Even though I was fortunate enough to get my deer on the high hunt I wanted to make it over to sayleans camp and spend sometime with him and our brother in law.
As usual work and life got in the way of leaving early and my brother in law and I didn't leave sedro until 10:30 pm Friday night. Fighting off sleep and finally making it to the trail head we decided to forgo sleeping in the truck for a hike in so we could have camp setup and be ready to hunt by day light. We huff it up the trail pass sayleans jump off and head to a larger meadow a mile farther down the trail. By 5:15 we are in our sleeping bags trying to catch a couple minutes shut eye.
As shooting light came upon us we broke out of camp and started glassing many of the avalanche chutes in the area. Low and behold there was a 25-26" wide 3x4 with eye guards 450 yards from camp (he looked almost identical to sayleans 27" 3x3 from a couple years ago) . My b i l put a stalk on him but a coyote chased off the buck before b i l could get into position.
The rest of the morning was filled with does, fawn 2 pts etc. I got to see 2 other hunters take bucks in the area but saylean and b i l couldn't find a decent buck.
Around 3 pm b i l started sidehilling up canyon and came to a good vantage point. With minimal sleep the previous night he nods off an wakes to a buck moving through the timber 250 yards away. He loses sight of the deer but has an idea for where its heading. B i l works his way above where he last saw the buck and starts still hunting back towards camp moving through timber stands, benches and chutes. With a half hour of light left i get back to camp to start a fire and dinner. No sooner did i drop my pack and grab the lighter did i hear the repeat of a rifle. I jump on the radio asking what the commotion was all about. B i l says buck down.
After some congrats over the radio I head up to where B i l is. On his way still hunting back to camp he found the buck he saw earlier working through the timber. He was only 50 yards or so from the buck and piled him up with 260 Remington. After some photos and congrats we drag the deer 200 yards or so back to an area next to the trail and camp.
With little sleep or food that day we headed down to camp ate some dinner enjoyed some coffee and a fire. We headed back up to the buck; deboned him, hung the meat and fleshed the head before going back to camp for some much needed rest.
By 6 am we were up making breakfast and packing up camp. We hit the trail by 8:30 and saylean was nice enough to help us pack out the 80lbs + of meat.
It was a great time but man i wish i could spend more time up there. Maybe next year. Saylean is still hitting it hard.
