To start out, here is a video of Day 7 of my hunt:
Well tag is filled. I'll be honest, this hunt didn't turn out like I envisioned. I have spent the last 5+ years as an avid high country blacktail hunter. With the many trail cam photos of rutting bucks in recent years in the first 2 weeks of November so I was picturing an action packed hunt with deer moving all day long and a buck with every doe. This year it seemed like the deer went nocturnal when November hit and rut activity was almost non-existent. With that said I was committed to hunting hard even if circumstances lead to me lowering my standards a bit.
Although I did spend some time in the low country, it was clear (by checking my trail cams) that despite the snow we'd received the deer had not yet moved off the mountains into their rutting ground. With that in mind and I decided to try hitting the high country again. We had gotten some more snow on the 6th but it was sunny and warmer on the 7th so I figured some of the south facing hills would be melting out providing some feed for the deer. With the lack of deer sign on November 5 I decided to hit a different high country spot that holds a lot of does in hopes that the bucks were feeding through there too.
All smiles as sunrise hit.
As I was hiking up I hit snow on the trail around 4000 feet. By the time I hit the ridgetop, the snow was knee deep and had clearly not melted at all in the "warmup" the day before. I immediately started to wonder if it was even worth my time to be this high but I was already up here so I might as well see what I could find. From past years hunting this area in late October in the snow, I had seen a lot of tracks cut from the north side of the ridge to one specific set of south facing meadows, so I figured I'd start there. It was about a mile hike down the ridge to the spot and I was encouraged along the way to see multiple sets of tracks coming from the north side of the ridge and moving to the south.
Well the snow was deep and fluffy. It was clear there was no warm up in the last couple days. The mile hike down the ridge to where I was hoping the deer would be was difficult. I was honestly wishing I'd brought my ski gear along for the hunt!
Deep, fluffy snow!
Sunrise and the scenery was incredible!
When I finally reached the spot I wanted to bail off the ridge into the south facing meadows, I immediately found some deer sign sidehilling (not just heading down hill which I figured was promising.) The snow was very loud to walk in but I followed the trail very slowly still hunting and glassing constantly. The further I walked the more deer sign I sound so I knew I was on the right track and there were deer in the area.
I was encouraged by the amount of deer sign I was seeing, it was by far the most I'd seen in any one location on the hunt. The country I was in was beautiful but incredibly steep. The lower I got the more deer sign I saw as there was more and more country melted out and visible feed for the deer to eat. About 9:30 am I finally jumped a doe out of it's bed (the first deer I'd seen since November 2!) but unfortunately there was no buck with it. Still I was encouraged to be finding some deer.
Happy to be seeing some sign.
Steep country!
Eventually I found some buck tracks following a doe and sidehilling just above treeline (about 1000 feet below the ridgeline at this point.) I slowly followed the tracks and still hunted through for literally about 6 hours straight. I found one spot where it looked like the buck had mounted a doe. Eventually the tracks met up with about 4 other tracks and all started moving down further into the timber. I kept following another 400 feet down and eventually jumped another doe out of it's bed but again, no buck with her.
Converging deer trails:
One tired hunter!
By this point it was about an hour from sunset and I was totally bushed from so long still hunting through deep snow and steep country. I had brought a tent and sleeping bag/pad with me in case I wanted to spend the night (I dropped them at the ridgeline about a mile back the ridge). At first upon seeing all the sign, I assumed I would set up camp and return in the morning but after checking the forecast I saw it was supposed to storm all night and to be honest, I was completely bushed from still hunting in the deep/steep snow for that long. I decided to make one more (slightly quicker) pass about half way up the meadow and see if I could catch any deer coming out to feed right at dusk. Unfortunately my pass turned up no new tracks and no deer. I hit the ridgeline right as the sun went down and had the mile trek back to my tent/sleeping bag and then a 3000 foot drop back to the truck.
