Hunting

We prepared for our hunting trip on Wednesday, getting everything in order for Jessie to not have to worry about anything. We got all our camping gear out and ready, clothes, food, blankets and sleeping bags. We got up early on Thursday morning and ate our breakfast and finished preparing and loading all our equipment up.

We left the house at around 8:30 and headed out. We dropped Jessie at her work, stopped and fueled up, stopped at Bashas for last minute items, and then vamanos!!! Jonnie met up with us through Stockton pass and we kept on going. We finally got to Sunset loop and parked the truck, unloaded the buggy, and made sure everything was good to go, and Jonnie comes up to me and says, Mom, do you have my spare key? OMG!?!  Hahaa, he locked his keys in his truck. With the help of Mike and a little luck (and experience in breaking into his truck) Jonnie unlocked it. 

We finally headed out for the last 7 or 8 miles of rough roads. We finally made it to our campsite and unloaded. We set up our tents, made our beds, fixed the kitchen, made some sandwiches and went out scouting. It was so beautiful, cool weather and beautiful country. We saw some deer out here and it was so neat to see them. 

We saw deer track on the road and there were several places that we found that they were going through the barbwire fence. I thought they always jumped the fences, not go through them. But I was wrong.

We drove back to camp and I prepared dinner, corned beef with fried potatos, ranch beans and tortillas. (I cheated, I bought tortillas) We started our fire, drank hot cocoa and water, visited and went to bed about 7:00 as 4:00 comes early in the morning. 

The next morning we got up. I started coffee, warmed up some water for hot cocoa, and made breakfast, eggs and chorizo. Oooohhhhh, it smells so good to cook out in the mountains out in the open.We left camp about 5:00 and headed out. 

It was chilly and David drove like a crazy man to get up to where we were going. But it was fun. We saw glowing lights that were the eyes of a lone coyote. But that was all we saw on the drive. We got to the corner and were there about 5:30. It was still pretty dark. David and Jon headed out about 5:45 and left me there by myself. It was cool, but I was okay as I had all the jackets. 

Finally the sun started to light up the sky, and it was so neat to watch the mountains get that rosy hue from the first rays that peak over the mountain tops. Slowly it lightened up and the sun light started touching down on all the hills and mountaintops, slowly creeping towards me. There were birds chirping and scolding each other for trespassing. They were flying around me, I don't know what kind they were. There were also sparrows flying by as well.

It was a beautiful morning. I saw deer come up the hill and cross the fence to go water and then they came back. It was a doe with two fawns. A Durango came and dropped off a hunter about a quarter of a mile from where I was.

About 10:00 the guys showed back up. No luck. As we were getting finished resting, we see a young man come up out of the opposite side of where Jon and David hunted, with a really nice pretty 3 point buck. We helped him out, visited with him and gave him a ride. A very nice young man. He grew up in Willcox, but moved to San Diego, and just graduated from high school and is now living with his grandparents in New Mexico, to help them out. 

We went back to camp, rested again, and they decided to go back out again around 1:30. I stayed at camp, cleaned things up, dozed off, took pictures and talked to myself, as there was no one around. I am pretty good at talking to myself, especially nowadays, hahahaa.

As I was dozing, I heard a car, and it startled me, I was at that point that you jerk and flinch while you are dozing. I had woke myself up a couple times talking in my dozing dazed state of mind.They had stopped and it looked like they were glassing at me, but there was something behind me. I looked and saw these strange black glossy humps moving through the tall grass. I thought at first it was javalina, but it was turkeys. 

I ran and got my camera and took pictures. Two of them were tagged with red flags and I guess they have tracking devices on them. I was going to get closer but I was afraid that I was going to be attacked, they were all Tom turkeys. It was really neat, they were not afraid in the least of me being there. I went back to camp and I played with the fire, sticking small twigs in the coals that were left from the morning, and building a log cabin around, seeing how long it would take to reignite it. It only took about 4 to 5 minutes. A scary thought.

I cooked dinner and waited for the guys to come back. They finally met up with Uncle Frankie and Jeremy, and they had luck this time. Jeremy tagged out and so did David. We visited, and then they went on their way, they drove out from home rather than camping. We sat by the fire and went to bed early again, as the guys were a little tired.

We got up around 5:00 to 5:15. I started the fire and started breakfast. We left camp about 6:30 and headed out. The wind was blowing and it was chilly. The wind had blown all night too and we didn't get much sleep. We got to the area we were going to hunt, and it was so chilly. We hiked and then sat down and waited, glassed and I enjoyed the scenery.

We finally went back to the buggy as there was no luck here, and we met up with Uncle Frankie and Jeremy. As we were waiting, David glassed another canyon and found some deer. You could barely see them with the glasses. Frankie got his deer in that canyon and that was it. We went back to camp and ate some lunch, packed up and headed home.

It was a really good trip, so peaceful, the nights were lit up because of the moon, the weather was good, a little chilly, but better than being too hot. But, it is so good to be home too, sleeping on my bed, and staying warm.