Begininng to end
I fianlly finished up my story begining last Jaunary 2010 to the present. I figured I would post it here as it's been a little slow. Im not the greatest story writer or picture taker for that matter but I hope you all enjoy just the same.
In January 2010 and in an area new to me with about a month??s worth of pre-scouting I set up a tree stand and I was able to harvest this little buck. He was my first Coue??s buck. He was actually chasing a few doe??s around and I was able to grunt call him into me. He stopped in a clearing at 40 yards and I was able to put a good shot on him. This started the beginning of my plans for the following years hunt in 2011.
My first Coue's deer buck january 2010
I watched a big buck bed down behind a bush so I glassed over across to a point from me to see if I could get another vantage point at a different angle for a better look at the buck. To my surprise this is what I found.
These 2 pictures are of the drainage below where I saw the buck and glassed for nearly a week.
This is what I found, can you see it?
How about now??
Or now?
A big Indian ruin on top of a cliff or solid rock formation. Pretty cool in my book. In the springtime around March my son, my hunting partner and myself climbed up into it. Here??s our approach
And here??s what we found.
This place is more like a fortress or a place of defense from its perch. It appears to have had several rooms. They stacked rock walls on the slopes then back filled them with dirt and debris to make the floor level then stacked another row of rocks to form there dwelling. Must of taken an heck of a lot of work!
Our approach to the ruin.
Me in the red shirt climbing up under the tree to get into the ruin.
My son and I up on top.
Looking down on ruin walls.
Another short wall.
Cool stuff, now back to the exploration of down below. My hunting partner , son and I dropped down into the bottom but the route we took was extremely steep and slow going. When we reach close to bottom it was still sideways going but not as steep, however we had to negotiate through a jungle down there! We ran across a couple of flat open areas about 10 yards in diameter but everything else down there was at a sideways walk. What we didn??t know was there were remainder of Indian ruins around us that I discovered later. This was the first of many trips for me. Once we made our way through the jungle we finally mange to get to the spring. We followed the spring for about 20 yards to the point it came out. The water comes out of the ground, travels for the 20 or so yards and then goes back under ground. The biggest pools of water can be found on slabs of rock while in most places the earth is damp. The water is running but it??s slow. It??s a good sign for me as I will have plenty of water come hunt time but I will still be boiling it.
Another view of down bottom.
And the spring down bottom.
At the head of the spring there is a fence some ranchers put in many years ago. I look at the fences all the time and see the work these men must of went through to pound fence post into the rocky ground and up the side of steep hills, and then string miles of barbed wire. It just amazes me. They also brought in bags of mortar and made a short wall out of rock to shore up the head of the spring to make a deeper pool there.
The head of the spring with cenemted roack for a dam.
Intails PP in the cement.
Thespring could use a good cleaning out.
Getting in and out of this hole with all these things had to be done by mules. I can only imagine how much work went into it. Pressing on we went into the direction where I glassed the biggest buck and biggest concentration of deer feeding during the day. I found deer in that spot feeding or bedded down every day. So we picked out the one and only pinion pine tree at about 50 yards above that area and I decided that would be my best option. So for that day I cleared some shooting lanes and snapped a couple of pictures from where we were at.
A view from bottom at the tree stand site location. The big ruin is on the top right of the picture.
Another view.
finished up there and decided to head out as we knew we had a long uphill climb ahead of us. We certainly took the toughest route but in a straight line back to the bikes. 3 and a half hours later and a rattle snake on the way out we made it to the bikes totally exhausted and I was thinking there was no way I could make this work with that route. I looked over at one of two drainages and study it for awhile. It didn??t appear as steep but it sure had a lot of vegetation along the way. Once I was home I pulled up Google earth and I was able to tell it wasn??t as steep in one of the drainages and by zig zaging I could make a pretty decent approach with a lot less effort. I would just need some snipers to cut the thick stuff down enough to get through it. It doesn??t look like much from above but once you??re in it you can??t hardly take a step without breaking down the undergrowth or breaking limbs out of the way.
This picture will give you a good idea of just how thick the growth was that we had to forge through.
Getting thick in here.
Fast forward to October after very successful archery elk hunt.
My 335ish September 2010 Archery bull.
First solo trip down,
So I packed up my over night gear, small tent, bed roll, sleeping bag, dehydrated Mountain house food, Coffee pot to boil water in, jet boil stove and fuel and my 2 foot hand snips. I also brought a game camera along with me to set up at my tree stand site and a lunch. The going was slow with having to stop and snip branches and not to mention keep my balance as the going was still pretty steep. I managed my way directly down the drainage but found out that really was a very good route as there were little rock falls I had to negotiate around and the prickly pear cactus was thick down in it and very difficult to get around in some places. Long story short, I finally made it to the spring.
I dropped my pack off at the spring and with the trail camera and a bottle of water I made my way over to the tree stand site. I spent a good couple of hours clearing some brush and cutting some small limbs off of a nearby Juniper tree to attach my camera to. I set it up and left the site. When I returned to my backpack I sat down for lunch and study the area close by the spring to make a good camp site. Well for the life of me I could not find anyplace flat to set up my tent and I didn??t see one coming down either. After I ate I moved down the drainage from the spring about 20 yards or so and found a place I could make flat for the night. So I did as the Indians did and built a retainer wall out of rock.
This is my camp, the red spot in the background is my tent taken from the spirng.
My retainer wall.
Then I back filled the retaining wall with dirt, debris and rocks from above the rock wall I made and covered the surface with weeds to use as a better mattress and I set my tent over it. Notice in the background the angle of the ground behind the tent? The whole area seems to be this way. As a side note I also brought with me a collapsible shovel, a hatchet and a grill which I hid down by the camp when I left.
I took this photo of the back filled retaining wall as an after thought my last trip down.
My tent over the backfilled retaining wall.
Once settled into camp I did some poking around. I got into some really thick oaks and found some pretty cool trails through the thick trees and a couple of beds here and there. The beds seems too large for deer and I had seen a couple of signs of elk that had been down there at one time and decided that must be what the beds were. As I was slowly making my way down a pretty well used deer trail I saw something move about 25 yards up a head of me. BEAR!! And a big bear too! He was munching on acorns and didn??t hear my approach. He finally looked back my way like he had a feeling he was being watched and bolted outta there downhill and out of sight! I could hear him running for a little while then everything went quiet. Talk about an eerie feeling going back to camp and I now think I know what the beds were made from.
Back at camp I got settled in and boiled up some water for dinner and enjoyed the evening.
Good fire, warm food and coffee.
I really didn??t sleep too well knowing there was a big bear in the area and I was glad to see daylight in the morning. I made some coffee and ate a snack breakfast and broke camp for the long uphill hike out. About 600 yards or so I came out of the drainage looking for an easier route. Once out of the drainage I found an Indian ruin in the one and only flat spots the area had to offer. I was thinking to myself what a perfect camping area. A little further from the spring than I would have liked but it would be a real suitable place for a camp, I would just have to haul up water. So I took a few pictures, pulled our my GPS and marked the spot.
Found ruin on the way out.
Couple more views of ruin.
