I was able to go November 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, and 20th.
It was an incredible experience. I was able to spend most of those days with my father, who is 74. The most valuable part of it all was sharing it with him - both out looking at deer and spending the time in Dubois at the hotel and around town. My brother also came for the last day, and I had a handful of friends that took time out of their lives to come over and help put more eyes behind the glass/share in the camaraderie.
We never did get serious weather. We did get some snow up high to get the deer moving, and some storms that dumped snow down low, but snow never did stick to the valley floor during the hunt.
I was impressed with how friendly everyone was, from those of you on the forum here and some of the guys we ran into out in the field. I was able to get acquainted with some guys I hope to keep in contact with for years to come. Overall, it was the most friendly atmosphere I've probably ever been around while hunting.
As far as animals, my experience pretty much matched what I read about the hunt here on different threads. A ton of deer but few trophy bucks. On several days, I would agree with the estimates on other threads of seeing 50ish four points; almost all of them were 140" clones. I was surprised to see almost no bucks with trash/extras. I was also surprised on the lack of width in this particular genetic population. We saw a lot of solid bucks, but I didn't have interest in tagging out unless it was one that no one in their right mind could walk away from. The biggest reason for that was that I didn't want to miss out what the next day might bring.
It would have taken a special deer to cut the season short for me because I wanted to see the rut progress and new deer move in. We only saw one that met that criteria, but the good folks at Muley Fanatic Foundation, 307 Pursuit, and Holy Pursuit's Dream Foundation were in that same place working to get a boy with cancer a chance at him and so we happily yielded. He didn't end up taking that buck, but he did end up with a beautiful 185" deer a day or two later. I was inspired by those organizations and people and encourage all of you to check them out.
The only true stompers I saw on the hoof were all on private land.
I really enjoyed observing the rut. It is very cool to see a buck work his does, and this area provides plenty of opportunities to experience the annual ritual.
I discussed with one of my new friends on the night before the last day on whether or not to eat on the tag if nothing big showed up on the last day. His advice, which I thought was good, was at 3 pm to find the oldest buck we could get on and take him home.
That is essentially what happened. Some friends spotted an old warrior 3 point that was injured and not moving really well the morning of the last day. After a great last day of the hunt, we found him again at 4 pm with about an hour and a half of light left and put him down. He wasn't the deer I dreamed of over the summer when I drew the tag, but he was the right deer to shoot on on the last day. I was grateful to be able to take a mature buck who by all appearances had lived a good long life and likely wasn't going to survive the winter. To be able to do it with older Bro and my Pops was icing on the cake.
I did see a few pictures of good deer that were taken during the hunt, but only one or two that were legit "monster muleys". I don't feel comfortable sharing those pictures here because it's not my right to share their photos.
I will share two photos here. One from of the mid-1980's of the three of us with an Idaho 3 point buck and one from Friday evening of this year's Wyoming 3 point buck. Neither is a "trophy" animal, but both are "trophy" memories for our family.
