Calif_Mike
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As many of you know, I was the lucky winner of the 2013 California hunting lottery. In June I found out that I had won one of 25 adult tags to hunt G37 (Anderson Flat) just to the west of Yosemite National Park during the late fall/winter migration. Ten junior hunters had also drawn tags for the same time period. I had worked in this area during the late 80?s and knew well of the potential for giant deer that this hunt had with the right conditions.
As soon as I was notified of drawing the tag I began shifting work schedules around so I would be able to hunt for the full nine days of the hunt (Nov. 23-Dec 1). Adding to the fun, I would be returning from my 2 week elk hunt in Colorado only 9 days before needing to leave on this hunt. Dad, my buddy Keith, and I began scouting trips into the Anderson hunt area in June and July. The area had really brushed in in the years since I worked up there and I wanted to map areas that were going to be huntable as well as areas that wouldn't be worth looking at again. I also wanted to get reacquainted with the extensive roads up there and find good campsites. By the end of July I had about half the zone covered, which brings us to August which is wildfire month in California.
On August 18th a friend who knew I had this hunt sent me a text asking me if I knew about the fire that had started in the Groveland/Buck Meadows area the day before called the Rim Fire. I didn't at the time but I was about to. The fire started in the bottom of the Clavey River canyon to the north of where the Anderson hunt would be, but I knew from my years of working up there that the fire would expand south and much if not all of the Anderson hunt area would eventually burn. Day after day I watched as the fire grew, first to the west then the north, then east and finally south into the Anderson zone. Along with the fire came the forest closures with promises from the Forest Service for long-term closures. I had won the lottery only to find out that the lottery commission was broke. To top it off, the Forest Service and the Dept. of Fish and Game were not working together and it appeared that us tag holders might be left holding useless tags.
Finally at the end of September I received notice that the Forest Service had revised the closure order and opened areas south of the burn. This would allow hunting in a little less than half of the Anderson area but half is better than none. The bad part was that basically the area we had pre-scouted was the area that burned. With that good news we took off for our elk hunt to Colorado at the end of October.
We returned from Colorado on November 12th and immediately started getting ready for the Anderson hunt. We cleaned and repacked all of our gear, serviced the truck and precooked another 10 days of food. Not to mention, tried to spend a little time with our families. Dad, Keith and I took off for Anderson early on the morning of Friday, November 22nd. It was a long, slow drive into our camping area by Trumble Peak pulling a utility trailer but by early afternoon we had camp setup and were able to do a little walking around to find someplace to hunt in the morning. This is wild, tough country and as you can see, not far from Yosemite.
Opening morning found me on a dozer line that was put in as a contingency for the Rim Fire. Keith was up behind me watching some openings across the canyon and dad wandered down the road. We all met back in camp but only dad had seen anything, three does. Without the weather that we desperately needed, this hunt was going to be a grind. That afternoon I took dad and Keith out to Trumble Peak which is an abandoned fire lookout on the edge of the Merced River canyon. The trail is no more than 2 feet wide at places with a drop of a thousand feet or more off both sides. Back when I worked up there the steps to the lookout were still in place and you could climb it, on windy days the tower would sway in the wind.
That evening I had Dad and Keith drop me off near the Park boundary and Kimber and I walked one of the dozer lines back to camp. We didn't see a thing on our little 4 mile stroll. Keith had walked an abandoned road and ran into some does and found some good sign so I decided to hit that Sunday morning while Dad and Keith did a little road recon into another area I knew about. I found the does Keith and seen but not the owner of the buck tracks. Kimber and I then dove off into a canyon behind camp and saw three more does but not much sign or any bucks.
Keith and Dad came back for lunch and reported they had ran into a buck on the road as well as a couple groups of does. However the country was thick. I developed a plan to walk the 3 mile road from the top for the evening, while Keith packed up to head home. He planned to come back on Thanksgiving if I hadn't tagged out.
That nite Kimber and I walked the road out then headed cross country, looping back to be picked up by Dad about dark. We found some decent sign and a couple big buck tracks but nothing actually on the hoof. After diner I pulled out the maps and decided on a plan to dive off into Moss Canyon. Its one of the very steep, remote canyons in the area that also has a reputation for kicking out some big bucks.
So Monday morning Dad dropped Kimber and I off and down we went. An hour and a half later I was calling for extraction. I had run into vertical rock walls and mountain alder thickets that prevented me from making any headway. I met dad at the road and we drove a mile or two and I found a spur ridge that looked good. Kimber was looking beat so left her in the truck with dad and bailed off. Nice country but thick and steep. The name Moss Canyon is well deserved.
