LAST EDITED ON Sep-20-10 AT 06:37PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Sep-20-10 AT 06:16?PM (MST)
LAST EDITED ON Sep-20-10 AT 02:47?PM (MST)
Well, that night of sleep sure felt good in my own bed last night and the best part is I don't have to ride a horse to work today. Our hunt started on the opener by getting up at 2:15 in the morning. We were staying at the outfitters place in Afton so we had to trailer the horses to the trailhead every morning. I was told the ride the first morning would be around 2 hours long and got kind of steep (major understatment). As we reached the upper portion of the trail, the trail went through the chute. The chute is the last 600 yards of trail the goes straight up (I didn't really enjoy this part of the ride).
We arrived at our glassing area as the sun was rising and began seeing deer on the hillside. Since we hunted at 9200-10200 feet most all of the deer we saw on the hunt were bucks. My buddy and guide went up the saddle to the point on the other side to glass. I saw several bucks on the hillside below them. Photo below.
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/7783wyoming_sept._2010_010_(medium).jpg
I saw several bucks in the area as I looked over every basin available for viewing but nothing over 24". I noticed Matt and his guide looking down the hill away from me, it looked to me like they must be watching a good buck. Sure enough they got up to make a stock. I decided to climb over to the upper point to watch what they were doing. By the time I got the 3/4 of a mile over there they were on their way back, the buck had busted them.
We stayed up on the mountain all day until it started to get dark. We arrived back in Afton around 10 PM had a quick bite to eat, got our stuff ready for the next day and went to bed with the alarm set to sleep in to 3:15.
We spent day two glassing from one mountain across the canyon at an area called "the wall". There were a ton of bucks over there but I'm not sure this old guy would be able to come off of the mountain we were on and hike up to the bucks across the way. Based on what a 21 year old 140 pound guy we talked to that shot a buck up there the day before, I estimated it would ov taken my 5 hours to get up to the deer (I think I will pass on that 27" buck up there.)
Day three started the same way.....EARLY, just getting your boots on was a chore. Same deal, cup of coffee, truck ride to trailhead, ride horse up a trail in the dark scares that heck out of you. We got to the top and parked the horses and as the sun began to come up I said to myself "I really like what I'm seeing". We were in an area the we could glass all the way around, and we could put a hunt on an animal without hiring some sherpas. I think we saw around 30 bucks up on that knob on the mountain. There were 6 bucks under a rocky wall at the top of a basin below us around 6oo yards away. There were a couple of 24" bucks and a 26" buck in velvet. We decided to hunt these bucks, I was to go down a steep hill and sit on a ledge that dropped off straight down 250' and Matt and Ralph would go up the other way above the bucks. It took them about 45 minutes to get setup as I watched the velvet buck feed and on of the other bucks bed down. As the bedded buck got up Matt shot, the buck booked down the hill and piled up into the trees. I heard deer coming around the corner under the rocky ledge. The velvet buck was in front of two other bucks, I had a good look to shoot buck they were running. They continued until they stopped in an area I couldn't see because of the rock in front of me. I scooted over the edge and he moved so I could see his back as he moved only a few feet from the rock wall. Did I tell you I don't even like going up my roof and now I'm leaning over a cliff looking a buck. One step and he would disapear so I hung my rifle over the edge, looked down and pulled the trigger. I missed the buck but was lucky the butt of the rifle didn't come off of my shoulder and get the scope in the eye. It took around 4 hours to get the deer out to where the horses were parked.
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/5094wyoming_sept._2010_023_(medium).jpg
We walled the horses off of the mountain as we brought the deer down and got back to Afton before dark.
Day 4 we saw more bucks on the mountain than any other day, but nothing worth going after. It was going to get up to around 80 that day so the deer bedded early. We decided to end our hunt at that time and hit the road. All I can say is those mounains we hunted in Area G are steep and most of the guys hunting them were 25-30 years younger than me. Another hunt in the books.
C:\Documents and Settings\Larry J Stephenson\My Documents\My Pictures\Wyoming Sept. 2010\Wyoming Sept. 2010 029 (Medium).jpg
I'm about a month behind you.
