As always, Idaho is never short on great scenery.
Clint and I went to the hunting area two days before opening day to set up camp. We got permission from a longtime friend of mine as well as a new friend that we just met to hunt and camp on some private ground. He had told me about a year ago that he and his family have been having problems with vandals and poachers so I've been checking in on the property from time to time on duty. Well, as we were up there before the hunt was actually open, we saw a steady line of pickup trucks driving by and we were sort of thinking of a way to deter poachers, after hours shooters, people shooting from the roadways, vandals and litterbugs. Then it came to us and like most of our genious ideas, we decided to immediately act on the plan. We spent about 2 or so hours and built a sweet sign to post out near the roadway that accesses the property where we set up Joel's camper.
We really took our time on this project and had to make do with some things that we had laying around. We wanted a way to deter the afore mentioned problem people but at the same time advertise that this was a particular campsite where people could stop by for emergencies to find trained people in case somebody is hurt or is a witness or victim of a crime.
After finishing and posting our sign, it seemed to be more than a deterant, I think the better word would be repellant! It became a ghost town up there! One of our land owner friends who stopped by camp most of the nights we were up there, told us that he can't rememebr a hunting season with less traffic in that particular area. Thanks to the two sets of land owners who allowed us to access their properties for that week. The area is beautiful and I wish I had 1 or 2 million in cash and I would just go ahead and take the land off your hands! Speaking of litterbugs, Clint and I picked up at least one trash bag full of garbage throughout some of the areas we hunted over the week. So to you people who left your trash behind, go to some other state! It's your antics of leaving trash behind, driving through crops and over fences, tearing up the land, and starting wild fires that makes so many land owners close access to great hunting areas so go smoke your weed in Costa Rica and stay away from us!
Dan the Man came up and joined us on the night before the opener. Clint and I were happy to have him up there because he brought some great snacks and made some GREAT meals for us! MMM, plus, with each person coming up there, we had that much more to do. We did a LOT of laughing! Clint dry heaved at least once from excessive laughter and he wet heaved at least once as well.
Day two and about midnight-thirty, the always photogenic Joel arrived on scene, we were glad to see him as well and it wasn't just for the use of his camper!
Jeremy came almost all the way to camp early one morning. He had told us the night before that if he wasn't there at 5:30 am (5:30-9:30 Jeremy time) that we should just go on without him. Luckily for Jeremy and unluckily for Daniel, Daniel wasn't feeling well that morning and was debating staying behind in the camper (then we knew he was sick). Well, the pouring rain pounding down against the side and top of the camper, Jeremy not being there at 5:30, and Daniel being sick, kind of took some of the drive out of Joel and me (Clint had gone home for that day). So it's about 6:00 am and Joel and I are deciding what to do when we hear a knock at the door. We opened up to find a soaking wet and tired Jeremy without his usual beaming, greeting smile. I instantly wondered where his truck was broken down or wondered if this was like the brothers' fishing trip when his front wheel fell off 2 miles prior to arrival. I was close. Jerms rolled his truck about two miles up the road. I was glad he caught us because it was 2 miles in the oppisite direction of where we were heading and there's no cell phone service up there. Since he was wet, we had Jeremy stand outside while we finished getting dressed and ate breakfast, just kidding, we brought him inside and checked him out, luckily he was in pretty great shape for just having a rollover, having to crawl out the windsheild (remember when Winnie the Pooh went to Rabbit's and ate too much honey?) and then he had a 2 mile run in the dark, in the rain, and in the mud. Daniel quickly forgot about his tummy ache and we cruised up to the crash scene. A buddy of mine has a construction/remodel site not far from there and had told me that we could use his landline if needed so Joel cruised down and called my Sheriff's Office to report the crash while Jeremy, Daniel and I put the truck dirty-side-down. I had the digital camera that Sara and Sam gave me so I went ahead and took the crash scene photos prior to messing with anything. My buddy, Sgt. Dave showed up to take the report and to give us some immoral support. Even though I begged him to, Sgt. Dave refused to write Jeremy any citations. After airing up two tires, we towed the truck back to Jeremy's place. That was a long drive, especially with all of the rain hitting me in the face. We made a lot of fun of Jeremy's unfortunate turn but in all seriousness, we were very aware of how real it was and how lucky we are that big brother is ok. We will all be sad to see the beasty truck go and I suppose I'll have to update his spot on my "Buddies Hot Rods and 4X4's" page!
Jeremy smiling again mid-morning, but looking a little concussed. Oh yeah, he still came hunting that day, Animal! His scope may have been bent in the crash but it didn't stop him from shooting a bowling pin at 80 yards. But it did get us kicked out of the bowling alley!
