Scouting trip of different sorts

Today I was treated to a hike with Conner and his girl friend, Ashlee. Since it was a multi purpose scouting trip, Jake and Grady unhappily stayed home. We were looking over some different country searching for signs of big game as well as upland birds. As you can see, it wasn’t real hospitable country. But by the time we got back to our starting point I believe we found a new territory for Conner to hunt big game and me upland birds.

It was nice having that young blood on the mountain with me at first but I soon found myself falling behind. Conner was out there to impress Ashlee while I was remembering those younger days.

As you can see by this short video, the country is ideal chukar country as well as other upland birds. You can also tell how important it is to have good boots with traction. Ashlee just had tennis shoes on and that old skeleton weed all over the hills lays down making a good slippery slope.

We found everything we could imagine back there. And one more treat we didn’t imagine. The upland birds were plenty. We saw at least 6 big blues and heard them calling and heard two different ruff grouse drumming. There was a small flock of turkeys with a Tom strutting and giving us a gobble every so often. Most important for me was the many paired up chukars. I even had a pair stand on a rock about 20 yards ahead of me. They acted like they didn’t know what a human was until I reached for the camera. There were others calling from the distance.

Conner was excited to see mule deer, white tail deer and elk. It was less exciting for me because I can’t imagine being able to pack anything out of that hole. We also saw some fresh bear sign which is on Conner’s list of things to hunt this Spring. There was lots of sign of these animals inhabiting the area in the fall, so Conner could go back in there and hopefully pick and choose.

So, what was the treat animal mentioned earlier. We saw a bull moose. That was the first moose Conner had ever seen as well as Ashlee.

But, not everything about the moose was cool. After watching him for quite a while, it was obvious he wasn’t in the best health. Hopefully my predictions of one less moose on the mountain don’t come true. Here’s a short video.

Needless to say, it’s a place I’ll try next fall for chukar. I don’t believe I’ll see many upland hunters because you have to traverse too much unhuntable country to get there. But I’ve been shocked before to see chukar hunters in some of the country they go to. Chukar hunters aren’t too smart.

Conner and I might even trek in there and try for that tom we saw. I think I can still pack a turkey that far. Meanwhile, Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you’re out there enjoying the outdoors and thank you to Conner and Ashlee for helping me enjoy it.