B's Deer Hunt '14

2013's deer hunt was a blast-but it was a bit of a drive to get to the unit I'd drawn out for so it didn't allow for much hunting time. Therefore, we decided to try for a closer unit this year.

2014 I drew out for the Wasatch Unit this year-which is pretty much in our backyard, and since Russ had already got his buck for the year he took time off work to be my hunting guide. The rifle hunt opened on October 18 and since I had work all opening weekend we planned to leave on Wednesday the 22nd.

That morning found Russ, Mark, the 3 dogs, and myself all packed up and headed up the mountain.

 We found a campground and got camp set up. Ash had a tag for the same area so they brought the kiddos up for the day to hang out and do some hunting that evening.

don't need a ramp to unload the 4-wheeler when Grandpa Mark is around

The scouter and the shooter

Best buddies out on an adventure

The dogs were in heaven!!

lots of 4-wheeler rides

I guess the excitement was a little too much for Mark

                                         
                                  Late afternoon we all took off to go looking for deer and start hunting!

The kids with their hunter orange

We thought the reason that we hadn't seen Ash and Jake for a while was because we had gotten ahead of them on the 4-wheelers. Turns out they had seen a lil buck so Ash shot it and they had gone back to camp. I was so excited when we pulled into camp to see my parents vehicle there (and that they all had a fire going-it was pretty chilly). Mom and dad came up and Ash and Jake stuck around so we could all have dinner. 

It was the perfect night with everyone there and I was sad to see them head home that night. However-I still had a great week ahead with my 2 tour guides.

Thursday morning we woke up early to go looking for bucks! The reason we had brought Redrock on this trip was for these cold early mornings so we could run the heater and yet still offroad like we were on 4-wheelers.  We didn't see any bucks that morning, so after an enjoyable (and entertaining with Mark driving) morning we went back to camp. 

 The dogs were in heaven this entire week! But their favorite thing that particular day was the leftovers they got off Ash's deer. For the rest of the trip you couldn't find Remi without some part of it nearby :)

 We came back to camp and made a big breakfast then got to hang out with the Brandt's again as they had come up to actually pick up the deer (they'd left it cooling and hanging for the night). It was fun to have the kiddos around and play with the dogs. After Brandt's left we took naps and hung out until evening time and it was time to go out hunting on the wheelers. Once again unsuccessful at seeing bucks-so we went back to camp made us some dinner and then chilled around the campfire before bed.

Friday morning we did the same routine of taking Redrock out to go hunt. As our luck would have it we once again saw no bucks-however we did find a young bull moose. Just a little guy but I always love seeing moose!

 Mark was initially going to head home that day but we talked him into staying one more night :) After breakfast that afternoon we went off to go restock our fire wood supply, and on the way back to camp we spotted a grouse. After quickly grabbing our gun from camp Russ and I went back up on the wheeler and Russ got himself a grouse. I bet you can guess what happened next.... that's right we ate ourselves a little grouse snack.

 Since Friday night was going to be Mark's for sure last night we decided to go out a little earlier and get a good 4-wheeler ride in while hunting. It's always fun wheeling Hudson style but we went on quite the long ride and ended up on top over looking Strawberry Resevoir.

I have Russ pretty well trained on taking pictures over everything but I'm still working on Marl. Luckily he agreed if we could have "their man machines".

Saturday morning came early and we found ourselves saying goodbye to Mark before we knew it.

hehe love my redneck

 Saturday night out on our 4-wheeler ride after days of seeing doe after doe after doe, we saw a buck. However the more we looked at it we soon realized that it only had one antler-and that one antler may not even be big enough to be legal to shoot. So we came back to camp empty handed again.

Sunday morning was the last day of the hunt but after a week of early rising we (I) decided we should sleep in. Once we did wake up there started to look like a potential storm rolling in so after breakfast we quickly packed up camp. I know everyone was sad to be leaving but we are grateful that we were able to have such a fun week and make such fun memories with our families.