Wednesday:
Yup, Wednesday! A retry of last years Great Alaskan Adventure is underway since little snow is on the ground and none forecasted! Select members of the gang decides to hunt a few days prior to the normal Friday gathering. Toucher and Leaddog arrives to a once again balmy 6 degree morning to find where the mules are, or not. After warming up the camp, a decision to hunt a local hill is in order. Both trod to the “lowlands” and hunts up the hill showing the Toucher new and mystical lands and hills not known to him before – where they find areas of feeding mules based on last weeks observation of beech and acorns in the target area. Beds, scrapes and rubs are also seen, exciting the duo as they roam the woods. Early in the hunt, a doe is seen slowly exiting the area, and a bit later one is pushed right to Toucher, who had his Super Secret Scent Sauce on, 10 steps away it was….both inform the arriving crew later of where the gang should hunt on Thursday.
Thursday:
Nope – not today! The decision to wait to extract a mule from the re-conned area is put on hold until ALL of the crew is in camp. A hunt up the creek and back on the other side is tabled. Watchers run to their spots as the drivers gather at their starting points. The drive is performed with precision, but no mules are present in this area. Tracks are seen, a few scrapes here and there, but we know where they are hiding!
Friday:
Back to the area of interest. Since it was determined that the Toucher hasn’t bagged a mule in some time, he’s now allowed to be a watcher. He takes command of Leaddog’s watch, where two mules have been taken prior. All as usual scrambles about to get in place to start the drive, when at a few minutes before noon, two shots are heard from the notch in the area of the watchers, with an announcement “this is how we do it!” by the Toucher. Digger on the high watch sees two mules sneak between the Toucher and him, one confirmed flattop and the other unknown. As you may figure out at this point, the unknown was a heavy beamed six weighing in at 150lbs! The drive continues, nothing else with horns is pushed to anyone. Finally – the pressure is off the gang! Most gets their maintenance CHU’s for the Friday Afternoon Men’s Hiking Club requirements.
Saturday:
Now that the Toucher has regained his driver status, which by the way was one of the shortest stints as a watcher by anyone, a recon of a local ingress route with an associated drive back to camp was agreed upon. The precipitation event of Halloween has washed out the road in several places, where repairs are unlikely for some time to come. This will keep some of the riff-raff out of the area, but a few hardy souls persist in their chase as evidenced by their two mile slogprints in the snow. No antlered topped beasts are seen in this area as well. Th gang returns to a most wonderful mule steak feast!
Sunday:
A retrace of the killzone results in does being pushed about, Beds’n Tracks, Beds’n tracks, Beds’n Tracks…..apparently the “vacancy sign” is still up! Hopefully this will change by the weekend.
