well i am finally back from Idaho. Let me tell you that it was the toughest hunt of my life. It took me to the brink of mental breakdown a couple of times. That country is so steep and rugged anything you do is tough. Nothing is easy in that country. But I will do it again. I saw a ton of deer, although the bucks were a little small this year i am still very excited for the future of this area. We spotted a masher 4x4 that we put a stalk on and couldn't quite get to. Spotted him from about 1500 yards away and had to hike a mile or better to get on him. No telling where he went in the hour that it took us to get there. We never saw him again. Other than that we saw a huge forky that was about 22" wide and about 24" tall. Huge deer I wish that we would have killed him now, the first time we saw him he was about 80 yards broadside but of course it was first light on the first day so we passed. We saw him later that day but we passed again. then he was gone. The buck I ended up killing was next. A 21" 3 point that was very nice and with some discussion we decided to pass. This is all on the first day before noon with these three bucks. After hunting hard all day we glassed up what I thought was a nice tall 4 point that was bedded. So we took off after him and got within 400 yards. With some help from me he got up and ran up the hill. He was running so I could not tell just exactly what he was but he was close to the size of frame I was after. So after a couple of shots he decided to stop for me and one shot with the 270 wsm he dropped in his tracks. Let me tell you this was the most ground shrinkage I have ever had. Non the less after a few minutes of being mad I got over it and was happy with my kill. I was so mad I didn't even want pics. I felt bad about that later, and still do. I only have one of him on my pack when I got him out the next day. Any way after a couple of missed bucks and one that we could not find I came home with one of the best experiences of my life. that is by far the most intimidating mountains that I have ever tackled in my life. We had our camp on the river at 4400 feet and we hiked up to 6800 every day within about a mile. nothing was flat anywhere. I could go on for hours. And I am now very thankfull that I invested in a quality leica spotting scope. I think it saved what little legs I had left after packing out that deer. I also want to say if my buddy mike wasn't there to help me get that deer out of that hole I would probably still be in there stuck under one of the logs that I had to belly crawl under with 50 lbs of meat on my back. Let me tell you that the Eberlestock X1 pack is very handy to use until it is full of an extra coat, spotting scope , gun, snacks, and half of a deer. when you get to that point you might as well not have it. You can do one or the other but not both.Here is the only pick of the buck I harvested in the backcountry of Idaho.
