October 14-17th, 2023: The big day kicked off with a very different vibe this year. We splurged for a home base a few miles downhill and that had two big implications: (1) warm toes to start the day as I could avoid the thermal shock of rolling out of the truck bed and (2) the family was along for the adventure. The hunting side of things was extremely slow for me with poachers outnumbering deer encounters 3 to 1. There were some promising bear rustlings every morning in the "wetland" and grouse popping up everywhere but the only deer I saw across four days was a 1x2 buck on opening morning.
There wasn't a clear explanation for a complete lack of deer/elk traffic this year. We had a good mix of weather fronts coming through plus the past years of experience had us being much more rational about where we posted up and when. Jerm even had that same 1x2 buck taking naps below him on a couple days. The highlight of the first four days was Jerm got to watch a bigger buck for an extended time one evening. Try as he might, he could not spot a 3rd antler tine at around 300 yards. The camera evidence from later that night revealed it was a legal buck but by the barest of margins and I was proud of Jerm for not letting wishful thinking cloud his counting.
While I was a failure at finding deer, I did stumble across a nice shed on Day 3 that the new dog chomped through in a single day... I could not afford to keep that dog chewing on sheds at retail prices.
Because the deer hunting was so futile, I made up a hunting plan for the final morning of Week 1 that let me swing by the summer's bear kill to see if I could find the matching 6 point elk shed. Still no deer but within 10 feet of where the bear fell was the second shed, my first matching set! If I had lost my balance while processing the bear, I could have impaled myself... My only excuse for missing it in August was the adrenaline shortcutting important neural connections.
On the plus side, it was great to get lunch and dinner with the kiddos. In those breaks we became frequent visitors to the Talking Dog Orchard fruit stand which gave us lots of free pears and goody bags for the kids on three different visits. In the end we dried or sauced around 40# of asian pears, pears, and apples.
October 21-22nd, 2023: We kicked off Week 2 just like Week 1 - with another beautiful sunrise but zero deer...
The rest of the season took an unexpected swerve when my walk back to the truck brought me through a giant patch of chanterelles. Just a week ago I was convinced the property was in a mushroom dead zone because of how dry the summer is followed by the quick transitions from desiccation to rain to snow. Yet, here were giant, beautiful specimens that were so localized that I would have missed them if I picked a route back 20 yards in either direction.
All I had handy was a sleeping bag compression sack and it was filled within 10 minutes. Once Jerm got a look and taste of the horde, he became an instant convert to mushroom foraging.
I don't recall anything of note happening on the deer front but we kept returning back to the patch at midday to fill up our bags. I'm guessing we netted at least 30 pounds by the time we were done.
Oct 23rd, 2023: Things ramped up dramatically on the 7th day of my season when I peaked into a draw and saw a doe at about 100 yards (almost too close). Even better, she was accompanied by a buck of indeterminate size. He was very angry with one of my fir trees and was giving it a solid thrashing. Eventually, I saw enough antler to realize I was looking at a monster (at least by my standards). The bummer was that his position meant all I could see was his tail and those 4x4 antlers. I had time to drop my packs, put in the ear protection and start a slow slide forward on my backside in order to set up a rest above the brush. Everything was going to plan for a very comfortable shot but I missed that two other does were more level with my elevation and one of them must have spotted me.
At the time I only saw that two deer were bailing from the draw and assumed they were the doe and buck. But no amount of wishing could get either of the does to sprout antlers. I was still stumped when the original doe also made her way up and out. If you recall my note above about adrenaline shortcutting critical neurons, this is an instance where it really cost me. I had shifted way out of position to see if I had an offhand shot of one of the moving deer. If I had stayed put until seeing antlers, I would have been in a great spot to pick off the buck after he sent out his decoys. Instead, I passed on taking a standing shot at the biggest deer I have ever seen during a hunting season when he finally felt it was safe enough to leave the bottom of the draw.
When I met up with Jerm later in the morning to share my sob story, he pulled out an amazing find. My oldest had spotted a few shaggy manes at the Airbnb the previous afternoon and Jerm immediately turned around and found a big patch of them at the property. Seeing the enthusiasm of a convert was the perfect balm for my sense of failure.
October 24th, 2023: The last day of the season is when we leave our chairs and rock perches on the edges of the property and move through the most promising bedding areas just in case a buck has been camping in there all along. Turns out, the big buck had stuck around! As I was approaching the rendezvous point, I thought I heard Jerm take a couple steps and then there was the monster at 80 yards, heading straight back towards Jerm (or at least where I thought Jerm was). Without a way to get a warning to Jerm, the buck spotted him first and came crashing back through my section of woods.
On the off chance to see him again, I followed his tracks for awhile and to my amazement he was walking the next ridge line over. He stopped for me just long enough to drop the pack and get a rest but there was never a clear shot through the brush and he dropped over the ridge and vanished.
I had to be back in time to meet the afternoon school bus so that was the end of my day. I was in the truck headed down the hill for home when I got a call from Jeremy that he had a buck down!!! For a second I thought a miracle had happened and the monster had unwittingly circled back through Jerm's route to his truck but lets be honest, you don't often live to that age in this area without an uncanny knack for making the right decisions. Instead, Jerm was trudging back to the truck, already thinking about finding more chanterelles when a peek over the edge of the road showed a much younger, less canny buck laying down maybe 50 yards away. Again Jerm had trouble finding a third antler tine, because it was the same buck from the first week, until he finally stood up. With legality confirmed, Jerm dropped him right where he stood.
We couldn't have asked for a better location too as it was less than 500 yards to drag him to the truck so that a processor could do all the work (and I still made it back in time to meet the bus). While I got skunked, this was by far my favorite property hunt so far and as of December '23, I'm equally excited to see if the chanterelles are there again next year as I am invested in finding out if the monster survives the special tags and winter to be a 5x5.
