Idaho Plans a Bust......Update with Success Story

[High Climber]

Beauty congrats !

[jkthomps]

Nice! Looking forward to the story!


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[jackelope]

Great buck. Congrats!


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[2MANY]

Puurrdy.

[Rainier10]

Great buck, sweet eye guards.  Glad it worked out.

[WapitiTalk1]

That is a DANDY public land WT buck mister.  A huge congrats! 

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Now I'm hoping my Idaho plans are a bust too. lol

[DIYARCHERYJUNKIE]

That’s a good one. Eye guards are huge!

[fishngamereaper]

So with the Bad comes the good. Even though backcountry mule deer where on the mind I knew the storm that rolled through would leave us stranded for days, weeks and maybe months. With our plans to get into the church falling apart we decided to switch gears and make the best of it. Out of the 4 guys in our group, Im the only one that's killed muleys and whitetails, so the other guys where just happy to hunt something other than blacktails and elk.

I had a table full of backcountry gear all set out as I was weighing and organizing. Well, I threw that aside and loaded the big camp into the truck, wall tent, woodstove(the heaven sent item for this trip) and everything else. Snow was also forecasted for the Northern country but we would be prepared.

Everything loaded we hit the road at 0 dark thirty, IDFG would exchange out permit tags but they wanted us there as early as possible.  We rolled into the panhandle office at 0930 and everything went smooth.

Soon we where northbound, as we rolled through the "town" of Nordman the excitement was coming back. Big timber country, thick, steep, and meadows. Shortly before we get to my camp site we have deer crossing the road in front of us. The season is open but heck, we just got to town, why end the trip now. We roll by them as there is nothing big in the group.

Get camp set up and hit the roads in the trucks for some re learning of the area and checking some new areas.

Night rolls around and the temps drop. Woodstove is hot so we sleep well. Wake up the next morning and 10" of snow blankets the ground.

Day 1 starts.

[jackelope]

Oh man...another Mother Nature throwing a cog in the wheel story...
 

[Rainier10]

If you want to make god laugh tell him what "your plan" is. 

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

[fishngamereaper]

We all pile into my truck to head further north up towards a basin Ive hunted before. The truck is plowing snow like a champ. We get to the area and leave the confines of the truck and stretch out on foot.  We eventually spilt up as the meadow is hunted best from two sides. My buddy and I find a shallow spot to cross the river( thank God for Meindl boots) and head into the timber to get to the other side of the meadow. My brother and other buddy head straight to the meadow.

We worked the meadow hard, even rattling a little with no luck. The snow is falling hard and has added 3" in the 3 hours we had been in the meadow. We decided to head out as I didn't want to chain up the truck this early in the trip. We re connected with the other two and learned they had crossed several buck tracks that where leaving the meadow on their side and heading up hill. We must of missed them by minutes.

[fishngamereaper]

Meadow

[fishngamereaper]

We head back to camp because the meadow didn't treat my buddies boots well and he wanted to put his good boots on ....and change socks.

We split up the rest of the afternoon. My buddies ventured out in his truck to check some new area. My bro and I head out on foot trying to get into another meadow I know. Unfortunately hiking in snow adds a lot of time to the old "if I remember correctly it took me an hr to get to this meadow last time"......   We got most of the way but the snow was dumping and we where running out of daylight. We would of had meer minutes to hunt the meadow so we accepted defeat and trudged back to the truck and camp.

It continued to snow all night but the woodstove kept us warm outside and whiskey took care of the inside.

End day 1. 

[fishngamereaper]

Day 2 rolls around and we are up early. Its Friday and I decided I wanted to try a new area that was recommended by a HW member before the weekend rolled around, not knowing how much or little pressure the weekend would bring.

We had only seen two other hunters on day 1 in a side by side and I was confident the area around camp got little pressure.

We leave camp taking both trucks and start the approximately 1 hour drive(total guess). The snow is falling and keeps getting heavier. An hour later and halfway there the roads suck, visibility is limited, so we pick a new area that was on the way to take a look at. We start heading up into the new area and I loose site of my buddy. Im pushing a foot of snow with my truck blazing a trail but it wasn't enough. His Chevy had succumbed to the pressure of keeping up with my GMC and decided to stop mid hill, sliding dangerously close to a 30' embankment.

Having loaded with shovels, tire chains and (the best thing I brought) salted sand bags, we had it under control.. A little shoveling and sand under the tires and he was on his way. At this point we turned around and continued to the original destination.

Arriving an hour later we parked my buddies truck at the bottom in 12" in of snow and piled in my truck. We continued into the area getting higher and higher and deeper and deeper. Deer tracks dotted the road every few hundred yards. We talked to a moose hunter and watched a very sickly looking calf moose. We crossed paths with a very nice gal that happened to be an IDFG game warden, she gaves us the chin up pep talk with a smile and we parted ways.

We reached the end of the lonely road and found 18" of snow and one of the cleanest pit toilets Ive ever been in.