December Photography Hike up Moose Creek. Fuji XT-4

Teton River Float, Lower Stretch

I floated the lower stretch of the Teton River Sept. 17, 2021.  This is the lower part in Teton Valley.  It is a little more difficult to navigate than the upper stretches.

Cardinal Classic at Soda Springs, Cross Country Race

Bronco Classic Cross Country Race Aug. 26, 2021

 

Quinn ran his first cross country race of the season  today at Blackfoot.

https://www.facebook.com/drchad480/videos/621464415489940

Backpacking to one of the highest peaks in the Bighole Mountains. Canon...

Two Hunting Stories... Multi Challis Mega Bucks and Rockland Big Buck

 

Sam Crane and I think Frank Garner

Lewis, Rebel the horse and Sam Crane

Sam and Dean

Fall 1979

Dean Shaw, Ron Crane, Sam Crane, Lew Roberts, Frank Garner and Blaine Shaw planned a deer hunting trip up Challis, Morgan Creek in the late eighties.

Equipment consisted of one cattle truck, 7 head of horses, (I took two, Rebel being one of them) one pickup mounted camper, one empty pickup with a shell and feed and lots of excited anticipation.

Frank and I drove the cattle truck loaded with horses.  Dean drove his pickup with camper and Ron and Sam were in the pickup with supplies and feed. 

It took us pretty well the whole day to get to Challis and up Morgan creek where we decided to camp,

We stopped and talked to a range rider about deer and he informed us he didn’t think there was very many around because he didn’t see very many on his trips taking care of cattle.

We settled in a canyon that went up past his line cabin and found a fairly flat camping place with lots of quakes’ and pines.  Very pretty place.  The canyon was steep and had snow on the lee sides showing there had been a storm through there recently.

We had some late sandwiches and decided to hunt the canyon we were camped in for the couple of hours we had left before the sun went down.

We all spread out with Frank and me hiking up towards the top of the ridge.  We hunted down hill towards Morgan Creek in somewhat of a line moving slowly through the brush, quakes and pines.

We immediately started to see deer tracks in the snow where there was some.  As Frank and I worked our way down the ridge, we could see through openings below us the rest of the party walking slowly through the foliage.   

As we approached the end of the ridge, it put us above the line cabin way below us.  It opened up with a lot of buck brush and grass.  As we slowly came out into the opening, a big buck jumped up between Frank and me and ran back the way we had come on Frank’s side.  He was shooting a 32 special.  He started shooting and probably shot about three rounds.  I ran over to where he was standing and it was just starting to get dark.  I ask if he connected and he said he thought he did but it didn’t stop.  We started tracking him back up the ridge and found him about 50 yards or so piled up dead.  He was a very pretty 4x4 with a measurement of 32 inches.  By the time we got him cleaned out it was dark.  We drug him straight down the ridge towards the bottom until we came to a fence and propped him open so he could cool him down and left him for the night.  The next morning we took the horses in there and loaded him on one of Ron’s horses and took him back to camp and hung it up.

We decided to ride the horses straight up a trail to the ridge and Frank and I stopped and the rest turned right and rode up the ridge higher.  We figured we could catch deer coming up from below from water so we prepared for that.

In a little while we heard a shot above us and figured they had got one.  We waited a while to make sure we didn’t miss any coming up and then rode up where we could see them.  Rather than leave one horse in camp which would have been Rebel we had saddle him and brought him with us.  As we approached them they were hiking up the real steep side that was fairly open and they had shot a nice two point about half way down the ridge.  

They were debating how to get a horse down there and were a little spooky about their horses on the steep side and loading a deer on one of them.  They ask about Rebel since he was a good ole docile and I said o.k.   

We worked out way down the side on an angle and it was steep enough that we could load the deer straight across into the saddle.   Dean started to get out all this rope out of his saddle bags and I said what you going to do with all that.  He said tie the deer on the saddle.  I said no, I’ll do it and do it my way since it was my horse.  I took some baling twine out of the bags and tied him down like we have always done it and led him on an angle up to the ridge.  It worked very well.  

When we got to the ridge, the party decided that they wanted to hunt down another canyon to camp and could Frank and I take the horses and deer down the ridge on the trail so they could hunt.  Frank was anxious to get back to camp anyway because his deer was down there hung up and he didn’t want someone to steal it.  We start to lead the five horses, we were on two, down the trail and those bitties of Ron wouldn’t trail,  they wanted to get ahead, go behind and it was terribly frustrating and both Frank and I was ready to shoot them.  Finally I said Frank let me send Rebel down ahead of his then we can handle these broncos with just two apiece.  He agreed.  I took Rebel up ahead, threw the rope over his neck and kicked him in the butt down the trail towards camp.  He started down and I knew we’d find him in camp ok.  We then took two apiece and wrangled the others down the trail back to camp.  When we got there, Rebel was eating grass and the deer was just fine. 