I got a good rest and continued my way out of the steep canyon, I did manage to find a better route zig zaging back and forth and negotiating around the prickly pear cactus. I had to cut openings in a few places with my snips so it was slow going at times but I liked this route much better. I made my way back to the bike, gobbled down a couple of bottled waters and made the ride back to my truck. I also thought ahead and knowing how sweaty I was going to be I brought an extra dry sweat shirt that I left in the bike. This turned out to be a really good thing for the ride out and I repeated this for every trip after.
3 weeks later, 2nd solo trip down.
I was excited to get down there to see what might be on my trail camera but this trip also included setting up my spike camp. My little tent wasn??t going to cut it for the hunt so this time I brought a few tarps with me that I had at home to make a shelter out of. The plan was to get in really early and stay the day, then come out the next day. Here is my pack loaded for the trip. It??s roughly 50 pounds so the going was really slow down that steep canyon. I brought a pole saw with me this trip which doubled as a walking stick too.
My backpack for 2nd solo trip down in the hole.
A view of the drainage I came down next to and at about the half way point and just starting to hit the wood line. From here I pulled up my GPS to locate the ruin below.
Once I reached the half way point at the edge of the thick oaks and brush I pulled up my GPS and started making my way to the ruin I found on my last trip out. After fighting the brush and limbs and cutting my way (should have brought a machete) through most of it I somehow passed the ruin up. That??s really aggravating when you have a 50 pound pack on your back and to backtrack it??s all up hill. Turns out the ruin is in a little hole and I passed it only by a few feet. I was ready to get that pack off of me so I was really glad to see the ruin.
Return to the ruin.
Approach to the ruin.
I dropped my pack and took a little break. I removed everything from the back pack and once I was rested up I left my pack and things behind except some water, new batteries for the trail camera, a new camera chip, and my camera to review what I may have recovered in pictures. I also brought along my 2 and half gallon collapsible water jug to fill on my way back. I made my way off the shelf and directly into the drainage which proved to be the easiest route but needed a lot of thinning. I made it to the spring and worked my way over the fence and up above it. From here on to the tree stand location was a few ups and downs in slight depressions and a couple of drainages but I was out of the woods. The closer I got to the tree the more excited I got.
First thing I did was turn off the camera, then I looked for sign and there was plenty of it. Lots of deer tracks all over and one heavy wide set with them. Things were looking promising.
Good sign!
I went back to the camera which told me there was 37 pictures. I pulled the chip and went through the pictures on my digital camera. Nothing but corrupted pictures, a few of me when I set the trail cam up and a few of the scenery in the direction I had the camera pointed. No pictures of any critters though. It was then I realized the limb I had the camera on was moving with the breeze and most likely is the reason for setting the camera off. So I made another solid rest out of rock and a heavy branch and secured the trial cam to it, I replaced the chip with a new one and added new batteries. Then I tested it and everything seemed to be working fine.
Just as I finished that up I looked below me and two Doe??s were headed right at me. Somehow they hadn??t seen me and got within 70 yards or so and bedded down. Crap, now I??m trapped so I belly crawl to the backside of the tree and get into a depression and head my way back to the spring. The trail cam was a disappointment but at least I was seeing deer. I reached the spring and filled my water jug, and I went and retrieved my shovel, grill and hatchet that I hid on the previous trip, then I loaded it all in my pack and made my way back to the ruin.
Filled up my water jug.
Now back at the ruin I dump my pack off and start surveying the best place to make a shelter. Under some trees looked like a good place and probably the flattest place too so I cleared it out.
I then started looking for branches and such to make a frame for my shelter. What I found was century plants. Nice and straight and they made and great frame in a short amount of time, plus they were abundant in the area and really light to carry. I lashed them all together with some rope I brought down with me. I had to saw them off as most were around 15 to 18 feet long. (Note to self) do not cut into any that have holes in them, it pisses off the Carpenter bumble bees!! Sorry guys!
Century plants for framework.
After the framework was finished I tied on the tarps, The walls went up first and then the ceiling. It made for a ten by ten foot room that I could also stand up in. Once I was satisfied I realized I hadn??t had anything to eat so I sat down and ate the lunch I brought with me.
I had a few hours to kill so just behind my new campsite about 30 feet or so I had a great place to glass deer from all the way down to my tree stand site. As luck would have it I watched a Doe feeding until almost dark. It gets dark early that time of year so I went into my shelter and set up my bedroll and bed then boiled some water for dinner and to refill my water bottles for the next day. I laid in the bed for a few minutes and decided it was downhill too much and I was sliding towards a wall. So I dug as much of the ground as I could and moved some earth to try and level it out. It was better but not good enough so I got some flat rocks and made the area for my bedroll good and flat then buried it with dirt. I put a tarp over that and then my bedroll. Now I was in good shape.
Inside shelter.
Getting ready for dinner and coffee.
I text my wife and read a book then fell asleep, got up the next morning and made a another Mountain house for breakfast and took down all the tarps. I rolled the tarps up and tied them into the nearby trees and then hid my lantern, coffee pot and other items I was leaving behind and headed back out.
Fast forward to trip number three. I initially wrote an e-mail about this trip to my hunting buddies. I was going to rewrite it for the readers here and then decided to leave it as it was, so the next part for this trip is as original as it gets, hope you enjoy. Hi guy??s! Quite the adventure this past weekend. It is long winded.
My 3rd solo pack down in the hole.
I got down bottom and found camp this time a lot easier. Last time even with the GPS I did some searching for it. This time I walked right to it. Im starting to recognize stuff. ?? You can be within 50 feet of camp and not know it??s there. Anyway, I brought down dehydrated foods to stash this time, 3 lengths of pool hose with a charcoal filter I made up and dropped everything off of my pack at camp except the hose and filter. I grabbed my collapsible water jug and put it in my pack. Then from camp I cut a clear path down the drainage right to the spring. This way I can find my way easily when it??s dark out and I don??t have to tie ribbons that someone may see from up top.
I dropped my pack off at the spring and headed towards my tree stand. I topped out above the spring and started glassing. I glassed up 6 Doe??s and a Big Buck about 100 yards south of my tree stand, er so I thought. It was more like 300 yards. Buck was chasing the Doe??s around acting real rutty. They were out in the big open bowl with the yellow grass. I call Bob, fill him in. On my way down this time I was beginning to wonder why I was doing all this work. After seeing this big Buck I got new inspiration!! ??
I watch as the buck heads towards my stand away from the Doe??s and into some thick Junipers. He didn??t come out so after a while I figured he bedded down. I snuck over to my stand and my game camera had 43 photo??s on the chip and I found one set of fresh deer tracks over by the lick since the rain. Yippee, cant wait to get it home to see it. I replaced the batteries and the chip and for the next hour tired to get the darn camera to work. I ended up pulling it (still don??t know what??s wrong) and in the meantime the buck had moved back towards the Doe??s and bedded down out in the open.
I make my way back to the spring and filled my water jug. The hoses worked out great but the charcoal is too fine and it took forever. Note to self, bring coarse charcoal. I could make a good ground blind there at the upper part of the spring as back-up. Cowboys had cemented a rock dam at the head of the spring so it??s deep but full of leaves. I take water from a little further downstream after it comes back out of the ground.
