Well, in hopes of wanting to help out a MM.com member, my dad and I decided to tag along w/ Mike. We brought our own two horses, and Mike brought his two (one to ride, one to pack). We rode in Tue. night and set up camp, and went for a short ride up the basin a little bit. Then came back to camp, and made a fire, and ate some dinner. Well, Wed. morning came along w/ 3" of snow. We hunted for part of the morning, but couldn't see anything because it was so foggy. Mike didn't cut a track all morning, and my Dad and I cut a small track near camp on the way back. It seemed that all the deer were holed up some place, and weren't coming out anytime soon. We didn't hear a single shot opening morning. It warmed up later that day, and actually most of the snow was gone by that evening. We went up to a good looking area that Mike had seen some good bucks in the past, and hunted that evening without seeing a deer. Mike did however see a Sow bear w/ a cub.
Next morning we were up early, and had the horses saddled and ready to go. Went up to the same area that we'd previously hunted the night before, and ended up seeing a total of 4 deer that morning. Two bucks together, but they were only a forkie, and a spike by 2. It was cool watching them work their way through the bowl ahead of us, and even say them sparring some. Also saw two does. Mike got a glance of a deer running through a quick clearing, but he disappeared into the timber before he could get the binos on em. So, after the deer had dissapeared into the timber, we stayed for a little while longer, and got back on the horses, and took a little loop around to get back to the trail. Ended up seeing two does at about 12 yds when we were on the horses, in the timber. It was cool, my horse was pretty interested, and acted like she does around cattle. Well, back at camp we saw a couple of fellow hunters coming up the trail, and they said that the weather was supposed to have a rain warning for that night, and a big storm warning for friday night. Well, on the drive in, our truck's auto locking hubs weren't working, and we'd had such a bad time w/ the previous snow, we weren't too sure we wanted to stay through a big storm warning when they didn't even have a storm warning for Tue night, and we had 3" of snow. Well, our evening hunt was pretty enjoyable about an hours ride from camp. Found a cool little spot in some tree's and rocks, and started a fire, and spent some hours watching/glassing. That evening didn't yeild a single deer, and it felt like snow was on the way. So we headed back to camp. By now, our horses had spent two nights high lined, and with only the surrounding grass to graze on, had lost some weight due to the extreme cold at night. We didn't want to leave them out in the cold wet snow all night again, and didn't want to have to pack up in the morning when we were sure there was snow on the way. So we packed up all our gear, and when the snow started to come, we headed out of camp at about 6:30. 2 hours later in the cold and wet snow, which transitioned to rain later we found ourselves back at the truck. It was so dark, that at times Mike had trouble seeing his horse's head. We threw all our soaking wet gear in the tack room of the trailer, and tried the 4wd one more time. It worked, and we were on our way home. We hit tons of heavy rain the first 30 minutes on the highway, and were sure we would've had at least 6" of snow where we were originally camped.
For having some bad weather, and not a whole lot of deer, we had a great time getting to spend time in camp, and in the field w/ a fellow MM.com member. We had a good time, and look forward towards the general season. We have some permission to hunt some private land that's adjacent to a heavily hunted area. Supposedly all the deer head towards the un-hunted private land when the shooting starts, and we'll be some of the VERY few who have permission to hunt the area. Thanks again to Mike for taking us up there, and we hope you have success in the upcoming General!
Michael~All Gods creatures welcome... right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.
