2002 Deer Hunting Journal-I enjoyed keeping a journal of last year's deer hunting. I haven't really put in much useful information (like weather, moon phase, etc.), but in the B-zones, the weather is fairly constant... HOT, DRY, and sunny. Also, I know this section could really use some pictures. Some technical complications have separated my working computer from the one with my camera software, so I'm sort of at a loss right now. Hopefully, I'll square this away soon. I'm also taking some shots with the 35mm, and will scan any that have relevance. Of course, if I get lucky this year, I'll have pictures one way or the other. |
I drew B-zone and G-1 tags for this season. Since I am also hunting archery for the first time this year, I'll be able to hunt from 08/17 through 11/03. As you can see, the end of the B-zone and the beginning of G-1 will overlap. I'll straighten this out as the time comes closer, and I decide where I'll be hunting. |
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Friday, 11/01 0330 - I'm just now pulling into camp. There's a story behind this, though... so let's back up to last Sunday, as I'm leaving from my B-zone closer. As I had mentioned before, my friend Dave and I both got tags for the G1 hunt. Dave went up last Wednesday, a couple of days before the season opened, because he had heard that the campsites tend to fill up pretty quickly. He got a good spot and started scouting. He'd asked me a couple of times to come out and join him. After some consideration, I decided to take my chances in the B-zone, in hopes of tagging out in both zones. We would hook up the following weekend (this weekend) if he had not tagged out by then. My plan was to leave the Bay Area on Halloween night, after Mim had finished her trick-or-treating, and drive all night to camp. Following last weekend's hunt, I checked the messages on my cell phone as I drove out. One call was from Dave. I knew it before I retrieved the call... I should have been on the G1 hunt. Dave's message said that a storm front moved through on the day before the hunt began, and by Saturday the deer were all over the place. He shot a bear at first light, and the work of getting it back to camp is the only thing that kept him from tagging out on the first day. On Tuesday after the opener, he called again. He was home with both the bear and a deer in the cooler. I still had nothing but the cardstock my tags were printed on. Of course he had come back to the Bay Area, and I would be on my own for the last weekend of the G1 hunt. We had drawn party tags for the Tehama, limited entry hunt just as we did last year. I hoped this season would be a little better, and after hearing Dave's report I had high hopes. But as the week went on, the weather leveled off, and I was afraid the deer had either moved all the way through, or were still holding at elevation. Some other reports suggested that the deer had moved down, though, so I loaded up the truck on Thursday evening with high hopes. I decided to try to make camp at the same place we'd hunted last year. It was a good little pullout, with a relatively easy hike over a ridge and into a great canyon system. We'd seen lots of deer there last year, although we couldn't put horns on any of them. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite remember where the spot was, and after making great time getting here from the Bay Area, I drove around for another two hours trying to find my spot. I guess my mind wasn't all that clear, because the sensible thing to do would have been to find a decent campsite and anchor for the remainder of the night, then find my spot in daylight. At any rate, so here it is 0330 and I'm just getting camp settled in. I'll be up in an hour to start hunting. 0430 - I guess it was a power nap, or else I'm just really anticipating some good hunting. Either way, I wake up relatively easily. After a Pop-tart and a couple of Red Bulls, I gear up and head up the hill. It's worse than I remember, but two Red Bulls can do wonders for your energy. I top the ridge, and decide to get right down to the area where I'd watched so many deer move last year. 0630 - Shooting light is up, and I see my first deer. There are three of them, all does, moving down the opposite side of the canyon toward the thick stuff in the creek bed below. As I watch, another deer comes up from the thicket, browsing happily. No horns. 0730 - I've seen several more deer this morning, but I'm facing the east, and the sun is right in my face. I decide I should move across the canyon, and maybe work my way back to the hilltop I finished up on last year. I have lunch packed, plenty of water, and actually pretty good energy. As I prepare to get up and move, I see three deer trotting out of the thicket and back up the hill. A few moments later, a couple more deer go the same way. Something is pushing them. At first I wonder if they've seen me packing to move, but I doubt it. Then I spot the figure moving at the far end of the draw, stalking around the end of the creek bed. He doesn't know I'm here, so I stand and wait until he spots me. Then I move on down into the creek bed, and break brush to hit the other side. 0830 - The brush in the creek bottom is extremely thick, and it takes a while to get through. As I start up the east side of the canyon, I see the other hunter appears to be practically running near the top of the ridge, as if he's out to head me off. I look around to see if he's pushing any deer, but there's nothing in the open. I figure he really is trying to get ahead of me. The hell with competitive deer hunting, though. I'm not racing for a spot. He sees that I'm already way out here, so he veers back to the east and disappears. I go on to the point of this ridge and glass the bottom. There are three finger ridges that jut into the canyon here, with each draw emptying into the creek bed. There is no water in the creek at this time of year, though...or not much anyway. As I glass into the draws, I see a deer standing on a rock, less than 50 yards away. I can't believe she didn't hear me, but I feel the breeze in my face so I guess she doesn't even know I'm here. Again, no antlers though. I watch as the doe walks away, shortly followed by a tiny fawn that suddenly materializes from behind a bitterbush. 