Part 3/3:
Time to go back and tell caddisgirl so she could recover her deer and that it isn't far off a road we can drive around to. I start working my way back to the sound of the creek. I arrive at the creek in a different place than I crossed. I am a bit disoriented at this point. I can see how hunters can get themselves lost really fast pursuing an animal in the heat of the moment. I am not lost by any means. I have the creek, slope, valley bottom and mountain across the way. It's would be pretty hard to be "lost". I just don't know my proximity to caddisgirl.
This leads us to the next mistake (once again we knew better) and that was not having a radio.. or so we might have thought (had we even thought about it) when separating. caddigirl actually did have both radios in her pack. We just didn't think about it. After all, I was just going to walk across the creek and check to see if there was any sign he had crossed to the other side. Who needs a radio for that, right?
I am calling out downstream and upstream but no answer. Either too far or the creek is too noisy, or both. So, I find a place to cross and my rifle straps snags on something and breaks as I flop down to my hands and knees in the creek getting even more wet that I want to be with the cold starting to come in.
I started heading down stream which I thought to be correct (and it was) and keep calling out. No response. At this point I am starting to get worried. What if she heard me calling on the other side of the creek and decided to cross looking for me and now she's not there? We'll be trying to track each other down in circles until dark. Or what if she had a run in with a cougar or bear? There were cat and bear tracks everywhere and with the noise of the creek who knows what could sneak up. Meanwhile she is having similar concerns. From her stand point I just disappeared into the bush and then maybe 20 minutes later hears a couple of shots. And she knows we are down far enough that we are not far off a road where there are road hunters driving by literally ever 2 minutes or so (it's a Region 2 main line after all) so she is worried about would could have happened to me, whether I might have had a run in with a cat or a bear or got tagged by a road hunter shooting at our limping deer. She told me after she never felt so low and felt like it was her fault.
Meanwhile I am hoping she is alright and not trying to find me, because if she is looking for me at this point she is going the wrong way. I needed her to stay at the creek bank and I will get back to her eventually. I decided to fire a shot into the ground at least make it clear that am not where she might think and bonus if she gives a reply shot. Neither was really the case... the creek, the echos around the mountains... it just wasn't helpful and could have added confusion. I am still pretty sure I need to go downstream but if I am wrong, it's a lot of work to back track with how thick it is an all the obstacles. I decided it's better just to burn the time and energy hiking back to the top of the slope to confirm where I need to go. So that is what I did while stopping to call every so often.
I got back up top and confirmed I was indeed up stream of where I needed to be and knew where I needed to go. I was about to start heading back down and hear caddisgirl calling. I am calling back but she just can't hear my reply because of the creek... "I am up TOP. Come back to CAMP. Come to the JEEP" ... nothing ... this went on for awhile, very frusterating for both of us. Eventually she moved away from the creek to hear better and she heard me call back. What a relief. She climbed back up with both of our packs and my pants, struggling up the steep slope with the earth eroding under her feet.
"Your deer is down the valley across the main road. Let's go get it"
It didn't register to her that her deer is actually dead and we just need to go get it. Too much exertion and too much stress. Went and packed the jeep in a hurry. She's thinking we heading down to continue the tracking. And I am thinking "gee I hope that tree we heard last night isn't laying across the spur road out of here" and somewhat worried one of those road hunters that drive by every 2 minutes might spot the dead deer the hill on the other side of the road (it was concealed by a log but was still partly visible) and throw it in the back of their truck.
We drove out of the spur just fine. There was no tree down and no icy hills or deep snow. Thank goodness. Drove around to where the deer was, pulled off and stopped. "He's up there behind the log" ... caddisgirl realizes it's finally over. Most of the time when you pull the trigger, the hard work is field dressing and the pack out. This case was not typical. Field dressing is nothing in comparrison to what we just went through, and the pack out here is only 40 or 50 yards and down hill.
At this point, both our spirits were lifted. It's over, and we're going home tonight before the temps drop even more... we will be sleeping in our own beds.
We walked up to her buck and took a few moments to admire it. It is a beautiful blacktail specimen. Little stubby black tail, no indication of any muley genetics. His fork antlers are a little thick for a "young" two point with fairly wide bases with a lot of bumps around the bases which were also on the thick side. His neck was also fairly swollen... no question bucks are starting to be in rut mode. His front shoulders are smaller than our archery buck which I believe was muley dominant, but his rear quarters and back muscles were built like a tank (backstraps and hinds were probably 2x the meat). He had a beautiful coat. We kept some sections of hide for fly tying over the winter. This deer is going to be catching is rainbow trout for decades to come.
After we processed the deer, we packed the game bags into the cooler and headed home, plopped the game bags into the fridge and went to bed. I believe the timeline was that the deer was shot at 9:30AM and we were finished at 4:30PM. It was a long hard day of walking, climbing and literally crawling around up and down the thickest nastiest stuff one could think up.
The next day, I was so sore I could hardly move. Even today I feel so beat up I texted my boss to see if he had enough manpower and could spare me for a day (made it clear I can work either way) and he said no problem. So today I was able to get some extra sleep and finish cutting, which in itself is no easy chore. We spend a lot of time (many hours) cutting and packing our own meat. Now we have the deer all vaccum packed and frozen.
A lot of things went wrong that we are not particularly proud of, so it is important to reflect on the lessons learned:
1) Anything less than a good heart shot, double lung or perfectly boiler room shot can lead to a rough day, for both you and the animal. Animals can be tough. For example, a deer with a broken shoulder and/or deflated lung can keep going a very long time.
2) Radios. Communication might not seem particularly important when you are just going to cross a creek to check for tracks. Not everything goes as planned so prepare for the unexpected.
3) Less significant to the overall story, rifles locked up in the back of a jeep are not particularly useful.
4) NEVER GIVE UP. If you take the shot, be prepared to spend at least a day looking for any sign you hit it. If you find sign the shot connected, be prepared to spend another day even if you have to call your boss, family or whatever, heck even cancel a flight if you have to. It's just the right thing to do. Even some of these popular hunting shows, you see a guy drop an elk in fairly open terrain, look around for an hour or so and say "hey nothing goes to waste, it just goes back to nature" and call it off. I strongly oppose that being the standard. One can comfort themselves with those thoughts after exhausting every possibility rather than using them as an excuse not to take the search up a notch further.
5) We should probably pack a chain saw
This will likely be our last big game story for the season. Both freezers are topped off. It has been a good year for us. A couple deer and a bear. If we go out again, it will just be for trailcams, camping, observing and learning about these amazing creatures called blacktail deer.
Good luck to all the rest of the season. We wish everyone a safe, enjoyable and hopefully successful hunting experience. And maybe, just maybe this story can help someone avoid the same mistakes, even if they "already know better" ..... "just like we did".
Take care!
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