Hirshey's Hunts 2018

[hirshey]

We gained the undulating ridgeline just as the weather broke. We scattered, clearing seats on downed logs to glass the opposing hillside while the weather allowed. Derrick spotted the first animal, and before long, we had picked out a buck. He moved deftly in the snow, in and out of the timber almost like a ghost. Similarly to a ghost, he disappeared, making us wonder if we had really ever seen him at all. Even with three sets of eyes, none in the group could determine the configuration of his antlers, and without a significant dedication of our day to push that direction we simply would never know... that wasn't the direction we had intended on going, but was it where we SHOULD go? After a little stalling to see if the deer would ever reappear, we decided to stick to our original plan and "love the one you're with"... our ridgeline was going to produce, we just had to be patient. Onward and upward we ventured as the weather window closed and the snow engulfed us once more.

[hirshey]

During my solo hiking time the day prior, I had noted wolves had been the most recent creature using the trail besides my two comrades in front of me as was evidenced by their tracks, so it was no surprise to find wolf scat up on the ridgeline, but I still found it impressive to see entire deer teeth had passed through! While Jeff and Derrick motored up a steep incline, I paused in the snow to take a photo. I silently hoped the trend of predator pressures having a huge impact on our hunts ended in the backcountry of Washington, but I was not optimistic. The realization that the visibility had worsened and I could no longer see Jeff or Derrick snapped me out of my internal monologue, and I powered up the slopes after them. I found them just over the rise on a small tabletop feature discussing options. If we couldn't see the deer, would it do any good to blindly push through the areas we'd hoped to hunt? Should we stop and wait for conditions to improve? Go down in elevation to get out of the freezing fog? Push on?

We decided to investigate a small sub-ridge for any fresh tracks to buy some time in hopes the visibility would improve and we could continue our trek. What we found was promising, but not for the immediate target species; fresh elk tracks! The tracks wandered off the sub-ridge into a dip in the terrain between the main ridge. We couldn't see how large this feature was due to visibility, but our electronic maps verified that the feature was significant: those animals could hunker in there even if we walked the main ridge and never be disturbed. While we were exploring this new area electronically, the snow was replaced with a biting wind. We moved to the leeward side of the ridge to escape the sting. Just as we sat down, blue skies and hillsides rolled into view as the clouds raced with the wind over our head. We took in all the terrain greedily, hungry to find more potential suitors for Jeff's tag, but soon were disappointed as the clouds swallowed the terrain once more. When bitter cold grabbed us all, we started hiking only to discover a perplexing situation: it was as if the clouds were a blanket, and our ridgeline was the center of the bed... and two entities were fighting over the blanket. As one side lay bare to our viewing, the other was completely socked in. And for no apparent reason, no shift in wind speed or direction, the cloud cover would violently rush to the other side of the ridge, leaving us to glass the new open territory. Honestly, it kind of worked to our favor, masking our movements across the ridgeline to the territory we hadn't yet glassed, and offering plenty of good viewpoints to pick apart the mountain.

[hirshey]

This routine of glassing and moving had produced a handful of does and an unique and young 3x4, but nothing worth a stalk (I had to talk Jeff off the ledge a few times, but we WERE holding out for something he'd be excited for, especially the first day!). We had 2 days left to get Jeff into a buck per our schedule, so we intended to use it. Just as the blanket was getting ripped back over to the left side of the ridge, Jeff spotted him. Derrick and Jeff motioned for me to come take a look, and I could tell they were excited. We patiently waited for the next weather window, but conditions were changing; instead of getting a full view of the buck, we were granted small holes in the fog in which to see him. Jeff snapped a quick photo, I said "YUUUUP!" and we made our plan of attack.

[hirshey]

The buck was on a small sub-ridge of the sub-ridge we had found the elk tracks on earlier in our trek, and he definitely had company. From our vantage, we could see at least 4 other does and an unconfirmed animal working the edge of a small opening with the target buck. The does were 70 yards lower down the ridge and feeding downhill, and it appeared the buck would follow. It was determined 3 people would most likely be impossible for the stalk, so Derrick insisted I go with Jeff; he would stay up with the gear we dropped and wait to hear confirmation we had the buck down. Today's effort had left us with maybe 50 minutes of light, so we would have to act efficiently. As we departed from Derrick, an icy snow started to fall, masking our steps with each tumble the flake took prior to settling on a resting place. That was good, but it also limited our field of view to under 50 feet. Not so good.

