T
It is the last day of the hunting season for mule deer in
Idaho. It is Wednesday, October 24, 2012. It’s snowed three times off and on
the last four days. I have tried to go
hunting in the weeks before but it’s been too dry and every tree still has its leaves
still on the branches. So with the dry conditions and the leaves it made it
very hard to hunt. So I waited for the weather to change and finally it has.
With the new snow I think that I can find the buck deer that
I’m looking for in the mountain. But I have to help Dave feed his livestock
first. We have to go up the canyon to Sugar Creek, Idaho, where we feed sixty
head of cow and twenty calves. Then off to Franklin where we feed another twenty-five
more cows and twenty calves. And then we go to the former auction site where he
has three more corrals with twenty in each pen. Them I can go home and get myself
ready for a half day hunt. It’s about 11:30 a.m. by now.
I arrive at my house and put the four wheeler in the bed of
the truck. I have a Ford 350 truck. It is silverfish gray in color. It is very
high off the ground and it’s hard to load the four wheeler in the bed. I have
some eight feet ramps but it is still hard to load because how steep it is. But
I drive the ATV up the steep ramps and onto the truck bed. I have the ATV
loaded and I’m off to get my day pack. I’m looking around the garage for
something that I have forgotten.
And through the garage
door walks in my little sister Tammy. She is 6 year younger than me. She lives
in Elko Nevada. So it was a pleasant sight and a shock to see her again. We hug
and go in the house to talk. She has been at my sister Patty’s house. They been
working on some projects that Patty would like to get done before the snow sticks
to the ground. Patty is two years older than me. I have five sisters and one brother.
One sister and my brother have passed away. Tammy and I talk about this and
that. And before long she is on her way back to Elko Nevada. We say our goodbyes
and she is off.
I start where I left off looking around for things that I can’t
forget for the hunt. Oh yes I’ve got to get my rifle. It is a 25-06. I love how
it shoots. It can shoot a long distance and the bullet doesn’t drop much until
five hundred yards. I grab my backpack. I put two apple and two candy bars and
some other candy (for energy) in the pack. The pack has knives and bags for
meat. I put a coat in the pack. I will start off the hike with a long sleeve
tee shirt and if I get cold I will put the coat on. I look around. I know that
I’m forgetting something. I think and think. I’ve got to be off or I won’t have
enough time to get to the top of the mountain to find the mule deer that I’m
looking for.
I get in the truck and I’m off. I have to drive a half hour
or 45 minutes to get to the place where I unload the four wheeler. As I drive
down the road I see some turkeys, and I also see two deer as I’m driving. The
deer are too small and they are does and I can’t shot a doe. They aren’t in
season for me. Youth from 12-16 years old can shoot does but I’m too old.
Today I’m looking for a very special deer with antlers. But
I haven’t given myself enough time to do it right. But this is the last day of
the hunting season so I’ve got to try for him. I tried for this buck on opening
day. I had my neighbor with me and it was too dry and hot. If you tried to walk
it was so noisy that the deer could hear you a mile away. I tried a new but old
route and it wasn’t like I thought it was a long time ago. So it was like a whole
new world. But we were there so we made the most of it. We walked and looked and
walked and looked for half the day. We got very tired after just a half of a day
and started back to where we began.
I couldn’t think I could get tired looking for a deer like
that, but I did and I was very tired. Boy how things change from twenty to sixty
years.
This is the deer I’m after. The photo was taken from my
trail camera.
I arrive in Sugar Creek at Dave’s Corrals. These are the
corrals where I was feeding cows just a few hours earlier. I drive the truck in
the corrals and start unloading the ATV. I have to be very careful I don’t drive the ATV off side of the side of the ramps or come down too fast and break something
on the truck or the ATV, which I’m good at sometimes. The four wheeler is off
the truck and all is good. It is time to get my day pack and the rifle on the
four wheeler. I put my coat on. The ride to the bottom of the mountain will be
very cold so I also put my gloves on. My hands seem to get cold on the ride. I
have a box on the front of my ATV that hooks to the rack that is mounted to the
wheeler. I put the day pack in the box and lock it down. I have my rifle on a
sling. I put the sling over my back and that puts the rifle in front of me. The
rifle is too long to be on my back. It will hit the rack on the back of the four
wheeler, so that is why the rifle has to be in front of me.
I’m not looking forward to this ride at all. It is so rough
by the time I get to the mountain that I have to climb, or I should say walk,
up. I’m worn right out. And I still have a good hour and half of hilking to the
top of the mountain at the end of this trail.
I swing my leg over the seat and sit down. I put the four wheeler
in reverse and back onto the main road. Now I’m off on a good half an hour ride
and like I said before, there is nothing good about this ride. I have to be in
hurry so that means I have to go somewhat fast at first. But the road is so rough
you are bouncing back and forth so much there is no time to look around at the scenery
or anything else.
