We got up early Saturday morning and drove to a favorite spot of mine, where I've had some success in the past. It's about two hours away. I chained up the front end and we started up the mountain. Since I've gotten older, I've begun to realize it's worth the brief effort to chain up the front end. LR had his pack and was using one of my old .270s. We finally got to a designated walk in only area. There was one truck there. When we were part of the hike in, a young couple were coming out and did not say much. We heard little shooting in the area also. I was pretty happy, we were going to have the place to ourselves! Maybe 15 minutes later, a guy came hiking up the same road right behind and then through us. He stopped briefly and visited. "There are four more guys coming in behind me at different intervals. We are going to GPS the area." What? He said he was from North Dakota and had a four other family members with him. I somehow contained myself and rather than walk out the road to where I was going, I decided to head up on the ridge right then. We went up the ridge off of the road and stopped briefly to count the men walking by below. One, two following and then more probably. After two, I waived to him and we started up for good. Then, "bam bam." Two shots from one of the two. I knew what that meant. I groaned and we hunted the rest of the day seeing nothing. We did a large loop back down to the upper end of the section, walking the same road back to the truck. Coming back at dark, I heard something coming back down the road towards us. Two North Dakotans with toy plastic sleds. "It was a five point. Just after we saw you!" One of them said. "If you see my brother at the truck tell him to hurry up and get his ass over here to help us. At first I thought they were mule deer, but then I realized they were two large bulls. I killed the first one with two shots." LR was a good man today, hiking a long way and learning lots. There are still many Ponderosa in the forest.
We got up early Saturday morning and drove to a favorite spot of mine, where I've had some success in the past. It's about two hours away. I chained up the front end and we started up the mountain. Since I've gotten older, I've begun to realize it's worth the brief effort to chain up the front end. LR had his pack and was using one of my old .270s. We finally got to a designated walk in only area. There was one truck there. When we were part of the hike in, a young couple were coming out and did not say much. We heard little shooting in the area also. I was pretty happy, we were going to have the place to ourselves! Maybe 15 minutes later, a guy came hiking up the same road right behind and then through us. He stopped briefly and visited. "There are four more guys coming in behind me at different intervals. We are going to GPS the area." What? He said he was from North Dakota and had a four other family members with him. I somehow contained myself and rather than walk out the road to where I was going, I decided to head up on the ridge right then. We went up the ridge off of the road and stopped briefly to count the men walking by below. One, two following and then more probably. After two, I waived to him and we started up for good. Then, "bam bam." Two shots from one of the two. I knew what that meant. I groaned and we hunted the rest of the day seeing nothing. We did a large loop back down to the upper end of the section, walking the same road back to the truck. Coming back at dark, I heard something coming back down the road towards us. Two North Dakotans with toy plastic sleds. "It was a five point. Just after we saw you!" One of them said. "If you see my brother at the truck tell him to hurry up and get his ass over here to help us. At first I thought they were mule deer, but then I realized they were two large bulls. I killed the first one with two shots." LR was a good man today, hiking a long way and learning lots. There are still many Ponderosa in the forest.
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