Ok, water in my pack and I make my way back to camp nice and easy up my new cut path. Worked out great. So I get to work putting the tarps back out and fastening them down with rope on my framework. Then I decide I??m going to build a fire pit but with a real high back wall to block any wind and heat the inside of camp. Worked like a champ (see picture) until the fire went down and I added damp oak wood to it. Then for whatever reason my shelter filled up with smoke. Once I got the fire high with Juniper it was clear and heated it up just fine. The wind would hit the inside of the U-shaped rocks and force it into the shelter. Think I will bring one more tarp down and see if I can surround the U shape to the shelter to keep the wind from getting to it. It should act like a huge chimney then. I keep a small fire so it won??t get too hot for the tarps. All I can do is try.
U-shaped fire ring I built.
Now for the real excitement. I woke up Yesterday Morning/Sunday a little late. I then hear tap tap tap on my tarp roof. Dang rain?? This aint good. Darn, it??s worse yet!! It is hail and started coming down in buckets! No time for breakfast or to break down camp. I rolled everything up and hung it inside off the ground and grabbed my pack to haul out of there. By the time I got all this done it turned to snow and it was a flippen whiteout!! I could not see 20 yards ahead of me. So I climb and the higher I get the harder it snows. I messed up and crossed a drainage as there are several down there and I thought at one point I do not remember it being this steep. I climbed until I hit a huge rock slide with boulders taller than I am. The snow died down enough I could make out that huge rock face and I realized I was going the wrong way headed west wrapping around the mountain. Dang, got to back track a half mile now and sideways in snow at that! Guess I pulled a Don and should have pulled out the GPS. Oh well I got back on track but the snow was getting deeper so it was slow going.
Finally got to my bike, gloves are soaked and so am I mostly from sweat. I have a dry thermal shirt and coats in my bike box. I pull of my wet shirts and the big flakes are hitting my back. Dang that??s cold! Got my shirt and coats on but by this time my hands are cold and numb. I got the bike started and put my wet gloves on the muffler while I tied my pack on. I had to warm my hands up on the bike exhaust, gloves never dried out but did get worm for a little while. Now the snow is 2 inches on the ground and I am a little concerned about the bike climbing out of that big canyon up to the truck. It never even spun a tire the whole way out. However I did have to one eye it out as the snow was hitting me so hard in the face I could hardly see! I did have to stop several times and warm my hands up. Got to the truck which had 3 inches of snow on the hood. I should have taken pictures but was in too big a hurry to get warmed up, make a call to my wife and Bob and get down off the mountain before I was stuck up there..
My pack up with tree stand about 2 weeks before the opener.
Okay, now I??m going on the final trip before the hunt. I am going to haul my tree stand in and set it up. It??s about 2 weeks before Season and a rifle season is going on. I posted a while ago about some of this trip. I ran into some hunters who a buddy if theirs on a pre-scout had seen my tarp set up and went down to investigate. I had left my pool hose and a red Folgers can down at the spring to fill up my water jug so I guess as the story goes he snuck around by camp but was too afraid to get close to it as he thought and convinced his buddies to think it was an operation for a pot garden. He was afraid to get too close cuz he might get shot. Ha ha ha I had a good laugh over that one. Long story short I made it down to camp finding my way without the GPS and nothing had been disturbed.
I unloaded my pack except water, tree stand, my limb snipers and some rope. I brought more dehydrated foods down an extra bedroll and some odds and ends I thought I would use during the hunt. As I made my way down the spring I bumped a herd a Javelina in the drainage I had cleared out. There were probably about 14 pigs. I have not seen any fresh sign of the bear at all so I am assuming I pushed him out of the area. I made my way over the fence and above the spring and glassed over to the stand. Seeing I wouldn??t bump any deer I headed to the tree. When I got to the tree I glassed the area for deer. I saw one doe off in the distance so I was satisfied I wouldn??t get pinned down again. I sent a few hours setting up my stand. Next few pictures are of the tree and the view from it.
Stand in tree.
Different view from the stand.
Camp and spring area up in the tree line. spring is by closest and lowest in picture in the trees.
View to the east and feed area for the deer in dark green area.
After setting up the stand I went back to the spring and filled up my water jug. I made it back to camp and took another tarp and wrapped it around the fire ring to seal it off from the wind. I left a hug opening at the top to act as a chimney. This worked out very well and kept camp inside warm until I put it out to go to bed.
Campfire inside.
Now to the hunt. I planned to be down in the hole the first week of January but as luck would have it a huge snow storm came through Arizona and there was no way I could get in. So I had to change my vacation plans at work and push it out another week. I have to tell you I was really antsy but being by myself it wasn??t worth the risk. In the meantime I made up a set of chains for my quad and waited out the long week. Finally it was time to go.
So I got up to my location and parked the camper to use as my base camp. As it turned out it was a good thing I decided to bring it as a back-up plan. I put a set of chains on my quad in case of deep snow. With the trailer set and ...my quad loaded I headed out. The quad ride in really isn??t very long but it??s steep and goes up and down in a few places. On the south facing slopes most of the snow had been melted but on the north facing slopes it was still pretty deep. There was a couple of places that made me a little nervous about getting stuck. The bike is 4 wheel drive but even at that and with chains I would slip and slide until the chain would dig in and bite the rocks under the snow. I eventually climbed out of the deep stuff and made it to my parking location.
Snow pictures
Lots of snow.
I put my back pack on and grabbed up my bow with renewed excitement. My decent down into the hole is a south facing slope so most of the snow was melted off except in some pockets and when I reached the tree line. Walking in snow downhill is no east task. And picking my way through the trees I was realizing I didn??t recognize some things because of the snow cover. I had my GPS if I needed it but I wanted to see if I could find it without it this time. Sure enough I walked right into it. The roof had about 10 inches of snow on it and a real thick piece of ice. There was snow all the way around the base of the tarps but my biggest relief came when I got inside and the roof had surprisingly supported all the snow. Man those light weight century plants I used as a frame are strong! I pushed all the snow and ice off, Scrounged up some fire wood, set up camp for my return, grabbed my collapsible water jug, pack, and bow and headed for the spring. Once I reached the spring I dropped off the water jug and climbed up and out above it towards my tree stand.
Ready to head down into the hole.
On the way down.
Made it to the camp site and was relieved to see it still standing.
It was about 1 o??clock in the afternoon. Too late to go to the tree stand so I spent the day glassing the area. In no time at all I picked up a few doe??s feeding near the stand. I kept searching for well over an hour knowing the buck was there somewhere and finally he showed himself like magic! Now I know why they call these Coue??s deer the little gray ghosts! He stayed tight with one doe and the thing that really got me excited was he was only a mere 50 yards from my stand! I am over a quarter mile away but I can see clearly how big he was from my position.
The day was starting to turn gray, I had about another hour of daylight left and decided that I should go and collect my water from the spring and make my way back to camp. I glassed up a plan together for the next morning to climb way up high and come down to my tree stand keeping the tree between me and the where the deer currently were before daylight. So I grab my gear and take about 2 steps towards the spring when I heard a growl, one I have never heard before but I knew what it was. Mountain lion!!... and there was no doubt. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! But the growl was over by the deer. To me it sounded like a Tom house cat about to fight another except about ten times deeper. I glassed like crazy and could not find this cat. It growled again and again and again, the deer went on full alert and started to whistle like they do when they smell a human but can??t find him. But they didn??t run, they stayed put. The cat went on and on like this until it got too dark to see. I never was able to glass him up. All I could do was hope the cat wasn??t able to kill a deer this day and move them from their current location but I knew in my heart that wasn??t to be so. At dark and with the cat still growling I went back to the spring and filled my water and went back to camp.
