A Buckless Deer Season

My 2012 deer season ended with out a filled tag. :( I logged 34 miles on foot, down train tracks, along old logging roads, and up and down hillsides. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not taking a shot at the one and only shooter I came across all season, I guess ya win some ya loose some right? On the final night of deer season I decided it was time to take little miss out hunting with me, I picked her up from the bus stop and as she got in the truck threw her camo clothing in the back seat next to her. She had a less than thrilled look on her face at first because it was cold and raining be she sucked it up and got dressed as I headed for the hills. Once we got out there though and on top of a unit her attitude changed completely, she was beating me out of the truck to glass it all over. Didn't take long before we spotted some movement but it ended up being a doe, she didn't care though, she was totally excited to see the doe, we hit a few more units before sun down and saw 3 more doe that night. I was really hoping we would find a buck but no such luck. I will say that, that final night out there in the woods was by far my favorite, it was mother daughter bonding at it's finest! I loved watching her get excited when we would spot something and listening to her talk about how she can't wait until next year when she can hunt for deer with me! It's the little things in life that mean the most!

Till next time

Blacktail Season 2012 Contiunes

Since the season started I have logged 23 miles on foot, rain or shine, climbing up and down mountain sides, in and out of the brush in search of a blacktail buck and have yet to find one I can take or should I say have time to take. I went out hunting the other morning before work and that was a bad idea, it was the one and only time that I had been graced with the presence of a shooter, he was a nice sized 3x3 and he just so happened to make an appearance when I was on my way out so I could make it to work on time. The thought crossed my mind that I could shoot him, hopefully get him dressed, hide him and make it to work on time and then come back out after work and get him but I chose against it, mainly because there is a nice sized cougar that roams around out there and because I was working an 11 hr day and it'd be well past dark when i could get back out to him, I'm kicking myself now for not doing it since I have yet to come across him again. This weekend I did come across 2 doe and a spike but nothing legal to shoot. The rut is right around the corner and I'm hoping it will be my saving grace. It is the only time that mature bucks act like idiots in pursuit of tail, but then again just like I said in a tweet conversation, what male of any species doesn't act like an idiot in pursuit of tail! Even though I haven't gotten my buck yet I have loved every second I spend out in the hills! Nothing better than being surrounded by beautiful scenery and listening to the sounds of nature all around me! Here's to hoping that within the next 11 days I can get my buck! 

Since I haven't had much excitement happen while I have been out hunting I thought I would post a pretty comical post my buddy Kevin put up about his experience in Elk camp this last week. I died laughing because it is so spot on to every experience Ive had at a hunting camp surrounded by a bunch of men! I totally want in on next years excursion!

Since I am quoting this all exactly from him I dont feel I should spell check him or edit his grammar LOL

In his own words, 2012 Cascade Elk Camp Experience went something like this:

After 24 years of bow hunting this year I was invited to an elk rifle camp for the cascade hunt. These are the observations and things I learned.

When Kenny says go left he is going right. Go Right and don’t listen to Kenny.

When you borrow Kennys gun. Shoot the SOB first to make sure its sighted in. (5 shots at a bull at 50 yards later) 

Don’t invite a girl you have barely known to elk camp only to watch her make an ass of herself and get kicked out of camp.

When inviting the girl you don’t know make sure you have other sleeping arrangements, because at 6ft 2 and 200 pounds the front seat of a dodge truck isn’t that comfortable for 7 days. 

Don’t set up a tent in a dry creek bed when a storm is coming.

Everyone in camp has medicinal cards.

14 men can go through 5 pounds of chili in less than 5 minutes.

Don’t serve 14 men 5 pounds of chili the night before the season.

8 men can pack out a 900 pound bull whole.

8 men can pack out the same bull whole while drinking a bottle of bourbon and bottle of jagr.

Don’t be the only sober one in camp its boring.

To Ed there is not such thing as enough beer.

When you and the only girl are sitting around the fire while she is refilling her medicinal card make sure you have a rifle next to you when the dumbest bull in the planet walks into camp stares at you and the potentially asks for some breakfast.

