2015 Washingotn State High Buck hunt

So this year for the high buck hunt my normal hunting partner was unable to go with me. So I posted on Facebook that I needed a new partner to go with me. My brother Eric said he would like to go. I told him he could go, but he did not have much time to get in shape for the hunt. I explained to him as best as I could the difficulty of the hike we would be going on. Eric said he would start walking and getting ready for the trip.

So the day of trip was finally here and Eric arrived at my house. The first thing I wanted to do was go through his stuff and take out anything I did not think he would need, so his backpack would be lighter. After shedding a few pounds of items he would not need, we headed to make sure his rifle was sighted in.  He was shooting Grandpa's old Winchester auto .308. The gun was fairly well sighted in but it had a tendency to misfire.  But it was the only rifle he had to bring so we made it work. 

We headed off for an afternoon/evening hike into camp. I knew we were expecting some weather to move in on us I was just hoping we would beat it to camp.  We get to the trail head and I ask Eric one more time if he is sure he wants to do this and he says he is ready.  We start the hike into camp and Eric did better than I thought he would do. During the steep parts I would make it to the top of the mountain, drop my bag, and go back down to grab his bag to make it just a bit easier on him.  At one point on the trail there was a big bald-faced hornets nest hanging directly in the middle of the trail. Luckily it was about 42 degrees and the hornets weren't moving too fast. At that point I told Eric that I was going to go all the way to camp to set up a tarp since it looked like we were not going to beat the weather.

As I made it into camp it was starting to rain and sleet. I got out my tarp and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and there were two bucks getting ready to walk through camp. After they saw me they bounded off up the hill. I got the tarp in the air as it was starting to rain harder. I ran back down the trail and grabbed Eric's bag again. As we both got into camp it started to snow on us. You know, the big wet snow flakes that don't really stick but get you soaked and cold.   We get Eric's sleeping area set up just before dark. Since I know its going to be an early morning we decide to just go to bed and not worry about starting a fire.

On a side note, this year I brought enough paracord to string a clothes line through my sleeping area under my tarp. I really benefited from this set up.  I was able to dry out my wet clothes out of the weather, hang a light off of it and put other gear up off the ground for easy access when needed.

The next morning I woke up without an alarm going off. I looked at my watch and realized I had slept through my alarm. I was not very happy with myself. I got out of bed, started a fire, and woke Eric up. After breakfast we decided to hunt the meadow near camp. Eric said he would stay at the bottom while I hiked into the upper meadow. As I crested the first bench I saw the two bucks from the day before in camp. I was not prepared at all, I didn't even have my binoculars out yet.  I got my gun up to try and count antler points. Before I could get a clear count on points they trotted off into the trees never to be seen again.  I worked my way up into the upper areas of the meadow and was happy to see there was still a few inches of snow on the ground. I hunted the rest of the day in the same area and kicked up a few does in the heavy timber.  I was back in camp for the evening to have a fire and dinner. I knew I wanted to get a good nights rest for the next day.

The next day my alarm went off at 0330. Eric was very clear that he did not want to be woken up to go on the hike I was going to go on. I made a small breakfast and headed up the mountain. As I scrambled up the hillside I was kind of happy I did not do this the day before. The hill was steep enough as it was and adding a layer on snow on the ground would have made it much harder. As I reached the ridge an hour and forty five minutes later, I could hear deer bounding off in front of me in the darkness. As I sat on the ridge-line waiting for the sun to come up it was only 24 degrees, way colder than I was expecting it to be.  The sun finally came up and since I knew deer were close I headed to the edge of the ridge and glassed the hillsides.  I saw four doe's right away.  As the sun came up higher I realized that the four doe's were sparring and that all four had antlers.  They were about 500 yards away on the opposite side of the bowl I was on. None of the bucks looked big, but I have a hard time passing on a shooter buck as it is important meat for my family throughout the year. As the deer dropped down into the next bowl over I ran across to the ridge they where just on to try and get closer. I dropped most of my gear except my gun (Obviously) to be able to move without any extra hassle, and crept up over the ridge. I saw the four bucks and re-positioned to get even closer to them.

