Sept 10-15th East Kootenay Rockies conditions

[Mountain Hunter]

Spent the 10-15th up high in the Rockies near Invermere looking for a good mule deer buck.

First night was a hot hike up the mountain and setup camp using Kifaru supertarp in the evening.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05559copy.jpg

It was hot in the evenings and so not many deer were showing themselves near dark. This large 3x4 buck came out at 7:20 pm and walked over the ridge to the shady side. I was looking for something better to pack off the mountain so I left him alone.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05567_copy.jpghttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/DSC05569_copy.jpg

The next day I headed off in a new direction and found these six small bucks working across the steep rocks heading down into the timber for the day.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05626_copy.jpg

Later I spotted a herd of 32 nanny and kids mt goats, they also headed down ino the shady side of the mountain, with a few bedding down on the snow patches.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05671_copy.jpg

I saw the group of small bucks feeding uphill out of the timber in the evening. No other deer were seen that night.

[Mountain Hunter]

The next day I moved camp towards the area where I saw the previous larger buck hoping there were other bigger bucks in the area.

I had to drop down into the basin for water.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05720_copy.jpg

There was fresh deer sign down in the meadows around the creek and my new perch up top offered views down into these openings as well as the upper alpine.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05733_copy.jpg

The following couple days were quite hot with not very many deer spotted.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05763_copy.jpg

I did see three black bears down in the shrubby openings (late season huckleberries) down lower, including a grizzly on my hike out on the last day. I did spot three more new bucks (spike to 3-pts) and a few does in the cooler mornings using the open slides.

The following pic show some of the nice alpine where deer feeding were observed in the mornings.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/DSC05802_copy.jpg

My assessment was that the warm evenings were poor for observing deer up high and the cooler mornings were best. Deer were feeding up high during the night and dropping down into cooler timber to bed up for the day, and then fed uphill later in the night, not sure if the full moon allowed them to come out later and that's why I didn't see very many deer during dusk.

Now the weather has changed and there was a little snow on the peaks today, so hopefully the deer resume normal alpine patterns for next weeks high country hunt!

[Amphibious]

Thanks for the heads-up. heading into the Blackfoot tomorrow morning, fingers are crossed. beauty buck!