Day three we decided to drive down the canyon and go up another canyon and work up to the top of the ridge and hike down it to drive any deer out.  Ron said he would wait up with the pickup until just before dark and if we weren’t back we would have to hike all the way out and down to the main rode of Morgan creek to meet him.( The road was not a very good one, steep, rocky  narrow and scary).   On the way on our drive, Dean shot a five point that was 28 inch spread and he cleaned it and knew we would have to come back the next day with the horses to get it out.  Needless to say, it got dark on us and so we ended up having to hike all the way down to Morgan creek road where Ron met us with the pickup.  It was a long hike and lucky we had a full moon.  It took us until 10 that night to get to the road.  I was really tired.  

Day four, Dean and I decided we would ride the horses straight across the bottom of the two canyons and get his deer and take it to the top of the ridge that we previously hunted the night before.  Consequently I was riding Rebel.  It took a long time.  

About noon we stopped to have a lunch and it was warm and pleasant and it was really pretty.  As we laid there eating and talking, we spotted a bunch of does with a big buck chasing them They were about half way up the canyon where it started to get really steep and lots of pines.  We figured we could stalk them and maybe get close enough for a shot.  Dean crossed over to the side where the deer were and I went straight up the side we were on.  When I got almost where they disappeared in the pines, I got off the horse and kept hiking up the side across from them hoping to get a shot at the buck.  I found a good spot and settled down to see if I could get a glimpse and a shot.  I saw them in the pines and the buck walked into a clearing,  I took a steady aim and shot,  He disappeared and then I heard Dean shoot,  Just then the buck came out of the pines dragging his hindquarters and I leveled down to finish him off and Dean yelled don’t shoot”.  I looked up just as he shot and it dropped dead.  I went back to the horse and rode over to it and Dean was there and I said thanks for finishing him for me.  He said well I think I’ll give him to Blame, I was a little stunned and I said what for, he didn’t shoot it and he was not there.  You have your deer already tagged and I figured I hit it the first shot.   I said I would have finished him if you hadn’t yelled don’t shoot.  The deer is mine and I’m going to claim him.  He said we’ll see. We cleaned it and started up the steep climb to the top of the ridge where Ron would be with the pickup.  

When we got there, Sam, who was just twelve or thirteen at the time had shot a two point.  Dean called Blaine over and said theirs your deer and I said you know that’s not true Dean.  Blaine said I didn’t shoot him, he not my deer.  I had already tagged him but it caused some feelings between Dean and me.  

We unloaded the buck which measure 30 inches. And He and Ron went down the canyon and brought Deans Five point up to the pickup.  It was so late we left the horses tied up at the bottom of the canyon and we went to camp and we brought back feed for them for the night. The next morning we were back over with the horses and went back up to the top of that ridge.  Blaine was the only one left having not filled his tag.  Dean, Blaine and I kind of stayed fairly close together but Dean stayed on his horse above us.  

Blaine and I was slipping quietly along  the steep side when someone above us spooked a three point out and it came straight down the side in front of us through the pines,   He was trotting and Blaine got hasty and started shooting,  He hit the deer but it didn’t stop it but slowed it up considerably.  As it ran past us and Blaine was shooting, Dean yelled from above, Blaine run down the hill and get in front of that deer and shoot it.   Blaine took off running down that steep side and I could see him when he got in front of it but he didn’t shoot.  Dean yelled, Louie shoot that deer.  So I quickly found an opening as he went through it and dropped him.  When I got to Blaine, he said he had run out of bullets and didn’t realize it until he was trying to stop it.  We quickly cleaned it and Dean brought Rebel down and we tied him on and took him back up the ridge to the rest of the party and Ron with his pickup.  

We were done so decided to head for back and prepare to go home.  I rode and lead Dean’s horse back to camp up Morgan creek.  It took a while.

The next day we loaded up all the deer in the back of Ron’s pickup and broke camp.  We had to take the horses down to the main road to find a place to back the cattle truck up to, to load the horses.  It was quite a sight to see all of those bucks with three really big ones and three good average sizes.

