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| Sam Crane and I think Frank Garner |
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| Lewis, Rebel the horse and Sam Crane |
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| 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
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