7 men will haul an outhouse 12 miles rather than build another one.

Don’t bring just two pairs of socks to elk camp.

If you bring two pairs of socks make sure when you have to do your thing in the woods you have mountain money because then your down to one pair of socks. 

When your doing your business in the woods keep the rifle handy for the bull that ends up staring at you wondering why your pooping in his spot. (not easy to get a shot off while dropping trousers) 

Don’t give the girl in camp that has more energy than a spider monkey red bull.

While sitting on a ridge top looking at the world stop and thank the man dad that taught you to do this and shed a tear for the things he taught you.

5 miles later cuss dad for teaching you to do these things.

Smile and look back at the loved ones you lost on that ridge and its ok to break down and cry. (love and miss you CC) 

Man named them Elk because all the other 4 letter words were taken

8 men will find the ducks game on the radio when desperate.

A beer can and a used arrow make a great antenna to listen to the game.

Shooting a chipmunk skinning it putting a mini game bag on it and tying sticks to his head then hanging it next to the elk will get you many strange looks from other hunters.

Don’t eat chipmunk its not as tasty as you think.

When your hunting with 4 retired guys and your radio goes off that 3 elk are down break your radio and say you didn’t get the call to avoid packing all night in a storm. 

Its well worth the 5 dollars to pay for a shower at the resort 20 miles down the highway. 

The guys and girls that don’t want to spend the 5 dollars for the shower just give them the money and offer to drive them.

After 2 days of camp people smell. After 4 days people stink. On the 8th and final day nobody wants to get in the same care with the rest of the people. 

After 9 days walking over 100 miles, shooting an unsighted gun, packing out other peoples animals. Smelling like a dead hog. Swearing you will never do it again because of the blood sweat and tears you went through. 

Thank the people you spend the best 9 days of your life. Kenny, Ed, Tonya, John, Richard, Leroy, Nate, Brian, Ron, Leena, and the rest of the bunch. Then start planning for next year.

Opening Weekend Deer Season 2012

Well this past weekend was the opener of my deer season this year! I have been looking forward to this since I took my buck opening morning last year but seriously counting down the days 3 months prior to the start of the season.  I was hoping the closer opening day got the colder the weather would get, but that didn't happen. It has been unseasonably warm around here. Usually by now we have gotten some rain and the temps are about 10 degrees cooler then they have been. Someone mentioned today were on day 80 something of no rain. Come on this is the Pacific NW we are known for our rain! With the way the weather conditions were I knew that the hunt was going to be challenging but that wasn't stopping me! I did as I do every year, rolled out of bed at 3 a.m. and got ready to go!!! I picked up one of my girl friends who despite not having a tag wanted to tag along any ways and we headed for the hills! I might also throw out there that because of the way the weather has been it has closed down a TON of the land around here to hunt on. The only thing open for hunting at this point is US Forest land and BLM land. When we arrived to the area I wanted to hunt it was about 4:45 in the morning and we still had 2 hours till sun up, around here if you aren't staking out your spot hours before the sun comes up someone else will beat you to it. The land I really wanted to hunt was already staked out (by a friend of mine none the less) so I headed for my 2nd choice. When the sun started to make an apperance I started my trek in and thats when the coyotes started howling. We covered 8 miles on foot and never even saw signs of deer. I found elk droppings, tracks and even a carcass from bow season a few weeks ago, and tracks and droppings from the coyotes I'd heard at sun up but not one single sign of a deer having been any where in the area. Despite not finding a deer it was still a great morning, I was in one of my favorite places, the middle of no where, listening to the crickets, birds, frogs and coyotes and even stumbled across some old barns!!! 

I really hope that the weather changes soon but looking at the next 10 days in the forecast I see zero sign of rain :( If the rain keeps holding off guess I will just have to wait for the rut when they start acting like retards and my chances get better!!!! Luckily I have until November 2nd to fill my tag and I will be hiking miles in and out of units, up and down the steep terrain every weekend between now and then! 

Happy hunting!!! 

