I couldn't manage to get back to eastern WA for a chance at pheasant/duck redemption but Oak and I did make an outing to look for grouse near Spada Lake in late November. No more sagebrush, sand or ice. This was fog, rain, and moss for the whole 6 miles. I'm not normally a road hunter but Washington Fish and Wildlife recommended it as a strategy for grouse so we were going to be walking behind a locked gate on state forest lands.
A dog walker was coming out of my carefully scouted road as we parked but I didn't make a backup plan so we just hoped the dog was lazy and/or incompetent. Not sure which it was but Oak found three grouse within the first quarter mile. Only got a good look at one and he was perched in the tree as I crawled from underneath a bush. Apparently wise to my intentions, he was gone before I got upright. That would be the last animal of any kind that we would see.
We would have bailed a little earlier and tried another spot but when we started for the truck, a couple local milita members were spending their welfare checks on ammo. Sounded like they were right at the gate but the only shooting lane over 50 yards was straight down the road so we wandered down another logging road to kill some time. Hundreds of small and high caliber loads later, it became clear why animals were making themselves scarce in this area.
Grouse season was open for another month but I realized hiking around without a gun and ammo is a lot easier so at least the next couple posts are winter hiking adventures. We will get back into the grouse game as soon as possible. With a September 1st start, its going to be our bird training, paw toughing sessions before eastern WA pheasants opens up near the end of October.
