Nice vs. Nasty

I have been seeing some neat bucks this year in the Book Cliffs. I just fell in love with a big old nasty 2x3. He had a huge frame, massive body, gnarly bases, a couple cheaters, and one of his eyes had been gouged out fighting. Not some peoples idea of a trophy buck, but all that character and nastiness makes him awesome to me. I would love to take a buck like him.


I also saw a buck that would probably meet most hunters definition of a trophy. A wide, symmetrical, clean 4 point. He was impressive too, but I still like my nasty buck. I am not sure what I would do if I had to choose between them.


This buck was still in full velvet in late November, typically a sign of missing the family jewels which logically has a negative affect on testosterone levels.


This is my favorite time of year in the Book Cliffs.

Tatonka

Spot

Stalk

Shot

Success

Hard at Work

These photos pretty much show my work schedule for the last couple months. I haven't included any photos of my desk in the basement where my thesis was written, or my office in Vernal where I do spend a considerable amount of time, but these ones are more fun.

The family chillin' the chopper before I went up to count Mountain Goats.


Radio-collared bighorn sheep at Flaming Gorge. Found the live ones and recovered the collar from a dead one too.


Jalapeno bacon cheeseburgers for lunch at the deer hunt checkstation. Mmmmm.


Bison photo taken out the window of our little 4-seater airplane. We did lots of circling and I didn't even puke.


Caught this bull digging through the snow for his breakfast.


This smaller buck hopped out of the way when his bigger buddy let him know he was invading his personal space bubble. Once the bubble was restored, they seemed to get along just fine.


I just caught of glimpse of these heavy antlers above the brush and stopped and watched this old buck for a few minutes. Big and chunky, just how I like 'em.



Hopefully I will be getting some more good deer photos in the next few weeks. Counting deer in November has to be my favorite part of my job.

H1N1 Buck

Things didn't go exactly as planned on my Colorado deer hunt. After building preference points for 5 years, finally drawing the tag, months of meticulous planning and lots of anticipation, things started to go wrong. My usually mellow boss flipped a 180 and told me I was required to stay in Utah and work the first 3 days of my hunt. After 3 very long days I finally finished my work obligations and headed out Monday night. I arrived in camp in the late evening and got ready for the next morning. Tuesday morning started with a light rain shower that got stronger and stronger and lasted most of the day. I gave it my best, but didn't accomplish much other than getting soaking wet and freezing cold. Tuesday night I called home to find that Preslie was in the hospital with post-influenza related respiratory complications. I drove home and spent most of the next couple days in the Hospital. We brought Preslie home from the hospital Thursday afternoon. After a follow-up Dr. visit Friday morning confirmed that she was doing better I decided to run back out to hunt one more day before the season ended. I left Friday after lunch, and shot my buck at about 6:30 pm just a few minutes after getting back to my hunting area. My friend Shane and I packed him out, I slept a few hours, and got up and made it back home for a total trip time of about 24 hours. While it is not the buck I had hoped to get on this hunt, considering the circumstances, I am thrilled. Thanks to God for watching over my Little Babe, to Tristie for handling all the stress at home and for letting me go back out to try to fill my tag, and to Shane for sticking around to hunt with me for one more day.

And then God created Mule Deer Country

I just got back from a deer hunt in South Central Wyoming. You just couldn't make better mule deer habitat. It was cold, and the hunting was slow for big bucks. I had a ball with an old friend from school/work and his brother. We ate well, put lots of miles on the 4-wheelers, saw tons of deer, and passed bucks every day. After a few days without turning up anything big, I saw this 2-point and my itchy trigger finger got the best of me. I made a 302 yard shot with my Dad's .300 Ultra Mag and my first Wyoming mule deer bit the dust (hard). After I broke the ice, my friend and his brother put the hammer down on bucks of their own later that same day. Not the monster you always hope for in the back of your mind, but it was probably one of the most relaxing hunts I have ever been on. Good friends, gorgeous country, and some venison for winter too. I can't complain.

Do or Die

This is it. I took a full time job in August 2007 even though I was just in the preliminary stages of writing my thesis to finish my MS degree at Utah State. I had completed my coursework and research project and just needed to run the data through analysis and write it up. Not a problem to do that evenings and weekends while working full time right? Wrong! I know some people seem to be able to do that, but I have not.

We moved to Roosevelt and I started a rather demanding full-time job with an unpredictable schedule and lots of overtime. I loved it and dove in headfirst trying to learn my area and the duties of my position. We had baby Mack in October which added some additional stress and time commitments, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Life got full and complicated and before I knew it, a year had passed and I had made very little progress on writing.

In August of 2008 after an exhaustive and frustrating real estate search we decided to build our own home. We did our own framing, electric, paint, finish carpentry, tile, stone, etc. I spent every extra evening and weekend minute at the house from Sept to February. In the spring we moved in and I started doing a little thesis work again. I found some time here and there and finally finished my data analysis. In the meantime my university colleges, my employer, my family , and about everyone else I know hounded me constantly about when I was going to finish my degree. Then I got the news that 2 of my 3 committee members were retiring and the 3rd was moving to California. We dedicated that fall 2009 was the last window of opportunity for me to defend. I figured I would have lots of time in the summer to get my writing done and be ready to defend in the fall without a problem.

