Monday we had finally had enough with Bowdee's random fevers, sore throat, and weakness. So I made him an appointment and took him to see the Dr. I realized he had not been to a Dr. since he had his kindergarten check-up so he had no idea what to expect. The Dr. says he has a bronchial infection so wrote a rx and sent us on our way. Tuesday Bowdee woke up with a rash all over I am figuring he is allergic to the Z-pak med so we kept him home from school and got a new RX. He hated staying home and said that was his worstest of the day he missed his friends and was SO bored.
Thursday was the beginning of fall break so we had no school. The kids thought it was great to sleep in and take it easy. Then we packed to go camping for the deer hunt tomorrow and mom and dad took us to see Dolphin Tale. That was a fabulous movie. I don't know what it is but man I cry at everything now a days. It was nice to have a minute to just sit down and relax. Sometimes I feel like I am burning the candle at both ends.
Friday we left at like 5:00 out to Box Elder Canyon out North of Hickman by Grantsville for our deer hunt. Terry and Troy put in for the archery but ended up with the riffle. So that means Terry, Bowdee and I all are hunting this weekend. We got up there just in time to see a 2 point cross the road in front of us and we got a great camp spot. Man I love my trailer.
Saturday - Morning of the opening hunt. Our eyes fly open at 4:30 as we heard some four wheelers head up the canyon. We jump out of bed wake up the kids get them all dressed in fleece, hats, gloves, hiking boots and grab our guns and out the door by 5:00am we drive all the way to the left as far as we can then we parked the wheelers and headed off by foot.
The kids did great hiking in the dark, cold morning all the way for a little over an hour we find a spot that looked good to Terry and we parked our tired legs and look up to the sky to see shooting stars every where we looked. Magical, I tell you nothing but amazing. All 3 of the kids soon fell asleep. Just as the sky started to lighten I hear Terry whisper "Kristi look right behind us there are 2 doe on the skyline" I look back and sure enough 2 doe. As it got lighter we could see them moving around in front of us all over the place but still no buck.
The kids woke up cold so we lite a fire to warm our bones, ate a little breakfast snack and headed off our hill and up toward Mudd Springs. Over that ridge and on the other side we sat once again surrounded by 5 sets of hunters. We took another short nap and Terry woke up and saw a buck and doe just on the other side of some hunters. Dang couldn't take a shot so we glassed the area real close waiting for them to come back out into the clearing.
Then we started heading back to the trailer we knew we had a long hike ahead of us so away we went slow and steady. Terry was leading then Bowdee then Treg, Tia and myself. I looked ahead of Treg and instantly grabbed Tia holding her back and yelled "STOP, DON'T MOVE ITS A... ITS A SN... ITS A SNA... Tia is jumping up and down around in circles trying to shake whatever it was off of her. The boys all turned around to see all the commotion and I point to a HUGE 3&1/2 foot long snake right next to the trail. Terry calmly comes back and picks it up. Matia and I are so high on adrenaline it took us the rest of the trip to calm down. I have to thank my dad for this wonderful fear of snakes. My mom doesn't help the matter any they way she hates them as well!
So we make it back to the trailer and Terry and I take a nap while the kids go out to play. We figure our legs couldn't take us on another hike like that so we took a nice little 4 wheeler ride up to White Pine and saw 3 different sets of doe. We figured this might be a nice place to come in the morning. Then headed back down for a nice yummy Beef Stew with Rolls Dinner. Turned on the heater and enjoyed some yummy microwave popcorn... Did I mention I LOVE MY TRAILER?
Sunday morning our heads didn't come off the pillows until 6:30. Terry was complaining about the kids all talking in their sleep all night long. I took some benadryl so I didn't have a problem with their talking. So we took a little drive up the Harry Potter Road. This was a fun drive but the hunting was quite disappointing. Also we were perched on a cliff side with tons of rock. The kids didn't find this as comfortable for their naps but somehow they all managed.
