Hirshey's Washington Hunts 2017

[hirshey]

The day marched on with intermittent snow flurries, and one more encounter with a branch antlered bull, but no elusive spikes.

[hirshey]

Again at camp, the stories of close encounters with herd and satellite bulls and their cows continued to flow as freely as the Busch Light. No spikes were found, but Dustin and I took a dusk wander in an attempt to catch up to a fairly large mule deer buck I had sighted earlier in the day; I did not possess a muzzleloader deer tag, but he did. The deer did not cooperate that evening, but the company was always enjoyable.

[hirshey]

A few more days of close encounters including my mother drawing up on a velvet-laden spike produced no shots. We saw plenty of sign from predators as well as our intended prey, but mid-week my mind switched to general season mule deer hunting and I headed home to repack for a wilderness adventure with my fella and two of my friends. This year would be the first time Derrick was carrying a tag in his pocket, and I wanted to make sure it was a positive and exciting season; we were going to go BIG!

[hirshey]

 

[hirshey]

Team Awesome finally assembled under one roof on Thursday as we confirmed our gear list and raised our cups to yet another fun adventure. Friday morning came rolling in, as our wheels found us rolling out. We spent the entire day conquering over a vertical mile and roughly 7 terrain miles; the slide alder, ceanothus, and off-trail vegetation nearly ruined us... but the only casualty was a single waterbottle lost. We traversed about their elevation of successful growth and found the hiking to be much more rewarding, but we were running out of daylight. We found a flat location with a water source nearby and decided to call that home, at least for the evening. The plan for opening day was agreed upon; we would glass our current basin at first light, and if nothing was found of interest we would pack up camp and continue to our intended location roughly 5 miles further and another 2,000 feet higher.

[hirshey]

The JetBoil fired up alongside the rekindled fire in the Seek Outside 8 man tipi stove. The plan the previous evening was evolving; Jeff decided he would like to stay back and get the camp broken down while we glassed for animals. It took leaning on him pretty heavily to change his mind, but we were all rifle-ready and headed up the slopes, albeit a little later than I would have wanted.  Jeff took the high road as Paul, Derrick and I contoured. We had agreed to 30 minutes of glassing, and if nothing of interest revealed itself we would meet back at camp to head for even more remote ground. In our 30 minutes of glassing, we found 3 does and potentially one small buck. Paul wanted to glass for a few moments longer, so Derrick and I headed back to filter water and get ready to hike.

[hirshey]

Camp erupted with the sound of heavy footsteps and Jeff slid into camp.

"Where's Derrick?? I found him a buck!"

We halted progress on camp deconstruction as we crafted a game plan; Derrick and I would summit another 1200 feet in elevation up a rocky slope to try to intercept the buck, while Jeff and Paul would slowly work up the basin in the event that the mature 4x4 remained local. Paul only had ONE day to hunt with us before he needed to hike out, so he was pretty anxious to make it happen. With two years of acting as camp Hulk and sherpa, I am not even ashamed to say my fingers were crossed that Derrick was the one who ended up with an opportunity at this animal... Derrick made the rocky terrain look like a walk in a flat park, while my lungs rebelled against me and tried to set themselves afire halfway through the summit. I did NOT want Derrick to miss an opportunity at an impressive animal on the account of my lesser physical capabilities, so I continued to push myself through ceiling after ceiling. We finally paused in a terrain feature that allowed us to see into the basin. Even through foggy lenses, I quickly picked up two bucks moving through the timber about 700 yards. Derrick and I agreed; he needed to get to a saddle about 600 yards further up our mountain in order to have a good opportunity at one of these animals.

[hirshey]

We made it to another small saddle, and Derrick peered over to try to get another look at the progress of the deer. He turned around; his facial expression said precisely what followed with his words. "Oh &%*$! He's right below us coming up at us! He's 70 yards away or less!"

He doffed his pack, and perplexingly his binocular harness as well. He moved to the edge as I cautioned, "please make sure it has 3 points!".

He worked back to the edge as I slowly stood to where I could see the tips of antlers: the deer was at less than 30 yards and staring right at him.

"Shoot him in the neck" I offered... it was the only shot presented.

The two made eye contact, and he bounded across the snowy hillside, not providing another opportunity at a shot even through my grunts and whistles. He was DEFINITELY bigger than a 3 point, as the dark antlers worked through the equally dark timber.