Fish On

I love living in Oregon, we've got it all! Living on the coast is even better! I've got the dunes, river, mountains, and a handful of lakes all in my back yard! I can fish and hunt within minutes of my front door step!!! And this weekend Fall weather was at its finest this weekend! Clear blue sky, sun shining, no wind and the water was calm! I took full advantage of the weekend and went fishing Saturday and Sunday morning. There's something very peaceful about being out on the lake just before sun up with the water smooth as glass and the birds chirping and an occasional frog croaking! Sun up and it was fish on! Weekend tally for myself 4 salmon landed, 1 lost, 2 trout, 2 large mouth bass and a perch! The boyfriend went out 3 days this weekend, lucky sob has 3 day weekends. He landed somewhere around 10 salmon, a couple of trout, perch and a large mouth. Mini me went out yesterday with us and she reeled in a large mouth for me then she hooked into her own trout and hooked into her first salmon, she lost it right at the boat. She was so bummed. shes wanted to catch a salmon so bad. We didn't let her salmon fish on the river this year it was just to hard. We figured when they moved into the lake we could get her one, so when she heard he had caught some Friday she told him to knock it off and leave some for her. She cracks me up. She was less than pleased when I went Saturday while she hung out with grandma and found out I had caught some. So Sunday morning it was up long before sunrise to beat the crowds to the boat launch. Getting the little one up that early when its the weekend is not always an easy task but when you say it's fishing time she flies out of bed with energy I wish I could posses even after 3 cups of coffee.

I was excited when we got to the boat ramp and there was only one other person there, Saturday was a completely different story, it was insane, there was no parking left you had to find and make your own spot along the side of the road. It soon became apparent why, there was a bass tournament going on, the lake was packed. It was almost like fishing on the river with all the "flat landers" people from the valley with their big expensive boats who have no common courtesy and think they own the river. They are such a**holes! I don't know how many times I have watched them just plow through and cut peoples lines. HELLO there's a whole other side of the river for you to motor back up AWAY from all the rest of us still trolling down. Ugh, I could rant on and on about how I feel about "flat landers" and the way the fish the river. The bass boys really pissed me and the beau off Saturday. They apparently have no respect or know what common courtesy is either! Oh wait that's right cause their "flat landers" too. We along with quiet a few others would be fishing in one of the arms of the lake and it was fish on! They'd be biting left and right, someone was usually landing a fish that was until a bass boat would come flying up into the cove wide open and scare everything off. It'd take an hour or so before anything would bite again and just as the action started back up again here comes another damn "flat lander".  I'll get off my soap box now.

Sunday was great, no bass fisherman, the water was calm, it was still dark when we put in, and it was blue sky and sunshine once the sun rose. Fish were biting at sun up!  It was great getting in good fishing with my loves! I love watching her fish and the excitement she has for it! When she hooked into the her 1st fish she was so excited she started reeling and reeling and when she got it in and realized it was a trout she was still just as happy as when it bite and she thought she might have a salmon. She unhooked it and threw it back, put her line back in and within a few minutes had another fish on. It gave her a bigger fight then the last so we got excited realizing she had a salmon on, she fought it and got it up to the boat when it popped off the hook. She was bummed she didn't get it in but still stoked she had one on. So she set the line back out and said she wad going to catch it again. Some time went by and nothing, then I hooked into a fish got it in and it was a salmon. She wasn't pleased. She is convinced that it was the salmon she had lost earlier and wasn't happy I caught it. Ooops. She hates loosing, and she hates being out fished. It got to the point when I was with her dad they'd leave me at home and go fishing because they'd never catch anything and Id have fish after fish on!!! I've got quiet the competitor on my hands, I hate to see what happens when she gets into sports and looses. Lord help me.

Early morning out on the lake! And just behind the fog bank and over that ridge is where I got my deer this year!

Fishing at 7am like its nothing!

Mini me and a large mouth!

Proud of her trout!

Perfect Fall afternoon on the lake!

Fish on!