I climbed back out about 11 and called for dad to pick me up on the road. I hadn't seen any animals nor much sign. I decided I needed to make a change as the eastern end of the unit was not showing much life.
Once again I pulled out the maps and ran options through my head. We knew there were a lot of deer in Anderson Flat itself but mostly does, fawns and little bucks. That is also where the bulk of the hunters were, cruising the roads. I felt however that there might be some larger bucks on the outskirts keeping an eye on the does for when they came into heat. So after lunch Dad and I headed down the road toward Anderson with no real plan on what to do once we got in the area. Figured it would be a learning day if nothing else. We got to an area called Five Corners at about 3 pm and there were 4 does standing in the middle of a dozer line there. This was the dozer line where the southern progress of the fire had been stopped so there was black on one side and green on the other. They had ?rehabbed? the line by pulling all the trees, brush and rock back across the line to help prevent erosion which made walking very difficult but I thought it might be worth a look around since the does were out during the day.
I knew from my research that the line was outside the forest closure but I'm not sure anyone else did as there wasn?t a single boot print along it. There was, however, a lot of deer tracks. Kimber, Dad and I slowly walked west along the line seeing a lot of tracks and Kimber was very excited so I figured the deer were using the area regularly. After a half mile or so Dad headed back to the truck and Kimber and I continued along. We found a nice spot to sit the last hour and watch but nothing showed. However I had seen more than enough to decide I was driving the hour back to this area in the morning to hunt it again.
As Kimber and I were walking back in the growing darkness I looked up the hill toward the top of the dozer line when I noticed the silhouette of a deer looking at us, and it was a buck! I immediately dropped to a sitting position and put the rifle over my knees, yup it was a buck and a nice one. I called Kimber into a sit and fished my shooting sticks from the side of my pack and then reset my rifle. The whole time the buck and I watched each other. I could tell he had a decent spread but nothing more since he was looking straight at me. The minutes ticked by, just the two of us waiting for the other?s move. Finally he turned his head to check his back trail and I could see that he had four points to the side. Not the massive, heavy antlers I had come for but by far the best buck I have had an opportunity for in California. I still couldn't decide if I wanted to end my hunt and still the buck stood there. I began to think through what I had seen, the conditions I was faced with; the lack of deer, no weather in the forecast, only being able to hunt part of the zone? and still the deer stood there.
Finally with the daylight waning, I decided to end it. I slid the safety off, placed the cross hairs on his throat and sent a round. When I came out of recoil he was gone. I gathered my brass, shooting sticks, and my composure and began the hike up the hill to check. Dad radioed me asking if I had shot one. I let him know I had shot and everything felt good but until I got up the hill I didn't know. As I crested the hill Kimber and I saw him laying at the base of a small tree.
I radioed dad and let him know I did have a buck down and he could bring the sled up and flashlights. Dad took awhile to get the half mile or so into me along the dozer line then we took some pics.
About half way through the job of field dressing Kimber sat up and began growling and barking looking off into the dark. She is a real confident dog that seldom gets upset so it was a little unnerving when she began to lose her cool. Whatever it was decided not to show itself and we finished the job.
We loaded the deer into the sled then I dove off the side of the hill to see if I could find the small spur road we were parked on. I figured it would be easier to drag him straight down the hill to a road then back along the rough dozer trail. I did find it about a quarter mile down the hill so we went out that way. We got to the truck around 7pm and I sent out a flurry of texts since there was service there, letting people know I had scored. We then loaded and deer and took off for the hour drive back to camp. Once in camp, we found a good tree, hung the deer, took a diner break, then skinned, trimmed and otherwise took care of the deer. We finished up just before midnite.
Due to the amount of stuff we had in camp and the long drive home we decided to spend Tuesday relaxing, packing up as much gear and possible and then leave on Wednesday. Word quickly spread around the area that we had a deer in camp and we had a steady stream of hunters come by to check out the deer. No one we talked to had seen much but we met some really nice guys from throughout the State. We headed home early Wednesday and had the deer in the locker by midday. The best part was I was able to see Tricia days earlier than planned and we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
This turned into a frustrating but thoroughly satisfying hunt at the same time. I need to thank a bunch of folks who helped during the hunt and along the way. First, my Dad and Keith for being such great hunting partners and helping with all the planning and execution of the trip. Its asking a lot to ask someone to drive four hours to the back woods when they aren't even going to hunt. And in my dad?s case, he spent a lot of time sitting in the truck waiting for me to pop out on some road somewhere. Thanks to Jason and Ryan for all the pre-trip discussions and planning. Your ideas on where to focus and where you have seen deer in the past were valuable. Also you texts of encouragement during the hunt helped a lot. Thanks to all of you on the online community who posted words of encouragement and well wishes along the way. And last but not least thanks to Tricia for putting up with me while I'm gone from home and for that matter while I am home. I was gone from home for a total of 25 days from the end of September to the end of November this year.