I set up my gear inside and made dinner, I was pretty exhausted so I went to sleep early that night. I brought long a little alarm clock and set it for 4am.
Ready for morning hunt.
Next morning at O-dark thirty I jet boiled some water for coffee and a Mountain House meal. I decided I would stick with the same plan even though I knew the deer would be gone because of the cat. I really don??t like to eat first thing in t...he mornings so I poured the boiling water into the food pouch and sealed it up. Then I wrapped it in my insulated liner and coat and stuffed it into my pack. I found this worked out great. Those Mountain house pouches really seal tight and keep the food hot for a long time. I only wore my Thermal long sleeve camo shirt for the hike to the tree stand and had another to change into after sweating like heck to get to there. Once I was in the stand and pulled my pack and bow up I changed into the dry shirt and put on my coat. The steam was raising off my skin when the very cool (about 25 degrees) air hit it but I did not feel cold. I was actually hungry by this time and after changing into my warm dry things I had about 10 minute until there was enough daylight to glass so I ate my hot food and boy I gotta say that worked out awesome! Back to the hunt.
Making breakfast and hot coffee.
I spent a couple hours frantically picking the dessert floor apart trying to find the deer. Finally I see a Doe feeding but she was on the other side of a really deep gorge and at least a half mile away. After a while I find 4 more Doe??s and finally a buck and my heart sank. It would take me a good part of the day to get over to them to put on a stalk if it was even possible. As I watched the buck I began to realize he was not the same deer. Even at that distance I could see he was a very good deer but he wasn??t the one I glassed the night before which was a great deer. I slowly began to realize this was a whole different herd and glassed other closer areas. Bingo! I found him and his doe??s, a quarter mile further than where I had glassed him up from the evening before and on the same side I was on and he was alive and well chasing a doe around which I witness him finally breed. I studied the area all day and they all stayed right there. Funny thing was it seemed like each doe after it would get up and feed for a while had its own place to bed down that it preferred while the buck would bed down anywhere so long as it was with the girl he was hot to trot for at the time. I watched these deer all day. I occasionally would glass back towards camp for a change in scenery. I saw a buck chasing a doe out in the open and then back in the tree line right across from camp. As it turns out later when I went back that evening that buck had stepped on my foot prints in the snow not 10 yards from my camp!
I found the deer in the yellow grass way in the back next to the skyline.
Fast forward, day 3. The next morning found me back in my tree glassing the very same area I put the deer to bed in the night before. Bingo! I glassed up a doe on the move with the big boy on her tail. He chased her back and forth a few times and while they were busy not going anywhere I glassed up the rest of his little harem and they were bedded or feeding near the beds they were in the day before. The doe that the buck is chasing around is moving away from the rest of the heard. The big boy is in hot pursuit. Awesome, here my opportunity as they got further and further away until they went out of sight around a bend in a hill. Then this little buck decided to get in on the action and found his keetser getting chased off by the big buck. I decided now it would be the best time to make a move in on them as they were so distracted by one another and away from all the other eye balls. I got down out of the stand and started climbing up over the bend. A couple of times on my way I thought I heard a hound but wasn??t sure. Finally I slowly peeked up over the hill and I could see the big buck bedded down facing away from me looking intently back and forth between the little buck and the doe that was also bedded and looking away. I ranged the buck at 122 yards and glassed for my approach to him. After an hour or so I was at 62 yards. I needed another 20 yards for a comfortable shot when he stood up. On my approach I kept hearing this dog and it was getting louder. As I got within 50 yards or so I heard more dogs and I glassed back behind me across the deep drainage and the deer over there are hauling A$$ getting out of dodge! I don??t know how many dogs I saw but there were at least 8 and two guy??s on mules. But even though the deer seemed a little antsy they stayed in their beds looking in the dogs direction which was also in my direction so I was at a stop. I watched as the lion hunters dog and man headed up towards the drainage my camp was in and thought I had it made, then the dogs seemed to pop out of nowhere on my side for the drainage and head right in the direction of the buck below me. No this couldn??t be worse!! The doe is the first to bolt out of there, then the little buck. The big buck got to his feet until he could actually see dogs. I had no shot as there were trees between us. I ran like hell across the top trying to get in front of the deer and cut them off for a shot but I was just a few yards too short and my opportunity was gone! The lead guy asked the other if he saw that big buck, he said yes and I think we just messed it up for that hunter and pointed at me. He then apologized for messing up my hunt as every deer down there in my little hole was gone. It wasn??t their fault but my heart sank after all the months of preparation and work went down the drain. A little aggravated and depressed I made the long walk back to camp. I packed up as much as I could possibly carry on my pack and spent the next 3 hours packing out of the steep hole back to my bike.
Almost out.
After a little break I rode over to the area I killed my little buck in last year. Things looked promising so I decided I would set my stand there and hunt the remainder of my time off up there. I then went back to my trailer. I got a nice hot shower, talked to my wife and hunting partner and turned in. Next morning I went in early and got my stand set up in the dark. By daylight I was seeing deer within a couple hundred yards with one small buck. I had a little inch and a half spike come under my tree. I tried to video tape him but when I turned the camera on the darn thing jingled and all I got was a nice white flag bouncing away from me. Darn it! I forgot about that!! A few hours after that and I had a little forky come by about 25 yards and let him walk. Eventually the deer moved off and daylight faded away so back to camp I go. The next morning found me in the same stand and at daylight I was seeing a couple of shooter bucks but they were so far away that my grunting them didn??t have any effect. At about 9am I see another nice looking buck. He was a heavy 3 by 3 including 3 inch eye guards. One more note about this buck was his horns were almost an orange color. One toot on the grunt call and he was coming my way. Giving a toot here and there he kept coming and as I prepared for a shot with him less than 80 yards and closing I hear quads. OH nooooooo, please don??t come this way. Sure enough they saw where I parked my bike and started yelling out loud at each to turn around. Bye bye deer! I never saw another deer in that stand or anywhere else in the area for the next two days. I had to pack it up and go home as I was head for Tucson Flowing Wells for a Wrestling tournament. In a couple of weeks I will take some wrestlers down in the hole with me to haul the rest of camp out. As disheartening as it was I will be back down there for another hunt again. Hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures. Maybe next year!!
My 2010 deer back from the taxi.
A few weeks later I took one of my wrestler kids with me down into the hole to retrieve my camp and gear. We managed to get it all out in one trip. We spent most of the day breaking down camp, we even took down the frame and laid the century plants in the tree limbs nearby. Keeping them off the ground will keep them from rotting. I may use them next year. The following pictures are mostly of him and some more views of the area. I am pretty sure I will be back.
Ryan out on a rock ledge checking out the view on our way down.
Enjoying the view.
View below the rock.