 I checked the first one and passed on it, Checked the second one and thought it would do if the third and fourth ones were not any better. They were not, so I set my sights on the second one which was about 70 yards away.  The buck was quartering towards me. I lined up my cross-hairs right into the front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. When the gun went off a big cloud of dust and rocks sprayed into the air right in front of me. I figured out very fast that there had been a rock sticking up in front of my barrel I did not see through my scope. I hopped up to the next higher rock. Now the bucks were looking at me. I squeezed another round off and hit my mark. I was hoping the buck would drop in its tracks. No such luck. The buck turned down hill and was running on three legs. Did I mention down hill was the wrong way. The buck dropped out of sight and I ran down to where I could get a good view in case I needed to shoot him again.    Just as I caught sight of him again he went down getting tangled up in a log. I watched him until he stopped moving. When I knew he was dead I went back and gathered all of my gear.  I boned the entire buck out and placed all the meat into plastic bags and then into my back pack. Since I had about 300 feet of elevation to get back to the top of the ridge before I dropped back into camp, it took me a while to get back to the ridge.

I finally got back into to camp and showed my good luck to Eric.  That night we packed half way out to the truck and camped. The next day we had an easy couple miles back to the truck. Any trip where

you are successful hunting is a good trip. Getting to share it with my brother was even better. I look forward to next year. Eric says he will be in shape to go up on the steep hunt. Time will tell.....

Washington State High Buck Hunt 2013 Day 2

I heard Kevin's Alarm go off at 2:55 Am and again at 3, I asked him if it was time to get up even though I already knew the answer. We get dressed and I have some granola bars while Kevin has his cup of instant coffee.  We get our head lamps out and start our hike up the steep and nasty hillside. We had picked out a route the night before while it was day out and tried to start in that area as there is no trail heading up the mountain.

We found that our trail worked pretty good except when we would come to rock faces other wise known as cliffs. It just meant extra time finding our way around the rocks. We took a couple breaks while hiking up the monster. On one of breaks I told Kevin that I shoot my deer before 9 am so we should be getting back to camp before it gets hot. I was half joking, but I really do shoot most of my deer early in the morning.

 When we reached the summit everything was good. We had about 40 minutes until hunting hours so I broke out my camera and started taking some night time photos as the suns light was hinting over the far off mountains. We get our guns loaded and the contents of our bags situated for hunting. In front of us was a steep drop off that we didn't want to look over until shooting hours because there could be "The Big One" right below us.

We look at the clock and it was officially hunting hours. Kevin looks at me and asks me if I am ready to get my slay on, of course I was. We sneak up and look over the hillside and nothing was there. After sitting in our location for about 10 minutes Kevin says he is going to walk north up the ridge and I should walk south down the ridge and we will meet up back where we were in a few. I told him that sounded like a good plan and that I was not going to go past the next hill.

I start walking my way down the hill and dropped off the top of the ridge. Taking my time and looking around every few steps I took. I found a rock about 50 yards over the ridge and started watching all of the hill sides. I see Kevin about 500 yards away on the next point of land. After a few minutes of sitting there a grouse flush about 70 yards to my right and sailed around the hill, I said I was not going to go around. That grouse made me feel for whatever reason that I should go around that hill and follow it. After having a mental war with myself in my head I decided that Kevin could see that I was going around the hill.

So I walked down to where the grouse flushed from and started walking around the hillside. Right as I got to the apex of the hill into the next bowl I saw it. A big ol' white butt of a mule deer about 70 yards above me. I dive down prone behind a log and get my gun up into a good shooting position. I can tell it is a big bodied deer. It lifts it's head up and looks right at me. My heart starts to pound against my chest, I feel like every time it beats my body is jumping off of the ground. At this point I can tell it has wide, thick antlers, I just can't tell how many points it has. As I watch it though my scope for what seems to be hours it finally turns its head. I see the single tine behind a double tine so I know its a shooter. I take a deep breath put my crosshairs right behind the shoulder and squeeze the trigger. I didn't feel the gun go off, I didn't hear the gun go off but the deer just dropped.

