Hunting update.

So the boys and I headed out for our second, and final hunting trip on Saturday. We got a good start at 6 a.m. and made it out through the dark, rainy weather up the unfamiliar and muddy road to our designated spot. We planned this trip much better and had all our necessary pieces and parts. We hiked a mile out to a canyon where we planned to hunt, and heard coyotes conversing in front and behind us. My younger son was a bit concerned (he said it was eerie) until I said "I pity the poor coyote that comes after us the way we're armed right now!" It really was a cool sound. Much like a higher pitched wolf howl.

We got up to the canyon and we split up. My older son took the north rim and my younger son and I on the south. We got most of the way up when we spotted a herd of deer across from us on the north rim. I looked back and saw Josh behind them. The herd was a good quarter mile away from us, and it looked through my binoculars like there was a buck leading them. Josh called on the radio a few minutes later and I told him to meet us at the end of the canyon. By that time, we had been through rain, sleet, hail and even snow and it wasn't even 10 a.m.!

Josh said that he had not seen the herd and we all sat down to take a break. No less than five minutes later, a doe ran by us about 20 yards down the hill. I told the boys to get ready to shoot and to wait for it to stop. Sure enough, it stopped and turned sideways to us about 200 yards away. I told them to shoot, but neither of them did before the deer ran off. Toby said he forgot to turn the safety off, and Josh said he just couldn't shoot. He said he had too many things going through his mind. I told him that was completely normal, and that if he decided he didn't want to hunt, that was entirely ok by me. He said he thought he could do it next time and that it was just the first-time jitters.

Gosh I love Idaho! The whole time I was thinking how blessed I was to get to do this together with my sons. Even though we are all beginners, it will be something we will be able to look back on years from now and say: "Remember when...!"
Deer or no deer, here's looking forward to a successful 2005 hunting season!