2018 is a year to remember, especially the hunting seasons.  Let’s start with the archery hunt.  As usual it takes 365 days to arrive, but seems like 2 days to end.  Even though I spent 27 days in the woods hunting between the archery hunt and the muzz hunt, the time slipped by so dang quickly it wasn’t even funny.  My poor puppy at home would have another thought on that, but I digress.  As the year progressed, Utah’s weather just wasn’t normal.  I think we had a total of 1 inch or rain from April through September and then the rains made up for the rest of the year.  But, the archery hunt begins in August around here and so it was very dry and dusty in the mountains, as you are about to see.

Weasel and I had made our plan to take Cody “Squirrel” and Kenzie “Ricochet” up and hopefully get them some shooting and maybe even a buck or two.  They certainly had earned the right to be there and had been practicing hard all summer long.  Both of them very capable of a 20 yard shot with their bows.  Even possibly out to 25 yards if needed.  Unfortunately for me (and ultimately, you), I was trying to free up some space on my iphone and deleted all the pictures I had taken during this “first bow hunt” of the season.  I lost some very good pictures of the two of them in various pictures and situations.  I am sad.  Since then I have created a permanent  backup system to prevent that from ever happening again!  Here are all the pictures I have of the two of them during the hunt.

We had seen a two point cross through this area and they were in hot pursuit.  The deer was never seen again, however.

I can share with you a couple of stories that happened during the hunt:  Weasel and I had decided to split up, one to take Squirrel with him and the other to take Ricochet.  I ended up on Ricochet’s team.  Being as August is the month the Archery hunt begins in Utah, it is also the month School begins for the year and Ricochet had to come off the mountain to attend some important school function.  She missed a couple of days of hunting because of that.  As a result, the weather was showing signs of maybe raining, a welcome thought and if it was to actually happen we would be most appreciative.  I think the animals thought the same.  I had to leave the mountain and travel down to pick up Ricochet at the Hardware Ranch one evening as the storm front was approaching.  It would not rain until the next day, however, but at least we had clouds and cooler temps.  As I was driving down the dirt road to pick her up, I had two different groups of deer cross the road in front of me.  Both groups had bucks in them.  I was running late however and only stopped to take a couple of pictures of the deer.  I could have shot them, as they were not scared and only about 15 yards away.  I hurried down to get her and hoping the bucks would still be in the area when we went back up the road past where they were.  No such luck.

It was a good hour long drive from the Hardware back up to our camp and I was pushing it to get to our chosen water hole before it got too dark.  As we proceeded up the road, we were seeing a lot of wildlife, just no bucks.  Arriving at our water hole and the blind we had prepared earlier, there were two small bucks on the hillside above the water.  Ricochet got out and made a play on them, as I continued down the road to hide the truck.   As I walked back up toward the blind, I could see Ricochet working her way out of the trees and coming down toward the blind.  We both got to the blind about the same time.  She told me she had a really close encounter with one of the bucks and almost got a shot, but it didn’t work out.  We settled into the blind and had about 45 minutes until it would be too dark to shoot.

I wear hearing aids and turned them up full blast (max reception).  With a cow elk tag in my pocket, I was hoping a cow would come down the trail to the water hole and I’d punch my tag.  There was lots of sign of elk in the area, as well as buck deer and other critters, some I hoped would not show their faces (cougars/bears).  Suddenly I could hear something coming down the trail behind us and to my left…could it be an elk?  As the noise of its foot steps got closer and closer, I could tell it was a sizable animal, but most likely not the size of an elk or moose.  Suddenly it snorted and spun around and bounded back up the trail the way it had come.  I spun around, bow being drawn as I did only to see a nice sized buck deer bounding off into the trees behind us.  It had been only about 10 or 20 feet behind us when it smelled us.  I highly doubt it saw us, just the way the blind was set up.  It continued up into the trees and then started making a circle around to our right.  At one point it was skylined and we could see it was a nice buck, maybe a 3X4, with tall tines.  When it got to the point of the trail on the hill, it turned and started down our way!  I was excited and I’m sure Ricochet was too, as it came closer and closer.  It was less than 20 yards from us when it stopped and stood in the trail, looking toward the water hole.  The water was down hill from us and to our left.  Suddenly a doe, came running out of the trees behind us and straight down to the buck.  The two stood there a minute conversing (or whatever wild animals do to let each other know what is going on).  Then she sniffed around and looked our direction.  Then she bounded back to where she had come from.  The buck then looked down the hill to his right, which was straight ahead of us.  There stood another buck, not as big as the one on the trail, but still a buck.  The bigger buck, then decided to leave and go where the doe had gone.  As he did that, the smaller buck came up and stood on the trail where the other had just been.  I just knew, he would continue to the water for a drink and it would give Kenzie (Ricochet) a perfect broadside shot at 10 yards.  The buck stood on that trail until it was too dark to shoot.  When she knew there was no way she would be able to see her sights, she leaned over and whispered to me that she would not be able to shoot.  So we stood up and that buck almost turned itself inside out getting out of there!

We walked the 500 or so yards back to the truck and proceeded back to camp.  A fine evening hunt under our belts.

