Headed for the hills today to move Weasels trail camera.  He had high hopes of putting it on what we call Grass Meadow to catch unsuspecting deer and elk that are using that area.  But!  Bears Butt has had just a little too much photo interpretation under his belt over the years and went in search of “water”.  At about 10 a.m. this morning, Bears Butt thought he had discovered a water hole in the hunting area and not too far from where Weasel had his trail camera.  I called him immediately!

Ring!  Ring!  Ring!….Hey!  Weasel, I’ve found water!…..I’ll turn around and come right back!

As it were, he had just left his home and wasn’t even a mile away when I called him and was back to my place to look at what I had found within a minute.  He agreed it sure looked like a water hole!

I asked, can I go?  YES!

And so off we went!  Our travels took us up Blacksmith Fork Canyon and I remind you about the Beaver Tree back when the turkey hunt was going on!  Remember?

Well, nothing stays the same for long and now it looks like this:

It appears the wind decided it was not safe to continue to stand!

On our way I saw a doe on a private ranch, but that was the only critter we saw except for a weasel crossing the road and a few squirrels.  It was a hotter day than it was yesterday but still nice when you get up in the mountains.

We also saw this on our way:

A sign alongside the road directing “Spencer” to the camp!  Spencer must always be late to camp because this sign has been used a whole bunch.  Made of metal and all!  And then a little farther up the road this sign greeted us:

We had a great laugh over that!

Continuing on our way, we made it to where Weasel’s trail camera was securely held and took it down for the move.  His plan:  I’ll take it to the water hole and put it there IF there is in fact a water hole where you saw what looked like water, otherwise I’ll put it in grassy meadow like I had planned.

Off we went up the “no trail land” up and over the hill ahead, down the ravine and up a very wide trail leading us to near where the water hole should be.  It didn’t take too long and Weasel was looking at his GPS for the water hole coordinates.  We passed it!

So, back we went and then up through the trees in a blind manner hoping to find our lost water hole that may or may not even exist.  We cut a trail made by cattle and decided to follow it.  Perhaps the cattle know where this water hole it.  Within a few hundred yards, there it was!  A water hole!  YEAAA!  But, there was someone elses trail camera looking over the water hole.  We waived and hopefully they get a kick out of our antics.  If not…Tough Crap fella…it’s public land!  At least we didn’t mess with your camera!

Well, we set up Weasels camera a ways down the trail so as to watch a different trail than the other guys camera.  We think we know something he doesn’t but time will tell on that one.

What is nice to know is that there is water where we didn’t think there was any and that the elk and deer are using it regularly!  Weasel has both an elk and a deer tag and hopefully we will be packing out an elk on the bow hunt in 3 weeks!  How would that be?  The excitement is building and life is good!

Bears Butt

July 26, 2015