More pictures
One of many cleared paths I made.
Had to make our way through.
Gate down bottom close to tree stand.
My door to camp.
Ryan at the ruin next to camp.
After we took down camp and were about to leave the area.
It was a lot of prep work but a lot of fun as well. I saw a few good bucks and nearly had anopertunitiy to shoot a big one. I hope you all enjoyed the story. It was fun to put together.
GBA
GBA
I fianlly finished up my story begining last Jaunary 2010 to the present. I figured I would post it here as it's been a little slow. Im not the greatest story writer or picture taker for that matter but I hope you all enjoy just the same.
In January 2010 and in an area new to me with about a month??s worth of pre-scouting I set up a tree stand and I was able to harvest this little buck. He was my first Coue??s buck. He was actually chasing a few doe??s around and I was able to grunt call him into me. He stopped in a clearing at 40 yards and I was able to put a good shot on him. This started the beginning of my plans for the following years hunt in 2011.
My first Coue's deer buck january 2010
I watched a big buck bed down behind a bush so I glassed over across to a point from me to see if I could get another vantage point at a different angle for a better look at the buck. To my surprise this is what I found.
These 2 pictures are of the drainage below where I saw the buck and glassed for nearly a week.
This is what I found, can you see it?
How about now??
Or now?
A big Indian ruin on top of a cliff or solid rock formation. Pretty cool in my book. In the springtime around March my son, my hunting partner and myself climbed up into it. Here??s our approach
And here??s what we found.
This place is more like a fortress or a place of defense from its perch. It appears to have had several rooms. They stacked rock walls on the slopes then back filled them with dirt and debris to make the floor level then stacked another row of rocks to form there dwelling. Must of taken an heck of a lot of work!
Our approach to the ruin.
Me in the red shirt climbing up under the tree to get into the ruin.
My son and I up on top.
Looking down on ruin walls.
Another short wall.
Cool stuff, now back to the exploration of down below. My hunting partner , son and I dropped down into the bottom but the route we took was extremely steep and slow going. When we reach close to bottom it was still sideways going but not as steep, however we had to negotiate through a jungle down there! We ran across a couple of flat open areas about 10 yards in diameter but everything else down there was at a sideways walk. What we didn??t know was there were remainder of Indian ruins around us that I discovered later. This was the first of many trips for me. Once we made our way through the jungle we finally mange to get to the spring. We followed the spring for about 20 yards to the point it came out. The water comes out of the ground, travels for the 20 or so yards and then goes back under ground. The biggest pools of water can be found on slabs of rock while in most places the earth is damp. The water is running but it??s slow. It??s a good sign for me as I will have plenty of water come hunt time but I will still be boiling it.
Another view of down bottom.
And the spring down bottom.
At the head of the spring there is a fence some ranchers put in many years ago. I look at the fences all the time and see the work these men must of went through to pound fence post into the rocky ground and up the side of steep hills, and then string miles of barbed wire. It just amazes me. They also brought in bags of mortar and made a short wall out of rock to shore up the head of the spring to make a deeper pool there.
The head of the spring with cenemted roack for a dam.
Intails PP in the cement.
Thespring could use a good cleaning out.
Getting in and out of this hole with all these things had to be done by mules. I can only imagine how much work went into it. Pressing on we went into the direction where I glassed the biggest buck and biggest concentration of deer feeding during the day. I found deer in that spot feeding or bedded down every day. So we picked out the one and only pinion pine tree at about 50 yards above that area and I decided that would be my best option. So for that day I cleared some shooting lanes and snapped a couple of pictures from where we were at.
A view from bottom at the tree stand site location. The big ruin is on the top right of the picture.
Another view.
This picture will give you a good idea of just how thick the growth was that we had to forge through.
Getting thick in here.
Fast forward to October after very successful archery elk hunt.
My 335ish September 2010 Archery bull.
First solo trip down,
So I packed up my over night gear, small tent, bed roll, sleeping bag, dehydrated Mountain house food, Coffee pot to boil water in, jet boil stove and fuel and my 2 foot hand snips. I also brought a game camera along with me to set up at my tree stand site and a lunch. The going was slow with having to stop and snip branches and not to mention keep my balance as the going was still pretty steep. I managed my way directly down the drainage but found out that really was a very good route as there were little rock falls I had to negotiate around and the prickly pear cactus was thick down in it and very difficult to get around in some places. Long story short, I finally made it to the spring.
I dropped my pack off at the spring and with the trail camera and a bottle of water I made my way over to the tree stand site. I spent a good couple of hours clearing some brush and cutting some small limbs off of a nearby Juniper tree to attach my camera to. I set it up and left the site. When I returned to my backpack I sat down for lunch and study the area close by the spring to make a good camp site. Well for the life of me I could not find anyplace flat to set up my tent and I didn??t see one coming down either. After I ate I moved down the drainage from the spring about 20 yards or so and found a place I could make flat for the night. So I did as the Indians did and built a retainer wall out of rock.
This is my camp, the red spot in the background is my tent taken from the spirng.
My retainer wall.
Then I back filled the retaining wall with dirt, debris and rocks from above the rock wall I made and covered the surface with weeds to use as a better mattress and I set my tent over it. Notice in the background the angle of the ground behind the tent? The whole area seems to be this way. As a side note I also brought with me a collapsible shovel, a hatchet and a grill which I hid down by the camp when I left.
I took this photo of the back filled retaining wall as an after thought my last trip down.
My tent over the backfilled retaining wall.
Once settled into camp I did some poking around. I got into some really thick oaks and found some pretty cool trails through the thick trees and a couple of beds here and there. The beds seems too large for deer and I had seen a couple of signs of elk that had been down there at one time and decided that must be what the beds were. As I was slowly making my way down a pretty well used deer trail I saw something move about 25 yards up a head of me. BEAR!! And a big bear too! He was munching on acorns and didn??t hear my approach. He finally looked back my way like he had a feeling he was being watched and bolted outta there downhill and out of sight! I could hear him running for a little while then everything went quiet. Talk about an eerie feeling going back to camp and I now think I know what the beds were made from.
Back at camp I got settled in and boiled up some water for dinner and enjoyed the evening.
Good fire, warm food and coffee.
I really didn??t sleep too well knowing there was a big bear in the area and I was glad to see daylight in the morning. I made some coffee and ate a snack breakfast and broke camp for the long uphill hike out. About 600 yards or so I came out of the drainage looking for an easier route. Once out of the drainage I found an Indian ruin in the one and only flat spots the area had to offer. I was thinking to myself what a perfect camping area. A little further from the spring than I would have liked but it would be a real suitable place for a camp, I would just have to haul up water. So I took a few pictures, pulled our my GPS and marked the spot.
Found ruin on the way out.
Couple more views of ruin.
I got a good rest and continued my way out of the steep canyon, I did manage to find a better route zig zaging back and forth and negotiating around the prickly pear cactus. I had to cut openings in a few places with my snips so it was slow going at times but I liked this route much better. I made my way back to the bike, gobbled down a couple of bottled waters and made the ride back to my truck. I also thought ahead and knowing how sweaty I was going to be I brought an extra dry sweat shirt that I left in the bike. This turned out to be a really good thing for the ride out and I repeated this for every trip after.