I was trudging along, honestly, mostly keeping my head down. The trek back was mostly through the north facing basins and I didn't expect to see anything feeding through those basins. Despite that, I kept my eyes open for any fresh tracks since that morning (I didn't cut any) and took time to glass for a minute in the 3 or 4 common glassing areas along the way. I did not see any sign that deer were moving through those north facing basins and honestly didn't expect that. About a half our after sunset, right I reached the spot with my tent hanging in a tree and right before I bailed into the timber I glanced up and saw 2 deer standing about 100 yards away just staring at me. With the naked I could tell that the one in the rear was significantly larger than the front one and had a swollen up neck. I grabbed my rifle and got set up on shooting sticks and zoomed the scope into 9. As I was getting set the lead deer (I'm assuming a doe) took off running into the timber, I put the scope on the rear deer (still standing broadside staring at me) and saw antlers about ear width and above the ears and said to myself: "Good enough."
Right as I made the decision to shoot, he took off running, I lead him just a bit and squeezed the trigger as he ran into my scope. I thought I saw him hump up at the shot but then he took one more leap and was in the trees.
To be honest, I was just in shock. I knew he wasn't a monster buck but I was just praying he was one I'd be proud of. (Well honestly I was just hoping he was dead!
) I quickly walked up to the spot where he was standing and immediately found some scarce spots of blood. I honestly was hoping for more blood but at least I found something!
I followed the tracks and from where I saw him make his last leap, he took two more jumps and then fell over dead!
He was a nice, relatively mature 3x2. I was definitely pleased! The running shot literally took him right through the heart. (I packed the heart out, literally there is a hole right through the middle of it!)
It was obviously quite dark at this point and my DSLR camera does not have a built in flash so I had to use my iPhone on a timer set up against my pack. It didn't make for the best photos but hey, it works.
I made a few calls to friends/family to share the news and in hopes of wrangling someone into coming to help. No one would be able to help until Saturday at the earliest and I just got it in my head that I would pack everything out on my own. I knew the pack out would suck but I just kept telling myself that it's always the miserable pack outs that you look back on with fondness.
I took time to get all the meat off the buck including the heart, neck meat, rib meat, etc. Man, processing a deer in a foot of snow is really convenient! You can keep everything so clean!!! When I finally finished eating a snack, breaking down the deer, and getting my pack loaded, it was 9pm. I called my wife and told her I was headed out then tried getting the pack on.
I'll admit I fell over (3 times) just trying to stand up with the pack on my back. I couldn't believe how heavy it was! I started down the trail (thank God for trekking poles and crampons!!!) and literally just waddled down the trail. Due to the way I had my gun strapped to my pack (butt of the gun hanging below the bottom of the pack) it was not easy to sit down and take the weight off my back, so I literally just gutted it out and hiked for an hour and 50 minutes straight. It was literally the most physically demanding thing I can ever remember doing. I really just thought about laying down and quitting for the last half hour.
As miserable as the pack was, the Kifaru carried the weight as well as I could ever expect it to!
When I finally saw the tail lights reflecting in my headlamp, I couldn't believe it I was so excited. I had rubbed raw two spots on my lower back (literally bloody spots on my shirts) and my shoulders and shoulder blades and hips have visible bruises. I'd been away from the truck for 18 hours, covered 14.7 miles, and climbed 5390 feet of elevation throughout the day. Roughly half of that was off trail in ankle to knee deep snow in extremely steep country! When I got home I weighed my pack (my first weigh-in wasn't right as the butt of the gun was still attached and taking some of the weight of the pack so I put the pack on again this morning (ouch) and subtracted body weight) and it weight 140.2 pounds! The drive home was also brutal as I was so tired from the hunt I had to keep sticking my head out the window just to stay awake! When I finally got home I pulled the pack out of the truck then went inside and washed my hands and climbed into bed and just zonked out.
Ultimately, I didn't get the Booner deer I was hoping for but considering what deer have been doing (lack of movement and rut activity) I'm very happy with what I turned up. I've always romanticized taking an alpine buck in the deep snow and I was finally able to do that and it was awesome! Despite being extremely tired and sore, I'm pumped to get out again and chase these alpine ghosts again next year! There is no better place than the alpine to get to view God's AMAZING creation and just spend time talking with God. Plus you can't beat the free range, organic venison I get to bring home to my family. Literally, the first words out of my son's mouth were: "Thank you daddy for bringing home deer meat for our family!" Praise God for the ability to do that!
I hope you all enjoyed following along throughout my hunt!
