Labour Day Holiday Hunt, Clinton BC

Gilbert woke us at 5 am.  Yesterday it was 4 am. It’s getting better. Little doggy moans.  I worry he has to poop.  I get up. Walk him in the pre dawn. He is more interested in peeing on everything but eventually does poop.  His schedule is off.  Maybe he remembers earlier hunting years.  It’s this time I’m up, having coffee and gearing up.  I know if I go back to sleep I wont be up till after 8 like yesterday.  So I make coffee.  Stove top espresso maker.  The furnace has kept the camper warm all night. I’ve had a better sleep.  Gilbert is happy when I lift him up onto the bed so he can sleep with Laura.

T shirt, shorts, jeans, socks and hiking boots. I’ve a camp flannel shirt and camo fall coat.  The electric bicycle is loaded up from yesterday. It’s rained all night but I had a black large plastic bag over the spare battery and arrows on the back rack.  I’ve got my long hunting knife, folding hunting knife, leatherman and hunting tags for bear and mule deer on my belt. I’ve two helmets with me, the lighter bicycling one and the heavier motorcycle one. I don the bicycle helmut, and turn on the little computer read out on the handlebars.  Then I swing the Excalibur Cross bow with attached bolt quiver over my head onto my back.  Then I swing my leg over the bike. I really do need to do more ballet stretches.  The electric bicycle throttle is on the left handle bar.  I turn it on and I ‘m heading out of the campground.  

The forest road is the other side of the RR#6.  It’s rained all night and the mud is greasy.  It takes a lot to keep from tumbling even going slow.  Each open field I stop and look about. I even walk for a bit then I”m at the next logging road and go fast on the gravel till I get to another forest road. This has more gravel so is less greasy.  I ride along slowly enjoying the morning.  When I’m a half battery down on power I stop to switch batteries.   I don’t want  to run out of power and find the second battery is empty too.  Five bars light up on the second battery.  I’m good to go.  

Locking my bicycle to a tree I walk along a deer trail for some time until it connects with a road that runs along marshy lakes with a beaver damn and lots of ducks.  No mule deer. No bear.  

I almost don’t find my bike when I come back. I have to back track on the bike trails to see where I took it off track and locked it to a tree in the woods.  I always get anxious about doing this. I once did get lost, not find my vehicle and slept over night until I found it I the light of morning.

I didn’t see any animals.  It was a short ride home. I really did appreciate the instant coffee Laura made. Warmth.  When the sun came out it was hot but when it was behind the clouds it seemed to become suddenly chilly, like Modor.  We moved inside.

I began reading a Wilbur Smith novel.  We had barbecued buns and hot dogs again.  I napped a bit.  

5 pm was the time the evening hunt began. It’s always a kerfuffle to find the stuff again.  Despite having just had most of it in the morning. I switched to the KTM 690 and had more storage in the panniers.  Green Garbage bags for carrying livers and hearts back.  Lots of bungee cords for tying a deer or a quarter of a deer across the back of the bike.  More layers of clothing.. It’s cold at night on the bike with the windchill. I’ll have long johns next time. I’ve worn panty hose when I didn’t have long johns.  The hunt must go on. 

Finally with the cross bow bungee’d down on the back of the bike and the Winchester Coyote carried on my back I mount the very tall KTM.  When I switched on the key and fired up the ignition the bike purrs into life.  I head out once ,twice, thrice. Each time I come back for something else, another sweater layer, a rolled of towel to stop a rattle of the cross bow and finally a flashlight.  I’m off.

I still don’t like the slippery muddy roads and try to find more gravel side roads. C Road seems best.  It goes for miles. I spot some mule deer way ahead.  They stop and watch me. I expect the last to join is a buck.  But now they’re moving down the road away from me and into the woods to the side.  When I start the bike and come along where they left they’re gone.  Ghosts, my friend Bill Mewhort called these great big grey northern mulies. If it had been rifle season I might well have got that one, assuming it was a buck.  I didn’t even get out my binoculars  knowing I’d not get close enough to use my cross bow once they’d spotted me. With my rifle I’d have been able to scope the horns and fire as it turned to leave the road.  I generally hit what I shoot at.  That’s been a good certitude. But not at this distance with the cross bow, even the Excalibur.  The rifle I carried was only for black bear. I had ‘t even seen scat.

I returned on C road and headed back to RR6.  I rode past the bear looking places I’d seen before but was bothered by sprinkles of rain. I didn’t want to get wet and cold like last night so turned around early and headed back.  Barbecued steak was calling to me.  

It was to be the last hunt here with the motorcycle because when I got back I unloaded the bike then ran it onto the front rack on F350 to reduce the tasks needed for an early departure next morning.  Gilbert was excited to see me. Lots of squirming and barking.  Laura made up the peas and potatoes while I barbecued steak.  A delicious meal.  Sunset was lovely.  Just sitting and watching the colours change over the lake and trees.  No tv this long weekend.

We did get internet and enjoyed looking at the pictures of Belinda’ s family wedding. Her husband after began his KTM Adventure southern bike tour.  Laura’s neice Jade had a baby girl.  It was Labour Day so very timely.

