Is what I wish I had run into. Unfortunately, the big boys in the high country refused to show themselves. Six days of hiking, driving, and glassing yielded little in the way of bone - unless of course you count the bones near a cougar den I ran across. [&:]I don't have much of a story to tell other than I hiked a LOT and took some pictures for y'all. I ran into a TON of does, one 150"+ whitetail, and a herd of big horn sheep.
Here's my trip in pictures;
Day 1;
We rolled into camp probably around 11:30 Sunday night, so we spent most of the first morning getting everything settled.
After getting things settled, we decided to drive around the mountain and do some glassing.
Day 2:
Early on the second day we were there, I hiked up a drainage that I had seen the previous day. I wound up stalking this young 2x2, finally closing the distance to 17 yards before he knew anything was amiss. He wasn't legal, so I watched him for about 20 minutes before finally sitting down to glass.
Seeing nothing worth pursuing, I decided to hike further up the drainage. I found this cliff littered with sign.
As we're not allowed to even have a firearm with us in camp during archery season, we brought along a couple slingshots to kill grouse with. They work well.
Not finding anything worth sticking around for, I humped it back to camp around mid day to meet up with dad. We drove into a 'remote' canyon where he knew of an old hunting cabin.
I spent the evening glassing this draw.
The sunsets up there were absolutely gorgeous. I took several pictures of them.
Day 3:
The third day was much of the same. A lot of hiking and a lot of glassing.
Day 4:
The fourth day revealed a whole lot of the same.
We hiked to an old base camp my dad knew about and scouted around some.
While I didn't run into any bucks, I did manage to snap this picture through my spotting scope. I counted ten in all, one of which was collared.
Again, the sunsets were almost worth the trip themselves.
Day 5:
The fifth and final day I was we were there left me scratching my head wondering where all the Mulies had gone. It used to be that you could walk a half mile in any direction and run into them. Not so much this trip. Whether it was the heat or the lack of water in the area, I don't know.
Thre free range cattle sure did look good though.
Greg snapped one, so I figured I would too.
Well guys, I wish I had a better story for you, some horns to show for all the hard work I put in, but I don't. I had a blast and am looking forward to the next opportunity I have to head up north. I hope you enjoyed the photos, I know I promised you guys some good ones.
I'll likely add more photos later, after I unpack my dad's camera and upload his pictures to my laptop.
Mulie Madness... (Pictures, obv.)