Me And Agendas Just Dont Fly

So I don't even know how many times I have said "oh I'll blog these days" or "I'll blog x amount of times in a week" HA well as we can all see that just doesn't ever happen now does it. So guess what? I'll just blog when ever I damn well feel like it, a.k.a when I have free time which is just about NEVER. I have so many things to blog about so I may just end up blogging quiet a bit this week. I say that now guess we will see if it really happens. But today, today is definitely a good day to blog because I am so excited about how my weekend went.

Lets start with this, Ive always been into hunting, I grew up in a family of mostly men so hunting, fishing, and camping was just a way of life. I have been on numerous hunting and scouting trips as a young child with my grandparents and uncles, kind of phased out of it in middle school and then back into it in high school dating guys who hunted but I had never had my own license and tag to hunt. That is until last year when I went out and got my license and deer tag. Unfortunately I got extremely sick during the season and didn't get much hunting in so I ended the season without a deer. Bummer.

This year is an entirely different story! Rifle season started this weekend and I was beyond excited! Hunting season is the only time of year I am OK and actually excited about getting up at 4 in the morning! I had been asking my boyfriend for days what time we were going to be leaving Saturday (opening day) morning and he kept telling me "early" or "when its dark" once he said "3" . Well Friday night he ended up falling asleep on the couch while we watched a movie and we hadn't discussed the game plan for the next morning so I took it upon myself to make the plans! I very much liked this as I'm kind of a control freak but Ive never let him on to this I find away to make him think hes in control so he keeps his pride but really its me. Haha. So I decided 3 am just wasn't going to happen I moved it to 4:00 a.m instead. Since he was asleep and I was to excited to go to bed at that moment I decided to paint my nails. I know I know, why in the world would I paint my nails before a hunt. Because I am a girl thats why. And because I thought that if I painted them blaze orange it might bring me some good luck! So I painted them and then crawled into bed for the night. My alarm went off and the 1st thing that went through my head was screw this I'm going back to sleep. Then my inner child kicked in and said get up get up its opening day! I literally flew out of bed pumped with energy I didn't even know I was capable of, I was oblivious to the fact he never even made it off the couch. I was dressed and ready to go when I finally realized he was still asleep. This was not okay. I went out and woke him up and this is the conversation that ensued.

Him: "Why are you waking me up at 4 in the morning"

Me: "Because you said we were getting up at 3 and you fell asleep last night but I decided 4 sounded better so I let you sleep in"

Him: "I was joking, it doesn't get light for like 3 more hours, wake me up at 7"

ME: "You've got to be kidding me"

Him: (chuckles)

Me: "You shouldn't tell me things unless your serious when it concerns something I'm excited about, you brought this on yourself"

 I then roll my eyes at him, head back down the hallway and flop onto the bed. I am deeply disappointed at this very moment that he is not getting up and is no where near as excited as I am. A few minutes later I hear him get up and moving around and start getting ready. At this point my inner child is screaming with joy again and I probably would have started jumping up and down on my bed if I knew it wouldn't break, its almost time to retire the poor thing.

We finally left the house about 4:15 and just as I pull out of the driveway there is a Doe and 2 Fawns at the end of the road. My immediate thought was "oh great this is going to be just like last year where I see them all over in the neighbor hood and back yard but don't see a single one in the woods" then it turned into "Or maybe this is a good sign, 3 is one of my lucky numbers". We head to 7-11 since its the only thing open in our podunk town at this time of the day and get our coffee. I ended up buy 3 things and the total came to $7.77. I was like you've got to be kidding me, maybe this will be my lucky day after all! My boyfriend quickly bursts that bubble and tells me its bad luck i should just quit while I'm ahead (aka alive) and go back home. (It's a good thing I love him as much as I do and that I fully appreciate and understand his messed up sense of humor other wise it's him I'd be worried about and not the deer I'm after). I refuse to let him bring my good mood down and we head for the hills.