As soon as I was notified of drawing the tag I began shifting work schedules around so I would be able to hunt for the full nine days of the hunt (Nov. 23-Dec 1). Adding to the fun, I would be returning from my 2 week elk hunt in Colorado only 9 days before needing to leave on this hunt. Dad, my buddy Keith, and I began scouting trips into the Anderson hunt area in June and July. The area had really brushed in in the years since I worked up there and I wanted to map areas that were going to be huntable as well as areas that wouldn't be worth looking at again. I also wanted to get reacquainted with the extensive roads up there and find good campsites. By the end of July I had about half the zone covered, which brings us to August which is wildfire month in California.
On August 18th a friend who knew I had this hunt sent me a text asking me if I knew about the fire that had started in the Groveland/Buck Meadows area the day before called the Rim Fire. I didn't at the time but I was about to. The fire started in the bottom of the Clavey River canyon to the north of where the Anderson hunt would be, but I knew from my years of working up there that the fire would expand south and much if not all of the Anderson hunt area would eventually burn. Day after day I watched as the fire grew, first to the west then the north, then east and finally south into the Anderson zone. Along with the fire came the forest closures with promises from the Forest Service for long-term closures. I had won the lottery only to find out that the lottery commission was broke. To top it off, the Forest Service and the Dept. of Fish and Game were not working together and it appeared that us tag holders might be left holding useless tags.
Finally at the end of September I received notice that the Forest Service had revised the closure order and opened areas south of the burn. This would allow hunting in a little less than half of the Anderson area but half is better than none. The bad part was that basically the area we had pre-scouted was the area that burned. With that good news we took off for our elk hunt to Colorado at the end of October.
We returned from Colorado on November 12th and immediately started getting ready for the Anderson hunt. We cleaned and repacked all of our gear, serviced the truck and precooked another 10 days of food. Not to mention, tried to spend a little time with our families. Dad, Keith and I took off for Anderson early on the morning of Friday, November 22nd. It was a long, slow drive into our camping area by Trumble Peak pulling a utility trailer but by early afternoon we had camp setup and were able to do a little walking around to find someplace to hunt in the morning. This is wild, tough country and as you can see, not far from Yosemite.
Opening morning found me on a dozer line that was put in as a contingency for the Rim Fire. Keith was up behind me watching some openings across the canyon and dad wandered down the road. We all met back in camp but only dad had seen anything, three does. Without the weather that we desperately needed, this hunt was going to be a grind. That afternoon I took dad and Keith out to Trumble Peak which is an abandoned fire lookout on the edge of the Merced River canyon. The trail is no more than 2 feet wide at places with a drop of a thousand feet or more off both sides. Back when I worked up there the steps to the lookout were still in place and you could climb it, on windy days the tower would sway in the wind.
That evening I had Dad and Keith drop me off near the Park boundary and Kimber and I walked one of the dozer lines back to camp. We didn't see a thing on our little 4 mile stroll. Keith had walked an abandoned road and ran into some does and found some good sign so I decided to hit that Sunday morning while Dad and Keith did a little road recon into another area I knew about. I found the does Keith and seen but not the owner of the buck tracks. Kimber and I then dove off into a canyon behind camp and saw three more does but not much sign or any bucks.
Keith and Dad came back for lunch and reported they had ran into a buck on the road as well as a couple groups of does. However the country was thick. I developed a plan to walk the 3 mile road from the top for the evening, while Keith packed up to head home. He planned to come back on Thanksgiving if I hadn't tagged out.
That nite Kimber and I walked the road out then headed cross country, looping back to be picked up by Dad about dark. We found some decent sign and a couple big buck tracks but nothing actually on the hoof. After diner I pulled out the maps and decided on a plan to dive off into Moss Canyon. Its one of the very steep, remote canyons in the area that also has a reputation for kicking out some big bucks.
So Monday morning Dad dropped Kimber and I off and down we went. An hour and a half later I was calling for extraction. I had run into vertical rock walls and mountain alder thickets that prevented me from making any headway. I met dad at the road and we drove a mile or two and I found a spur ridge that looked good. Kimber was looking beat so left her in the truck with dad and bailed off. Nice country but thick and steep. The name Moss Canyon is well deserved.
I climbed back out about 11 and called for dad to pick me up on the road. I hadn't seen any animals nor much sign. I decided I needed to make a change as the eastern end of the unit was not showing much life.