As we traveled down the main road, we came to a checking station and stopped to be checked.  The fish and game boys were quite impressed with what we had.  There formed somewhat a line behind us waiting their turn; consequently, back a ways people couldn’t see the bucks because the cattle truck was blocking their view.  When the personnel started to check out one of the outfits, the hunters started to complain to the fish and game that there wasn’t any deer in the country and they were disappointed in their managing of the herds.  The officer ask them to get out of their pickup and come up and see what we had.  They were quite taken back when they seen our deer and especially the size of most of them.  They said they had driven about every canyon and road they could and didn’t see hardly anything.  We said they need to get out of your pickups and do some serious hunting on foot if you wanted any game.

When we got to Challis we stopped at a local café to get some lunch.  As we were eating, a fellow came in and loudly asked whose pickup and deer were out there parked and we said ours.  He offered to buy the horns and pay us a pretty good price for them.  We of course declined his offer. 

We arrived home safely that evening and gathered our gear to await another year. 

Rockland Buck

Is that the one where dad was sitting on a hillside in rockland and saw it trotting up the canyon below him? Shot it with his 7mm Rem Mag. Not a whole lot of interesting info if this is the same one. I remembered he recovered the bullet. That looks like Mitsy there next to him so the timeframe should be about right.

Best Regards,

Morgan Roberts

That buck is the four five point that I shot off of the peak in Rockland.  Took me twenty minutes to hike up to him;  I think David was with me.  That is when the fellow came up from the backside of our mountain, lost.  He saw us when he got to the summit and plowed right up through the brush and steep side to us.   He had missed a canyon and ended up down towards the ranch to the east.  he shot a two point and was dragging it down toward the bottom east when he ran into another hunter, who told him he was in the wrong canyon and pointed him back west our way. He was Drenched in sweat and beside himself with relief he had found someone. To help him. I took him up to the top of the ridge and showed him Stewart canyon and a s we talked a jeep came up the road below us in Stewart looking for him.  I showed him the way down and he shot down that canyon like a bullet.  It turned out to be a relative of ken Anderson who was up there hunting.  Don’t know what happened to his two point.  But he sure was happy to see us.  Dad

Sent from my iPad

Part 2: Using Fujica GSW690 and Sekonic L-308S light meter while compar...

First Time Using Fujica GSW690 and Sekonic L-308S Light Meter. Compare ...

Cross Country Skiing for the First 3 Times

Floating and Fishing Teton River on small pontoon boats. Used Canon G7x...

This is a video I took of us floating the Teton River with two small pontoons that are hand made.  This was October 3, 2020 and because it was so late in the year, not too many people were on it just to float.  During the summer, the traffic on the river seems to have quadrupled just in the last year or so.  The pontoons are very fun to float in and make for a good fishing trip.  Since I live right by the Teton River I tend to float it the most but you could take this pontoon boat down a variety of rivers and on lakes and be pretty safe.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Some Bald Eagles

My Sage Rod and Galvan Reel

Hunting Trip Albion and Three Nice Bucks, around 2006

Me in the pickup with my two-point, Dad with his 4 point and Hal with mom's 2x3.

I believe this was the year 2006, but it might have been 2005 or 2007.  I will eventually have to figure out this date.  Me, Mom and Dad had drawn a tag for Albion area which is the area where Mom and Dad live.  I don't believe Hal was with us the first section of the hunt.  We had left the house early in the morning and walked west up the ridge, which is a pretty gradual slope, toward the Independence mountains (what I call them).  Mom usually hikes around up here for exercise and she said she had seen some bucks this way, which is why we decided to do what we did.   After awhile me and mom followed one ridge to the left and Dad went to the right.  Then a little further mom went even further left and I was on a ridge in between mom and dad.  When I came to the point of the ridge I could see around three deer straight west but they were quite a way off.  I could see mom to the left and she was pointing at them but she would have been about twice as far away from them as me.  I believe they were a couple of does and a small buck.  I debated, but I decided to try a shot.  I shot and hit below them and it spooked them off.  Afterwards,  mom came toward me and we started toward Dad who was on the other side of the small spring.  As I approached the spring I saw the same deer on the hillside a little lower than where I had first seen him and I took another shot and  brought him down.   This is the small two point that I'm holding in the truck in the picture above.  Apparently, my first shot had not spooked them too bad.  I cleaned him out and either while I was doing that or shortly after, I heard a shot, and lo and behold, Dad had shot a nice 4x4 that was laying in the brush trying not to be seen.  It wasn't very far, maybe a  hundred to hundred fifty yards or so.  Dad is holding that buck in the picture above.

At some point we had decided to go down and get the horses so we could pack the deer out.  Dad might have been leaving to get the horses when he shot his buck.  It seems to me that we both ended up going down and getting horses and then riding them back up.  It was an easy pack down and out since Dad knows the ranchers and where all the gates are.  

