Maturing of a growing hunter (Part 5 16 Years Old)

Part 5, 16 Years Old

I met my friend Goeman in 7th grade; he was the first friend I made who actually hunted. We had always talked about going hunting by ourselves. Well, in high school once I was 16 and had a driver’s license and a Jeep it was GAME ON. He had been telling me of a place called Twisp where he went deer hunting and said there is a lot of grouse. So we loaded up the Jeep Thursday before Labor Day weekend, so all we needed to do is stop at home to grab our guns after school and leave for the weekend.


Goeman and the first grouse of the trip,
 we couldn't decide if it was a
bush are a grouse. 5 minutes after shooting
hours on the first morning



I am sure that our parents were nervous about the weekend's hunting and camping expedition. There is a famous quote between Goeman and his dad saying "If you two had half a brain between you, you would be dangerous." and Goeman replying "We don't have half a brain between us and we're still dangerous."

On friday, school was taking a little longer than planned so we wrote fake letters saying we had late afternoon doctor’s appointments and skipped out from school early. We had to write the fake notes otherwise the school would call home saying "Your student missed one or more classes". And of course our parents would not have let us skip out early.

Our friend Daniel who was not hunting decided to join us as well.

We all jumped in my newish Jeep Cherokee and away we went, starting a weekend chalk full of gas station food and I believe a playboy made it along for the trip too, nothing like some classy reading to pass the time. The next four and a half hours flew by and before we knew it we were in camp. Since it was early September we could not have a fire without the risk of starting a forest fire. I laid down my tarp after flattening an area to sleep on the ground.  Goeman pitched his tent and Daniel slept outside as well.

The weekend was full of shenanigans and jokes, such as throwing fake spiders in Goeman's tent and jumping up in the middle of the night saying coyotes were surounding the camp.  These stories have turned into stories that will be told to our grand children. That first weekend we shot 15 Grouse and a few rabbits, it seemed every corner we went around had some grouse sitting there.

We took some pictures on a disposable camera, which at the time seemed like a good idea and now I look back and think, did I really have hair like that?! We were young and dumb and full of piss and vinegar.  It was one of the best times of my hunting life.

Part 1 (Before Memories)

Part 2 (5 Years Old)

Part 3 (10 Years Old)

Part 4 (12 Years Old)