hunt before it got too dark.  As we were walking our horses through a steep, rocky part of the trail, I turned to Roger and asked "Do you guys ever see any bear on the trail?",  to which Roger replied, "No, haven't ever seen one on the trail, but we have seen them in the distance".  Well not ten minutes later we came around a corner and suddenly Roger turned to me and excitedly yelled "Bear!, Bear!"  I was behind his horse at this point on the narrow trail so I couldn't see the bear at first.  I quickly reached up onto my horse and grabbed my rifle out of its satchel.  I ran around to the front and about 60 yards ahead of me, right on the trail, was a huge black bear.  I lifted by rifle to take a shot and just then the bear spooked and ran straight down the steep hillside and stopped.  I had one more shot opportunity, I raised the gun, was just about to shoot, and suddenly two small cubs scurried up a large pine tree, both Roger and I saw this and I lowered my gun deciding that not only would it be unethical to take a bear with cubs, but it is also illegal.  So, though I was a bit discouraged, I was happy to have had some excitement and the opportunity to finally see the bear up close during the trip.

After hunting for the last evening, I headed back to camp.  We were all a bit disappointed that none of us were able to fill our tags, but had high spirits and I had really enjoyed my adventures in the backcountry.  We sat and told some stories and drank beer, which eventually lead to Roger breaking out some Peach Schnapps.  Mike told stories of when he used to guide Brown Bear hunts in Alaska, and other interesting tales of his hunting adventures as well.

When we woke up the next morning, we were moving pretty slow, but I decided to head up for one last morning hunt, while Roger packed up camp and prepped the horses.  I walked for several miles that morning, down the same trail we rode in on, hunting along the way and taking in some of the views.  I remember being kind of surprised that I wasn't more disappointed that I wasn't able to get my bear and realizing that the experience and the adventure was more of what I was after in the first place.  I thought back to something that Mike had said the night before.  He said, "You know, there is one good way to fuck-up a perfectly good hunt....and thats by shooting an animal".  After thinking about it, there is a lot of truth to the statement, and this is probably why even though I usually don't fill my tag, I continue to love to hunt, and come back year after year.

After a couple of hours, Roger and the others caught up to me along the trail and I jumped on my horse and headed back.  By the time we were back at base camp I was definitely ready to get off of my horse and get home, but was a bit sad to head back to the "real world".  I thanked Roger for all of his hard work and drove all through the night returning home at 4:30am.  All in all a great trip, hope to hunt with those guys again in the future.  Until then, its the rifle deer and elk hunts in the next few weeks, and then time to retire the journal until next years hunting adventurous.