ND Mulies for Team Tricycle

[Scoot]

Last Friday at 3:00 AM I got up to leave for a deer hunting trip. The plan was to meet my buddy Briggs at his land South of Valley City to hunt whitetails for the day, then meet up with my frinds Jake and Gabe for a mulie trip out West. Jake and Gabe had finally drawn their mulie tags after about five years of coming up empty handed in the draw. Jake took a very big 3x4 in their last outting with rifles and they had high hopes on this trip too. The three of us planned to pack into a vehicle restricted area and hunt from a small camp that we'd pack in. Gabe got a new tent/stove set up that we were excited to try out. With the temps that were forecast, we'd likely need the stove to keep our sorry butts warm at night. Below is a recap of the trip. This trip was, for me, a bowhunt, so I've put it in the archery forum. However, it wasn't entirely a bowhunt since Jake and Gabe were hunting with rifles. ...and, it's not over yet. I came home early in the week, but they stayed out there and will hunt until this coming weekend. I'll update you on the hunt as it happened for me, then I'll update you if they orange boys score with their rifles this week.

I met Briggs and we got to his land early. I was up in the tree with almost no light, but before long the sun started to paint the sky and bring the woods to life. There's nothing quite like being in the stand watching the woods and wildlife wake up to a new day.

Before long I saw a lone doe, who ended up bedding down about 50 yards from me. Forty-five minutes later I spotted a doe crossing the field, about 100 yards East of me. Behind her was a buck. I looked the buck over and thought "that's a nice deer!" However, I didn't want to burn my tag too badly, so I was going to be pretty picky. After looking at him when he got a little closer, I realized he was much too nice of a buck to pass up. He was 2" outside of his ears, had very long tines, and was a nice clean 8. He was a rock solid 8 pointer and one that I just couldn't let walk. He tailed the doe in front of me, but they angled away from me and crossed about 70 yards to the South of me. I tried bleating, grunting, and rattling, but they'd have none of it. They eventually wandered SW of me and nevered offered a single good opportunity for a picture.

When I tried to rattle that buck in the doe that had previously bedded down near me came right in to check out what all the racket was about.

Soon after, a frosty-backed buck came in to check out the rattling too. He came in from my left:

Looped around to check out the noise:

Hung out for a while looking for the bucks that were fighting:

...and eventually wandered away, wondering where the heck all of the noise had come from.

That was the end of the excitement for the AM sit. I'll try get my PM sit posted today too, but I'm not sure I'll get to it or not- behind on work after being gone for a few days.

[Wes Ellis]

Thank You Scoot for sharing! I all ways enjoy you advancers!

[sticknstring]

Go get 'em Scoot & Co! Looking great so far!

[Scoot]

That evening I decided to sit in an area that was pretty open- it was a little point that was surrounded by a harvested corn field. Although some traffic went past it within shooting range, there was a good chance a buck would troll by out of range, but within sight of my stand. So, I decided to give a decoy a try in an effort to draw in one of these bucks out trolling for a hot doe.

After a couple different rain showers the deer started coming out into the field.

Soon the doe and fawn I spotted made their way over to my stand location. First the fawn.

Soon both of them were checking out the decoy.

[Scoot]

They wandered between the decoy and my stand for 45 minutes- it was fun watching them. Often they were close enough for me to hear them chewing while they browsed around the little point of woods.

It's too bad I didn't want to shoot a doe because this one had an excellent aiming spot for me!

Eventually the doe made her way over to the base of my ladder stand and was trying to figure out what the foreign smell was.

She startled me a little when she snapped her head up, but I tried to capture a picture of the moment the lightbulb went off for her. It's a little blurry, but I still get a kick out of it.

I saw about 18 deer that night, but nothing I wanted to put a tag on. From there, I headed West. I tried to catch up to Jake and Gabe and finally did so about an hour West of Bismarck. The drive to our desired location went as planned from there. We slept in the trucks for a few hours before we headed out in search of mule deer before sun up.

[DonBo]

It's too bad I didn't want to shoot a doe because this one had an excellent aiming spot for me!

[sticknstring]

I've seen that look a time or two... hehe.

[paceman]

Great recap so far with great pictures!

[Rippinlip]

I am going got keep glued to this, great update to your trip.

Really like the picture of the youngen when she looks up. HAHAHA

[Scoot]

LOL- Don, that's my favorite Far Side of all time!

[Scoot]

Instead of packing in right away in the AM we decided to glass from near our vehicles first. The spot we parked offered a great vantage point to see a lot of good country and I'd seen a lot of deer from there in the past. We were set up in the dark and watched the sun paint the incredible landscape in front of us.

We glassed for about two hours.

We spotted 15 different deer with a couple bucks in the mix, but nothing any of us were too interested in chasing.

From there we decided to head for our camp. We didn't actually know exactly where we'd camp, but we had a general game plan and headed for a particular area we figured we could make work.

Here's our packs, all loaded up and ready to go.

Mine:

Jake's:

Gabe's:

It was rifle season, so we attached some orange to the back of each pack in an effort to comply with the law, and more importantly, to not get out behinds shot!

[Scoot]

We were excited about the hunt and worked our way in to the area cautiously, looking for a good buck as we went. Here are a few shots of us on the way in.

Here's a pic of Gabe doing "The Gabe". LOL

Eventually we made it to our camp site. We followed Jake's Magellan-like directions and almost killed ourselves getting to our campsite! But we made it and we set up our camp pretty quickly. This was our home for the next while.