With the furnace cranking out heat and the duvet  calling Laura and I were in bed early. A few pages of Wilbur Smith ‘s Leon hunting in Africa then sleep. Glorious sleep.  

A great hunt. It would have been better if I’d shot something but only marginally.  I’m almost thankful not to have to do the field dressing and heavy towing and lifting to get the animal out of the woods and back to a vehicle.  I’m pretty lazy at the beginning of hunting season but as the fall goes on I get more determined to shoot something and forget how much work that entails.  I do like venison stew and I’ve had a hankering for bear.  While I shot a deer last year it’s been several years since I had bear.  I do love the winter with a freezer full of wild game.  Next time.  With Gilbert blind I’ve been down a man on my team.  I’ll just have to up and get going when he wakes me next time.    

Sunday at Beaverdam, Clinton

I hunted with the Torino electric bicycle in the morning. Great machine. Wonderful quiet time cycling with power assist.

Getting back to the Palomino Maverick camper I was having another coffee with Laura when a doe walked by the camper.  No doubt a spy for her buck friends.  

I made up steak and eggs with toast and we had a feast.  Gilbert had so many bits from both Laura and I that he had to lay down and sleep after his meal. I ran the Honda 2000 generator charging the Camper battery, the electric bicycle battery, our iPhones and my iPad.  I then added  5 gallons of water from the blue jug  to the camper.  

After all that activity we had a Sunday afternoon nap.  

5pm I loaded up the KTM 690 and took my Winchester Model 70 Coyote Light 300 win mag short rifle.  I petted Gilbert who doesn’t seem too disturbed to be left behind. I’d let him walk about the fields with me in the after noon which he’d done blind. He’s such a brave little boy. I think being blind and walking about, even following me, is pretty challenging.  He’s glad to stay at home and protect Laura.  He may be blind but he can bark and bite if need be. He loves Laura so much and wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. 

I love the KTM 690 for it’s willingness to putt along at a perfect hunting speed 15 to 20 km/hr.  I stop every now and then to scan with my binoculars.   On the relatively smooth rock and gravel roads going slow I could still scan the forest and fields around me.  I was looking for bear.  Black bear rifle hunting season opens Sept 1 while only bow hunting for deer opens that early.  Rifle for deer opens on Sept. 10.  I like the bow hunting weekend mostly because the weather each year has been so grand.  It’s also a time to get all the systems checked out and be ready for the usually more productive rifle season.  It’s been quite a few years since I shot a deer with a bow but I truly love this first bow hunting weekend.  

Grouse season does’t open till the 10th but in the past I’ve shot grouse with my bow.  With the number of arrows I’ve lost missing each grouse I shot cost $20 or more a bird.  Ptarmigan is open now but it’s a Wiley bird and I’ve never got close enough to shoot one with the bow. I’ve shot them with my 22 long rifle in the past but they really are a lot smarter than the grouse.

I love the smell of birch, pine and hemlock as I ride along.  Lots of cows in the field. No bear.  I did see a herd of horses too.  They’re lovely in the field by themselves, ranging wild.  I did see a dog moving the cattle. I thought it might be a wolf at first but looked at it in the binoculars and saw that it was actually working the cow herd.  

I rode up Dog Creek road, RR6 noticing that a fellow has a lovely cabin to rent out there.  Bill Mewhort and I had stayed in the Circle H Ranch nearly 25 years ago when we first came up.  There’s a famous dude ranch in the valley but more and more there are  these rental cabins, a bit like country Air BnB.  

I’d  not been this way in a long time but loved the terrain and all the little water ways and marsh ponds.  I remembered coming up here with  Tom one time and having a flock of ptarmigan make fools of us as we tried to sneak up on them from several different ways but each time they flew off a little ways when we were still out of gun range.

It was chilly and overcast and a little sprinkle began. I was wearing my jean jacket with a flannel shirt but stopped to put on the fleece I brought back from my IDAA conference in Reno this summer.  Cozy, and I figured good luck too. We say good luck is God acting anonymously.  

When the rain began in earnest I left off hunting and began to hurry back. I was going at 65 km/hour on the country road when I hit some loose gravel and had to keep the motorcycle on the road swerving back and forth while easing on the back brake. After that and imagining lying in the ditch with a busted pelvis trying to reach my iPhone to call Laura to get an ambulance, I kept below 50 which is a safer speed for motorcycles on the logging mains and country roads. I didn’t realize how far I’d gone and was getting colder by the km as the temperature dropped and the rain continued.  There’s nothing like being chilled on a motorcycle.  

I sure was happy to find our camp though getting off the motorcycle I was cold and stiff.  In the camper I cranked on the furnace while Laura told me about the herd of cows that had come over and walked around the camper and picnic table.  She figured they were wondering if they knew who’d we’d barbecued. 

A cup of tea with honey helped but what was magnificent was the Stag chilli Laura made up.  Now that really hit the spot.  The perfect ending for a perfect day. Now we’ve been reading with a candle burning.  I’m reading Judd’s Journey, an excellent western.  Laura is reading a Vanity Fair magazine.  Gilbert is already asleep in his bed.  

Bed sure will be welcome tonight. Bed Glorious Bed. I love my bed.  What a great day in the country. Thank you Jesus. Amen.