Now the bottom of the canyon was about 2000 feet below us. The deer started to kick and roll down hill. All I could think about was I really hope it doesn't go down there. The deer came to a rest still kicking. I thought it was done at this point so I turned to where Kevin was and stared waving my hunter orange like he didn't already know what was happening. When I turned around the deer was gone. So I got up and started walking up the hill to where it was. I found it about 10 more yards down the hill. Again the first thing I saw was its butt up on a log. The bullet a 180 grain .30-06 entered right behind the left shoulder and exited just below the back on the left side in its mid sections. I assumed it was a lung shot as the blood coming out of the exit hole was bright pink.

Kevin got over to me and said that it was in the perfect position to bone it out. I have never done a butcher job in the field. We made a cut down the spine of the animal with our Havalon knives and skinned one side from the back to the belly and took all the meat off from one side of the deer placing it in plastic bags. We then flipped the deer over and did the same. I removed the head and we were done in a few minuts.

I took all of the equipment we had in my pack plus the head, Kevin took all of the meat. Kevin's bag was way heavier than mine and I owe him so much for his help. We take our time being safe walking back down the mountain. Every step we took was one closer to a nice nap. We get to camp sink the meat in the creek and eat some lunch. Our plan was to take a nap then pack up and get back down to the vehicles. I slept for about 3 hours which I really needed. We packed up camp, again with Kevin taking all the meat and I took most of the camping stuff and the antlers, which I cut off of the head to save about 8 pounds. Now the really hard work starts.

We figured the hardest part of the hike down would be the really steep first mile and  a half from camp. We took out breaks but made good time not feeling dead. We get down the mile and half to the main trail to take a break on a bridge. When Kevin takes his pack off the straps rip off of the bag. This is not good seeing as we still have a ways to go. after exploring the issues Kevin finds that his $400 pack was put together wrong. So Kevin put it back together the right way (We think) and we continue on.

We get to within a mile of the vehicles. My legs are shaking, my feet hurt and the shoulders are killing me and Kevin reports the same issues. Every time you kick a rock it feel like someone dropped a sledge hammer on your foot. O ya, it is now dark out and we are walking again with our head lights. When Kevin hiked in he found a "Short Cut" that knocked about a half mile and significant elevation from where my car was parked. So Kevin is looking for his short cut in the dark. He explains it as a slight up hill to the car and maybe having to walk around some down trees.  Finally Kevin finds the short cut and we are both dying.  As we start up this hill and get into the trees we end up crawling over and through numerous down trees it was awful. We finally made it to the road and to Kevin's car. When I took my pack off my legs shook from exhaustion. The whole hike was so bad we just couldn't stop laughing as he drove me to my car.

Now all I can think is "What A Trip".

Washington High Buck Hunt 2013 Day One

Well it's that time of year again where we get a little over a week to try and get into a high mountain wilderness area and shoot ourselves an early buck. As I am thinking about my trip I have to try and think back to last year and what I learned from it.

A. I need better food then Top Ramen and Power Bars.
B. Have a hunting partner to go with so there is at least someone to talk to in camp.
C. It's likely going to take a little more work to find deer then sitting by the meadow next to camp.


So my wife mostly took care of A by buying me some rice and noodle packs that you just have to add water to. I also bought some instant potatoes, power bars, granola bars, beef jerky and some chocolate milk for the trip. The chocolate milk was for the hike up.


I made plans with my buddy Kevin to go with me. The plan was, since the season opened on a Sunday I would take Saturday off and we would hike up into the Pasayten Wilderness so we were ready to hunting opening morning.

Kevin had some time to get into the area we hunt a few week earlier and drop off a 50 lb salt lick with his game cam.  We decided if we did not see anything substantial on the game came we were going to hike up the steep mountain that climbs out of camp.

So the day before the hunt arrives I get off of work at 6 AM. My hunting partner Kevin wanted to spend half of the day with his family before hiking in. My two choices were to sleep at the trail head or hike into camp and sleep there. I decided that I was too excited to sleep at the trail head so I was just going to do the hike into camp and sleep there.

I took my sweet time getting to camp. A normal 3 hour hike took me 5 hours with all of my gear and lack of sleep. When I got to camp I had worked up a big amount of sweat. I went to the creek and washed down in the freezing water. I also rinsed my closes and hung them to dry. I found a place to hang my tarp and set my bed and went down for my nap to wait for Kevin.

