Urban Outcast Music #58 - And It's Still Alright by Nathaniel Rateliff.
October 14-16, 2022: The opening weekend of the deer season looked nothing like the picture above (Oct 24)... The fire season started late this year and was in no hurry to end. On my final scouting day and camera check on the 11th I had spotted a small 4 point and a forky (not legal). That was pretty promising but with the grasses and balsam leaves still brittle, there was no realistic hope of sneaking up on deer so the first couple days involved a lot of lounging in the shade.
Each morning I would flush a grouse or two around the wetland but that was about it for wildlife. Never saw a deer and headed home early on the 16th. For a season that started with high hopes, this was a rude reality check.
October 22nd, 2022: The calendars aligned for me to take a day trip and while the smoke was gone, it was still bone dry and clear skies. But yet, there were deer around! From my post below I spotted 6 does feeding near the tree line on the big knob and got to watch them work down the ridge from right to left. I followed along behind them just in case a buck showed up to harass them.
Along the way a separate group of does/yearlings came bolting over the top that also totaled six, they were spooking from Jeremy's approach from the back of the knob. He had seen a single doe from his perch so we think there were at least 13 does on the upper half of the property. To put that in perspective, there have been previous seasons where I haven't seen a single doe... The other minor victory is this is the first season I got to spot deer bedded down, probably a function of how much time I was spending also laying down under trees. Still no sign of antlers but with this many potential mates, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the bucks would have to swing by to check the harem.
I spent the afternoon hunting public property but no deer there either. It was time to head home and hope the weather forecasters had it wrong so that the final two days of the season would feature a freak snow storm. Either way I wasn't panicking yet because I used those last days to tag a buck the previous two seasons.
October 24th, 2022: Finally, a little bit of cloud cover! Still no moisture but it was all Mother Nature could muster for this season. Things were off to a good start with 3 does and 3 yearlings appearing by 8 am at about 250 yards. The camera phone really lets me down on the long range critters, apologies for the bigfoot quality...
They disappeared for less than an hour but then reappeared coming down one of the skid roads with a buck in tow. Tragically, try as I might, I could not get him to grow a third antler or eye guard. They got to within 100 yards of me before the wind gave me away. No pictures because I never gave up willing some additional antler growth as I watched him in the scope. Then, before my nerves had time to settle a forked bull elk came running out of the same trees you see in the background of the picture above. I lost track of him but maybe 20 minutes later he slinked by me at less than 50 yards. All the while, that little buck was harassing one of the does at 400ish yards. That was a lot of action stuffed into an hour but I wouldn't see another ungulate until 5 pm.
I did my evening hunt on the meadow side so I had an excuse to check out the state's controlled burn. Around 5 pm I was looking back down to where I spent most of my season sitting and that doe/yearling family was feeding right past my seat. At 700 yards I couldn't see any antlers but I was heartened to learn that relatively fresh human stink is not nearly as distressing to deer as it is to bears.
October 25, 2022: The last day and no sign of a snow storm to give me some hope. Per usual, I started the day on my backside. A single doe was browsing in the usual haunts and an hour later a couple does came running down the hill but then nada. With nothing to lose, I started on a loop to walk through all the deer bedding areas that I actively avoided previously in order to not flush out the doe herd.
Along the way I came across an artifact of unknown age/origin as it has no markings. However, there is evidence of at least one repaired hole which doesn't seem like something anyone bothers with these days. Then things got bizarre while I was on top of the big knob - I could hear a noise that only made sense if it was a bear snoring. It was intermittent enough that I couldn't zero in on its source but it was eerie. On the other hand, I did have a bear tag in my pocket so it would be fortuitous if one woke up so close at hand. Right in that area was clear evidence of a bear pulling out boulders to get at yellow jacket nests but I never solved the mystery before it eventually stopped.
My last encounter of the season was a doe that was feeding in one of the many "holes" in the center of the property. We were only 50 yards apart and I crouched down behind the nearest bush to wait for my opportunity to slink away. It took a good 20 minutes and my legs going numb but I was able to crawl away without sending a panicked deer bolting through the last couple hours of my hunt.
In the end it didn't help and I headed home with the freezer at a depressingly low level of protein. But that sense of disappointment was tempered by the feeling that this year I got to learn a lot by observing the does and that we had managed to keep our profile low enough that deer felt comfortable sticking around.
I had dreams of hunting the rainy side of the Cascades for the additional week of blacktail season and/or the late blacktail season but untimely viruses and some travel meant the contingency plan stayed in the vault for a future year.
PS - Jeremy also got to hunt a few days and had an opportunity on a legal buck during the first week. It was a clean miss and that buck took the hint, never to return.