Heeey SteemIt, do I have a story for you!!!
The last few years I've been away from home and have only gotten the chance to see my family 2-3 times a year due to being in the military. But, this Christmas leave, my dad and I decided to do a backpacking trip and I was fortunate enough to get drawn for a deer tag as well. So, we made it a backpacking/deer hunting trip. Before I joined the army, we would always do outdoor activities together, whether it was fishing, hunting or hiking, almost every weekend!!!
So, we decided that we were going to hike into the Superstition Mountains with our hunting gear, tents and all, and spend the night in the beautiful nature. It was a great father and son bonding experience.
The day before, we both laid out all of our gear and took out things we didn't need, to make sure our packs weren't too heavy for the 30+ mile trip we were going on. We made sure we had everything, and me being the young buck, I had to carry the heavy pack with ALL of the water....
This trip did not start out the way we thought it would..... my dad and I woke up at 3 in the morning, threw everything in the truck, and headed out to the mountains. 30 minutes into the drive, my dad asked if I have my deer tag and hunting license. I looked in my pocket and remembered that I left my wallet at home. Some choice words were said, but we turned around and grabbed the wallet and tried getting to the hunting area before first light to maximize our chance of harvesting a deer.
The hunt began and my dad and I must've hiked 8-10 miles...NO DEER...no nothing. BUT, the mountains were beautiful. And we were completely okay with that. We don't hunt to kill. We hunt to enjoy nature, the trip, and each other's company. After hiking for about 8 hours, a stir in the brush and my dad spotted 3 deer running up the mountain.
That adrenaline rush you get when you see the animal you're hunting...I threw my pack down, pulled my rifle out, got a solid rest and had the deer in the cross hairs. But...they were 3 does. So...I put my stuff back on and we continued to hike towards the mountain we were trying to get to so we could glass up some deer.
We reached the mountain and started glassing and spotted a couple deer. They were all does and very far away, so we decided not to go after them (If you don't know what a doe is, it's a female deer. A buck is a male deer). We decided to call it a night and pitch camp and pull out our freeze dried food out using the jet boiler. We enjoyed a well deserved meal from great Mountainhouse. Boy...did that spaghetti and meatballs hit the spot!!!
I also had a surprise for my dad. I brewed it up the night before. I put some rum in a bottle and added cinnamon sticks and hot tamales to it - I let it soak overnight, and we had Corley Jr. Spiced Rum and we drank it by the camp fire. We sat by the fire, talked about life, while enjoying the bottle of rum I brought.
We hopped in our tents, and slept under the stars. The next morning, we woke up early and started glassing one more time to try spotting some deer. We didn't spot any, but we happened to see one of the coolest animals out there...A MOUNTAIN LION. A true predator and an animal I have a lot of respect for. But, not too good for hunting, because that's probably why we didn't see many deer.
We proceeded to hike into another mountain but still had no luck. We ended up packing up camp and hiking back down the mountains. The hike back was beautiful back, and a lot faster and we got there before last light. But...we did have an encounter with a SKUNK that I was able to outrun before he sprayed me!!!!! All in all, one of the best hunting trips I've been on because I got to spend great time with my dad and it was out in the wilderness. My favorite place - no other place I'd rather be.
Thanks for reading this steemit, I hope you enjoyed it.