Three hours later I woke up to an unnatural sound of metal knocking together. I looked over and there was someone putting up their tent in the same camping area. It was Karl the Swedish hunter I ran into last year in the same area. Karl asked if it was ok that he was camping there and I said of course. Ten minutes later Ray who was Carl's hunting partner arrived in camp. About 20 minutes after Ray, Kevin showed up. The first thing I wanted to do was look at the game cam photos he picked up on the way up. There were only 15 pictures and all of them were of doe's.

The Meadow Near Camp.

Kevin and I walked out to the meadow so he could look for bear's, since I saw 4 of them in the same meadow last year. We also talked about our next days adventure. And we decided to hike up the steep nasty mountain.

Without seeing a bear we arrived back at camp and sat around the campfire with Carl and Ray while we had dinner. We discussed our plans so we were not hunting in the same area and went to bed around 9 PM knowing that 3 AM was quickly approaching.

Washington State High Hunt 2012

So this September I went on my first ever Washington State High Deer Hunt. I went in to the Pasayten Wilderness in North Central Washington. The areas you are allowed to hunt are no motor vehicle access areas.

So Monday after work I drove an hour to the trail head where I was going to hunt. I left the car at about 5:30 PM with my pack and gun and started up the hill. I had never been to the area I was going but had somewhat of an idea how to get there. After about an hour and a half it got dark out. Of course I was on a steep side slope with loose rocks. My pack for this trip was about 30 pounds and the bag was not fitted for me so it was making life hard on me.  With my head lamp on I continued and kept telling my self one foot in front of the other.

I had no idea where I was going to camp. I knew I was looking for a steep meadow which is where I would be hunting the next day. At about 8pm I found the grassy area and started looking for a place to camp in the trees.  I decided this trip to pack a hammock to see if I could avoid sleeping on the ground. I found a small protected area about 10 feet of the trail and used a bone saw my dad gave me to cut some spruce branches off two trees to set my hammock.    After the hammock was up I set a tarp over the top of the just in case of some wet weather. You never know up at 6000 feet.

I got my bed set up and went straight to sleep. A few hours into my sleep I noticed my backside and feet getting cold. I was in a 0F degree sleeping bag and it was only 35F degrees out, I shouldn't be getting cold. I realized that as I sleep I was slipping down  in the hammock so my feet were getting above my heart which was making it hard for the warm blood to get there and warm them. With my backside it was cold because there was no insulation besides my sleeping bag under me and the wind was blowing . After a few hours of trying to ignore it I got out my sleeping pad and slept on the ground. The only reason I had my sleeping pad was because my mom who was visiting while I was packing said " You never know you might not like the hammock."

After tossing and turning for the rest of the night on the ground I got up right before sun up and got dressed. With my gun I walked over to a near by creek to get some water for the day. As I did this some deer started walking out of the woods into the grassy area at about 70 yards. All I could think was "Please let there be a buck and we can get this over with right now." After I watched the 5 does for about an hour I continued to get my water.

So I decided to walk up the steep meadow for the morning hunt. At the top of the meadow it turned into a big alpine bowl with a lake at the very top. It took me a few hours to get to the top. It was beautiful up there, with the high cliffs and even a little bit of snow. I saw lots of deer sign but no deer. I did flush a big blue grouse but missed it with the .22 revolver I had with me. When I got the the small lake it was about 11am and I found a nice shady spot and laid down for a little nap. The lake was 100% clear and beautiful. A half hour into my nap I was awoken by the sound of a voice. At first I thought I was dreaming but I kept hearing the voices. I looked up over the little hill I was sleeping on and sure enough there were two hikers walking up through the rocks. I yelled to them letting them know I was in the area. The couple walked over to me and we chatted for a bit.

As we were talking a falcon started chasing a small tweety bird, every few times the falcon would dive the smaller bird you could see a puff of feathers come off the small bird. The small bird finally hit the water and the falcon quickly scooped it off the water as if it was nothing.