1000 - I've pushed a couple more deer, but am now on the north side of where I started, looking back at the finger ridge. I see two hunters moving around a thicket, obviously trying to push deer. I glass for a few minutes, and am rewarded to see two, then three deer pop out on the opposite side of the thicket. The deer run down the hill, around the finger ridge, then circle right back behind the two hunters to re-enter the thicket. No antlers, once again, so after I watch the two guys move on, I move on as well. I have picked out a high bluff, with a huge flat rock overlooking two draws and the main canyon. That's where I want to set up. I can probably get comfortable enough to nap there too, as my lack of sleep from the drive is catching up with me now. 1100 - I have reached the bluff and dropped my backpack and some extra weight. With only the rifle and binoculars I do a short recon of the area. There is nothing else moving, and after a while I come back and make myself comfortable. The combination of cool breeze and warm sun act like a tranquilizer, and I'm nodding off before I even get settled in good. I stretch out in a warm patch of sunlight and zonk out. 1230 - I have popped up every fifteen minutes or so to glass around, then dozed back off until now. I sit up and eat a sandwich, and watch as a hunter about a half mile away works his way into a thicket. From my perch I see three deer streak out of the brush and disappear into the creek bed. 1300 - The hunter has rounded a ridgetop and I'm watching him through the binoculars. As I watch, he suddenly drops to one knee and brings up his rifle. I follow the line of his muzzle to a big doe on an opposite hillside. I look for other deer, but she appears to be alone. She's watching the other hunter, and after a few seconds she decides she doesn't care for his company. In a flick of the tail she's gone. 1600 - I decided to sit tight where I am, because it offers a great vantage point on the canyon system. There are hunters to my south, and a couple more to the east. The Tehama Management Area ends about one mile north of my perch. To the west is the ridge I came in on, about two miles back to camp, according to the GPS. 1645 - It's getting dark already. The days are shorter, but it seems too early to get dark. Still plenty of light left, and my GPS says shoot time doesn't really end until around 1800. I'm glassing a ridge about 500 yards away when I catch a glimpse of movement. I up the power on the binoculars and pick out the shape of ears, then the head of a deer. It's bedded in the thick brush, and I can't tell if it has antlers or not. To reach it, I can either drop down into the draw and try to work my way up, or try to circle around. The wind makes my decision, I need to circle around and come back on the thicket with the wind in my face. There is good cover a couple hundred yards up the hill from me, so I grab my gear and slip on up into the thick stuff. I am able to follow the brush line all the way to the WMA boundary fence, then drop downhill until I think I am about level with where I saw the deer. The day is slipping away quickly. I reach the ridgetop above where I'd seen the deer. The only way to get there is to go through a very thick hedge of bitterbush and oaks. I slip off my backpack, preferring to go light with just a knife, rifle, and glasses. I find a trail through the brush, and try to pick my way quietly through. Unfortunately, when I reach the other side I can't distinguish which patch of brush I'd been looking at earlier. It looks different from this side. I scan with the binoculars until I decide that the deer must have heard me coming and made tracks. I move a little further along the ridge, still glassing, when I hear the thump of hooves just over the ridge from me. I climb up and over and spot two deer rumps disappearing into a thick patch of brush. I wait a moment, expecting them to come out. When they don't, I pick up a rock and heave it into the brush where they'd gone. After two more rocks, the deer break cover running away from me at about 150 yards. I raise the rifle, but it's apparent quickly that neither deer has legal antlers. I watch and wish, as they sidehill away from me. 1715 - I can't find my backpack. After trailing the two deer and scanning for more, I've come back to the clearing where I left my pack. The camo pattern is blending perfectly with the volcanic rocks, and in the dimming evening light, I can't make it out. I try to backtrack, but every patch of brush looks alike. This is not cool. Finally, I spot one of my boot prints and recognize where I am. I'm looking in the wrong clearing. I apparently walked right past the backpack before I started to look for it. I go back through a wall of bushes into the right clearing, and still have to use the binoculars to pick out the backpack from the rocks. As I slug some water and get ready to head back toward camp, another hunter strolls out of the brush. We chat for a few moments, and he tells me about all the "forkies" he's seen... including two that supposedly were right over there where I'd just chased the doe and spike. I feel a little dubious, but I want to believe he's seen bucks. We part ways, heading back to our respective camps. 1745 - I remember how tough the climb was when Dave and I tried to cross the creek here last year, but decide to go that way anyway instead of going all the way back around the canyon. The thickets are incredible, probably worse than last year. It's easy to see how we got turned aside and missed our ridge then. I have the GPS this time, so I can at least make sure I hit the right ridges and come out at the right spot. Unfortunately, the GPS doesn't have a bush hog attachment. 1845 - I'm ripped and bloodied by the time I get back to camp. I make a very quick dinner and a drink, and I'm asleep by 1930. Saturday, 11/02 and Sunday, 11/03 Technical Difficulties caused me to lose updates for a while. It's now January of 2003 and the season is long over. So let me summarize these last two days and get this up...finally. On the last two days of the G1 hunt, I saw over 60 deer. They were all does and spikes. The bucks are nowhere to be found. Talking to other hunters, I hear that the majority of deer are already at the bottom and in the private lands below. C'est la vie. On the way out Sunday night, I see a beautiful 4x4 standing beside the road... about 100 yards from the Tehama Ranger station. What're you gonna do? Oh well, until next season... |
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