3 weeks later, 2nd solo trip down.
I was excited to get down there to see what might be on my trail camera but this trip also included setting up my spike camp. My little tent wasn??t going to cut it for the hunt so this time I brought a few tarps with me that I had at home to make a shelter out of. The plan was to get in really early and stay the day, then come out the next day. Here is my pack loaded for the trip. It??s roughly 50 pounds so the going was really slow down that steep canyon. I brought a pole saw with me this trip which doubled as a walking stick too.
My backpack for 2nd solo trip down in the hole.
A view of the drainage I came down next to and at about the half way point and just starting to hit the wood line. From here I pulled up my GPS to locate the ruin below.
Once I reached the half way point at the edge of the thick oaks and brush I pulled up my GPS and started making my way to the ruin I found on my last trip out. After fighting the brush and limbs and cutting my way (should have brought a machete) through most of it I somehow passed the ruin up. That??s really aggravating when you have a 50 pound pack on your back and to backtrack it??s all up hill. Turns out the ruin is in a little hole and I passed it only by a few feet. I was ready to get that pack off of me so I was really glad to see the ruin.
Return to the ruin.
Approach to the ruin.
I dropped my pack and took a little break. I removed everything from the back pack and once I was rested up I left my pack and things behind except some water, new batteries for the trail camera, a new camera chip, and my camera to review what I may have recovered in pictures. I also brought along my 2 and half gallon collapsible water jug to fill on my way back. I made my way off the shelf and directly into the drainage which proved to be the easiest route but needed a lot of thinning. I made it to the spring and worked my way over the fence and up above it. From here on to the tree stand location was a few ups and downs in slight depressions and a couple of drainages but I was out of the woods. The closer I got to the tree the more excited I got.
First thing I did was turn off the camera, then I looked for sign and there was plenty of it. Lots of deer tracks all over and one heavy wide set with them. Things were looking promising.
Good sign!
I went back to the camera which told me there was 37 pictures. I pulled the chip and went through the pictures on my digital camera. Nothing but corrupted pictures, a few of me when I set the trail cam up and a few of the scenery in the direction I had the camera pointed. No pictures of any critters though. It was then I realized the limb I had the camera on was moving with the breeze and most likely is the reason for setting the camera off. So I made another solid rest out of rock and a heavy branch and secured the trial cam to it, I replaced the chip with a new one and added new batteries. Then I tested it and everything seemed to be working fine.
Just as I finished that up I looked below me and two Doe??s were headed right at me. Somehow they hadn??t seen me and got within 70 yards or so and bedded down. Crap, now I??m trapped so I belly crawl to the backside of the tree and get into a depression and head my way back to the spring. The trail cam was a disappointment but at least I was seeing deer. I reached the spring and filled my water jug, and I went and retrieved my shovel, grill and hatchet that I hid on the previous trip, then I loaded it all in my pack and made my way back to the ruin.
Filled up my water jug.
Now back at the ruin I dump my pack off and start surveying the best place to make a shelter. Under some trees looked like a good place and probably the flattest place too so I cleared it out.
I then started looking for branches and such to make a frame for my shelter. What I found was century plants. Nice and straight and they made and great frame in a short amount of time, plus they were abundant in the area and really light to carry. I lashed them all together with some rope I brought down with me. I had to saw them off as most were around 15 to 18 feet long. (Note to self) do not cut into any that have holes in them, it pisses off the Carpenter bumble bees!! Sorry guys!
Century plants for framework.
After the framework was finished I tied on the tarps, The walls went up first and then the ceiling. It made for a ten by ten foot room that I could also stand up in. Once I was satisfied I realized I hadn??t had anything to eat so I sat down and ate the lunch I brought with me.
I had a few hours to kill so just behind my new campsite about 30 feet or so I had a great place to glass deer from all the way down to my tree stand site. As luck would have it I watched a Doe feeding until almost dark. It gets dark early that time of year so I went into my shelter and set up my bedroll and bed then boiled some water for dinner and to refill my water bottles for the next day. I laid in the bed for a few minutes and decided it was downhill too much and I was sliding towards a wall. So I dug as much of the ground as I could and moved some earth to try and level it out. It was better but not good enough so I got some flat rocks and made the area for my bedroll good and flat then buried it with dirt. I put a tarp over that and then my bedroll. Now I was in good shape.
Inside shelter.
Getting ready for dinner and coffee.
I text my wife and read a book then fell asleep, got up the next morning and made a another Mountain house for breakfast and took down all the tarps. I rolled the tarps up and tied them into the nearby trees and then hid my lantern, coffee pot and other items I was leaving behind and headed back out.
Fast forward to trip number three. I initially wrote an e-mail about this trip to my hunting buddies. I was going to rewrite it for the readers here and then decided to leave it as it was, so the next part for this trip is as original as it gets, hope you enjoy. Hi guy??s! Quite the adventure this past weekend. It is long winded.
My 3rd solo pack down in the hole.
I got down bottom and found camp this time a lot easier. Last time even with the GPS I did some searching for it. This time I walked right to it. Im starting to recognize stuff. ?? You can be within 50 feet of camp and not know it??s there. Anyway, I brought down dehydrated foods to stash this time, 3 lengths of pool hose with a charcoal filter I made up and dropped everything off of my pack at camp except the hose and filter. I grabbed my collapsible water jug and put it in my pack. Then from camp I cut a clear path down the drainage right to the spring. This way I can find my way easily when it??s dark out and I don??t have to tie ribbons that someone may see from up top.
I dropped my pack off at the spring and headed towards my tree stand. I topped out above the spring and started glassing. I glassed up 6 Doe??s and a Big Buck about 100 yards south of my tree stand, er so I thought. It was more like 300 yards. Buck was chasing the Doe??s around acting real rutty. They were out in the big open bowl with the yellow grass. I call Bob, fill him in. On my way down this time I was beginning to wonder why I was doing all this work. After seeing this big Buck I got new inspiration!! ??
I watch as the buck heads towards my stand away from the Doe??s and into some thick Junipers. He didn??t come out so after a while I figured he bedded down. I snuck over to my stand and my game camera had 43 photo??s on the chip and I found one set of fresh deer tracks over by the lick since the rain. Yippee, cant wait to get it home to see it. I replaced the batteries and the chip and for the next hour tired to get the darn camera to work. I ended up pulling it (still don??t know what??s wrong) and in the meantime the buck had moved back towards the Doe??s and bedded down out in the open.
I make my way back to the spring and filled my water jug. The hoses worked out great but the charcoal is too fine and it took forever. Note to self, bring coarse charcoal. I could make a good ground blind there at the upper part of the spring as back-up. Cowboys had cemented a rock dam at the head of the spring so it??s deep but full of leaves. I take water from a little further downstream after it comes back out of the ground.
Ok, water in my pack and I make my way back to camp nice and easy up my new cut path. Worked out great. So I get to work putting the tarps back out and fastening them down with rope on my framework. Then I decide I??m going to build a fire pit but with a real high back wall to block any wind and heat the inside of camp. Worked like a champ (see picture) until the fire went down and I added damp oak wood to it. Then for whatever reason my shelter filled up with smoke. Once I got the fire high with Juniper it was clear and heated it up just fine. The wind would hit the inside of the U-shaped rocks and force it into the shelter. Think I will bring one more tarp down and see if I can surround the U shape to the shelter to keep the wind from getting to it. It should act like a huge chimney then. I keep a small fire so it won??t get too hot for the tarps. All I can do is try.
