Rifle Deer Hunt

Friday afternoon Chris, Kennedy, Taylor and I all headed to the cabin for the opening of the rifle deer hunt. Chris is the only of who has a rifle tag. Early early Saturday morning we were in our spot waiting for opening light... like two hours before it got light. We had seen two NICE bucks the night before right in 'the' spot and were hoping they would show that morning

Unfortunately they didnt. We waited a while. Hunted a few other areas. Brushed a few more and nothing.

 This was the least amount of bucks weve ever seen opening morning. Chris was pretty disappointed. 

 Kennedy tried hard to find him a deer

 We went to another spot while Taylor brushed up the hill. Chris wanted us to stay with him because K and I are his deer spotters. We were born with deer eyes.

 Nothing then either. We went to brush another spot up around the top. When we first started I was in the far flank and Taylor was on the end. Chris was on the other side of the hill with Kennedy waiting for us to brush to him. I was two steps into the trees and kicked up a good buck. He had about 5 does with him and they ran straight towards Taylor. The does came out but the buck stayed in the trees. Of course we cant reach Chris on the radio so I hurry and run to the top of the hill to tell him to get over here. He finally gets to where we are and I brush through where the buck went. He had snuck around us somewhere and wasnt there. So Chris decided to just push over the hill with us. Kennedy came around my leg with me. I have the longest one. Chris has the thickest and Taylor has the steepest. Kennedy did so good. Most of what we were hiking in was thick brush taller than her

 The view from the top. From here Kennedy and Chris walked down to the cabin below to get on the wheeler and go to the tree line while Taylor and I brush down through the trees for him.

 We started the first leg and pushed out a few does. We moved on to the second one and pushed out a few more does and a spike. Chris and Taylor took off after the spike. Opening morning early it was Im only going to shoot a big one.. by afternoon it was I wont shoot anything smaller than a 2pt. By late afternoon evening it was I'll shoot anything with antlers because we really really need the meat. They chased the spike for quite a while. Kennedy and I were stationed at different spots to see if the deer ran around them. It didnt. It ran to the bottom of the canyon and who knows from there. While we were waiting we decided it was time for Kennedy to learn how to drive the wheeler. So we had a quick lesson and she drove me around on the roads. She thought it was AWESOME.

We had to go back and pick up the boys at one of the gates.. but we only had me who could drive and I cant drive two wheelers at once so we all had to pile onto one to shuttle back to the truck. Kennedy laughed and giggled the entire time. 

 We hunted all day long. That evening we took the truck out towards dark. Kennedy had enough excitement for one day and her and her daughter took a nap.

 She needed to get some coloring time in that night when we got back to the cabin. Taylor left Sat night to go home. 

 We went out early Sunday morning to find anything. We started in our normal spot and nothing showed. The place was packed with hunters all weekend. You couldnt look anywhere with out seeing orange. We drove down the road some and I saw a deer about 15 yards on the side of the road. We had saw a TON of deer this whole trip but all were doe. I yelled DEER! Then it lifted its head to look at me and I saw antlers and yelled BUCK! SHOOT IT! So Chris got ready and it lifted its head again so he could see it was a buck and shot it. It was a 2pt. We were so excited. After the last 2 years of not filling any elk tags living of two deer all year has really depleted our freezer! We were in some serious need of burger so we were thrilled. 

 Chris wanted a picture of me with the deer with him too so that left Kennedy to take the picture.. She said no no no.. mom you need to get on the deer like your riding it... Thats not gonna happen just take the pict!

 We came back to camp, washed everything, packed up everything and were ready to go by 9am Sunday morning. Chris had to fix a hole that a packrat chewed in the cabin and Kennedy said since she wanted to be a firefighter she has to practice how to hold the ladder like a firemen and keep Dad safe.