We got to our desired area about 5:30 and had to wait about and hour and 15 until dawn came so we could start the hike in. When day light broke we hoped out of the truck and behind the locked gate we went. We hiked up the old logging road about a 1/2 mile and came up on a unit that would have been PERFECT to get a buck in. It would have been a straight hike down the unit to the road with it, even though I was having a pretty good morning my luck isn't that good. We hiked about another 1/4 mile and glassed over another unit, still nothing so we continued on about a mile or so glassed over that unit and nothing. We could however see across to another unit on the other side of the lake and someone had taken down a buck. It was at this point and after hearing several shots fired through out the morning I was getting bummed. We watched them for a bit and then the bf said "were not gonna get a deer sitting here watching them" so we turned around and headed back the way we came since we'd reached the end of that road. We got back to where it forked and went uphill some more and probably another mile or so into the woods when we found another unit. We started glassing it and not 30 seconds into it he spotted a buck. Lets just say it wasn't in the best place. He was about 3/4 of the way down the ridge across from us curled up in a ball a lot like his dog Toby does with his head by his ass. Not really the best position for a good shot. We watched him for a few minutes then my guy decided to go down the ridge we were on top of and down into the brush to try and get a better look at him and make sure he was at least a legal buck and to maybe scare him a bit and get him to stand up for a good shot. As hes going down the unit I get myself comfortable and kept my scope on him to make sure I never lost sight of him and if he decided to run id be ready to shoot. My guys down in the brush moving from spot to spot even throwing things at him and with all the yelling back and forth to each other he never spooked unfortunately. He was having a tough time getting a good view of his antlers so I stopped watching through my scope and pulled out my binoculars and focused in on him. Sure enough he was a forked horn. I yelled down to him "I see forks, and I think Ive got a decent shot, can we get this over with" Apparently he didn't hear the forks part because he yelled back "I need to make sure hes legal" I think to myself did i not just say i saw forks, whatever I'll just wait til he says go. So another 30 minutes or so go by and I am no longer comfortable I am cramping and shaking and ready to just shoot but he's down in the brush some where and I'm not exactly sure where at that exact moment so I cant. Finally he says "Let me know when your ready" I couldn't believe he just said that Ive only been ready for how long but whatever. I yelled back I was ready, took in a deep breath lined up my shot and fired. Missed. Damn It. He never even flinched double damn it. Jacked another round into the chamber lined up and fired. Nailed him!!! He gets up you can see hes having problems and starts to try and run its at that moment I go to jack another round in and realize SHIT i forgot to reload after practice shooting and I'm out. SHIT. All I can think is please stop trying to get away. Thank god Jimmy was ready and when he realized that I wasn't going to shoot again shot and got him right in the jaw which was enough to keep him from running anymore and he just tumbled down the unit. GAME OVER! Well for the deer at least. Now came the task of getting him out of the bottom of a unit.

I had to walk about a 1/2 mile to get to the ridge that he and the deer were at the bottom of. And then the non fun part started, I had to make my way down this steep slippery super brushy ridge to get to my animal and boyfriend. It took me a little bit because I am one of the last coordinated people I know. When I got there I was so stoked! I had actually killed a deer! And it was a 3 (barely) by fork, not the biggest deer but a good one for my 1st none the less!!!! It was quiet obvious there was no way I was going to get this thing out of there and it was up to my guy. So he gutted most of it and then I packed his rifle, knife and binos out for him and helped him load the deer on his back and we started the trek out. We had to stop a few times because it was a brutal steep slippery at times nothing to hold onto trek straight up. We or rather he finally got it out of the unit and the hardest part was over. Now for the few mile trek back that wouldn't have been so bad but there were still some hills to take on but none near as bad as the one we had just conquered. After about 3 hours after the kill went down we made it back to the truck with the buck in tow!

We headed for his parents house where we hung it, gutted what was left of it skinned it and quartered it and now it just sits in the fridge curing for a few days and we this coming weekend the jerky making with start!

In the field after I finally made it down the ridge!!!! Blaze Orange nails and all

 Back at his parents

Tractors can be used for multiple things!!!!

Here it is Monday and I am still more excited then a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open their gifts. I can't wait for elk season next month! Even though he said he wants no part in packing an elk after this ordeal lol! I guess that's what you have big burly uncles for!!!