Sometimes

Sometimes, in life, you feel like your in the bottom of a bucket and you just can't get out-your stuck!!

And then a good friend comes along, pats you on the back and then you know that you will survive the 'bucket' incident and that despite the choices that you make, you have friends that can laugh with you and your still loved!

Feeling Loved,

Hershey

And then some days you feel like your about to go over the edge, you've had enough, can't take it anymore, your depressed.......

you feel, well, just blah!

And then you realize that while you are are your state of 'blah', someone is taking pictures of you and smiling and laughing; all of a sudden you decide that there are definitely worse things in life; that your plan to 'dwell' on life ended up giving someone else entertainment.-what is this world coming to?? You start thinking, scheming of ways to trip them going down the stairs, hack up a hairball in the middle of the bedroom, scratch the furniture, leave the dead mouse right out the back door.............

Yours Truly,

Distraught Chille

Deer Down!

On Tuesday, the 12th, I was successful on harvesting my deer. Bryan and I had gotten up at 4am and had left the house at 4:50 to head down through Buffalo Valley, into Jersey Valley and then up the Golconda Pass road that goes through the Tobin Mtn Range. When we had gotten to the 'meadows', we unloaded the 4 wheeler, got all of our gear together and headed up.
We had been up hear a few days before and didn't see much except a little fawn and when we had gotten up to the old mines, she was still there, apparently she had been separated from her mother.
Can you see her? Look closely-this is why you can be looking at a deer and never know it-they are really good and blending in and not moving.

Me-we had just got done from hiking up and down a draw trying to find some deer that we had seen-no luck and we were both quite warm when we got back to the quad. We couldn't of asked for a better day; the weather was perfect!

The end of the trail is in sight.

And at the end of the trail is where I found this buck.........at the top! If we had been about 5 minutes later, we probably wouldn't of found him because he bedded down right after I started my stalk. The highest point behind me is Mt. Tobin at just under 10,000ft. He bedded about 250ft below that and to the right.

Not a bad 4 point and I was a very happy hunter!

I hiked up the side of the mountain to the backside, up around the point and then until I was 224ft above the buck. All I could see where his antlers, so after trying to get him to stand up(I was whistling, making noise, throwing rocks and he wouldn't budge), I called Bryan on the radio and told him my dilemma. He decided that he would start walking up the side of the mountain also but would stay in view of the deer. As he got closer to the top, he finally had to start walking towards him( he was hiding some in the brush), throwing some rocks, making noise etc.... When he was only about 200ft away, the buck finally decided to stand up and I made my shot. It was a perfect shot right through the lungs-he dropped about 20ft away.

Here is where Bryan sat with the spotting scope as I made my 'stalk' up the mountain. Its also a view of where we came from.

Another view of the area. This is the looking down into Indian Canyon, across Buffalo Valley, kind of towards Battle Mtn. Some steep country!

The man who helped make the hunt a success getting the deer ready on the 'deer sled' to head back to the truck.

Pulling the deer didn't last to long as the sled got a tear in it so we loaded him onto the front of the quad and really 'cinched' him down. I'm sure we maxed out the weight limit on the quad but it did super!

My view as we are heading out.

This was one of many places that we found or saw water in the area. I was surprised at how much water was around there.

Back at the meadows where we parked the truck.

Loading it all at one time!

Loaded and ready to head home! It was a great day!

