Well hello New Year! I spent mine in New Mexico kicking off part 2 of my Mule deer hunt. I came back empty handed and 6 pounds lighter. As with everything else I try to accomplish, this was no different in the crazy stuff that came my way. I think they oddest thing about the whole trip is I barely took any pictures! It's hardly my fault as the batteries died, and I didn't have any replacements. The first night out Noah convinced me that sleeping under the stars in the desert was going to be fun. It was so pretty and only about 45 or 50 degrees till about oh, say 1130 PM and a huge cold front blew in. It wouldn't have been to bad except that we were surrounded by sand dunes and literally got buried as the night went by. We just pulled the covers over our heads and tried to sleep. I didn't handle it very well though, Noah said later that I was pretty mad at him.
We had two days to scout before the season opened, the first day there we had already picked out where we wanted to hunt. So we used the second to cover some more of our unit that we hadn't seen yet. Man that is some pretty rugged country! I really need a better camera because the one I have just doesn't ever seem to give justice to what I'm trying to photograph. (though it might just be operator error)
We hiked this ridge for a long ways, and got to see lots of wildlife. I found this little bitty skull and picked it up and was looking at it till Noah told me it was a rat skull. I threw it off the cliff top and was really thankful I had on gloves. Our camp this night was awesome! We camped off the top of a ridge that had the most amazing view! We camped a little off the edge so no one could see our tent or jeep, not that many people would have been able to climb or even drive up to it. My jeep was a champ, I got to do some rock crawling to get there and we pulled Travis's truck through or over some of it so he could camp with us.
Day one of season went well. We glassed and bedded down a big old 3x3 and put a stalk on him. We got really close and everything blew out of the bushes they were bedded down in and every single doe there stood about 10 yards away broadside and that buck was the only one that took off the other way. I never got a shot at him. We glassed some more, got on another group and pretty much the same thing. I took a shot at 50 yards that I didn't have and didn't make it. We got on one more big buck that day and couldn't ever get anything to happen. On the way back to camp, we spotted a buck and some does about halfway through this valley in front of us. Noah and I started racing over the top of this plateau covered in HUGE sand dunes to try to cut them off. Noah is in much better shape than I am. He was awesome! I was just trying to keep up and took off running after him, I'm about 6 inches shorter though and about killed myself running over the top of some of those dunes he had just gone over and there wouldn't be anything there just a huge drop off. The way we were going took us right by our camp and I looked up once and saw him standing by the jeep taking a drink like it was an easy jog. It seemed like it took forever to get there but really we covered about a mile and quarter in about 8 minutes. Not bad but we still didn't cut them off.
Day two was long! A bunch of close calls and lots of deer. I got to full draw a few times but each time I got busted and they would take off. Very frustrating!! The high point of that day was we spent the night at Travis's Grandparents house in Artesia. His grandmother cooked for us and it was the best hot meal. We all got showers and real beds and it was pretty nice!
Day three dawned and we were still glassing mornings and splitting up to do it. Noah had been getting me set up and then running about two or three miles away to glass another place. I got on a nice buck and dropped into the valley about two miles and was putting a stalk on him while he chased a doe until it chased her about a mile off. I was pretty excited as this was my first "Solo" stalk. Noah called about then and Travis and he had found the mother lode. So we hauled ass over and started glassing. One of the bucks we were watching just started coming off this hill toward us and just kept on coming. He was weaving in and out and down, nearer and nearer so we started working our way into position to head him off and he walked up to 20 yards and when I drew, he snorted and took off. Another bust! Noah built me a brush blind and I sat that night around a water hole all these deer were coming into and I almost had it that night! I got greedy though and had a little 2x2 come in and instead of taking him, I passed for a larger buck who just kept chasing this doe around. At one point, He was about 5 yards behind me and I had about 13 does all watching so I couldn't do anything. I finally got the chance to draw and something snorted and there they all went! I took a shot, and shot just as he jumped and missed him. That night I had about 45 to 50 does come in and some real small not legal stuff and one more small 2x2 that I passed on. We got to go back to the Grandparents house for another hot meal and shower and once again, it was AWESOME! I don't think the world appreciates hot food and water enough. They are way underrated.
Day four I sat that brush blind again and didn't quite have as good luck as I would have liked. I had some big animals come in really early and at about 8 AM I took a good shot at a 2x3 and got a double lung shot. It just so happened that when he ran off, he went about a mile and ran right into Noah and Travis and spooked. We tracked him till later afternoon and never could find him. That night Travis sat the brush blind and missed a monster 4x4 or 3x4. I'm always at the wrong place at the wrong time. Back we went to his Grandparents house because she called and said food was cooked. Who were we to waste perfectly good food! I went to go shower before dinner and when I stepped out of the shower, I stepped into a huge warm puddle. The hot water line had busted and was leaking everywhere! After 2 hours of mopping up water, finding a shop vac and vacuuming water and putting down towels to absorb more water, we ate and then went to bed.
Day five, we went to the cap rock near Hobbs and it was about 20 degrees with a 15 or 20 mph wind and buddy it was COLD! So we got ready and started glassing, and about 7 trucks drove in, set up and cut us off. It was Sunday AM so we drove down the edge of our unit till we had to cross back into Texas and that pretty much was the end of our hunting season.
Tomorrow is Thursday and I have been thinking, This will be the first day since sometime in September that I haven't gotten up at 4 AM to go to the deer stand. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with myself or my time. I think I might sleep in!
If you know me well, then it's no surprise or shock when I show up with new cuts, scrapes, bruises, etc. If I'm not hurting myself, I'm getting Noah hurt. I just don't think about my actions, and the reactions to my actions. This week was a new one for even me. I was trying to help (getting in the way) Noah while he was working on skinning out a deer and got hit in face with a wood saw. Luckily I saw something headed right for me and jerked out of the way. Noah freaked out, and swears he's going to make me wear a helmet with a full face mask. I've got so many freckles that it blends in. I always wanted a glass eye!! I guess I'll wait till next time.
