Archery hunt: Part 1

Friday August 16:
After we got all of our supplies together, Chad, McKennan, Brett and I headed up to Hogsheaven for the dear hunt. This was my first hunt without my dad, my first hunt not in the Pinevalley unit, and my first hunt with Brett so I was very excited to have a completely different hunting experience.  We didn't get up to the cabin until pretty late, but we stayed up and swapped stories with everyone for a couple of hours.

Saturday August 17:
We woke up at 5 am and got in the side by sides and went for a drive.  We hadn't got a chance to scout at all before the hunt, so we decided to drive around and find out where the deer were.  We went on the loop up the Million Dollar road and after the sun came up decided to go on a little side by side adventure.

.             The meadow                              Observatory from Million Dollar Road

Me and Kennan

We ended up going through Swain's Creek, over to Duck Creek, and then past Navajo lake to get back to the cabin!

Pretty ledges                                  Ran into Jason on the way

No place else I'd rather be

After the morning hunt, Chad and Kennan went home, Donna, Casey's girlfriend, Taylor, and Taylor's dad came up.  We all took Taylor and her dad to go see the sites. I even got to see some places that I had never been before.

Casey and Taylor                        Casey, Taylor, and her dad

Brett and Ryker                                 Family picture

Taylor, Donna, and June            How'd I get stuck with all the dogs?!

My love

.          The Runway                         View from the end of the Runway

For the evening hunt, Brett and I took Casey's hunting spot called Covington's.  He had seen 3 bucks there that morning and let us go hunt it....on the condition I didn't shoot the big one ;)  We walked down to this large meadow and up onto a hill, so that we could see better.  I saw a nice buck down in the trees and brush along the edge of the meadow, so Brett decided to stay on the hill and watch the buck while I tried to sneak down to it. It was very thick brush and getting dark, so my sneaking wasn't the best and I scared him off before I even got off the hill.  Brett radioed me to let me know and told me to meet him in the meadow and we would head back to the truck. I only took probably 10 more steps and walked right into view of a buck (smaller than the one I spotted on the hill). I froze and stared at him for what seemed like 5 minutes.  I got out my range finder to see how far away he was (I'm awful with eye-balling it) and realized there was a little oak tree right behind his shoulder.  I hesitated too long and he bounded off. The adrenalin rush was insane...even though I didn't even take a shot.

Sunday August 18:
Long story short, we were lazy and didn't get up in the morning and it started raining about 2 pm, so Brett and I decided to just head off the mountain so that we wouldn't risk getting stuck on the mountain Keith and Casey thought we were crazy for leaving during the rainstorm.  They kept telling us to wait it out, we would have a hours for the roads to set up, and still be able to hunt. But we didn't listen to them :)