I get to an opening. This place is called the sawmill. This
is the place that in the old days was the main camp where they would bring the
cut down trees to. The time would be in the 1930s. And I wasn’t born until 1954
so you could say that is before my time. But I can remember the time when there
was a pond and some log cabins at this site. But the Forest Service has done away
with this camp a long time ago and all there is now is a big open place in the mountains.
I will unpack the ATV at the far east end of the sawmill and start the long hike
up the mountain.
I park the machine and start to unpack. I take off my coat
and put it in the backpack. It will be too hot for me. And that is hard to believe.
Because right now I’m standing in a foot of new snow. It is white all around.
The snow is on everything and that is not good at all because the snow that is
on the trees and branches will come down on you when you come in contact with
them. So now the dry, noisy leaves are all gone, but in the place of the leaves
is snow. So it will be still hard to see the deer but I’ve got to try. It’s not
looking good at all but I’m off up the mountain. I’m trying to stay away from
the trees as much as I can but it is going to be impossible in some places.
I’m going up the ridge and there are very few trees along
the ridge. As I’m hiking along the ridge I can see rocks sticking out of the
snow and it look like a set of stairs going up the ridge. I’m working my way up
the mountain. I try to look all around for signs of deer. It is hard walking up
hill and not looking at my feet. I have to keep my eyes up to catch movements or
a deer standing and looking at me, and I have to catch a glimpse of the deer before it see me.
I walk a few steps, look around and catch my breath. I have to do that all the
way up the mountain. I’m half the way up before I see my first deer trail in
the snow. I see tracks now and again. They’re not overwhelming me but that means
there are deer around. If there wasn’t so much snow on the branches maybe I
would see a deer.
I get closer to the top and run in into a lot of maple tree and
aspens. They are covered in snow and are very thick. I work my way through them
but I touch them and snow falls all over me. My body tightens up in shock when
the snow falls on me and goes down my neck and back. The mountain is steep and
the going is slow. The snow keeps on falling on me.
I get to the place where we have the tree stand over by some
small springs that come out of the ground. There isn’t one deer track around
the spring. The last two hundred yards it has taken a good twenty minutes to
get through the trees to get here. I look around and head in a northeast
direction. Things just don’t look the same in a foot of snow and the branches and
brushes are weighed down with new snow. I walk a one hundred yards and start back
south. Just in a few feet I start to run into deer tracks. But I’m get very tired
again. My senses are very dull because I’m so tired. I’m not as alert as I’d
like to be. I’m having a hard time picking my feet up and then setting them down.
I work my way over to the other ridge. I’m hoping that it is in a place where I
can look the hills over and also look in some draws for deer. And I sit down and rest. I get
to the ridge. But I’m not in a good place to look around. I walk around the
hill and things aren’t right for spotting game. So I walk up the hill a ways
into some pine, hoping that I can find a place to sit down. But there isn’t a
place to sit down out of the snow.
I stop by a tree and put my rifle against
the tree trunk. The shirt that I have on is wet from all the snow that has fallen
on me and also I’ve worked up a good sweat. It is very cold on this ridge and the
wind is blowing. As I stand there the cuffs on the shirt are freezing and going
hard. I take the backpack off my back and set it on the snow. I take the coat out.
It is dry. I hang it on a branch of the pine tree and take my shirt off and put
it in the backpack. I put the coat on my bare skin. It feels so warm and dry.
I’m thinking maybe I should have put another shirt in the pack too. Oh well,
you can’t think of everything.
As I stand there I take an apple out of the pack and eat it.
It is gone in a flash. I also eat the candy bar and have a drink. While I stand
there l’m looking around for a deer or movement but I’m not in a good place to
see very far but I keep my eyes open hoping that I will be lucky and have a
deer stumble out for me to see. But I’m not that lucky today. I stand there for
some and think to myself what time of day is it. I take my phone out of my
pocket and look at the time. And it dawns on me that a few years ago I would be
looking at the watch on my wrist and not the phone. Boy, times have changed.
It is 5 o’clock and it will be dark in one hour. I put
the pack back on and start to look around as I move through the trees. I see
something that doesn’t look right. I put the rifle up and look through the scope.
It is a deer and it has a good set of antlers on its head. It is a good one but
it’s not the buck that I’m looking for. On the other hand he is a keeper. But I
don’t have the time to get to him before darkness falls upon me. I watch the
buck for a time.
Things start going through my mind: if I had more time could
I get him? Maybe and maybe not. But I did find him so that is good on one hand.
It shows that I can still spot a good deer if they are there. And I think to
myself if I had more time I could find the buck that I was looking for. But
that is it: time. And time waits for no one.
So I start off the mountain, feeling very good about myself.
If you look at me, I shouldn’t be up here but I did it. And a man in his right
mind wouldn’t be up here. He would have waited for the weather to change. But I
think all this to myself as I stumble off this mountain with a smile on this
face of mine.