Well here we are mid September and I am really starting to sweat. I have turned in 2 drafts to my committee and both times was asked to do major re-writes. I am halfway through the second re-write and I can hear the clock ticking (loudly). I have been royally chewed out by my boss and my wife (I will let you guess which chewing was worse). I turned back in a deer tag that took me 9 years to draw to give myself more time to write, and after paying $1200 in tuition to register for the required 3 credits of thesis defense this is it. Do or die time. If I can't finish this semester...

A Home with Roaming Buffalo and Playing Deer

I got to spend another night in the Book Cliffs looking for roaming buffalo...

After I found the bison, I got to play with the deer a little too.



Next I met up with my Peruvian friend that had a late night scare with a bear. He was alone in an old cabin without electricity, a gun, or even a dog. He scrapped together a spear for himself with some baling twine, a fence post, and an old knife and spent a long night sitting alone in the dark waiting to see if the bear was going to come back. We got him a dog, a .30-30, and set a trap just in case the bear did come back. I think he is sleeping a little better now.


Another great trip to the Books.

Dax Likes Racks

I like big racks and I cannot lie.

I spent an awesome night out in the Book Cliffs and saw about 70 different bucks. I also saw all kinds of elk, 3 coyotes, bison, antelope, and a bear eating a dead cow. What a great trip!

The bucks still have a little growing to do, but you can get a pretty good idea of what they are going to look like. I am not just watching for fun this year, my hunt opens on my birthday in about 2.5 months. I can't wait.

Spots

This week while I was hiking down a canyon, I saw a cow elk with her newborn calf. She went around a hill out of sight and the calf laid down. When I came over the hill she ran around trying to divert attention from where her calf was hiding, but I went straight over to the calf. I found him lying in the sagebrush holding perfectly still. He couldn't have been more than a day or two old. After a quick inspection the calf was released and made his way back to his mom. It was a pretty neat morning.

March 14th to April 17th

On March 14 late in the evening I spotted a one-sided 4 point. I watched him for half an hour hoping that he would drop his antler. I finally had to move on, and snapped a photo before leaving.

Fast forward to April 17th when I found myself in the same general area. I knew it was a long shot, but I got out of the truck and walked into the sagebrush where I had seen the lop sided buck over a month earlier. Less than 100 yards from the truck in almost the exact spot I had photographed the buck I found my prize. Most likely it had fallen off right after I left the buck.

(By the way, my daughter has camera induced Turrets Syndrome, whenever a camera appears she goes totally nuts!)

Springtime in the West

Despite the snow storms and freezing weather, I suppose it technically is spring. It would be nice to at least have a little true spring weather before summers heat starts blasting us. I will keep my fingers crossed.


I busted through several snow drifts to get to the top of Little Mountain NE of Vernal and arrived on the top just in time to enjoy a hole in the clouds, affording some really pretty views. The break in the weather didn't last long, and the hole quickly filled back in. I got stuck in a deep snow drift just as the second wave of the storm hit and I got to spend an hour and a half digging my truck out in a blizzard.



I made the trip looking for these little buggers. I didn't find any that day, but went back a couple weeks later and there they were. The status of the Greater Sage Grouse is still under review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and we are still waiting on the decision in regards to a possible endangered species listing.






Funny looking dance, eh?

It's That Time Again...

It's that time again when the cabin fever has reached near terminal levels, and finally the snow starts to melt a little, and the bucks start dropping their antlers. I have been noticing a few bucks that have shed, so I spent a day out scouting for potential shed hunting areas. I have a pretty good list of spots I would like to try. I decided to do a little hiking and had a great time and even managed to luck into a couple freshly dropped brown sheds. One still had a little blood on the burr. I hope this is just the first of many more to come this spring.

I Hate Snowmobiling!

First, I grew up in St. George and the only experience I ever had with a snowmobile as a kid was when I got hauled home from our Boy Scout cross-country ski trip because I was puking my guts out and too sick to ski back to the truck. I skied all the way in to the cabin where we were staying, it was all uphill, and the ski back to the trucks the next day was supposed to be awesome. Well, that night I came down with some sort of stomach flu, and didn't even get to enjoy any of the downhill on the way out.

Fast forward a few years and still, the only snowmobile experiences I can think of are unpleasant to say the least. Take for example, last Valentines day when I got stuck at least a dozen times while trying to drag out a dead elk in the dark. I didn't get home until 11:00 pm and was too exhausted to do anything nice for Tristie. This is just one in a long list of similar snowmobile experiences. And, the list goes on...

Yesterday I agreed to help a co-worker snowmobile into a remote area to set motion activated cameras for a wildlife survey. Doesn't sound much like work does it? Well, I though the same thing until 10 minutes into the ride when we had multiple machines stuck in 40" deep powder. The next 5 hours were punctuated with multiple episodes of digging, lifting, pushing and pulling snowmobiles out of deep powdery snow. I also somehow managed to tear one of the front skis off my machine when I was trying to get it out of a tight spot. We pretty much rigged the ski back on with some duct tape, bailing wire, and a little faith. It was so cold that any time my fingers touched anything metal, the metal stuck frozen to my skin (remember the tongue on the flagpole Double Dog Dare?). I limped the snow machine back to the trailer and miraculously the ski stayed on until I drove the sled up onto the trailer.

Chalk up another awesome day snowmobiling for me! I can't wait to see what the next one is like.

Blood, Kicks, and Drool

I got to trap and transport 100 antelope for a transplant. It was pretty wild. I got rammed, kicked, bled on, and covered with antelope drool. However, one little gal stopped and let me give her a hug before she ran off, and it made me forget all about the blood, kicks, and drool.