Wilderness Bowhunt Recap

[breacher]

Jerry (Millbro) and I went on a backpack bowhunt in a Northern California Wilderness with both deer and bear tags. No tags were filled but we had an absolute blast! One of the most physically demanding hunts I've ever been on. After five days of climbing up and down some incredibly rugged and steep terrain, we were spent. Here is a recap of the week.

Day 1: We met our packer at the trailhead. Gerard is an old time cowboy and all around great guy. We paid for a dunnage drop only. We hiked in ourselves but without the weight of our gear. Worth every penny.

 

[breacher]

Opening day we spotted a buck high up on the side of the mountain. Here are views from camp and zoomed in with red circles showing the location of Jerry and the buck.

 

[breacher]

I'll let Jerry describe the stalk, terrain and outcome. I did watch from camp while the entire thing unfolded.

 

[josecasillas]

Strong work guys!! It was well worth it.

 

[breacher]

Boiling water for dinner. Mountain House never tasted so good after a long day.

 

[breacher]

These guys flew drops non-stop, everyday we were up there. There were multiple fires north of us. We could smell it and smoke usually filled our basin which made glassing difficult at times. Very hazy.

 

[msteiger]

Cool adventure. Beautiful scenery!

 

[breacher]

Mid-day was slow going. Made beds out of douglas fir pine trees and took naps. Woke up once and found grasshoppers on us. Apparently they like wool and chewed holes through our shirts.

 

[breacher]

A view into the basin to the north of us. There was some seriously dangerous terrain. Hard to tell but it was about a 200 foot drop below.

 

[breacher]

Most of the mountain sides were 45 degree angles or greater.

 

[breacher]

You can see as this buck came in at 120 yards below us. He winded us and looked straight up at us. He wanted none of it and turned around. He was a nice 3x3. We saw three other bucks that were absolute monsters that made this guy look small. All were blown stalks or seen during very low light while hiking back to camp.

 

[breacher]

Had regular guests in camp. These guys would come in and almost had no fear of us. Easily got within 10-15 feet before they didn't feel comfortable.

 

[breacher]

Couple more pictures our friends.

 

[NBK]

What a great adventure Breacher. Thanks for the great pictures and narrative! Absolutely awesome...

 

[breacher]

Even though we didn't fill any tags, it was a great trip and successful in many other ways. We saw tons of animals, both deer and bear. We talked with other hunters and packers who said they had never seen that much game in this area. It was probably due to the severe drought. Animals were forced to move more to reach water. There was a fire about 15 miles to the north of us. Maybe had an affect?

On our last day, we met a guy from Pennsylvania! He had done his homework and traveled all the way across the country to chase blacktails. He was hiking out as well and had a monster 3x3 with good mass on his back. This guy had been solo for 7 days. His mission was to kill every species of deer in North America. He definitely had a nice P&Y buck to put on his wall.

Looking back on the trip now, I'm in a way glad it turned out the way it did. We had a great time and still have AO tags to play with in SD County!

 

[Lungpopper]

Thanks for sharing Nick. The pics are awesome, especially the camp visitors.

 

[ilovesprig]

Nick,

Damn good adventure..........Great write-up and awesome photos..........Thanks for sharing..........10, 10, 10.

 

[Easy Money]

Wow! Great trip. Looks like alot of fun.

 

[Sdbirds]

Sounds so rad I need to start doing that.

 

[Bonejour]

Great write up Nick. Beautiful photos. Thanks.


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