2011's Great Adventure

[sneekeepete]

That's right folks I'm back from another amazing adventure. I will begin this post as every other year and add to it as I can. It may be a little slow but I have to catch up on all the posts I missed you know.
It was one heck of an adventure that is for sure.
Teaser....

[sneekeepete]

It started by packing everything we owned into a enclosed trailer and the 87' cherokee and starting our trek from North Carolina back to Utah.
It was one heck of a journey through the Smokey Mountains across the Midwest and Plains and through the Rockys decending through the San Rafael Swell and rising back up through the canyons. It pushed the jeep to the limit but we made it safe and 2 days before the general elk hunt and before the first snow of the season! Talk about a blessing from above.
It took my Dad and I 40 hours to travel roughly 2500 miles. Once everything was unpacked and somewhat organized we tried to make some sort of a plan for the elk opener.
We ended up deciding against setting up camp in 18" of snow and just drove to the trail head before light.
Opening day was a bust with nothing more than 1 Big bull spotted, Cows and Calves, lots of deer and exhausted legs from walking in all the snow. Little did we know that this would be a familiar pattern for the elk hunt.

[sneekeepete]

Well I took Sunday off and went to Church with my wife and boys to do my best at getting everyone more settled in with the move and what not. Plus I was still suffering from Jet Lag from the trip home. It was a good day off.
While off the mountain my Youngest brother-in law talked his mom into taking him up the mountain. They saw some elk but couldn't see anything legal. Plus they got stuck 3 times with all the snow and mud at that point so decided to head down. Well with my Brother in-law asleep in the passenger seat headed down the mountain he awoke to a scream "Theres Elk shoot him." so he jumped out and shot his spike 50 yards off the road most of the way down the mountain! Honestly it was about time he got some luck as he went his first 3 years hunting without a kill! Great shot and congrats on his first elk. Unfortunatly I have no pics of that...

[sneekeepete]

Well Monday found us back on the mountain searching for a spike. In total we spent 5 full days of hunting, saw Big bulls, cows, and calves everyday and never saw another spike the entire time on the mountain. In total with the deer hunt I spent 13 full days on the mountain and never saw a spike. It was a very different year for us. We filled 1 spike tag out of 7 in our camp....
Well that left us with the deer hunt to look forward to. In between hunts I worked on our housing and tried to finish framing and wiring the Master Bedroom. This left me with 0 scouting time for deer...
on the 17th my Good friend who just got out of the Marine Corps flew in for his first ever adventure in the west. He had drawn a general season deer tag.
Me and a few buddies all chipped in and got him a suprise for his trip. A new Weahterby Vangaurd Chambered in 300 WSM.
On our way home from the airport we stopped at the family cabin and grilled some steaks and welcomed Matt to the west with a great meal and his new rifle! What an amazing day that was and one I hope he will never forget.
The next day we went and Zerod his rifle and made sure mine was on. We were loaded up with Barnes 168 Gr. TTSX and were keyholing shots at 100 yards. We were ready for the hunt!

[sneekeepete]

We headed up 3 days before the hunt opener to set up camp and do a little scouting. We brought my oldest son Easton and man what a little helper for 18 Mo. old. Turns out he loves carrying firewood .
Anywho we got camp set up and got some scouting and fishing in.
My wife and youngest son Nathan came up the night before for a good dinner and to bring Easton back home. All in all we saw some good bucks, caught some nice fish, and got Matt as acclimated as we could.
Oh yeah Easton also LOVES fishing.

[sneekeepete]

Well about our scouting finds... We found 1 toad that we have watched for 3 or 4 years now. This year was his best so far. He was pushing 30 wide and I beleive he is 185 + typical. If I didn't suck at taking pics through a spotter I would show you and ask your oppinion but bottom line is he is a monster for where we hunt.
We also found 3 other nice typical 4 points for our stomping grounds as well. Again sorry no pics.
So with the elk season ending the way it had I had lowered my standards to any of the 4 points we had seen more for meat than anything.
Matt had set his at a nice 3 point and if that dind't happen he was more than happy going home empty handed.
So we settled into a restless night before the opener once again.

[sneekeepete]

Opening morning found us in glassing postion of the big buck we had watched the morning before. He had been very patternable and we were confident in our positioning. We were in place 30 minutes before light and the wind was absolutley perfect. I had high hopes as this was the best conditions I had ever had in this particular area.
The sun rose to a crisp morning and we were befuddled as to why all the deer we had been seeing every morning before were no where to be seen. We waiting for over an hour and nothing whatsoever showed itself until it happened...