Derrick confessed he was on 12 power and was not at all ready to take the shot. I encouraged him, saying that if he was not comfortable that I commended him for not pulling the trigger. It was also a good learning lesson in regards to what power to keep a scope at; there's a reason a fixed-6 scope has been a favorite among hunters for a long time.

We regrouped and decided to follow the bucks' tracks. At the saddle we had intended to get to earlier, the tracks split; one went up, and one contoured the hillside. Derrick took the contour as I tackled the slope. Jeff and Paul summited shortly after, and Jeff continued on the tracks as Paul decided to linger in our original basin.

[hirshey]

My tracks poured over the top of the mountain into terrain that would make a mountain goat hesitate. I could hear rocks falling and hooves grappling for purchase, but there was NO way I could talk myself into pursuit. I walked the edge of the cliffs, exploring all the different angles of visibility over the edge it could offer, but could not turn up any deer. I worked back towards the original basin when a shot rang through the air. A shot from the direction Derrick and Jeff had headed!

[hirshey]

As tired as the slog the day prior and that morning had made me, my feet could not move across that terrain fast enough. Fast being relative, as that terrain was hazardous! But my mind was reeling over the excitement I had for Derrick's potential first buck. I was conflicted as I worked across the steep rocky slopes; I really wanted Derrick to have tagged his first deer, but I also wouldn't mind if it had been Jeff... that would mean I could still be present for Derrick's first harvest. As the day would reveal, it was Derrick's buck I traversed the hillside to view. Derrick had been tracking the deer when Jeff converged on his location; they worked the tracks together until the terrain revealed the hooves creating those tracks. Derrick had spotted them and initiated a stalk to roughly 200 yards before putting TWO shots behind the shoulder: what a tough animal.

There was another good learning lesson in this hunt, as neither Jeff or Derrick saw HIS buck while they were glassing the large mature 3x4. They snuck into position, and seeing antlers and assuming it was the original buck, he shot it. It was not quite the deer he had struck after, but fortunately it was a legal deer and we all could not be MORE thrilled. As we boned out his animal, word came back to us that Paul tagged out with a 4x4. Because of the hazardous terrain we would have to sidehill to get back to spike camp, we decided Jeff and Derrick would take his animal down a ridgeline that was a "straight shot" back to our base camp. The only hitch? They'd have to lose 6,000 feet of elevation to get there... at 4:00 PM... with one headlamp... was that a problem? Not for them! 

[hirshey]

 . And for all the internet police out there, hunter's orange was worn until packs were dropped and photos were taken. Then the hunter's orange and rifles went on packs to process animals, haul meat and horns.

My friend Jeff titled that last photo "Love at First Deer" 

[hirshey]

As the day lost the light, I finally located Paul.

His first words were, "I think I may have made a mess of this".  He had quartered out the first half of his animal, so I assisted in the second and we were on our way back to camp at about 8 PM. We arrived back at spike camp, and Paul boned out his quarters with the assistance of a little Wild Turkey, and I stayed up fretting about my fella and friend who were amidst the worst packout of their lives; I received an InReach message at 1 AM that confirmed they had finally finished their trek. Neither were sure they could make the trip back up that next day. Paul was leaving, and insisted that he could handle his animal on his own, so that left a large question in my mind... what was a girl to do in the wilderness all by herself? 

The answer? Hunt, of course.

[hirshey]

Two days of huge elevation and heavy packs had taken their toll on me. The next morning I saw Paul off and cleaned/rearranged the tipi before convincing myself to have a nice slow day of hunting. I took off to clear skies and crisp air.

The sound of ravens and magpies revealed quickly the location of Paul's buck from the day prior. I watched from the shadow-laden hillside as ravens vied for the scraps, and 5 does cautiously eyed the scene as they fed above the carcass in obvious unease. They worked out of sight, and I moved from the aspect still holding snow to the sun-kissed slopes. I conquered the elevation little by little, zig-zagging up the terrain and taking each opportunity to glass the newly-exposed hillsides revealed with each step. At one point, exhaustion won out and I took a small catnap, basking in the warmth of the fall sunlight.

[hirshey]

As if I were solar-powered, I put my pack on feeling refreshed after my 15 minute nap; I continued up the slope with my normal swagger. 57 steps: glass. 57 steps: glass. Up to that small saddle: glass. The small sub-ridge I had chosen started to flatten out, exposing me to too much terrain at one time. I chose to sidehill down into a small depression and gain the next ridgeline to concentrate on glassing the basin to my right, and that decision had immedate payoff: I spotted a great buck!

[hirshey]