Once again I pulled out the maps and ran options through my head. We knew there were a lot of deer in Anderson Flat itself but mostly does, fawns and little bucks. That is also where the bulk of the hunters were, cruising the roads. I felt however that there might be some larger bucks on the outskirts keeping an eye on the does for when they came into heat. So after lunch Dad and I headed down the road toward Anderson with no real plan on what to do once we got in the area. Figured it would be a learning day if nothing else. We got to an area called Five Corners at about 3 pm and there were 4 does standing in the middle of a dozer line there. This was the dozer line where the southern progress of the fire had been stopped so there was black on one side and green on the other. They had ?rehabbed? the line by pulling all the trees, brush and rock back across the line to help prevent erosion which made walking very difficult but I thought it might be worth a look around since the does were out during the day.
I knew from my research that the line was outside the forest closure but I'm not sure anyone else did as there wasn?t a single boot print along it. There was, however, a lot of deer tracks. Kimber, Dad and I slowly walked west along the line seeing a lot of tracks and Kimber was very excited so I figured the deer were using the area regularly. After a half mile or so Dad headed back to the truck and Kimber and I continued along. We found a nice spot to sit the last hour and watch but nothing showed. However I had seen more than enough to decide I was driving the hour back to this area in the morning to hunt it again.
As Kimber and I were walking back in the growing darkness I looked up the hill toward the top of the dozer line when I noticed the silhouette of a deer looking at us, and it was a buck! I immediately dropped to a sitting position and put the rifle over my knees, yup it was a buck and a nice one. I called Kimber into a sit and fished my shooting sticks from the side of my pack and then reset my rifle. The whole time the buck and I watched each other. I could tell he had a decent spread but nothing more since he was looking straight at me. The minutes ticked by, just the two of us waiting for the other?s move. Finally he turned his head to check his back trail and I could see that he had four points to the side. Not the massive, heavy antlers I had come for but by far the best buck I have had an opportunity for in California. I still couldn't decide if I wanted to end my hunt and still the buck stood there. I began to think through what I had seen, the conditions I was faced with; the lack of deer, no weather in the forecast, only being able to hunt part of the zone? and still the deer stood there.
Finally with the daylight waning, I decided to end it. I slid the safety off, placed the cross hairs on his throat and sent a round. When I came out of recoil he was gone. I gathered my brass, shooting sticks, and my composure and began the hike up the hill to check. Dad radioed me asking if I had shot one. I let him know I had shot and everything felt good but until I got up the hill I didn't know. As I crested the hill Kimber and I saw him laying at the base of a small tree.
I radioed dad and let him know I did have a buck down and he could bring the sled up and flashlights. Dad took awhile to get the half mile or so into me along the dozer line then we took some pics.
About half way through the job of field dressing Kimber sat up and began growling and barking looking off into the dark. She is a real confident dog that seldom gets upset so it was a little unnerving when she began to lose her cool. Whatever it was decided not to show itself and we finished the job.
We loaded the deer into the sled then I dove off the side of the hill to see if I could find the small spur road we were parked on. I figured it would be easier to drag him straight down the hill to a road then back along the rough dozer trail. I did find it about a quarter mile down the hill so we went out that way. We got to the truck around 7pm and I sent out a flurry of texts since there was service there, letting people know I had scored. We then loaded and deer and took off for the hour drive back to camp. Once in camp, we found a good tree, hung the deer, took a diner break, then skinned, trimmed and otherwise took care of the deer. We finished up just before midnite.
Due to the amount of stuff we had in camp and the long drive home we decided to spend Tuesday relaxing, packing up as much gear and possible and then leave on Wednesday. Word quickly spread around the area that we had a deer in camp and we had a steady stream of hunters come by to check out the deer. No one we talked to had seen much but we met some really nice guys from throughout the State. We headed home early Wednesday and had the deer in the locker by midday. The best part was I was able to see Tricia days earlier than planned and we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
This turned into a frustrating but thoroughly satisfying hunt at the same time. I need to thank a bunch of folks who helped during the hunt and along the way. First, my Dad and Keith for being such great hunting partners and helping with all the planning and execution of the trip. Its asking a lot to ask someone to drive four hours to the back woods when they aren't even going to hunt. And in my dad?s case, he spent a lot of time sitting in the truck waiting for me to pop out on some road somewhere. Thanks to Jason and Ryan for all the pre-trip discussions and planning. Your ideas on where to focus and where you have seen deer in the past were valuable. Also you texts of encouragement during the hunt helped a lot. Thanks to all of you on the online community who posted words of encouragement and well wishes along the way. And last but not least thanks to Tricia for putting up with me while I'm gone from home and for that matter while I am home. I was gone from home for a total of 25 days from the end of September to the end of November this year.
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