Today is historically “the longest day of the year”, not for everyone else, but for me.  You see it’s been 364 days since we headed out of town to join the muzz deer camp and these 24 hours always just seem to drag along.  I think this year will be somewhat different as I have a ton of stuff to do this morning running all around gathering necessary supplies for the next week and then this afternoon there are some modifications needing to be done to The Rack….Weasel and I will be attacking those jobs later.

I didn’t tell you in my post from yesterday, but we were hearing bull elk bugling while we were in our camp.  That sound is awesome to my ears and it was to the elk hunters in the area who were on the last couple of days of their hunt.  The area is very big and steep and full of nasty dead fall and tall thick pines and elk love to get in there and stay.  We ran into one man who was not the hunter, but a helper and he said his partner went in (meaning he ventured into that nasty tangle) early in the morning and hadn’t been seen since.  He also said he heard a shot in that direction as well and hoped that his buddy had filled his tag.  Nothing as of that time on the radio however.  We saw that they had pulled their camp and gone home later in the day….did he tag out?  Probably will never know.  He did say, however, that he had heard of a 360 class bull had been taken from an area just a bit farther up the canyon earlier in the week.  THAT is a monster bull!  So, elk hunters, those big nasty boys are in there, you just have to get lucky.  Hearing them is one thing, seeing them is another.

So, I’d expect we will be hearing some of that bugling going on while we are on our deer hunt as the rut has only been going on in earnest for a couple of weeks and that is when they are the most vocal.

So, even though I don’t expect to see many bucks, the rest of the critters keep if interesting to say the least.  AND, the fall colors are absolutely beautiful right now.  Even the aspen leaves are beginning to fall and cover the ground.  This season will be a bit different for us than even last year was.  Last night the weather man even had the “S” word in the forecast for next weekend.  I’d like to spend a day or two with some snow on the ground.  Remember last year when I lost my Great Grandfathers powder horn and the next day we were trying to find in covered in 4 inches of snow?  I wish someone would find that and get it back to me….Wapiti, look under the seat of your rig, maybe it’s under there and not on the mountain like we suspect.

OK, gotta go!  Times a wastin.

Good luck to all of you who are getting ready for your own muzzy deer hunt!  I hope you all tag a wall hanger!

Bears Butt

September 22, 2014