Oct 10, opening day- The day dawned lovely and a little warmer than the night before, probably around 45 degrees. We decided to scout-hunt up to the lakes and the pass above them, to get the lay of the land and plan for the next day when weather was supposed to move in and temps drop to below freezing. We saw our first deer 20 minutes in, an encouraging sign, even if they were does.
Aside: hunting in California has really made me enjoy seeing any deer, as most of my trips I see very few at all. I don't know how to hunt blacktail yet.
Typical Scenery
One of the 3 lakes we originally talked about camping at.
We continued up the drainage, seeing does regularly. If I just wanted meat, my hunt would have been over real quick, but if I had to pack it out a couple miles, I was going for a buck bigger than the few forkies I have taken over the years. I could hike from my truck and find a doe. We continued seeing does and eventually, C splits off to work down the ridge to the right and the two of us kept going up. At one point, I saw 2 bull elk cross the far ridge and then 3 cow elk right above me. Always love seeing elk. We finally gained the ridge and I decided to go to the peak, because I can't not go to the top of things. Lots of climbing for little reason. I ended up doing about 2600 in vert overall. While up there I could see the storm rolling in…
View from the top. Camp is the spot of color right in the middle of the drainage.
I quickly got my rain gear on and noticed my jacket was flaking on the inside. Not ideal, but work with what you have. I worked down the ridge towards camp and am absolutely getting hammered by wind and rain gusts. Finally, I decided to take one last look over the far side, then start switch-backing down towards camp, as the wind was calmer in the trees. I make it about two turns and am already thinking about getting warm and dry in camp, having a nice hot meal and getting ready for the next day, when there should be snow on the ground. As so often happens, that is when deer appear! I look down and see a deer about 100 yards away. And it is definitely a buck and bigger than anything I have shot before. I settle in, stop him with a grunt and let fly. Two other deer bolt out of there and he kinda trots downhill. I can't tell if he is hit or not, but he is acting weird. I watch until I lose him, then work down to the spot. Mistake number one, I should have given him time. About halfway down, he jumps up and continues downhill out of sight. So I plop my ass down and force myself to wait. Then I go to the original shot location and can see I gave him a haircut. No blood, but his tracks are easy to follow. I get to where he jumped from and see him below again. I confirm it is him and take another shot. I think I see a deer tumble, but then another deer runs out downhill, I think antlerless, but not sure. This second deer was on the run, so I decided to trust my instinct that the buck was down and move there. Sure enough, after a few steps I see some white and legs sticking out and I have my buck! My first 4-point. Not huge, but I am beyond happy. Take some pics then start breaking him down in the snow. I look at the map and think I can drag him most of the way to camp, so I gut him and start down. Bad idea. He just wants to roll. So I stop and quarter him. It was my first time solo, but I think I did ok. I load up the heart, backstraps, tenderloins, neck meat and head, then start down. I was only about a half mile from camp, but it was a 1000ft drop!
As he lay.
Beauty Shot
Hard to get a great selfie with a deer that wants to tumble, in the rain, on a steep slope!
I roll into camp, both my buddies are ensconced in their tents getting dry, so I put up my extra rain fly, pump some water, and try to get dry for the pack tomorrow. The rain in camp should shortly turn to snow and hopefully I can get help getting the quarters to camp, so I can start hauling them out. One bummer is I managed to put a hole in my tent fly. It is currently rigged with a trash bag, but I might need to bail to the trucks while my buddies continue the hunt. I would stick around for pack support of course! This is my biggest buck, my first opening day buck, and my first solo gut and gill. I don't know if it could have gone better (minus the wetness!).