Four sets of deer antlers.  These are deer that I got between probably 2007-2013.  There should be one more set in there, which was the two-point in this story, but some creature ran off with the head.  I had left it by the shed overnight and it was gone the next day.  Mom felt sorry for me and gave me her 2x3 which is the second from the bottom.  That was the one she got in this story.  The first set was a deer I got in Sublette, it is a tiny two-point, almost just a 1x2.  The third one I got in Sublette as well, which will be featured in another story later as that one is very interesting.  The bigger one I got in Albion on the other side of the mountain from where this story took place and that was in 2013.  That story is featured in this blog already in January of 2014..  I also got a nice 4 point in 2016 (along with Hugh and Dad) very close to the same place as this story and that I wrote about in February of 2017.  

I think it was later that week, somebody told us they had seen some deer down by the highway near an intersection with a dirt road.  We all drove down there and saw a small herd.  At this point we had Hal with us.  Mom still needed to fill her tag and so Dad and Hal stayed in the truck and drove off out of sight while I went with mom and snuck through the sagebrush and junipers until we saw the deer.  They were in a little ravine and the first one was a nice 2x3 buck just walking toward us.  There was also a smaller two point behind it and possibly another small buck and some does.  We shot the 2x3 and it dropped dead.  This is the deer that Hal is holding in the picture above.  Fortunately it was not too far from the road and we were able to drag it to the truck and take it home and clean it up.  

Dad's Version:

The year that these three buck were taken, blanked out but here is the story.

Harriet had been walking up through the back sagebrush to the forest line across north to Lloyds and down to highway and back home.  Several times while hiking west, she would jump deer out feeding in the sagebrush.

So when we drew out we decided to hike up through there on opening morning and see if we could get one.  

Myself, chad and mom left at daybreak and hiked up through the sagebrush towards the mountain and forest ground.  As it started getting light we were at the base of the forest ground and hadn’t seen any deer.  

We decided to split up so Harriet and Chad went left up a deep gully towards the mountain and Lloyd’s spring.  I went to the right up the bottom gully of the springs.  As it got light enough to see well, I counted 73 head of deer feeding in the bottom of the gully and up the Rocky side.  All does No bucks. As I worked up the gully, I spotted Chad getting to the top of a hill looking into the steep side of the mountain above the springs.  Harriet was up further south on the steep side.  We were all conversing to the center point above the springs.   

As I watched through the Binoculars I could see some deer feeding along the side right next to the tree line above the springs.   There was a two point in the bunch.  It was a long shot but Chad knelt down and shot at the buck.  It hunched but kept walking towards the south into some brush.  I never seen it come out of the brush so I decided it was down. 

I hiked up the side and followed the path that the deer was on and Chad was working his way up there.  Harriet was above coming down.  I found the deer and it was dead.  Chad said that was a longer shot than he anticipated.  We cleaned it and we decided to go back home and saddle the horses and bring them back up to carry the deer out.  

As I made my way down past the springs,( Chad and Harriet were still tidying up the deer), I looked back up towards the mountain next to a rockslide inside some brush there was a four point kind  of hiding watching me.  It was probably 200 yards.   I yelled to Harriet that if she could somehow sneak down towards me she could get a shot at this buck.  She hesitated so I crouched down and snuck, crawled up a few yards, and took a steady aim and shot.  The four point buckled and now we had two.  

We cleaned the deer and Chad decided to go with me and we would hike back to the house and get two horses and the pickup and come back up.  Harriet was going to stay up there and hunt.  We hiked down to the house, saddled up and Chad led one horse and rode the other and I took the pickup up through Jay Blacks land and stopped at the forest Service gate line.  We took the horses up to the deer, Chads first, and then mine, loaded then up and took them down to the pickup for the trip home. 

During that week of the hunt, we decided to slow cruise the roads around close to home.  As we came down the lane next to the Lloyds over in a juniper covered ravine, we saw a small group of deer; I saw horns but didn’t know how big.  We didn’t stop the pickup, we just went real slow and Chad and Harriet quietly and quickly slipped out of the pickup and we kept driving very slowly.  They snuck over towards the ravine to see if they could get a shot.  Hal was with me and as we got to the bottom of the lane and turning around, we heard a shot.  We drove back up and he got out and went over to see what happened.  They were able to get a decent shot and they dropped it at the edge of the ravine.  We didn’t feel right about cleaning it on private property, so they drug it over to the road and we muscled it into the back and took it home were we cleaned it out and hung it up with the other two.  So we all filled our tags that year.