[redi]

Great so far. Don't leave Me hanging. I can't refresh fast enough to read the next paragraph.

[hirshey]

Mother Nature must have taken pity on us, because the snow relented as we approached a small terrain feature we suspected the buck was near. We painstakingly crept over the top only to confirm we still have some distance to go to close the gap.... oops!  We had picked out a few unique snags on the hillside above where the buck had been feeding when we planned our route, and reminded ourselves of that fact so as not to make the mistake again. Jeff looked back at me, grinning, as the snags came in to view. We were no more than 150 yards from them! The snow flurries returned, but lightly. Jeff continued across the frozen slope, only to stop mid-step. He wasn't looking across the small valley, he was looking right below us!

I shifted, slowly peeking around the conifer to my side. Antlers.

[hirshey]

Antlers, but nothing like what we had seen from the ridge above. A 3x3 with gnarled, devilish bases had stopped feeding and placed his head behind a bush, looking sideways at Jeff. The stare-off lasted minutes, and the light was leaving us. I crept over to Jeff. "That's not your buck."

"Are you sure? I mean, that's what I thought, but maybe I was wrong..."

"No way! I can see does feeding through that gap in the trees, they are still almost exactly where we left them... let's keep going."

We slowly moved across the slope, eyeing the buck that was eyeing us from less than 60 yards. When he was satisfied we were far enough away, of course he did the one thing that might impact our hunt: he huffed, and ran downhill.

By the time the buck had made his move, we were in pretty good glassing position for where we last left the buck that MIGHT exist. 

We glassed hungrily down the direction the 3x3 ran, eager to see the deer he took with him on his exit, but only got confirmation of fur through the timber. The does moved downhill and around the sub-ridge. I urged Jeff to keep side-hilling just in case we had the opportunity to see animals moving through the timber. We continued another 30 yards when Jeff turned and said, "Let's get the heck out of here!". He wanted to gain the ridgeline with enough daylight to do some final glassing before our long trek back to camp. "Let's just go a little farther... maybe the spine of the subridge?" I suggested. I didn't think we would have time to see anything from the top, and there was still one more fold in the hill before the sub-ridge with the elk tracks. He relented, moving up the hill another 40 yards. Jeff turned, wide-eyed as I saw a dark body surface out of thin air less than 30 yards from him, and two loud THUMPS of a stotting deer disappearing over the terrain.

"F@$%*!" Jeff said as he raced up the hill.

I stayed in place, still trying to understand what happened. Jeff was 30 yards up the slope from me, skylined against the gray, snowy background when he raised his gun.

BOOM! The gun's sound was immediately consumed by the fog as Jeff disappeared.

boom. The terrain muffled a second shot.

I paused, the world silent again. I slowly moved up the hillside and was quickly welcomed by the silhouette my best friend approaching.

"What just happened?"

"He was RIGHT HERE! Right where a big buck should be! We bumped him out of his bed!"

We exchanged high fives and excited recounts of that abrupt and shocking development, and messaged Derrick to come join us.

In an attempt to take a peek at his buck, I looked past Jeff in our excited chatter only to see antlers skylined on the elk sub-ridge....

"JEFF! ELK!"
Shockingly, there were three small legal bulls and a handful of cow elk feeding up the ridge less than 200 yards away in the weather. We agreed to pull his deer back onto the other side of OUR ridge before processing him to minimize the impacts to hunting those elk later.

but FIRST, we took a quick video....

[hirshey]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqDeaAxhQFI/?utm_source=ig_web_options_share_sheet

[hirshey]

Normally, we wait for all members of Team Awesome to be there prior to photos or touching the animal, but Derrick's arrival was delayed due to communication issues, so we took a quick moment in the last of the day's light to take some good photos of Jeff and his deer.

[hirshey]

 

[hirshey]

 

[hirshey]

And I’ll continue tomorrow since we got to at least one juicy part of the adventure! More photos tomorrow too. They’re just a little slow to load tonight.

[fishngamereaper]

  Bump just so you don't forget.

[hirshey]

Bump just so you don't forget.

It’ll be late tonight... just got home from work. Long days.

Photo to hold you over

[hirshey]