Daniel remembered his tummy ache and wet heaved, I had to take a picture but then I started to dry heave. But, when we were done, we each enjoyed a banana moonpie and we were ready to go about our day. We saw my Fish and Game buddy busting some law breaking out-of-towners so we stopped by and gave him a bit of backup before inviting him to join us for lunch. He was having a busy day so I was glad he was able to break away from the rain, poachers, and trespassers and have some lunch with us and hear about Mr. Owl.
Joel, Daniel, and Jeremy on one of our many hikes. This was shortly after we got all four wheels of JOEL'S truck back on the ground. What a day! Clint went home to help his wife with some things, Jerms rolled his truck, Daniel threw up, I rode in the back of the pickup through the rain and fog while we cruised about 60 miles to a new hunting spot and my sweetheart brother, Joel got the truck a bit high centered on a berm. I'll give him a little credit, he's a lawyer so he doesn't usually have to use his rugged mind. Anyway, he couldn't see how much the berm was peaked in the middle and by the time the frame made it to the peak, it was pretty much the only thing touching the ground. Again we got some good laughs out of the deal but then we were in a pretty bad spot. Miles and miles and miles and miles from any help and still no cell phone service, and oops, no jack! We had to do it the Beck brother way. One corner at a time, we lifted the the pickup off the ground and stacked rocks and dead logs under the tires. This wasn't Clint's Fisher Price truck either, it's a full size extended cab Chevy. There was one funny moment which I will add a disclaimer for at the end so as not to make Jeremy or Joel feel as bad. Joel told Daniel that Dan should drive while we pushed because he is the lightest, I quickly said, "yeah, he's lighter, but he's like 2 times stronger than you or Jeremy! So which thing do we really want to sacrifice?" Now the disclaimer, none of me or my brothers are weaklings but some them just have higher paying jobs and in those higher paying jobs they use their brain muscles and typing muscles a bit more than some of us and so their strengths are our weaknesses and our weaknesses are their strengths, that's why we're such a well rounded family and everyone is strong and Joel swims a lot and he's really pretty fit but seriously, Dan packs steal and Graden around everyday so my vote was simply to have him as one of the lifter/pushers, that's all. I sure love Joel and Jeremy though, oh, and Jeremy was concussed. By the way, when Dan and I did the driving, I distinctly remember all 4 tires being in contact with the ground at all times. Except for when we WANTED the tires to leave the ground. Hmm.
After hiking for miles each day and passing up numerous bigger bucks and only making one kill (Clint had a GREAT running broadside headshot on a coyote at 100 yards) Clint and I set out in his Fisher Price truck. At that point, we decided that our hunting time was about up and that we would allow ourselves to shoot any buck just to fill our tags. We saw Krell, one of my coworkers at the gas station and ended up right behind him just before we saw this buck. I guess he was hunting for something else. So we stopped and checked it out and decided to shoot it. It was 320 yards up a real steep grade. I took a rest against the side of a quaking aspen and shot him with a 180 grain 300 win mag ballistic tip. That silly critter ran a half mile on pure adrenaline but he ran the best half mile finally turfing it about ten yards from the road. I dragged him a few paces with one hand and handed the antlers up to Clint and before I could position myself to lift him in, Clint had him loaded up. This deer had the weirdest tail that I can remember seeing on a mule deer.
What about Mr. Owl you ask? Well, after one of our morning hunts, we were driving back to camp so that Daniel could make us some lunch. I was driving Dan's truck with Joel, Dan, and Clint. It was a real nice morning so we had the windows down with our elbows resting out the window when a large barn owl swooped down from a tree branch. I was driving about 30 miles per hour and this owl was gliding along right beside us just outside my window. I could have touched him without completely extending my arm. So what did I do? The only thing I could think of, I addressed him and said, "Hey Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll at the center of a Tootsie Pop?" We got a good laugh but we didn't actually have a Tootsie Pop to offer him, next year we need to take Tootsie Pops just in case.
I guess that in some hunting camps, people have nicknames or code names for each other like Crow, or Wolf, or whatever, not to be outdone, Clint and I named each other and I think that the names were better than Crow or Wolf. I was Hamstring because Clint thought it was pretty funny when I pulled my hamstring running from his police dog, Rex a while back. Clint was Rex because he and Rex actually look and act a lot alike, Joel was Yogurt because he told us about milk in Argentina and that it actually looks more like yogurt only they pronounce it "yogurt". Jeremy was Shrek, I don't know how he got that name, and Daniel was Flash Gordon but we called him Flash.