Well Christmas Day found the wife and I together for the first time in ten years.
Usually one of us, me, is at work on that day. This year turned out different because I took Annual Leave to spend the day with my wife and four dogs. She has a tradition of going for a hike on Christmas, with the dogs, and getting out in the snow. It doesn't often snow around our house, and never sticks, but the 9,000' mountain outside of town gets snow.
So anyway, with my being off we bundled up and left the house early in her FJ Cruiser, leaving Bethula, my truck parked in the front yard. The wife has a favorite spot she likes to take the dogs up there and we've hiked it together before just not on Christmas. As we were hiking, enjoying God's great beauty, and just enjoying being together I was casting for sign. Found some too. Not as prevalent as the area I usually hunt but vastly different terrain too. If I ever decide to hunt stick and string for coues deer I'll get a tag for this area.
During our hike I located two year-round waterholes and tracks in the snow, as well as topo maps, confirmed it. Being so close to home I could get some hunting time in after work for an hour or so before the sun goes down. Being so close to town the local animals are used to human presence but it's not like shooting fish in a barrel. I've found deer on that mountain before but it can be tough. It's easier than my usual desert terrain though.
I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas. The wife doesn't hunt but does enjoy getting out and I got to spend the day with the lady I love the most and get some scouting in. I was really scouting for mountain lion sign but didn't cut any tracks. For the deer that's a good thing. :grin: Then we came home and had antelope chili from the last of my 2012 antelope from my WY hunt.
Vince
Usually one of us, me, is at work on that day. This year turned out different because I took Annual Leave to spend the day with my wife and four dogs. She has a tradition of going for a hike on Christmas, with the dogs, and getting out in the snow. It doesn't often snow around our house, and never sticks, but the 9,000' mountain outside of town gets snow.
So anyway, with my being off we bundled up and left the house early in her FJ Cruiser, leaving Bethula, my truck parked in the front yard. The wife has a favorite spot she likes to take the dogs up there and we've hiked it together before just not on Christmas. As we were hiking, enjoying God's great beauty, and just enjoying being together I was casting for sign. Found some too. Not as prevalent as the area I usually hunt but vastly different terrain too. If I ever decide to hunt stick and string for coues deer I'll get a tag for this area.
During our hike I located two year-round waterholes and tracks in the snow, as well as topo maps, confirmed it. Being so close to home I could get some hunting time in after work for an hour or so before the sun goes down. Being so close to town the local animals are used to human presence but it's not like shooting fish in a barrel. I've found deer on that mountain before but it can be tough. It's easier than my usual desert terrain though.
I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas. The wife doesn't hunt but does enjoy getting out and I got to spend the day with the lady I love the most and get some scouting in. I was really scouting for mountain lion sign but didn't cut any tracks. For the deer that's a good thing. :grin: Then we came home and had antelope chili from the last of my 2012 antelope from my WY hunt.
Vince
