Idaho 2020 Recap and Photos

[birdman27]

One of the most exhausting days of my life. That is the only way to reflect on it as I am waiting for my chili mac to heat. Key takeaways: I am no longer in high school shape, even with a summer of training, and my desire to get to the top might do me more harm than good at times! Below follows a day by day blow of my hunt.

Oct 9- pack in day. I am here with my two best hunting buddies (N and C), exploring N's youth deer spot. We are way back by the Sawtooths. I have an either sex tag, and they both have general buck tags. We pack in about 3 miles to the meadow camp. We had originally planned to go another 2 miles up to some lakes, but with our level of pack fitness and the weather forecast, that seemed like a bad idea. We settled in for a lovely evening, knowing it wouldn't last.


C hiking in


Camp. We ended up hiking up to the right and doing a big loop over that mountain and down the ridge to the left.

 

[birdman27]

Oct 10, opening day- The day dawned lovely and a little warmer than the night before, probably around 45 degrees. We decided to scout-hunt up to the lakes and the pass above them, to get the lay of the land and plan for the next day when weather was supposed to move in and temps drop to below freezing. We saw our first deer 20 minutes in, an encouraging sign, even if they were does.

Aside: hunting in California has really made me enjoy seeing any deer, as most of my trips I see very few at all. I don't know how to hunt blacktail yet.


Typical Scenery

One of the 3 lakes we originally talked about camping at.

We continued up the drainage, seeing does regularly. If I just wanted meat, my hunt would have been over real quick, but if I had to pack it out a couple miles, I was going for a buck bigger than the few forkies I have taken over the years. I could hike from my truck and find a doe. We continued seeing does and eventually, C splits off to work down the ridge to the right and the two of us kept going up. At one point, I saw 2 bull elk cross the far ridge and then 3 cow elk right above me. Always love seeing elk. We finally gained the ridge and I decided to go to the peak, because I can't not go to the top of things. Lots of climbing for little reason. I ended up doing about 2600 in vert overall. While up there I could see the storm rolling in…

View from the top. Camp is the spot of color right in the middle of the drainage.

I quickly got my rain gear on and noticed my jacket was flaking on the inside. Not ideal, but work with what you have. I worked down the ridge towards camp and am absolutely getting hammered by wind and rain gusts. Finally, I decided to take one last look over the far side, then start switch-backing down towards camp, as the wind was calmer in the trees. I make it about two turns and am already thinking about getting warm and dry in camp, having a nice hot meal and getting ready for the next day, when there should be snow on the ground. As so often happens, that is when deer appear! I look down and see a deer about 100 yards away. And it is definitely a buck and bigger than anything I have shot before. I settle in, stop him with a grunt and let fly. Two other deer bolt out of there and he kinda trots downhill. I can't tell if he is hit or not, but he is acting weird. I watch until I lose him, then work down to the spot. Mistake number one, I should have given him time. About halfway down, he jumps up and continues downhill out of sight. So I plop my ass down and force myself to wait. Then I go to the original shot location and can see I gave him a haircut. No blood, but his tracks are easy to follow. I get to where he jumped from and see him below again. I confirm it is him and take another shot. I think I see a deer tumble, but then another deer runs out downhill, I think antlerless, but not sure. This second deer was on the run, so I decided to trust my instinct that the buck was down and move there. Sure enough, after a few steps I see some white and legs sticking out and I have my buck! My first 4-point. Not huge, but I am beyond happy. Take some pics then start breaking him down in the snow. I look at the map and think I can drag him most of the way to camp, so I gut him and start down. Bad idea. He just wants to roll. So I stop and quarter him. It was my first time solo, but I think I did ok. I load up the heart, backstraps, tenderloins, neck meat and head, then start down. I was only about a half mile from camp, but it was a 1000ft drop!

As he lay.


Beauty Shot


Hard to get a great selfie with a deer that wants to tumble, in the rain, on a steep slope!

I roll into camp, both my buddies are ensconced in their tents getting dry, so I put up my extra rain fly, pump some water, and try to get dry for the pack tomorrow. The rain in camp should shortly turn to snow and hopefully I can get help getting the quarters to camp, so I can start hauling them out. One bummer is I managed to put a hole in my tent fly. It is currently rigged with a trash bag, but I might need to bail to the trucks while my buddies continue the hunt. I would stick around for pack support of course! This is my biggest buck, my first opening day buck, and my first solo gut and gill. I don't know if it could have gone better (minus the wetness!).