Meanwhile, Team Squirrel was sitting on their favorite water hole and had a 4X4 buck coming in.  The animal had to do almost what Ricochet’s buck had to do and that is, cross in front of the blind as it went to water.  Squirrel would have about a 10 yard shot if the buck continued on the trail it was on.  The problem they had was a domestic cow was also getting a drink from that water hole and thought she owned it!  Long story short, it ran that big buck off, 4 times.  It never got any closer than 40 yards and Weasel told Squirrel, “If it comes back a 4th time I’m going to shoot it”!  Squirrel agreed and encouraged his dad to do just that!  It never came back.

And so, was the fact that there were so many animals out and about this particular evening because of the barometric pressure of the upcoming storm?  Was it just because we had a day of cooler, cloudy weather?  A combination of the two?  I don’t have the answer, but it sure was exciting to see critters so very close and almost getting shots!  Those were the two closest encounters for these young hunters during their season.  As their grandfather, it was exciting to be with them in camp and in the blinds.  They are troopers and good hunters.  I hope I have MANY more days in the field with them.

Well, we call that archery hunt number one.  We had a family/friends rendezvous back home, so we packed up and headed down the mountain for a week to enjoy that happening.

Archery hunt number two, began the following Thursday, and Weasel and I had two more evenings before the elk hunt ended.  Both of us hoping we could at least fill one of the tags we had.  Elk is SOOOO good eating!  We checked trail cameras and made our plans to hunt a particular water hole the first of the two evenings.  We chose the one where the 4 point had come in just in case it came back.  It was a good plan, but nothing came in that evening.  A couple of does and fawns is all, but it was still a good evening to be out.  Clear and cool, with a slight breeze (however it was blowing in a direction that didn’t help our cause and actually chased off the animals coming in).  We heard them snorting and stomping as they went up and around us.  That’s hunting.

The last evening, had me sitting on a water hole where I had found a “new to us” trail coming in from a dense stand of pines, so thick you can’t see 10 feet inside of.  The trail was tore up with fresh elk track.  I donned my “leafy suit” and made myself at home watching that trail.  Anything coming out of that stand of pines would be about a 20 yard shot.  I even took a selfie of myself being so sneaky.

As Gattlin would say…”I can see you, but you can’t see me”!!!!

It was getting dark, but I could still see quite well to put an arrow in a critter out to 20 yards, when suddenly down that trail came the sounds of several elk.  My heart rushed into my chest especially when I saw the movement of a cow elk coming my direction!  OH boy!  I readied my tab under the nock of the arrow and tightened up on the string a bit!  The cow came to the edge of the timber and then turned and went down the edge just inside the tree line, down and to my left.  She had two calves with her that came to the edge and stood looking down her way.  The calves had done what I needed the cow to do.  I could have shot the calves, but I was in no mind set to do that.  Besides, had I tried to get one, I’m sure a pass through would have gotten the second one which was standing broadside along side the closest one.  She went down and stopped and it was then that I noticed the breeze was taking my scent directly in her direction.  She suddenly snorted and turned, ran up through the trees the way she had gone, ripped past the calves and they joined her up and over the top to wherever scared elk go, never to be seen again.  DANG!

No action for this VAP .166 tonight!

Just as suddenly as she had bolted out of there, the sounds of a very irate bull elk on the hill to my far left, began to ring out into the very late evening air!  He was snorting, bellowing and tearing up some trees and bushes with his antlers.  He was not acting very friendly at all.  He wasn’t bugling, but almost to that high pitched sound.  He continued to raise hell for several minutes, maybe even a half hour.  I decided I might as well make my way to the truck, as it was getting darker and darker.  I had about 500 yards to go to the truck.  I put my pack on and slowly made my way down through the pines toward the road.  I was almost to the road, when suddenly I saw the outlines of 6 cow elk standing on the other side of the road, about 40 yards away from me.  They were all looking up toward the bull elk still tearing up the hillside.  I froze, like a dummy, instead of trying to close the distance and getting a shot.  My thought at the time was, why wasn’t Weasel with me, he could have taken this shot!  40 yards is nothing for him.  I’ve seen him hit the bottom of a beer can, consistently out to 60 yards!

And so ended our archery elk hunt for 2018 !  Exciting, but no meat for the freezer.

You know, it isn’t about the harvesting of animals, it’s more about just being out in nature.  Being with friends and family and enjoying time away from the every day and the modern stuff.  Even though we still rely on trail cameras, iphones, gps, 2 way radios.  We also get to see the beauty of this world and what God has created.  The animals in their natural environments, doing what they need to do to survive. 

Seeing what was left behind as they traveled the trails trying to survive.

The clear sky’s filled with stars that city people just don’t get to see unless they leave that environment to see it. 

The dust that accumulates because of the lack of rain 

The sounds of coyotes howling in the night that sometimes keeps you awake and sometimes acts like a yoga chant that lulls you to sleep.

The sights of animals a lot of people will never see in their entire lives, and we take it for granted all too often.

Just being there!  Getting dirty along the way and then cleaning up as best as you can, given what you have.

YES!  I sure hope I have a lot more days like these!  And let’s not forget why we get up early!

And if that isn’t enough!  Sometimes, God smiles down on you with the bounty of the land that insures you can share with your friends and family.  I thank God each and every day for this success!

And Yes, it is the biggest the mountain had to offer.  One shot, that’s all any of us can ask for!

Bears Butt

October 18, 2018