U-shaped fire ring I built.
Now for the real excitement. I woke up Yesterday Morning/Sunday a little late. I then hear tap tap tap on my tarp roof. Dang rain?? This aint good. Darn, it??s worse yet!! It is hail and started coming down in buckets! No time for breakfast or to break down camp. I rolled everything up and hung it inside off the ground and grabbed my pack to haul out of there. By the time I got all this done it turned to snow and it was a flippen whiteout!! I could not see 20 yards ahead of me. So I climb and the higher I get the harder it snows. I messed up and crossed a drainage as there are several down there and I thought at one point I do not remember it being this steep. I climbed until I hit a huge rock slide with boulders taller than I am. The snow died down enough I could make out that huge rock face and I realized I was going the wrong way headed west wrapping around the mountain. Dang, got to back track a half mile now and sideways in snow at that! Guess I pulled a Don and should have pulled out the GPS. Oh well I got back on track but the snow was getting deeper so it was slow going.
Finally got to my bike, gloves are soaked and so am I mostly from sweat. I have a dry thermal shirt and coats in my bike box. I pull of my wet shirts and the big flakes are hitting my back. Dang that??s cold! Got my shirt and coats on but by this time my hands are cold and numb. I got the bike started and put my wet gloves on the muffler while I tied my pack on. I had to warm my hands up on the bike exhaust, gloves never dried out but did get worm for a little while. Now the snow is 2 inches on the ground and I am a little concerned about the bike climbing out of that big canyon up to the truck. It never even spun a tire the whole way out. However I did have to one eye it out as the snow was hitting me so hard in the face I could hardly see! I did have to stop several times and warm my hands up. Got to the truck which had 3 inches of snow on the hood. I should have taken pictures but was in too big a hurry to get warmed up, make a call to my wife and Bob and get down off the mountain before I was stuck up there..
My pack up with tree stand about 2 weeks before the opener.
Okay, now I??m going on the final trip before the hunt. I am going to haul my tree stand in and set it up. It??s about 2 weeks before Season and a rifle season is going on. I posted a while ago about some of this trip. I ran into some hunters who a buddy if theirs on a pre-scout had seen my tarp set up and went down to investigate. I had left my pool hose and a red Folgers can down at the spring to fill up my water jug so I guess as the story goes he snuck around by camp but was too afraid to get close to it as he thought and convinced his buddies to think it was an operation for a pot garden. He was afraid to get too close cuz he might get shot. Ha ha ha I had a good laugh over that one. Long story short I made it down to camp finding my way without the GPS and nothing had been disturbed.
I unloaded my pack except water, tree stand, my limb snipers and some rope. I brought more dehydrated foods down an extra bedroll and some odds and ends I thought I would use during the hunt. As I made my way down the spring I bumped a herd a Javelina in the drainage I had cleared out. There were probably about 14 pigs. I have not seen any fresh sign of the bear at all so I am assuming I pushed him out of the area. I made my way over the fence and above the spring and glassed over to the stand. Seeing I wouldn??t bump any deer I headed to the tree. When I got to the tree I glassed the area for deer. I saw one doe off in the distance so I was satisfied I wouldn??t get pinned down again. I sent a few hours setting up my stand. Next few pictures are of the tree and the view from it.
Stand in tree.
Different view from the stand.
Camp and spring area up in the tree line. spring is by closest and lowest in picture in the trees.
View to the east and feed area for the deer in dark green area.
After setting up the stand I went back to the spring and filled up my water jug. I made it back to camp and took another tarp and wrapped it around the fire ring to seal it off from the wind. I left a hug opening at the top to act as a chimney. This worked out very well and kept camp inside warm until I put it out to go to bed.
Campfire inside.
Now to the hunt. I planned to be down in the hole the first week of January but as luck would have it a huge snow storm came through Arizona and there was no way I could get in. So I had to change my vacation plans at work and push it out another week. I have to tell you I was really antsy but being by myself it wasn??t worth the risk. In the meantime I made up a set of chains for my quad and waited out the long week. Finally it was time to go.
So I got up to my location and parked the camper to use as my base camp. As it turned out it was a good thing I decided to bring it as a back-up plan. I put a set of chains on my quad in case of deep snow. With the trailer set and ...my quad loaded I headed out. The quad ride in really isn??t very long but it??s steep and goes up and down in a few places. On the south facing slopes most of the snow had been melted but on the north facing slopes it was still pretty deep. There was a couple of places that made me a little nervous about getting stuck. The bike is 4 wheel drive but even at that and with chains I would slip and slide until the chain would dig in and bite the rocks under the snow. I eventually climbed out of the deep stuff and made it to my parking location.
Snow pictures
Lots of snow.
I put my back pack on and grabbed up my bow with renewed excitement. My decent down into the hole is a south facing slope so most of the snow was melted off except in some pockets and when I reached the tree line. Walking in snow downhill is no east task. And picking my way through the trees I was realizing I didn??t recognize some things because of the snow cover. I had my GPS if I needed it but I wanted to see if I could find it without it this time. Sure enough I walked right into it. The roof had about 10 inches of snow on it and a real thick piece of ice. There was snow all the way around the base of the tarps but my biggest relief came when I got inside and the roof had surprisingly supported all the snow. Man those light weight century plants I used as a frame are strong! I pushed all the snow and ice off, Scrounged up some fire wood, set up camp for my return, grabbed my collapsible water jug, pack, and bow and headed for the spring. Once I reached the spring I dropped off the water jug and climbed up and out above it towards my tree stand.
Ready to head down into the hole.
On the way down.
Made it to the camp site and was relieved to see it still standing.
It was about 1 o??clock in the afternoon. Too late to go to the tree stand so I spent the day glassing the area. In no time at all I picked up a few doe??s feeding near the stand. I kept searching for well over an hour knowing the buck was there somewhere and finally he showed himself like magic! Now I know why they call these Coue??s deer the little gray ghosts! He stayed tight with one doe and the thing that really got me excited was he was only a mere 50 yards from my stand! I am over a quarter mile away but I can see clearly how big he was from my position.
The day was starting to turn gray, I had about another hour of daylight left and decided that I should go and collect my water from the spring and make my way back to camp. I glassed up a plan together for the next morning to climb way up high and come down to my tree stand keeping the tree between me and the where the deer currently were before daylight. So I grab my gear and take about 2 steps towards the spring when I heard a growl, one I have never heard before but I knew what it was. Mountain lion!!... and there was no doubt. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! But the growl was over by the deer. To me it sounded like a Tom house cat about to fight another except about ten times deeper. I glassed like crazy and could not find this cat. It growled again and again and again, the deer went on full alert and started to whistle like they do when they smell a human but can??t find him. But they didn??t run, they stayed put. The cat went on and on like this until it got too dark to see. I never was able to glass him up. All I could do was hope the cat wasn??t able to kill a deer this day and move them from their current location but I knew in my heart that wasn??t to be so. At dark and with the cat still growling I went back to the spring and filled my water and went back to camp.
