Suddenly we awake and it’s Friday!  How quickly time flies when you are having fun!

It was cold during the night and we awoke to a trace of snow on the ground.  The clouds were hanging low, but no moisture falling out of them.  The air was calm, but the threat was there for more precipitation.  Well, we will make the best of what we have.

The plan for Bears Butt was to go back into the Crawfords and try to find my powder horn, it won’t be easy.  Softball had to go home last night and so we replaced him with Muskrat for the ride.  Muskrat said he would cap up and probably even shoot if he saw a Crawford 2 point close by.  We will need his rifle as our anticipated sighting of big deer is high!

Driving down the highway toward our turn off I snapped a picture of what the Crawfords looked like that morning…snow!

The weather forecast for the day is “clearing and warming during the day and then the temperature drops significantly during the night”.  Well at least we will have a decent rest of the weekend.

Once inside the bowels of the Crawfords I realized this hunt for my powder horn will not be an easy one.  There is over an inch of snow on the ground and we are very much near the bottom of the mountain.  What will it be like up near the top of Hidden Valley?

Our search took us to exactly every place we stopped and got out of the vehicle yesterday.  Our minds collectively recalling just about every detail of our trip in and back out.  We did not travel on any of the roads where we did not stop to get out, because the likelihood of the powder horn hanging out the bottom of the door was not considered.

Stopping and looking, moving the snow with our feet, we looked and looked.  Once satisfied we had covered each of the stops we went on.

At the “sneak on the deer” spot I just knew we were going to find the horn.  Edjukateer and I readdressed every move “we” “I” took.  Going down to look over the edge of the drainage where the two bucks were spotted.  Backing to the truck, gathering up our gear for the sneak.  The possible paths each of us took while we did our sneak.  Again moving the snow and trying our best to locate the powder horn.  Our first pass from the truck to the shooting spot proved nothing.  We backtracked again, thinking and talking out loud about the possibilities of taking this trail over that trail, constantly looking for any hint of the horn laying in the bush or on the ground…back to the truck…nothing.

Let’s do it again.  And so we did, retracing our possible trails again.  I was on Edjukateers right side during the sneak.  Then I was behind him in a narrowing of the trail, then to his right again.  Then Softball radioed the deer were on the move and Edjukateer and I left caution to the wind as we ran up and over the top to take our shots.  He knelt there, I readied by cross sticks here.

Nothing…no sign of the powder horn.

And so it went, up to the over look of Hidden Valley….down to another pee break by the deep mud puddle…over to another over look and then down toward the main road on the other side of Rocky Dugway.  Nothing.

I said aloud as we left our last stop, “Well Grandpa, at least it’s lost in the Crawfords”.

If someone, someday finds this horn, they will have a chance to get it back to me.  First off I have carved “A. Zundel” on the main body of the horn and secondly, White Trapper had scrimshawed on a piece of malachite my Squiggly and name.  A healthy reward to the finder.

Thanks Wapiti, Edjukateer and Muskrat for taking a day out of your hunt to help me try and find my powder horn.

Now back to the hunt!

When we left the over look at Hidden Valley, Edjukateer spotted a small group of deer down in a hollow.  A quick look with the binoculars showed a very nice buck in the group.  Our problem with that was they were 500 yards away and moving farther away.  There would not be any chance to get on the buck.  Had there been other Willow Creek Free Trapper vehicles in the area we might have been able to radio them and get them into a position to ambush the buck as he crested a far off ridge…oh well.  And that was the only group of deer we saw this day in the Crawfords.

Coming out we decided it was time for a hot dog and so we pulled into one of the many gravel pits and gathered up some of the wet sticks we found there.  We built up the paper quite high under the wet sticks and it was enough to get them dry and lighted.

I have to back up a little right here.  The day we got into camp, Dry Dog was excited to give us each a little present he had picked up somewhere during the year.  Each package contained two wire hot dog cooking ends, designed for you to find a stick and twist it on the end.  Put your hot dog on it and cook away.  Of course the length of your stick would determine how hot or burnt your gloves would get…how about that Edjukateer?

Even though Wapiti is showing a double dog dare you on his grill unit, I do not recommend more than one dog at a time.  We had a bad experience this day and lost a dog to the coyotes.  I would have eaten it anyway, but it fell in some cow pie of days ago.  We also modified our wires by bending the ends out just a bit more than they were when new.

There is just something special about a hot dog cooked over a small fire and eaten with some chips and drowned in a cold beer!  How about it Muskrat, how did you like that?

And after our lunch break we headed back toward the camp across the valley.  Leaving behind us another storm cell moving in to take over the Crawford Range.

It was time for the evening hunt by the time we got back into New Canyon and so we continued on up toward the top.  Deer seemed to be everywhere what with the break in the weather.  I don’t recall how many we saw, but it was over 30 and maybe even 50 before it got too dark to see.  But for sure one of them was a buck and Edjukateer made a super shot on it to bring it back to camp.  Good job Edjukateer!!!  First buck on the meat pole!  He is the camp king!!!!  Long Live the King!!!!

Sure it’s not a big buck, but this size of deer makes for some mighty fine eating!

And as more rigs pulled into camp out of the darkness, one of them was the “Blue Goose”, loaded with a bunch of loaded guys and they had reason for celebration as Dry Dog had finally scored a hit on one of his many attempts this season.  A very nice 3 point buck!  Congratulations Dry Dog and a fine shot I might add…right in the neck!

And so, Edjukateers “Kingdom” falls to the Dry Dog…The new reigning King of the camp!  Long live the new King!   Good job both of you!

Well it’s Friday evening and into camp came Hot Spark and her kids…Conner, McKenzie and Cody!  This is the first deer hunt for each of the four of them and it’s going to be a good one.  They are all very much excited to be there and to experience what goes on.  Of course every one of us has to be careful what we are saying and to whom, but that’s ok…it takes youngsters in camp to replace us old buggers who someday won’t be able to be there.  Welcome to camp!

Of course the kids need to get their sleep and mom (Hot Spark) hustles them off to bed about 8:30 or so.  They don’t mind because they know 5 a.m. will be coming soon!

And the rest of the camp enjoys one last laugh before retiring as well.

It has been a great day!  With more expected tomorrow!  Our “last” full day of hunting for this muzz season!  At least the last full day while we are all still camping…there are more days to the hunt and we all know that.

Good night everyone, this old fart needs his beauty sleep!

Boy, I’ll say!!!!

Bears Butt

Oct. 5, 2013