After hiking more miles and vertical feet than ever, the season ended too soon for us. January in this part of Idaho brought us less than ideal hunting conditions. We didn’t get out as much as we wanted to. We suffered through seemingly incessant weeks of thick fog, freezing temps, and post-holing crusty snow. It would warm up and thaw out for a day or so only to bring mud so deep that driving through it would only result in making the local paper about the lost hunters who never came back home again. The cold and flu season also ended up taking its toll. About the only productive thing besides a cough was more time to get our new home brewing system set-up.
Looking back, we had four months of great hunting. Angus hunted superbly, verifying repeatedly that he’s in his prime. We saw many miles of new terrain, and spent good times with friends and family. Here are some of our favorite hunting and some non-hunting memories of the 2014-2015 season. Enjoy.
We did some early season grouse hunting in terrain much different than chukar hunting.We camped in the boat for opening day. Despite taking tons of crap we still managed to forget part of the backpack stove, resulting in chilling, extra-gritty cowboy coffee.Angus held his tongue on our coffee debacle.We thought it was a peaceful spot to camp until we awoke at 1 a.m. at a 45-degree angle. We learned that the reservoir water level drops during the night.We ran into a lot of nasty goat heads/puncture vines.We had a couple of cast and blast days early in the season.Angus managed to find the only mud bog for miles.On one of the few hunts with The Kid this year, we crawled on hands and knees under thicket.We did GPS waymarking on every hunt.We soaked our hot and tired feet.We had fun skipping stones.We climbed many steep hills.We drank a lot of water.We constantly checked for cheatgrass.We removed plenty of cockleburs.We sometimes had time to stop and pose for a photo.We spoiled our bird dog.We hunted with brother-in-law, Dave.We tried to teach Angus’s nephew how to drink water.We saw lots of amazing points.We had a great time camping but Angus hated the leash.We did a lot of side hill hiking.We gave a bird away for fly-tying feathers.We hunted with an old Brittany named Donner.We followed lots of tracks in the snow.We had some good post-hunt snacks.We laughed watching Angus’s nephew try to steal our chukar.On Christmas Day, we got a glimpse of two of the last three remaining Brownlee bighorn sheep.We even had Angus stick his tongue out at us (he’s not a huge fan of the boat).Parting shot. Looking forward to next season.
