Hey all...
Well, we ended up headin up to Kyburz on the 50, stayed at the Kyburz Inn, easy access to the Ice House Road region discussed prior. If you get up that way, Patty at the Inn is nice, rates are great ($50/night +/-), beer & wine only at the lodge next door was a bummer, but pool tables, open faced meatball sandwich, and some video games entertained us in the evening. St. Pauli Inn had some good dinner grub, as well.
We headed up to the Ice House lake area for an evening scout/hunt on Friday night. We went to the end of the paved/gravel road off of Cheese club(?) road, near the Van Kleck bunkhouse. We split up and headed east, northeast towards the landing strip, and north. I passed another guy coming from the east, said he' d seen a ton of tracks but little/no spore in a rock garden south of the landing strip, o/wise, no deer at all!
None of us saw anything, although the terrain was great, tons of water and great meadows/resting areas.
We hit the same area again saturday morning, and though we heard 2 shots, saw only two does on the drive up. Two of us went north/n.east, the third went due north and made a big loop. Again, tracks but very little sign. we heard dogs being run to the east of us, perhaps some guys running for bear? Again, great terrain, feed, meadows, cover, water...just no racks!
We had a mediocre breakfast at the Ice House Lodge/bar on the way back to Kyburz...but hey, a cold beer is a cold beer!
We then went up into the hills on the south side of the 50, trying to find Cody Meadows, south of Cody Lake. We' re frankly not certain that the meadow we eventually found was the right one, as our topo map wasn' t up to date with the numerous logging roads and half-assed roads in the region. We scouted what we could, talked to some other hunters who hadn' t seen a thing, then headed back to Kyburz for grub, cold drinks, and sleep!
Sunday we were up at 8,000' and spread out before daybreak. I dropped down the backside of some STEEP sloped hillside/granite gardens. BIG tracks, lots of ' em, plenty of beds, and finally some spore! I got down a couple hundred feet and settled in facing east, looking south towards the 88 (although we were one range north of it). Something caught my eye from below right, a doe and two yearlings. The doe stopped and turned her head back for almost 5 minutes...so i waited....and watched....coaxing pappa buck out mentally....but no such luck
I watched as mom and her kids fed, even got a little excited as two guys came up the canyon to within 1/2 mile of them below me, hoping that the noise of them TALKING and their ATV (hello????? ever heard of hiking and shutting UP???) would push some bucks out. Though I head some movement, I saw nothing, and once I' d lost sight of the doe/yearlings, decided to pull out. I did see some band-tailed pigeons, for what THAT was worth...
So that was that. We heard maybe 8 shots all weekend, saw no bucks alive or dead, and saw a sum total of 5 deer. We killed a 1.75 of JD and a grey squirrel that was foolish enough to test his speed against the Firestones on our Explorer...which suffered a busted running board and a bent bracket on the other due to my poor off-road skills
Hey, it was a rental!
Keep me posted if any of you have any luck up in that area. It sure seemed like there should' ve been some MONSTERS there with all the good cover, food, and water....oh, well, that just leaves more for next season, right?
On to ducks, quail, goose, pheasant, and second dove!
dave