LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-11 AT 07:20PM (MST)[p]HuntinDad, Yeah, i did have a great time, nothing like a good hunt to make a guy feel good and pick the spirits up! I just can't dwell on the outcome of plan "A". Just wasn't in the cards.
Nick, Thanks for the email pics of your hunt! I too am looking forward to telling the tale of my trip. Even though some may not care to read of a "unsuccessful" hunt, please then don't read on! There are some though, i'm one of them, that always liked to hear the whole story. Many of a time I'd sit with my Grandpa and have him tell me of his trips and then in the later years he have me sit and him wanting me to tell him of my adventures in the outdoors. Grandma too may have been out in the kitchen but you can bank money that she didn't miss a word said. It really didn't matter exactly how many fish or how big the bucks were, it was the telling...and the listening. He was right along with me or i'd be along with him, even though we may have been many miles apart while we were actually out there, doing out thing that we so much loved to do.
6X7, Yep, it happens. I'll be getting to them alternate plans here shortly.
Eel, You know that you would have been more than welcome! I fear that i didn't really give Larrbo much of a great time though.
Once Larrbo and i met up at the predetermined place and him being a little early, about perfect, we talked over what i had seen and i tried to get a feel of what he thought we should do next. We decided that we'd go do a evening hunt back at that special ridge above the pond and then camp near there for the night, do a morning hunt and if not successful, then go scout out that northern boundary country i spoke of in the last session. As some of you know, my legs are about done. They swell up bad and hurt. On top of that, there are other medical reasons that i can't near walk like i used to love to do. Larrbo though, can flat go! So he put is pack on and took off up on the ridge to put a quiet sneak and peek on any bucks that may have been bedded up there. Me, i found me a nice vantage point a couple hundred yards from our rigs and kept imagining big ol bucks stepping out from behind every Juniper tree. We had Radio's along and it wasn't too long before i got the message that the skeeters were pretty bad up on that mountain mahogany choked ridge! At the time i had ten or 20 skeeters on me myself and they weren't the shy type that would shoo away at the leastest shake. They were in it for the win and though we stuck it out for that hunt, we liberally doused ourselves with repellant once back at out temporary camp.
Next morning at dawn. Larry headed out the opposite direction and then baled off the ridge and down onto a timbered canyon that i was sitting on. Bout a hundred yards was all i could see but it was bucky country and i sat, listened, and watched. A couple times i thought i heard something behind me but i didn't see anything until it was time to meet up with Larry back out on the road. Partway there, not fifty yards behind me was a super fresh patch of really big deer droppings. They were glistening in the morning dampness and when i reached down to see if they were still warm, i really didn't want to find them so as that would have meant that maybe my big guy was right behind me while i was sitting there on that old tree stump and looking the other way. They were cold though, thank God!!
We quickly packed up and headed to parts unknown. Before we did though, We made reservations to a couple rooms at a old relic of a place called the Canby Hotel. While scouting, i had dropped in there for cold refreshment and met the current proprietor, Penny. Soon i realized that this gal was no ordinary lady and was taken with her charm. Somehow she must have gotten the idea that i had money though because she soon put the pitch on me to buy her out of the place. Anyway, no doubt the place has seen better days but i was charmed and wanted to pass on a little business if i could...plus i had been in my little pop-up camper for a few days and a hot shower seemed in prime order.
With myself now riding shotgun, Larry cruised the roads in that whole north western section of my zone. There was some country that looked good from the dirt roads but there was no way that i was going to be able to get up there to hunt it. The rest of the country was pretty timbered and thick with brush, lots of bitterbrush, but not really what a guy thinks of when you imagine good muley country. We never did see a place to actually hunt though we saw a legal buck or two and a few does. That hot shower and a nice sitdown dinner was calling us though and even though we still cruised any, every, and all the available dirt roads in that whole area, later on our minds were partly on dinner so we kept moving back that way some and eventually pulled into Canby about dark...almost a wasted day and if not for Larrbo's company, it would have felt like one.
So, Larry meets Penny. We get our rooms and get to showering up before dinner. The rooms were spartan, old bed frames under old mattresses, under old blankets, but everything seemed pretty clean and it worked out to be just fine. As we sat in the Dinning Rm, Penny came out and offered Larry a half bottle of some "Elegant Grape" wine, all she had available i think she said, and told me that Pinky was in the bar and she'd ask him to come talk to us. During my scouting and during my previous visit with Penny, she told me that Pinky was the guy to talk to about buck hunting that area. Seems that he puts up a lot of Alfalfa and runs a lot of cattle, controls many thousands of acres, and is known for giving guys who ask, permission to hunt.
We both order the New Yorks and about the time our salad comes, so does Pinky. Not a tall guy but he made up for that with his girth and personality. What a guy and man did he talk up a storm. I later asked Larrbo who liked to talk more, Pinky or Me...he said it was about a tie, what are friends for... When out steaks came, Penny held them off as long as she could and still have them in rare condition, i offered Pinky to join us for dinner if he cared to. He declined dinner but stayed on for the company. We talked hunting, the price of beef, some politics, and just about everything in the way of current topics. Long story short, Pinky gave us pretty much run of his ranch but said that he didn't know of a single decent buck on his places. That wasn't good news to me. Pinky was plan "up there" and i had hoped that if i had not gotten my buck down south and came up Canby way, i'd be picking out a good buck from the many on Pinky's place. Penny soon joined us in bringing out some kind of after dinner wine and we all talked, laughed, and really enjoyed each others company until we finally begged off in need of sleep to get up early for another day.
BTW, Penny won't give her age but we put her some here between 75 and 85, she don't look it but she may even be older, used to be the in-charge narcotics officer of West Sacramento. Tall, Blonde, elegant, and well spoken. A tough cookie but also a genuine Sweetheart! Canby is lucky to have her...Oh, and she tried to sell her place to Larrbo too!
Next issue, Headed Alturas Way!
Joey