 

[birdman27]

Oct 11- the rain turned to snow after we tucked in and snowed all night, including some toppling trees!. We woke up to 3-5 inches of fresh accumulation. Perfect conditions. My buddies agree to slowly hunt around towards my deer so we can pack it out. We see tons of does and a few bucks, but none within range and finally we get to my meat. Funnily enough there was a doe, two fawns and a yearling buck bedded right by the meat!. We load up (me with 3 quarters and my buddy with the last hind). As we are working around the hillside toward camp my buddy N tags a 3-point. 2 deer in 2 days! We stop to clean and quarter it, and between the 3 of us get all the meat back to camp (only ½ mile, but a steep 1000ft drop). I decided to pack my 3 quarters to the truck to get a head start. Both a good and bad decision. Glad I did it, but I am lying here with lots of muscle pain. Tomorrow we pack out to meet up with some people in town and hit the well earned hot springs.

This is the same view from camp as the first day!

Oct 12- It started raining in the middle of the night, so we knew we were in for a wet one on the pack out. It was looking like we were all going to have to make 2 trips, but as we are standing around getting ready Bob drops into camp and provides much needed moral and physical support. He takes a load out and I realize I can get the last quarter in my pack with my camp, so one heavy load and I am out. The rest of the day is spent setting up camp by the river, drinking beer and cooking hearts, with a nightcap hot spring soak.

The best beer with my best deer.


Caul fat roasted heart.

 

[birdman27]

Oct 13- rest day. I stay in camp all day and clean up the skull to do a euro. Not the best job, but I am excited to do it myself. Gotta get all the brain out before I go back into CA, so I'm going to hit up Walmart for supplies on the way out and boil it up. Moving was difficult today, because the bottoms of my feet got really torn up due to being wet for a few days. In fact, they almost felt bruised. Glad I didn't have to hike this day! Oh yeah, Bob figured out last night he locked his keys in the car, so he borrowed a truck and drove down to Boise to get an extra set (there wasnt a good way to break in), so he had a nice 6hr round trip instead of hunting...


Two bucks, ready for a euro spa.


N's buck had these neat devil points at the bases.

Oct 14- Start the drive home. I am going to stop in Reno on the way and visit some friends in my old hometown. N is also starting the drive home and will spend a night in Boise with his family. C is staying out and hunting until the end of the week. He likes solo time and since he isn't in the backcountry alone, I know he will be safe.

That pretty much concludes things. Pretty verbose, but I was excited! Lots of lessons learned, which I am happy to share, but I don’t know that any of them will be new to this forum. Some things you just have to learn on your own, even if you read and believe it a hundred times. I can see why this style of hunting resonates with certain people and I certainly enjoyed it as well. Being in an area that isn't exactly hard to drive to I thought we would be competing for spots, but getting just those few miles in really gave us a huge area to hunt with no competition. Lots of guys cruising the roads on ATVs (and at least one trail bike near us), but other than going to the trucks, we didn't see anyone for the 3 days we were back in there. N did finally see a couple guys headed back in when we were headed out, but I was amazed and happy to have that experience there without people.

 

[birdman27]

I think my dog approves of my work.

 

[wolfpup]

"Some things you just have to learn on your own, even if you read and believe it a hundred times."

This has been my experience a hundred times over. What a great trip. Congrats

 

[FI460]

Great buck and great story! I've been hunting blacktail in California for 18 years and I still don't think I know how to hunt them, haha.

 

[birdman27]

Great buck and great story! I've been hunting blacktail in California for 18 years and I still don't think I know how to hunt them, haha.

So true! Gonna try to learn more every year and maybe get semi-successful.

 

[elkrchr]

The ID backcountry is something special. Glad you got to enjoy it and congrats on the bucks!

 

[morley.tyler]

That’s a great buck and a better experience. Good for you and your guys. Congratulations and well done!

 

[wheels]

awesome buck sounds like a great time

 

[tamu hunter]

Congrats on taking the buck and having a great trip. I just got home from Idaho also, the hiking and the views were indeed incredible.

 

[chuckchili]

I really like that antler tip with the little bit of velvet left on. Cool experience, pictures and story!

 

[birdman27]

I really like that antler tip with the little bit of velvet left on. Cool experience, pictures and story!

Yeah, when I saw that it just upped the character. I am trying to make sure it sticks around.

 

[junior88]

Congratulations!! Views are incredible. Some day I'll get to Idaho

 

[birdman27]

To finish it all off, here is the completed mount. I work for a brewery and got a used Willett barrel that also aged an imperial coffee stout which I broke down to create this mount. It is above our TV, at my wife's suggestion, where I get to look at it and think about an awesome hunt every day. Cheers!

 

[Blacktailbc]

Nice write up. Good looking euro also.