[sneekeepete]

Right up through the dark nasty timber where we had watched these deer bed everyday waddled two big round pumpkins up through the timber and right out into the drainage where these deer had been feeding regularly. At this point they had walked through their bedding area with the wind at their backs since daylight.
So goes hunting on public land...
So we made a new plan to hunt a bench where I had jumped some smaller bucks before. I stuck Matt high up on a ridge while I still hunted small patches of high alpine pines in hopes up booing a buck out for Matt to see. As I slowly made my way along I would easy over the edge of the bench and look into some small drainages that had bands of cliff below them.
Only about 500 yards into bench I peeked over the edge and immediatley saw a deer that I could tell was a buck 400+ yard down. This was the largest drainage I'd come to yet and he was near the very bottom. Just like every other time I have spotted a buck my heart sprang into action as I could hear feel deep beats echo up my body to my ears and my hands and feet began to tingle from the rush of adrenaline released. I could not get a good enough look at him from my position through a small band of Timber below me so I eased 20 yards further alone to an opening and layed down using my rifle as a rest. I was looking down from roughly 10800 ft above sea level. I dialed my scope up and could immediatly tell he was one of the smaller 4 points we had seen but he had moved overnight! I frantically tried to get Matt's attention but he was over the other side of the ridge looking onto the bench on the other side. Without being able to see him I decided I would try for this buck. I ranged him at just over 400 yards at a very steep angle where I was; but I had not practiced like I like to so decided to close the distance. I emerged from the timber patch and was right at 300 yards away but due to a swell in the land in front of me I could not make the shot unless I stood and there were no rests. So I got one lone pine in between us and made my way up to it. I couldn't make the shot from there either so I decided to sneak to a ravine just to the right of it and see if it opened up enough of a shooting lane to shoot through. So I sat on my butt and slowly scooted inch by in into the ravine. Soon there was nothing but some long grass between us. I layed back and used the mountain as a back rest and set my rifle across my knee. I ranged the buck at 238 yards. I was set and ready but he was facing directly at me feeding without a clew I was there.....

[sneekeepete]

15 minutes later the buck finally turned and gave me a steep quartering shot. I dialed the Leupold to 12 power and waited for everything to steady. Everything was solid as a rock with the cross hairs level with his belly and bisecting the front of his right shoulder the shot echod through mountain pass I rocked with the recoil and watched the buck struggle straight down the pass. He was out of my sight within 30 yards and I could only hope he was hit well.
At the shot Matt worked his way back along the ridge as I hiked straight back up the pass for 200 yards. When I reached the top where I had left all of my gear but my rifle and range finder two other hunters walked up. (That made 4 other hunters right in the same area as the BIG 4 point that had come up behind us. The early bird got the worm this moring for sure).
They said it had sounded like the bullet hit hard but had not seen the shot or the deer. Matt made it to my position as I told him the sittuation and grabbed my pack and binos.
We made our way down the pass and to where the buck had been feeding but the vegitation was so thick and partially red and brown that we could find 0 blood for sure. So we begain creeping straight down the pass. As we inched forward 4 legs and a belly pointed towards the sky could be seen 50 yards straight below us!!! The knot in my stomach loosened and I thanked God for wonderful blessing.
Upon our arrival Matt could not beleive how big his body was. He has only hunted whitetails and was amazed at the size of a very average mule deer.
This buck met my minimumm requirement but is a wonderful trophy and blessing of meat to me and my family and will be remembered forever. He ended up being in a pass that I had gone down one time before and never wanted to go down again. WE ended up having to use all the rope in our packs to get the buck down out of the pass and over the cliffs. Amazingly we made it all in one piece. All in all it had taken 4 hours to get the buck to the road after the shot even though the road was very close in distance. What a story it will be and now this particular pass is known to us as devils pass.

[sneekeepete]

After we made it back to camp we rested a little and did a short still hunt with the remainder of the day. All in all it was a great opener. Although we did witness the slaughter of two spike deer off the road one of which I question the legality of. Other than that it was awesome.
The next Sunday we stayed in camp in the morning and held our own Bible study and rested up a little. Later that afternoon Matt did another short still hunt as I fished one of the high mountain lakes and waited for him to arrive.
I would like to mention that all fish photographed were caught on flies and cooked in camp! The rest that were caught were released. We ended up catching a few small cuthroats even. What a great time of late fall fly fishing!