It's been a long time, I don't know if I remember how to do this and I don't even know where to start. So...hear we go. I'll start of with how excited I was to be able to back to hunt in 17A. The previous year we were drawn for our second choice,18A and it was terrible. You can read about that trip in the older posts. The reason I was so excited is because of the bucks we ran across in 07. We went up on opening day this year and found out it was a big mistake. There were way to many hunters up there and most of them were just driving the back trails I wanted to hunt like a highway. It was ridiculous! I could complain a lot more about that but have to save it for some other stuff.
The area we hunt in is on a ranch in the Prescott National Forrest. There are usually water holes all over this property but with the lack of rain this summer they were all dried up. Because of that the windmills along the power line road were the main source of water for the cattle. And with the most head of cattle I've ever seen up there those tanks were owned by the cattle. The second morning I got up early to walk to one of the tanks that looked like it might be promising, hoping that I might see deer before the cattle came. What I ended up seeing was an idiot driving up to the windmill right before dawn and then backing up a hill near by. I was frustrated at this point because I had been waiting for over a half an hour in the cold to not be seen and here this dude comes driving up at the time the deer would be moving in. Apparently this guy is dumb to think anything but a bovine is gona show up at that tank now. I figured I'd wait a few more minutes just to see the sun rise, well before that happened a dude we had seen the day before came speeding through that area and really figured that was it. But still wanted to see the sun rise. As that was happening I started to see some movement north of the area so pulled up my binos and saw that it was cattle. So I enjoyed a decent sunrise and almost got run over by a cow and decided to head back to camp. At that point I figured all the deer are watering in 18B on the private property south of us.
Day two, hike, hike, hike, hike, hike. Not much sign though. Came back to camp a little tired and disappointed with the lack of sign we had seen. We all sat around camp tired from the long journey we took earlier that day and almost didn't go out that evening until a little before dusk. We all agreed that we would all just jump in the Liberty and take a drive down a little road south of our camp called Turkey Draw. Not even a mile down that road Vance spotted a bunch of does and the passenger side of the Jeep less than 100 yards away. We stopped and jumped out as they headed through a wash and up the mountain. With my naked eye I thought that i had seen some bright antlers through the brush. That got my adrenaline pumping and all of the fatigue had vanished. Off we were running uphill after this herd. We spread out and try to contain them a little and they stopped. Vance was on the right side of the line and said that he could see them. So I went to where he was because all I could see were feet. Between a couple of junipers about 100 yards out were a bunch of does going back and forth. When they had cleared, about 40 yards behind that opening was that little 4 point. I tried to point him out to Vance but he couldn't see him so I asked him if I could have him. As soon as Vance moved I decided to flip the bi pod out on my rifle and shoot from the ground...big mistake. As soon as I had got him back in my sights he turned around the bush and all I could see was his butt. Oh I was mad at myself! I figured that I should rest the gun because, 1 he seemed comfortable there like he would stay there a bit more and 2 I was a bit unsteady from running up that hill. Big mistake...the buck was only about 150 yards away and even if I was a little unsteady I think I would of still had a kill shot. Anyway we tried to run em north into a little ravine and up another mountain face but they felt a little to pressured and cut back west past Wiley and he said the were movin pretty fast.
The third day of our hunt fell on a Sunday. No Hunting on Sunday. Gota keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Because we weren't hunting that day we had a huge breakfast and just sat around camp all morning. While relaxing Vance spotted a fox walking into camp. I thought that it smelled the food and went to throw him some bacon but he ended up climbing a large, half dead juniper tree. See pics 2 & 3. He went up there to sleep! He was up there all day. The whole thing was pretty cool to see but what was more interesting was that he would move back and forth to two different spots through out the day. When it got real windy he would drop down to a limb that had a dead limb resting on it like a lean to. Pretty cool to see, also because I had never seen that kind of fox before. Maybe a mixed breed.
Day four of actual hunting Wylie and I went to go hike the fence line between the Yavapai Ranch and the Baca Float. We ended up cutting north to hike a mountain that Wylie had been on before and ended up in an area that he hadn't been in his many years there. We found some good area up there and tons of game sign but all the tracks headed south. I am gona go back there for archery season though, found a good spot on our adventure. Anyway back to that. We figured the mountain doglegged just south of the one we intended on taking but after a lot of hiking we found that is had multiple fingers that extended from that hub area. It's real easy to lose your way in the trees and with no gps. We were able to get a bearing of where we were when we hiked to the end of the mountain we were on. We figured we were just one off...turned out that we were three over when all was said and done. Later that evening Vance and I stalked that same herd we ran into on Saturday evening south into the Baca Float and that ended the hunt.
Tuesday morning while we were packing to leave Wylie went into the brush to take care of some business. Vance and I were rolling up the tent when he thought he spotted the butt of an elk and sure enough we walked around the shrub to get a better look and about 150 yards away in a clearing was a big bull with one tore up antler looking back at the brush Wylie was in and then slowly headed up the mountain out of sight. Now if I put in for that limited opportunity tag instead of 6A I would filled it. Oh and if I haven't mentioned it yet, that's the second year in a row that Vance and I seen elk in that area and Wylie's been hunting there since 59 and still hasn't seen one. Go figure.
