The next morning I determined that spotting from high up was not going to work as it was clouded in and the wind was fierce. Rain began falling and turned to snow before I’d left the main road. I dropped down to our lower access spot at 400 feet and waited in ambush for deer from the private land. When the rain turned to snow at THAT elevation, I knew this was a serious storm, and I hustled back to the truck. The climb out of the canyon was one of the more stressful events of my life. The snow covered the narrow one lane dirt road, the fast falling flakes and low clouds obscured where the edge of the road dropped off thousands of feet below. I crawled the seven and a half miles back to my camp and the snow had become eight inches deep in two hours and was still piling up.
At that point, all thoughts of hunting were dispelled from my mind. I was in “survival mode”. I hastily threw my camp gear in the truck and dug through the snow to extract my tent pegs and wadded the tent in the truck box before I four wheeled off of the 5500 ft ridge. My tracks from that morning were already filled in as I crawled the 17 miles down off the ridge. Once I had dropped a thousand feet I began breathing a little easier and even snapped a photo or two when the snowfall let up.
Concluding Thoughts…
I left this hunt feeling defeated by the quarry, the weather, and my own physical limitations. I never got a shot or within range of a legal buck. I got my ass kicked. Not a good feeling. But much of this trip was good. Let me detail the good parts:
- My hunting partner Rich Howarth. Rich was a trooper to go into unfamiliar territory after a tough quarry. His cooking was one of the best things we had on the whole time. His Chicken Gumbo, and Bear Stew was superb, and made for a great evening. He is an excellent hunting companion and campmate. His deer spotting abilities were an asset on the hunt, and his positive attitude was there when I was feeling down. It was a couple of lonely days when he wasn’t there.
- Camp. The Cabela’s Alaknak II tent did well in the snow. I will never forget the sound of snow sliding off the roof. The borrowed tent stove made drying out after a wet day much easier. I need to buy one of my own. I think I am developing a camp scheme that is becoming more efficient than my past endeavors. There is stillimprovement possible and next time I will endeavor to plan meals better by pre-cooking what I can, and making a menu.
- My clothing. After 17 years of hunting equipment purchases, I think I’ve acquired a collection of layers that are well suited to the wide variety of weather we encountered on the trip.
- Under Armour Cold Gear base layers helped keep me warm, as well as wicked sweat better without the chilling that other products produced. Yes, I did sweat under my rain gear. But I would have been in a dire situation if I didn’t have the UA.
- The Microtex pants and shirt performed great as in past years. You just can’t beat them.
- The Rivers West Jacket from Sage Creek Outfitters did great in the rain wind and snow. It will be a staple for late season hunts from now on.
- The Sitka Gear Mountain Shirt was a multi situation layer. I wore it every day as one of three layers sometime through out the day.
- Physical conditioning. Even though I was limited on this hunt with a nasty cold, and later lower back spasms, I was able to cover more ground than I would have a year ago. I thank the trail running training I did in the off season for that. I would like to be able to climb hills easier though. Had I been in better shape in this area, I might have been more willing to drop the 3000 feet down to the very bottoms of the thick canyons.
- Fueling. Rich was very good about setting an example of eating every 2 hours. I think that helped keep my energy levels up throughout the day. I need to work on remembering to not let my blood sugar drop to the point of exhaustion on an all day hunt, similar to a fueling strategy for a long trail race.