Hunting

This year I successfully drew a deer tag; a buck tag to be exact. Its been a couple years since I've hunted so I was quite excited. When you put in for a tag, you are allowed to put in for 5 different areas that you would like to hunt. I put in for 3 areas and drew my 3rd choice-an area that I had never hunted before and was really familiar with it at all but always thought that it might be a good area to try. Unfortunately, due to the events of this summer, I wasn't able to get out and scout very much until a couple weeks before the season opened. However, I have gathered a lot of opinions on where to go and where not to go or 'if you go there you will a good pair of shoes and possibly a horse, etc...... Well, I have scouted on foot, on a-wheeler and on horse and have come to the conclusion that this is a very tough area to hunt!!
My season opened yesterday and my dad and I headed out and decide that we were going to hunt Hoffman Canyon which is in the Tobin Mountain range. We had scouted it before, a little bit, and decided that it had looked the most promising. Before long, actually we were into it a few hours, we were on top of the Tobin's looking down both the east side and the west side-what a view. At this point we had gone about 3-4miles and hadn't seen a thing. There was a lot of sign that there were and are deer in the area(sign meaning poop, beds and tracks) but we had yet to see anything. The weather was crazy; wind blowing really bad at times, rain, hail and sun. One minute you are freezing and then you are hot-the best thing was to simply keep moving.
After making the trip up following the ridge line of the left side of the canyon, zig-zagging back and forth so as not to be a silhouette on the ridge and to be able to 'glass' as much area since there was sign that the deer seemed to be about everywhere, we decided to come back down through Hoffman Canyon, after all, the bottom of the canyon didn't look to bad or to steep compared to what we had been on. Boy, where we wrong!!! We had roughly 3 miles to cover back to the truck through the canyon and it was tough. The vegetation was so thick that without a saw you couldn't get through it and there were many places that extremely steep so, needless, to say it was interesting. We only slipped a few times and thankfully neither of us made a quick trip to the bottom.
We finally made it back to the truck after starting 9hrs before and covering around 6-7miles. We started our hunt and 5700' elevation and went up to 8000'. We arrived back at the truck barely able to move, shaky and sore in ways that I don't think I have ever been sore in. My feet felt like I had been walking with steal boots, my backpack developed steal straps at some point and my gun gained at least 30lbs! Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but I do have blisters to prove that my boots were not nice to me and my toes and shoulders are very sore to the touch.
We didn't come home empty handed though............

Here is dad taking a much needed break in a nice little grassy spot in the bottom of the canyon. Notice the sunshine-it had just quit raining with hail a few minutes before.

Yep, we were beat and still had about 2 miles to go in what we thought wasn't go to be to bad of terrain to traverse. Our hope was dashed quickly!!

There are big deer in that area though; this is a 6 point shed that we found at the beginning of our hike.

And this is what I'm guessing a lion kill that we found in a drainage in Hoffman Canyon. He has a 25 and1/4" spread-4 point.

The day spent with my dad was great even though we didn't get a deer or even see one. The thought of what we had accomplished is satisfying in and of itself although I would not repeat the part that was in Hoffman Canyon itself; I would consider the area and canyon to the left of Hoffman and I am possibly going to going to the backside where we saw lots of other draws that have water and are not steep at all. Being on top of that range and in the clouds and they were sailing by was really cool. At times you couldn't hardly see a thing and then you could see the sun's rays coming through into the valley-it was beautiful! The hunting will continue!!

Here are some pics of some of out 'finds' when we went scouting a week ago.

A little 2 point found in the Buffalo Mtns. when Sara and I went horseback scouting. This was all that we had seen there-no other sign but we had a fun ride.

Some old traps from a trap line in an area of the Tobin's not far from Golconda Pass that has been washed out due to extreme flash flooding-wish I had pics to show, it was amazing what the water had done to the rocks! I'll get them one of these days.

Oh, this is from hunting yesterday-proof that my boots weren't nice. We have a 'love/hate' relationship.

Fall 4 Wheelin' Trip

We finally, after months of talking about it, got our 4 wheelin' trip planned and done. A bunch of friends and family all got together and rode our 4 wheelers from Cottonwood Canyon to Valmy and then back. Its starting to become a 'tradition'. Most of us actually rode our quads from town out to the canyon and then continued on. For Bryan, Jessie and I, from our driveway and back was 75 miles. The drive is beautiful, especially right now with all of the trees turning colors. We start in Cottonwood Canyon, ride to the top and then drop into Trout Creek, which is another canyon and then we come out on the back side the Battle Mountains, down the flats to Valmy where we eat lunch and then head back the way we came. Its a lot of fun!

Here's the group of us minus myself-someone had to take the picture. We are on top of Cottonwood Canyon.

Trout Creek

The trail got a bit dusty. Wasn't bad if you were in the front. :)

Coming up the backside of Cottonwood.

Me

Back on top of the summit on our way back.

Getting ready to head down the other side back to town.

Jessie all ready and rarin' to go!