My 2013 Trail Cam "Season" (update Labor Day Weekend)
derekp1999
6/2/13 2:48pm
Made it out yesterday (01 June 2013) and got my 3 trail cameras out. My 6 year old son wanted to "go hiking" with me so I had him tag along with me. We logged 1.66 miles according to the GPS and gained 900 feet in elevation. He was an absolute trooper!
My wife got me a couple of the Camlock boxes & Python locks for Christmas. I'm considerably less anxious about leaving my cameras out now... although I do realize that if somebody really wants to steal them even the box & lock will not deter them.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07121-1.jpg" alt="" />
I chose to put all the cameras in a bowl I hunted heavily last year... for now. When I have some adult help I'll move one or two to more remote locations (plus I'll be adding a friend's camera to the arsenal later this summer). So, the first spot I chose was right over the seep that the buck I got a shot at last year as coming into for a drink. The seep is out in the open & I had very few options. I settled for a tree looking slightly southwest over the seep & I made my son go stand out there cause I figure he's about the shoulder height of a deer. There is a cleared spot where an old salt block used to sit... I don't know who had brought it up there, but I remember seeing it when it was very small three years ago. There is a foot deep hole where the animals have eaten the dirt where the block sat. The seep is just to the left.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07120.jpg" alt="" />
The second spot was a bit of an adventure... I had noticed a huge game trail on Google Earth & promised myself I'd get a camera up there. Just when I thought I had passed it & was ready to give up and head back downhill I spotted it up the hill from us. It was STEEP and the gravel was pretty loose. My son basically crawled up the last 50 yards or so. I had to be very strategic... looking uphill to the south it looked like this:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07122.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07125.jpg" alt="" />
From there we headed back down to the bottom of the bowl & I tried to find one of the trees I used last year. On our way down we came across an old carcass & my son was fascinated with some of the bones... he's been into dinosaurs for a while so he wanted to have a paleontologist come look at them. He was starting to get hungry so I rushed it a bit... the trail is well used, but this will likely be one of the cameras that I move to a different location:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07126.jpg" alt="" />
My wife got me a couple of the Camlock boxes & Python locks for Christmas. I'm considerably less anxious about leaving my cameras out now... although I do realize that if somebody really wants to steal them even the box & lock will not deter them.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07121-1.jpg" alt="" />I chose to put all the cameras in a bowl I hunted heavily last year... for now. When I have some adult help I'll move one or two to more remote locations (plus I'll be adding a friend's camera to the arsenal later this summer). So, the first spot I chose was right over the seep that the buck I got a shot at last year as coming into for a drink. The seep is out in the open & I had very few options. I settled for a tree looking slightly southwest over the seep & I made my son go stand out there cause I figure he's about the shoulder height of a deer. There is a cleared spot where an old salt block used to sit... I don't know who had brought it up there, but I remember seeing it when it was very small three years ago. There is a foot deep hole where the animals have eaten the dirt where the block sat. The seep is just to the left.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07120.jpg" alt="" />The second spot was a bit of an adventure... I had noticed a huge game trail on Google Earth & promised myself I'd get a camera up there. Just when I thought I had passed it & was ready to give up and head back downhill I spotted it up the hill from us. It was STEEP and the gravel was pretty loose. My son basically crawled up the last 50 yards or so. I had to be very strategic... looking uphill to the south it looked like this:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07122.jpg" alt="" />
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07125.jpg" alt="" />From there we headed back down to the bottom of the bowl & I tried to find one of the trees I used last year. On our way down we came across an old carcass & my son was fascinated with some of the bones... he's been into dinosaurs for a while so he wanted to have a paleontologist come look at them. He was starting to get hungry so I rushed it a bit... the trail is well used, but this will likely be one of the cameras that I move to a different location:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg522/derekp1999/2013%20Trail%20Camera/Miscellaneous/DSC07126.jpg" alt="" />
33,218
PS - can I get your Pronghorn odds sheet non read protected only. [-o<
Here's are my "Top Ten":
Camera #1 (This is one of those newfangled cameras that takes pictures from the past! I forgot to set the date... oops!)
"Nature Calls"
"The Unicorn Bull"
Camera #2
Camera #3
I'm not sure what is going on behind the shoulder of this bull... I have to assume that these are scars from fighting another bull. They can't be healed bullet holes cause those would have been darn near perfect shots. My other thought is that when I find this bull this fall he will show me exactly where to aim!
This is the largest buck that I caught on camera. Not a huge buck by any stretch but I'd be happy with him.
Is that the Wasatch? Do you plan to pick up an OTC tag?
Here's the best of the bunch:
And, I just liked this one because you can see all the individual fibers from the velvet on this little guy.
That spot looks to be as good as it gets. :thumb
I moved 2 cameras over into another area of the property... we put down a few more miles than anticipated but I finally got to lay eyes on some country that I've been pouring over on Google Earth for a couple years. We saw lots of deer while hiking and as I was preparing to mount one of the cameras to a tree I watched a mountain lion scoot across a clearing about 50 yards away. It was one of those things that you see & then have a mental picture but have to keep asking yourself if that's what you really saw... it was pretty cool.
What wasn't cool was what went down on the ATV ride back to the cabin. My head started spinning and I started to not feel right. Heat stroke... and it was scary. I couldn't keep any food or water down for hours (but I kept drinking 'cause I knew that would eventually be what would make me feel better). It took 4 hours, a cold bath, 3 liters of water, and nap before I felt human again. The thing is I felt just fine while hiking and even got into a nice little groove there towards the end & felt like I could go forever... but as soon as I jumped on the ATV & relaxed a bit it all started to unravel. Very humbling if you ask me.
Anyway, I moved the cameras into this bowl (I posted a Google Earth screenshot of some elk in a pond a while back... well that pond is the visible water body right at the center of the picture). By the way, those ponds are full of huge tadpoles and salamanders, which was also pretty cool.
I really only have a handful of noteworthy pictures from the thousands of "empties" that I had to go through.
Spot the coyote... it took me a little bit to see him but my eyes are quite poor & I'd been through several thousand pictures already so fatigue was setting in!
This little herd of cows comes into this pond on the regular & they seem to really enjoy getting in the water. This particular time they bedded on the opposite end of the pond and were there for nearly 2 hours.
Wasn't quite sure what to think of this one... I've never known moose & deer to be overly comfortable around each other but these two seem cordial.
Nice pics.