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 As I wander about the glorious country that God has blessed me to live in, I realize all the blessing that I really have. First and foremost, the physical ability to just be out in it, I am a very busy and physically active individual and take it for granted sometimes. When I look back at some of my excursions and think about all the times that I have not killed something or even been able to take a shot, I am reminded of the fantastic experiences that I did have on those trips. My husband and I have a theory every time we go deer hunting. If we find a shed, we will not take home a deer that day. It seems to be pretty standard for our hunts. There have been times that we have been hunting so hard and so long and we come across a shed that we hesitate to pick it up because we want to fill our tag! But none the less, those drops are still blessings.However, there are so many other blessings. A sunset, a hillside of flowers, watching fawns play, having a deer be so oblivious to you that it walks up and sniffs you, things that cannot ever be matched. With all the blessings I have had this year, three will stick in my mind forever. The first was my first morning out. I climbed the mountain and got to one of my favorite draws to watch. It was somewhat late in the morning for this draw so I wasn't expecting to see much. I was up in the rocks and the sun was warming my face as I was glassing below to see what might still be feeding. As I watched a couple of does feed their way around, I noticed that they kept looking to their left amidst their grazing. After about 15 minutes of this, I looked below me and saw 3 bucks pop out from behind a huge boulder, in which 2 of them had to be the biggest deer I have seen in years. They were beautiful. It was still early enough in the season for their coats and velvet to be almost red. They were both easily over 30" wide and drops going all over! The third buck was not anything to shake a stick at either, being in the 27" range as well! My hands started to shake and I immediately started toloose my breath! You know what I am talking about, when you have to take three or four little short breaths to equal one normal breath! (I am getting short of breath just writing about them!) I quietly pulled out my range finder to see just how far they were. 219 yards. Not like I thought I even had a shot at the time, but even 219 yards from bucks like that is awesome! I was so excited about them that I had to hold the range finder with both hands to hold it steady!!! I watched them for about 45 minutes as they grazed out to about 400 yards and back again to about 175 yards, around the bottom of the ridge I was on and then they disappeared. I saw them and many more a couple more times that week, but never could get with in range for my bow. But what an experience! I love this sport!!! Another was during an evening elk hunt with my husband. It was a three-day weekend and my son and I were meeting up with him Friday after work. I had taken a shower that morning in the non scent, no animal should smell me stuff, but when we got to our meeting place that evening, as my husband was hugging me he exclaims, "You smell like a girl!" I know that most of the time that's a good thing, but going out for an archery hunt, it can be very bad. We got changed and headed out to a waterhole that he had somewhat of a blind set up at. My son, who can not hold still, was forced to the ground hoping he would be a little quieter if we spread him out! As he was twitching away in the dirt after falling asleep, in the quiet of the hunt his movement compared to the noise when someone is chopping down trees! We pretty much figured this was a wasted evening and that our twitching son and my girlish smell had kept all the elk out for the night. About 30 minutes before sunset, as we were starting to get really uncomfortable and even sleepy, we heard what sounded like a herd of horses come up about 50 yards behind us. It was two bulls. We knew with the wind direction that if they kept walking closer to us that they were going to wind us any minute. Completely unprepared and with out a chance of a shot at the time, out of the corner of his eye my husband watched the larger bull start to walk behind us. Every time he would hit the scent path it was like he had hit a brick wall with his nose. He would stop, take a step back, and try it again. After three tries, he started to look around and approximately 15 yards to his left he saw us but had no idea what we were. His name should have been George because he was curious! He started taking very small steps closer and closer to us. At this point I had no view of him, but could feel him getting closer to us. He stopped about 6 feet directly behind me, stretched out his neck and from less then a foot away proceeded to sniff my ponytail! My husband sitting at the correct angle could see out of the corner of his eye, this bull's lip reaching for my hair! All I could think of was how our horses will actually take my ponytail and play with it! Not wanting to spook an opportunity for my husband, I didn't dare move. Just breathing at this point was hard enough! (Once again, back to those four little breaths to equal one normal one!) Worried that the bull would turn into a cow moose protecting her calf we were fervently praying that our son would not make one of his noises or twitch with the force that he tends to! The bull finally decided that my hair, as good as it smelt, was not edible - thank God! He gradually moved away and for a brief moment moved behind a tree, giving my husband a split second to try to prepare for a shot. As he carefully reached for his bow, the bull saw the tiniest bit of movement through the branches and bugged out. Our joke now is for all archery hunters to use a Vanilla Plum hair conditioner! The last that I will bore you with was on one of my evening hunts. I was walking down a very old 2-track road. The bitter brush that lines the road is taller then I am, so to actually be able to see a deer through it is next to impossible let alone sneak on one. I was being pretty quiet, wind in my face, everything good for the direction that I was headed. When all of a sudden the bush that I had passed about 20 yards ago, came alive! Startled, I quickly turned around and saw a doe running away from me and a fawn running right at me! That little guy was running so fast and furious I thought that it would leave its spots behind! Its ears were pinned flat against its neck, its eyes were so wide that you could see the whites of them, its nose was flared and as it was running its legs looked as if they were coming so far forward that they were going to wrap up around its ears! Standing there watching this guy barrel towards me I thought for sure it was going to run me right over if I didn't move out of it's path! I took a step to my right and it realized I was bad and certainly not Mom. It was like you could see the light come on in its head! As soon as I took the step, its eyes got even bigger and it quickly veered off to my left and dove headfirst into a bush not 20 feet away and hunkered down. I can just imagine it thinking, if I cannot see the monster, the monster cannot see me! As I stood there in amazement of how close I came to being plowed down by a 50-pound fawn, I could hear it calling back and forth with Mama who was not far away. After shaking off the excitement, I moved on to find another blessing, smiling the entire night. So many folks never have an opportunity anything like these. Each day that I head out I pray for another blessing, whatever God may have in store for me. Sometimes, it's difficult to even realize what that blessing was. It may be something as simple as a day out and not being stuck at home or behind the desk. As outdoorswomen, we are so fortunate to be able to experience what some are only able to read about. Take it all in and get everything from the trip that you can possibly hold to memory, and write it down! These are stories our kids and grand kids will love to hear! It is not always about the trophy you can put on the wall, but about the trophy you keep in your heart. God Bless Julie Hughes Hook n Horn Guide Service www.hooknhornguideservice.com |
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