Big Lew
10-06-2013, 09:54 PM
After missing this year's bow season due to truck problems, my wife and I decided to try again for the October 1st rifle season. This time we had no problems and enjoyed prowling about in the mountains above our base camp by Peterhope Lake. This was the first time we've used an rv trailer rather than tenting in the outback (getting old and soft). We were pleasantly surprised at how few hunters we encountered considering it was the opening of general rifle season. We put on many miles cruising about, going up high when we could. My wife isn't able to walk the steep stuff anymore, but I put a few kms. on the boots by hiking the back of some cuts. We actually saw far fewer animals than during past years, 12 does and fawns as well as 1 small black bear on the 1st day, and half that on the second, but 1 was a small 3-point buck. Our larder was empty so I shot it (a bird in the hand) rather than take the chance of not seeing another larger buck. It was shot late in the day and a bit far from our truck so by the time we had gathered the necessary gear and hiked into it, we had to gut it by flashlight in the dark. It was quite a chore for this old guy to drag it to the truck but the whole process only
took an hour.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p616/Kipper1965/th_2013muledeerabovePeterhopeLake002.jpg
We spent the next 2 days putting around for grouse (there were numerous ruffed grouse) which was another highlight of our trip because our young lab got a very successful crash course on retrieving real birds. I've had good lab retrievers before, but they all had a lot of training with dead or fake birds before actually going hunting. This fellow did it like a pro right away on the first bird, tracking it down, picking it up properly by the breast without breaking any skin even though it was flapping it's wings, coming right in to me, sitting on command, and then releasing it also on command. We were ecstatic, to put it mildly. The weather was great the last 2 days but very cold at night so we headed home rather than take the chance of freezing our rv plumbing. Although I had also brought along my canoe with outrigger (excitable dog) and fishing gear, the winds were too high, but all in all, a great trip.
took an hour.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p616/Kipper1965/th_2013muledeerabovePeterhopeLake002.jpg
We spent the next 2 days putting around for grouse (there were numerous ruffed grouse) which was another highlight of our trip because our young lab got a very successful crash course on retrieving real birds. I've had good lab retrievers before, but they all had a lot of training with dead or fake birds before actually going hunting. This fellow did it like a pro right away on the first bird, tracking it down, picking it up properly by the breast without breaking any skin even though it was flapping it's wings, coming right in to me, sitting on command, and then releasing it also on command. We were ecstatic, to put it mildly. The weather was great the last 2 days but very cold at night so we headed home rather than take the chance of freezing our rv plumbing. Although I had also brought along my canoe with outrigger (excitable dog) and fishing gear, the winds were too high, but all in all, a great trip.