Andrew's 2013 Hunting Journal

Basically, we followed this trail: Box Elder Peak. Notice the average grade (24%) and total elevation gained (4336 feet). It's "only" 1.9 miles to Angel Flat but it kicked my trash. We were about 30 min. behind schedule and tried to get to Angel Flat as quickly as possible. Yeah, I pretty much died. Finally got to the top and immediately saw a deer about 400 yards up the saddle. We moved in closer to get a better look and then two orange pumpkins stood up in front of us and starting walking. As soon as they did that, like 8 more deer jumped up and starting moving...one being a nice 4 pointer. We thought about shooting over the top of these dudes but decided not to since they had most likely spotted them as well. We waited for them to shoot, but they just kept walking and the deer escaped. Our jaws dropped and we kicked ourselves for not shooting. Out of dumb luck, these guys walked around the corner, saw the deer (for the first time, apparently) and then shot the nice 4 point. Freaking idiots. So, we decided to head through White Canyon towards Silver Lake. We walked all the way across and jumped a nice heard of elk. Never saw the lead bull but boy did he let out some beautiful bugles. We continued hiking out of White Canyon towards Deer Creek. We finally hit a trail that heads back to Granite Flats and walked another couple of miles out. In total, I think we marched just over 10 miles. We saw at least 1 buck (dead), a herd of elk, and 15 or so does...oh, and about 3 dozen pumpkins...the scary kind...with guns.

Really...after what I just told you about yesterday? Yeah, I needed some R&R...

We decided to head out to Strawberry Ridge, which is just above Strawberry Reservoir, looking towards Springville. As we drove to the top, we passed 8 billion trailers...nice. We continued to the top and waited until it got light enough to start walking. As soon as we were about to get out of the truck, 3 quads came zipping up and more freaking pumpkins rolled off of them. They ran down the trail in front of us...whatever. The lazy bums stopped and sat at the top of the trails, they didn't dare venture down into the canyons where the deer actually hide. Great! We hiked past them and down we went. Long story short, we saw more does and one of the guys I was with finally shot a buck. It took him about 20 minutes to determine if it was even legal...at 200 yards. Yeah, it was a tiny spike...barely legal. So, we slice him up and head back up the canyon back to truck. The losers who decided to stay at the top got mad at us for shooting in "their" canyon and stormed out of there...whining. Whatever Charlie Brown.

For those keeping score, I still have not fired a shot...