Fugitive, I am from the NW valley now. My best friend in HS (Paradise Valley) got me started into hunting in 1978 and the first place his dad took me was on a rifle deer hunt in 17a. We used to camp along walnut creek and hunt the surrounding mtns. You may have seen us over the years because we used to take the horses and camp by the coral just after you crossed the creek. We haven't taken the horses in about 7-8 years though.
We also archery hunted a lot around skull valley in 17b. We would take the powerline road in and be into deer all day long. We rarely hunted together after we left camp. We would all go in a different direction and meet back up whenever. No radios, cell phones, atv's or good boots. Just a strong will to chase mule deer. To this day, the biggest deer I have ever seen were in 17B during December archery deer hunts. HUGE deer!
Quest, you said you wish you would have been around for those good ol' days? I'm happy to say I enjoyed the hell out of it. Sure brings back great memories. When we were in HS we would leave every friday after school and not come back until Sunday night. We didn't have the greatest gear but we didn't know any different. We usually slept in our bags under the stars and fell asleep talking about what everybody else in town was missing. We never got anything with our bows but man did we have fun. Kept us out of trouble too.