Bad weather hunt ramble for John but no success (long)

[Okanagan]

My goal was to catch migrating mulies in the snow, still in the rut.  This late season is restricted to bucks with four point or better on one side, above the eyeguard.

My hunting ground is a dry area with little snow normally and had 3-8 inches, ideal, but the wind started screaming at dawn and never let up.  The migration follows a broad lumpy ridge 20 miles long eastward to lower elevation.  There is no road along the top but spur roads reach up the flanks in several places along both sides.

Scouting tracks on spur roads gave me clues to the migration status:  Almost no deer up high in knee deep snow; very few deer low; some scattered widely in timber swaths half way down the 20 mile migration route.  Found a pair of lynx tracks several days old down in the low country, too old to try to call and the wind made that a tough proposition anyway.

I opted to try calling a buck in a heavy patch of timber where deer were holed up out of the wind (photo below).  Soft breezes in the thick timber but wind howling in the treetops with trees creaking and groaning made a lot of racket.  At 21 minutes it sounded like a deer snorted quartering behind me upwind, but it was only half as loud as I'd expect, and only once.  No other sound nor visual.

(Added in later edit after more thought:  the snort/blowing sound was probably a lynx.  I've heard it before and each time it has sounded like an odd mule deer doe snort.  I would not connect the sound with lynx if I hadn't watched one make that sound as it approached me on a calling stand.) 



I love to still hunt mule deer in timber but a four point or better restriction makes that a tough proposition also.  I took a strategic nap for an hour and a half.   

For the late afternoon I looped around to the other side of the main migration ridge to check tracks on a road up over the east end nose of it in vast clearcuts.  I don't like the area but spotted a doe in the dusk almost to the end of the road, in violent wind 125 yards above me near the ridge top.  She kept staring to my left, upwind to her, with body language indicating she was looking at a mature buck.  I stayed till dark and stayed on the glass and found three more does downwind of her but never saw whatever she kept stopping to look at upwind.  I'm confident that it was a buck, though it may not have been a western count four point.

Hmmm… only place I’d seen deer.  I decided to park the Skuzuki and sleep right there.  I moved on to a high point 400 yards farther at the end of the road, flipped back the seat and rocked to sleep as violent wind shook the vehicle.  Early the next morning in the pic below. 



Did I mention violent winds?  See tree and grass inpic below.



No deer at dawn.  I did a foot patrol to look into nearby basins and draws.  A lanyard with three calls was around my neck and unknown to me one closed reed call was outside my collar.  When I turned just right the wind blew a blast on it.  I was startled and trying to figure out what happened when it did it again! 

Temp was slightly above freezing.  Due to hard frozen ground underneath that had turned any compact snow to glaze ice overnight, and the trip down the mountain on wet glare ice scared me badly.   The road is a gentle grade in this pic but in order to go home I have to drive down from the photo location to the bottom of the valley, 3000 vertical feet of loops and switchbacks etc.   



Saw no deer and only scattered tracks mostly days old travelling through wind protected hollows.  I considered doing a Snafu downwind hunt on one of the patches of timber.  I’ve tracked deer into such places on that same ridge and never managed to even see one of them.  Two men would have a better chance but I opted to pass on the trek through slick snow on steep bad ground.  The pic below shows a  small patch of timber 300 yards downhill from where I'd seen the does the evening before.  Very slick snow, logging debris and brush on steep ground.  For younger men with more energy than experience.   



I should have put on chains to come down but kept thinking it would get better.  Did a lot of inching down with one wheel in the ditch or in unpacked snow on the shoulder where possible.  Only once the rig got away from me and inching down turned into a wild slalom down an ice road hill and around a bend alternating brakes and goosing the four wheel power to stay out of a gully.   Some places were nearly free of snow due to wind scouring before it warmed up.    I didn't think to take a pic of the road till was nearly down out of the snow in the valley.



Weather forecast was for continued high winds, rain on ice starting in afternoon, which would make for bad conditions through the last day of the season.  There are better uses of time so bagged it and headed home.  In the first semi-open area the wind blew down a 50 foot standing dead pine tree 75 yards ahead of me but its top barely reached the road.  Wind was kite lifting layers of ice and frozen snow crust.  Think I'll make myself another hot mocha to celebrate being home, warm and dry.

[HuntnCarve]

I was wondering if you had chains on?     Holy Smokes!  I bet you had a few anxious moments on that descent.   Glad you made it home.

Dave

[Okanagan]

Dave, I have an unreasonable dislike for putting chains on and one of these days it is going to get me in trouble.  I have chains in the vehicle.

A young man from nearby Kelowna in another Suzuki Sidekick was heading up as I got to the bottom.  I warned him that he needed chains up there because the ice was getting worse by the minute, but I could tell he was patronizing to an old codger whose rig was not lifted with big tires like his.  That reminds me that I need to check whether any hunter from Kelowna is missing!   Wish I'd given him my phone number to call me when he got back down.   

I enjoy hunting but not offroading/bad roading for the sake of it.

[FOsteology]

Geezz, that's some pucker factor for sure. Bet you had one hell of a grip on the steering wheel.... white knuckles!

[Hawks Feather]

I don't know when John will read this, but I enjoyed it.  I was VERY glad that it was you on that road and not me.

Jerry