Summary
This was the second weekend of the season. Bill, Craig, Guy, and David made it up. At least 10 legal bucks were seen, no shots taken except thru the Nikon. A great time was had by all, with the kidding & joshing at an Olympic level.
Friday Night
Bill & Craig went in early, to get the fire ready for David & Guy (ha!), who were a bit delayed by Guy forgetting his boots at home. Forgetting? I think he just wanted to buy a new pair of boots! He already had the Red Wing model number memorized! So forget about "forgetting." We used my iPhone to search for Red Wing in Milpitas, found one with an address of "Calaveras Boulevard", so we took a 100 ft detour. Turns out, that Red Wing store went out of business, but at the same shopping center was a Beck's that carried Red Wing. Talk about a lucky error! They were out of size 11 EEE in that model but we quickly found a great substitute and we on the road in no time.
Bill & Craig had the fire perfect, had just added their hamburgers, so we added our steaks and ate in no time. We all were a bit let getting into the field, Guy & I being last, about 7 pm (would have liked 5:30 or 6). We went to North Flat, to the hideaway I built. Saw only dragonflies and mosquitoes.
Craig walked up the road and also hunted the top. From our gate, looking south, he saw a 3x2 with good mass over on Holmes', in the bowl just off Poverty Ridge. He also spotted four other forks in various places but none that he wanted to shoot. Bill went to Prune Ridge in the great hope of scooping Craig and shooting another big one. He saw a small fork on North Flat, at the top above Doe Heaven, but rather far to the left. He sat there for a moment hoping Guy and I might come on the scene and he could witness a shot. Unfortunately, the buck moved off before we got there. In hindsight, he thinks that the buck might have been too far left for us to see it. The forest edge has grown out a lot there. We used to be able to see quail feed in the full width of the road to the left of Doe Heaven. Now you can seen none of the road.
Guy and I made our way out and took up residence in the blind. No deer were seen, frustrating.
Saturday Morning
Bill woke us up on time (this time!) and we assembled in the cabin. Craig is not man enough to stand Bill's coffee straight, so he adulterates it with chocolate. David is not man enough to stand Bill's coffee straight, so he adulterates it with milk and sugar. Bill and Guy are real men and drink it straight.
David and Guy head to Hummingbird to watch Matteoni (Guy) and the upper bowl (David). One unidentified deer ghosted along a trail on upper Matteoni but too early to put ears on it, much less horns. Four were seen on upper Holmes, but no more. Guy saw only woodpeckers.
Craig walked up the road and down Van Horn. He saw 6 forks, but mostly off our land. Bill went to Hill 41, saw nothing.
Saturday morning we had the usual "light breakfast" and then Bill and Craig wondered about trimming some trees in the valley between Hummingbird and Matteoni. Bill had brought a helium balloon (at David's suggestion) as an aerial marker for where he was standing, to help determine which tree had to come down. David and Guy took up the dangerous and difficult work of sitting in the shade on Hummingbird with binoculars, Bill and Craig got the light duty of scrambling through poison oak and over small cliffs, trying to identify the right tree. It is impossible to see the ground from HumBird, and David's directions by shouting (Bill's walkie talkie, which he checked before we started, was out of power) apparently made no sense on the ground. The trees were identified eventually, but the directions did not convey any sense of confidence in the ID, so Bill elected to "sleep on it." Grumbling was heard in the ranks, but eventually authority was respected and we retired to the cabin and some beers.
Saturday dinner was BBQ'd and finished on time, so that we could get into the field before the deer were about, unlike Friday. David suggested that Guy might benefit from hunting with Craig, learning what he had to say. Craig was willing, but observed that if Guy went with him, most likely David would see a big one. Such prescience on Craig's part has never been equalled before! They went to the Hook, Bill went back to Hill 41, and David made the arduous trek to North Flat.
What David Saw and What Guy Missed continued