The couple said their good byes and they went on their way and I hiked back down to camp. At camp I cooked my lunch of top ramen.  By the way did I mention all I packed for food was three power bars and six packages of top ramen.  After an even longer nap in the hammock in camp, which was very comfortable during the heat of the day I explored more around camp.

I decided at dusk to sit at the bottom of the meadow and see if anything comes out. As I was sitting there a Mother bear with three cubs came into the meadow. My camp was about 70 yards to my right and the bears were about 50 yards directly in front of me. I did not get a picture of the bears as it was too dark for the camera I had with me. After watching them for a while I got up and ran them off in the opposite direction of my camp.   

A bear scratch marks on a tree

I returned to camp and cooked my self a second helping of top ramen. After dinner I went to bed, this time I started sleeping on the ground. Through the night the mice were crawling on my sleeping bag. I would kick the mice off the bag and hear them land off in the bushes. After getting tired of that I placed my sleeping pad in the hammock and tried to go back to sleep. The pad solved my backside being cold but not my feet.

Again I woke woke up at daylight and went to sit in the meadow area. I was sitting next to a stump and I could hear something walking through the bushes on the other side of the stump. I got up to look what it was and it was two other hunters who seemed just as surprised to see me as I was them. We told each other what we each planned to do for the day so we would not interfere with each other.   

After the other hunters walked up the meadow I decided to walk up the main valley to see what it had to offer. I found that 30 steps pat my camp was a real campsite with flat places to sleep. Well at least I know this for next year.  As I continued up valley, the main trail stopped about 1/2 mile past camp. I then entered into thick old growth forests. As I got further back it started to open up a bit. I found a avalanche slide path that looked good to hold some deer. As I sat down I could hear something walk through the thick brush. I waited for about 15 minutes four does walked down a path. I was hoping that a big buck was going to follow them but I was thinking that it was going to be a pain in the ass to get that deer out of there if I shot one. But of course just does.

On my walk back to camp I decided with my lack of a good sleep, lack of seeing bucks, only having one more day before I have to be back at work and my lack of energy due to the awesome choice of food I brought I should likely pack up and get out of the woods that day before dark.

So I got back to camp made and while making some food next to the creek the other two hunters showed up. They said they saw a little two point up next to the lake but that was it.  I spoke with them for awhile and then went to camp and packed up and got home.

I had a great time hunting in the high country and I learned a lot of lessons. #1 Bring Protein, #2 leave the hammock at home and #3 it would be better with a 2nd hunter. I cant wait to do it again next year. 

HIgh hunt scouting

So this year I am doing the Washington State modern firearm high hunt. This is a one week hunt were you can hike into a wilderness area and hunt for mule deer a month earlier than the general season. You don't need a special draw permit your general tag will do.

 I am going to hike into the Pasayten Wilderness.   The Pasayten Wilderness is 530,000 acres of wild land were no motor vehicle or wheeled vehicle is allowed to access. The only way in is to hike in or by horse back. I will be going in on the Andrews Creek trail head on foot. I have never been to this area before and finding a place to hunt and camp for 3 nights at over 7,000 feet will definitely be an adventure.

I along with a friend who knows the area drove to a high spot on the opposite side of the canyon. I wanted him to point out to me where I would have the best odds.

As we drove to around 5000 feet we found an open area along the road filled with wild raspberries. So of course we stopped and ate a bunch of them. I also used a water canteen to take some home for the wife.

We got to the top and my friend pointed out the drainage I should walk up. the idea was the trail will get me higher than other trails without me having to walk up a face of a mountainside.  I understand at this point regardless of what I do I am going to be gaining some serious elevation. 

After we look from above we drove down to the trail head and where I would be parking my vehicle to hike in. It is a beautiful area with mountain streams and lakes. I will be brings a fishing pole just in case I don't get a deer way up high on my first two days I will hike out the third and fish along the way home just as a back up plan.

I am excited for this hunt. I am planning on hiking into the area where I am going to hunt next week for another day trip scouting expedition.  Although this one will be by myself at this point. I plan to bring some salt licks with me to place in the area I plan on hunting.  Rumor has it the high country deer are very mineral starved. So i figure if i give them some easy place to get their minerals, I will then give my self an easy spot to shoot a deer.

I hope to have an updated post about my day hike in next week.