Another day at the office

[Brambles]

Well my office till sometime in Late November anyways.:biggrin:

Found this spot this spring and snapped these photo's on May 17th 2007 had hopes of going up earlier this season but the fly-in trip got in the way, and a few more uncontrollable circumstances...

Weather forcast called for snow at 900 meters so I cleared my busy schedule and headed out to see if I could find my way up.

Found my way up I did, after a while I cut a fresh track, a buck track to boot. Now you ask, how do I know it was a buck?????

Did I smell its poo, sniff the air or maybe analyze the track, nope. I found the area he was bedded in and there were 3 rubs with in 30 ft of his bed and he was sleeping right under the biggest one.

Only damn deer track in the whole country, maybe he's a monster???:mrgreen:

Tracked him for hours until he went down the backside, didn't feel like beating the feces out of myself, never did get a look at him but he led me to a beautiful small hidden basin and he taught me A LOT about this new area.

I have to admit, some of the best times I have had in the bush is just following tracks and seeing where the deer go. You can learn sooooo much about an area by just picking a track and following it. I didn't even care if I seen him or not, just nice to be in the classroom.

However the snow really started to fall and the fog was moving in, I didn't have my watch or GPS just my boot prints to follow so I headed back. I only covered about 1/100 th of the ridge so I got a lot more classroom time coming.

One thing I'm not sure of is if he's vacating the Hi-country or just wandering around, there was only 4 inches of snow give or take a bit, not sure why he was headed down the back side, plenty of water where he was bedded. I've glassed the backside from another mountain on a few occasions and there are a few open areas on the hillside that may provide better forage, maybe he was just getting the munchies????

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/MountainStitch1.jpg

[mark]

Yer pumping my blood Brambles! Theres nothing better than tracking a deer after ya see a huge & fresh rub on fresh snow! Agree 100% about tracking. ya want to get to know someone, walk a mile in his shoes. One can learn more about deer in 1 day of tracking them, than a year of driving around hoping to see them! We just got snow about 1500 ft. above town, cant wait for the weekend!

[steepNdeep]

Ya lucky bass turd! With that fly-in you've already had a great year! Keep those pics comin' cause I'm anchored to this flippin' desk. How much snow do you figure there is just below timberline with this latest storm? My big vacation (2 days) :evil: is coming up soon and I got snowed out last year...

I agree w/ you and Mark - a mile in his shoes is gold! Here's what I found in a set of lone tracks in the bowels of a canyon. One of his cousins died that year... :)
http://www.secretcreeksupplies.com/tracking.jpg

[Brambles]

Back early because of some appointments I have to take care of.

Some places the snow is up to 6 inches or so on the roads but thems high roads too, in the trees there are places where there isn't much snow. I'm guessing the snow starts at the 5000 foot mark.

Some places the snow is topped with a crust, lighter guys can probably cruise right over top of it but I'm not a little guy so its 50/50 weather I'm going to break through or not, better than last week when you'd break through on every step......and freakin noisy, man you just can't be quiet on that stuff.

Was snowing again higher up today, raining pretty good at most elevations but real high up its snowing.

Hey steep, nice pics of the rubs, haven't found a deer that rubs big trees like those before, guess I know what to look for now. Do you feel track lenght tells an honest tale about the size of the deer?

I'm heading to Mulie Camp for 4 days on monday with a buddy and his friend, maybe a bit longer , with all this snow we should have a good time.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

You can find big antlered deer with small feet but if you find big tracks you know at least that the body is big and, most likely but not always, the headgear.
My buddy measured the feet of his friend's muley that went over 180" and it feet were in the 2 1/2" range.

SSS

[steepNdeep]

Some places the snow is up to 6 inches or so on the roads but thems high roads too, in the trees there are places where there isn't much snow. I'm guessing the snow starts at the 5000 foot mark.


Hey steep, nice pics of the rubs, haven't found a deer that rubs big trees like those before, guess I know what to look for now. Do you feel track lenght tells an honest tale about the size of the deer?


Thanks for the update! I'm taking a friend out locally to try to find him his first buck, tomorrow a.m. I'm planning a bonzai muley trip late next week too. Keep me posted...

Like humans, foot size doesn't always translate to body or afro size... BUT when I find a big track (~30-06 shell easily fits) and big rubs, I'd be trying to get a look at the buck... :shock:

[Derek_Erickson]

I bet thats a nice spike buck:lol:

[Will]

Only damn deer track in the whole country, maybe he's a monster???:mrgreen:
That's what keeps most of us going back out........."the maybe's" :wink:

Thanks for the update ! :smile:

[bcmulie]

Great story Brambles. Tracking is one of my favourite types of hunting for muleys. I've come across fresh rubs (shavings on top of fresh snow) 3 times. It really gets the blood pumping when you know for sure you're on the track of a buck.

bcmulie