JOURNAL ENTRY-day2)
Coffee and a sit around the morning fire was sure nice this morning.The plan is to head out of camp on a trail and do some scouting. We'd left camp no more than a mile when we cross deer in a bend. One deer is a forky buck and Robin and I prod Charlie to try and use his tag for camp meat. The buck took a couple of bounds into cover while Charlie fumbled to draw out an arrow and put on his glove. We just knew the deer was going to drop into the canyon before the shot. Charlie slowly came to draw as I was snapping pictures. He released and hit the forky directly through the heart at 15 yards.
The buck immediately bailed off the 50% incline and down the canyon. Blood was immense!! 50 yards down the grade we find the buck, took pics, and gutted the deer.
Robin had some rope and we tied all four legs together at the knees to form a shoulder strap of sorts. Me and Robin took turns shouldering the buck and struggled our way back up to the rim above. The calf deep snow and almost verticle ascent was almost impossible. My lungs burned from the cold air and lack of oxygen.
Back at the top we tagged the buck and continued on to scout for elk. The views into Hells Canyon are second to none.
We return back to camp to finish setting up and cut some fire wood. Damn "Misery wip"!
Evening scouting session finds Charlie with three elk in his bino's. We'll find them in the morning. Deer ribs for dinner tonight. Greasy but damn good after a hard days work.
(cont.)