I set up my gear inside and made dinner, I was pretty exhausted so I went to sleep early that night. I brought long a little alarm clock and set it for 4am.
Ready for morning hunt.
Next morning at O-dark thirty I jet boiled some water for coffee and a Mountain House meal. I decided I would stick with the same plan even though I knew the deer would be gone because of the cat. I really don??t like to eat first thing in t...he mornings so I poured the boiling water into the food pouch and sealed it up. Then I wrapped it in my insulated liner and coat and stuffed it into my pack. I found this worked out great. Those Mountain house pouches really seal tight and keep the food hot for a long time. I only wore my Thermal long sleeve camo shirt for the hike to the tree stand and had another to change into after sweating like heck to get to there. Once I was in the stand and pulled my pack and bow up I changed into the dry shirt and put on my coat. The steam was raising off my skin when the very cool (about 25 degrees) air hit it but I did not feel cold. I was actually hungry by this time and after changing into my warm dry things I had about 10 minute until there was enough daylight to glass so I ate my hot food and boy I gotta say that worked out awesome! Back to the hunt.
Making breakfast and hot coffee.
I spent a couple hours frantically picking the dessert floor apart trying to find the deer. Finally I see a Doe feeding but she was on the other side of a really deep gorge and at least a half mile away. After a while I find 4 more Doe??s and finally a buck and my heart sank. It would take me a good part of the day to get over to them to put on a stalk if it was even possible. As I watched the buck I began to realize he was not the same deer. Even at that distance I could see he was a very good deer but he wasn??t the one I glassed the night before which was a great deer. I slowly began to realize this was a whole different herd and glassed other closer areas. Bingo! I found him and his doe??s, a quarter mile further than where I had glassed him up from the evening before and on the same side I was on and he was alive and well chasing a doe around which I witness him finally breed. I studied the area all day and they all stayed right there. Funny thing was it seemed like each doe after it would get up and feed for a while had its own place to bed down that it preferred while the buck would bed down anywhere so long as it was with the girl he was hot to trot for at the time. I watched these deer all day. I occasionally would glass back towards camp for a change in scenery. I saw a buck chasing a doe out in the open and then back in the tree line right across from camp. As it turns out later when I went back that evening that buck had stepped on my foot prints in the snow not 10 yards from my camp!
I found the deer in the yellow grass way in the back next to the skyline.
Fast forward, day 3. The next morning found me back in my tree glassing the very same area I put the deer to bed in the night before. Bingo! I glassed up a doe on the move with the big boy on her tail. He chased her back and forth a few times and while they were busy not going anywhere I glassed up the rest of his little harem and they were bedded or feeding near the beds they were in the day before. The doe that the buck is chasing around is moving away from the rest of the heard. The big boy is in hot pursuit. Awesome, here my opportunity as they got further and further away until they went out of sight around a bend in a hill. Then this little buck decided to get in on the action and found his keetser getting chased off by the big buck. I decided now it would be the best time to make a move in on them as they were so distracted by one another and away from all the other eye balls. I got down out of the stand and started climbing up over the bend. A couple of times on my way I thought I heard a hound but wasn??t sure. Finally I slowly peeked up over the hill and I could see the big buck bedded down facing away from me looking intently back and forth between the little buck and the doe that was also bedded and looking away. I ranged the buck at 122 yards and glassed for my approach to him. After an hour or so I was at 62 yards. I needed another 20 yards for a comfortable shot when he stood up. On my approach I kept hearing this dog and it was getting louder. As I got within 50 yards or so I heard more dogs and I glassed back behind me across the deep drainage and the deer over there are hauling A$$ getting out of dodge! I don??t know how many dogs I saw but there were at least 8 and two guy??s on mules. But even though the deer seemed a little antsy they stayed in their beds looking in the dogs direction which was also in my direction so I was at a stop. I watched as the lion hunters dog and man headed up towards the drainage my camp was in and thought I had it made, then the dogs seemed to pop out of nowhere on my side for the drainage and head right in the direction of the buck below me. No this couldn??t be worse!! The doe is the first to bolt out of there, then the little buck. The big buck got to his feet until he could actually see dogs. I had no shot as there were trees between us. I ran like hell across the top trying to get in front of the deer and cut them off for a shot but I was just a few yards too short and my opportunity was gone! The lead guy asked the other if he saw that big buck, he said yes and I think we just messed it up for that hunter and pointed at me. He then apologized for messing up my hunt as every deer down there in my little hole was gone. It wasn??t their fault but my heart sank after all the months of preparation and work went down the drain. A little aggravated and depressed I made the long walk back to camp. I packed up as much as I could possibly carry on my pack and spent the next 3 hours packing out of the steep hole back to my bike.
Almost out.
After a little break I rode over to the area I killed my little buck in last year. Things looked promising so I decided I would set my stand there and hunt the remainder of my time off up there. I then went back to my trailer. I got a nice hot shower, talked to my wife and hunting partner and turned in. Next morning I went in early and got my stand set up in the dark. By daylight I was seeing deer within a couple hundred yards with one small buck. I had a little inch and a half spike come under my tree. I tried to video tape him but when I turned the camera on the darn thing jingled and all I got was a nice white flag bouncing away from me. Darn it! I forgot about that!! A few hours after that and I had a little forky come by about 25 yards and let him walk. Eventually the deer moved off and daylight faded away so back to camp I go. The next morning found me in the same stand and at daylight I was seeing a couple of shooter bucks but they were so far away that my grunting them didn??t have any effect. At about 9am I see another nice looking buck. He was a heavy 3 by 3 including 3 inch eye guards. One more note about this buck was his horns were almost an orange color. One toot on the grunt call and he was coming my way. Giving a toot here and there he kept coming and as I prepared for a shot with him less than 80 yards and closing I hear quads. OH nooooooo, please don??t come this way. Sure enough they saw where I parked my bike and started yelling out loud at each to turn around. Bye bye deer! I never saw another deer in that stand or anywhere else in the area for the next two days. I had to pack it up and go home as I was head for Tucson Flowing Wells for a Wrestling tournament. In a couple of weeks I will take some wrestlers down in the hole with me to haul the rest of camp out. As disheartening as it was I will be back down there for another hunt again. Hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures. Maybe next year!!
My 2010 deer back from the taxi.
A few weeks later I took one of my wrestler kids with me down into the hole to retrieve my camp and gear. We managed to get it all out in one trip. We spent most of the day breaking down camp, we even took down the frame and laid the century plants in the tree limbs nearby. Keeping them off the ground will keep them from rotting. I may use them next year. The following pictures are mostly of him and some more views of the area. I am pretty sure I will be back.
Ryan out on a rock ledge checking out the view on our way down.
Enjoying the view.
View below the rock.
More pictures
One of many cleared paths I made.
Had to make our way through.
Gate down bottom close to tree stand.
My door to camp.
Ryan at the ruin next to camp.
After we took down camp and were about to leave the area.
It was a lot of prep work but a lot of fun as well. I saw a few good bucks and nearly had anopertunitiy to shoot a big one. I hope you all enjoyed the story. It was fun to put together.
GBA
GBA
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