After we drove through the tunnel of beautiful fall colored leaves we decided to go for a drive up Hickman to see what was going on there. We quickly saw most of the weekend hunters had already cleared out and some great camping spots were opened so we headed back to camp trying to decide if we move camp tonight or give it one more day. On the way back to camp Terry quickly stops and backs up asking if we all saw that.
He had saw a tarantula and pulled over so we could all see. Creepy yes! But pretty fun to see. We all touched it so we could say we have touched one then jumped back in the truck back to our trailer then up the canyon again for a night time hunt.
We went to White Pine again with not much luck then we headed back kinda early for a yummy Brisket & Potatoe dinner with some of our friends. Jason and Amelia Wells are some good people. Jason grew up just across the street from Terry and they know each other like brothers. We roasted smores and chatted around a pixie fire talking like good friends do.
Monday morning we headed back to White Pine deciding our legs were still not ready for another 8 mile hike. As we were coming through the trees I could tell Dash was on a trail. Then we came out of the trees and he hit a Labrador point toward 6 doe down along the trees. Wow I thought we have a deer hunting dog... then we found our resting ground and he did it again with a low growl he warned us 7 doe were sneaking by us...
we soon after left down the hill and came across some doe pretty close to us and Dash got Buck fever and went after them. I guess he figured he gave us 2 chances and we didn't do anything about it so he was going to have some fun. Bowdee and I were hot on his trail with our guns in hand ready for a buck. We chased those deer around the mountain as fast as we could but not another peek at them.
After that morning hunt we decided to move camp to Hickman Canyon so Bowdee and I drove the 4 wheelers and 1 hour later we had camp set up in a great camp spot just where we wanted to be at 3:00 we drove the 4-wheelers up the canyon and saw about 10 doe. Then we drove to the end of the right fork and started hiking up the mountain we sat there scoping the hillside for a while not seeing anything.
We headed back to the 4-wheelers and Terry and I both noticed 3 deer about 200 yards up the mountain. We both pulled up our glasses and at the same time turned to each other and said with more excitement then we had the whole trip "that one on the bottom is a buck."
Terry's whispering with urgency Bowdee get your gun, get in prone position, cock one in the chamber, Kristi set up right here, who is going to shoot first, get the scope on it, shoot it someone shoot it." Bowdee is whispering back with just as much excitement I can't see it... where is it... I can't see it... So before it went over the hillside I took a shot and down it went.
We followed Dash right over to it and Terry had it gutted and drug down the mountain within 1/2 hour. He wanted to be able to hunt on the way down for Bowdee and himself before it got to dark. He did pause to take some photos and show the kids the heart, lungs, intestines all the good stuff. But really it was quick and we couldn't ask for an easier drag.
We saw quite a few more doe on the way back to camp but no bucks. Bowdee really got the hunters fever after I got my deer and I felt really bad that I didn't give him another second to try and find it in his scope. We got back to camp and Terry and the kids skinned it while I cooked dinner. Treg could only take that "Grossness" so long before he joined me in the trailer... Matia on the other hand found it fascinating! Bowdee was cool with it but not as intrigued as Tia was. I was just fine not being involved with what was going on.
Tuesday we headed up for the morning hunt and just didn't see hardly anything except... this little old couple that stopped me and the kids to ask us how things were going. They were so cute talking about what they had seen and didn't see. The lady was exceptionally excited and really interested in hunting you could just see it. As we drove off Treg asked if she was the oldest lady alive... :) Later we saw her walking up where I shot my deer because her husband didn't want to scratch his truck so she took off on foot... This photo reminded me of the lady but see looked alot happier, I just wish I could have gotten a photo... Cutest thing I have seen in a long time. This little old lady dressed in orange from head to toe.
After lunch I sent Terry and Bowdee off to hunt some more while me and the kids took a nap and chilled. They saw 80 doe but no bucks. They came back around 4:00 and we tore down camp and headed home. It was a fun first hunt for Bowdee and over all we enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to Terry my personal guide I got my first buck a spike by 2 point if you can't see in the photo...
This is Terry's 2 point antlers and mine together to fake out my brother.