Once we had camp ready we headed for the ridges and draws we hoped would hold mule deer. Jake and Gabe went one way and I went another. We had about 3 hours of light left.

[NoWiser]

Ha ha.......Don, in 6th Grade I had a sweatshirt with that Far Side cartoon on it. I think I wore it twice a week until I outgrew it! I forgot about that until now. Good stuff.

I always love your ND muley stories, Scoot. Can't wait for the rest of this one. That daypack buried in your Kelty looks vaguely familiar

[Scoot]

That daypack buried in your Kelty looks vaguely familiar.

LOL- I had a a Frankenstien'd set up for this hunt. My good pack was already in use-- it was planted firmly on Jake's back!!!

[Scoot]

One of the great things about hunting from a bivy or spike camp like this one is that once you walk out of your tent, you're hunting. As an example, we once had an elk almost walk into the side of our tent! Another time we saw a 320 6x6 bull less than 60 yards from our tent. So, the minute I left the tent I was in "hunting mode". As it turned out, I hadn't gone a quarter mile from camp when I crested a ridge, looked down the little cut below and to my right, and spotted this.

I crept a little further and realized what had this fellas attention.

I slinked down closer to the buck and eventually got to within 90 yards of him. He was working four different does back and forth and also keeping a little forkhorn away from his gals. The 4x4 wasn't especially big, but I wasn't going to be picky and I really wanted to get a crack at a deer this trip, so I'd gladly take a shot at him if I could make the opportunity happen. He worked the does around, up and down the draw for 20 minutes. Eventually the headed away from me and looked to be heading down the draw. I back-tracked and tried to cut them off. When I crested the ridge, about 200 yards down hill and to the side of them, I discovered they had done a 180 and were now about 40 yards from where I had been watching them from a few minutes earlier! If it weren't for bad luck...

By the time I got back to my original location the group was half way back to where I'd just come from!!! What the??? I decided to just sit tight and see what would happen. The buck worked the does around and continued to keep the forkhorn at bay.

Eventually, the does wandered off one direction and the two bucks made their way towards my location. Unfortunatly the bucks took a different route this time and passed by me at about 80 yards. I let them slip by and at about 100 yards tried to call in the buck. He came closer, then turned and walked away. We repeated this several times. I tried calling several more times with the same results. I popped up my decoy and he started to march right in. However, he once again stopped at about 80 yards away and refused to come closer. Eventually he began to go away from me. Finally, I rattled and tried to call him in more aggressively. This is where it go weird- he got closer, the farther, then closer. Once again he locked up at 80 yards. However, after about 30 seconds of waiting, he finally had enough- he snorted and went on a dead sprint up the hill, into a little meadow about 150 yards from me. I figured the jig was up and he had finally had enough of this silliness. Then, completely unexpectedly, he snorted and did a mule kick, then came straight at me on a dead run. Once again he came to an abrupt halt at 80 yards and refused to come any closer. I called and decoyed for another ten minutes, but he finally lost interest and headed down the draw, never to be seen by me again.

It was a very fun interaction, but the results were less than what I'd hoped for. It was almost dark, so I headed back to camp. At camp Jake and Gabe told me they'd seen about a dozen deer, but nothing very big.

The night proved interesting, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to update you on that...

[Scoot]

I've got a few minutes tonight, so I'll give you the scoop on the night in the tent. When Jake took his sleeping bag out of the pack that night he discovered that his water bladder's bad bite valve had leaked water all over his sleeping bag. Given that that it was a down bag it rendered the bag completely useless- it was sopping wet and there was no drying it out that evening.

Because I've had a tough time staying warm I brought my 15 degree bag as well as a 40 degree bag and a bag liner. I gave Jake my 40 degree bag and my bag liner and Gabe gave Jake his light overbag (a Kifaru Woobie) and Jake was fine that night. It was warm that night, so we were both ok. However, in the morning we discovered Gabe had been cold all night because his sleeping pad had developed a bad leak and he'd slept on the ground all night. Between the soaking wet bag and the bad sleeping pad we had a couple significant equipment failures that had the potential of really screwing up the trip. For now it was no biggie and we hoped it would continue to not be a big deal.

[huntnfish]

I've got a few minutes tonight, so I'll give you the scoop on the night in the tent.

Am I the only one that almost stopped reading at this? I've tented it a few times and was never smart enough to plan ahead and have some sort of cushion. There is nothing you can do on earth to prevent that one rock/knot/root from being directly below your ribs when trying to sleep on the ground.

[Scoot]

I hear ya, Nate- I've been there too. On trips like this the rock in the ribs isn't so much the issue, it's the body on the ground. What I mean is that it's not about being comfortable, it's about being able to stay warm. The ground is so stinkin' cold that it sucks the heat right out of you when you're laying directly on it. A guy wouldn't last very long out there without a good sleeping pad underneath you, no matter how good your sleeping bag is. Some guys will spend money on really good pads with high R value and skimp much more on the sleeping bag- the pads are that important.

[mrklean]

always a great read scoot thanks

[DonBo]

Patiently waiting.........

[Scoot]

Sorry Don- I'm helping family move this weekend so no chance. I'm just taking a break to watch the Vikings so I can get good and mad before we finish up and drive home.

[Scoot]

Sunday morning Gabe and Jake headed one way and I headed out on my own again. It wasn't a very nice morning- in addition to being foggy, it snowed and rained off and on for much of the morning. It made taking pictures and even seeing very far really tough. Here's a picture I took once things really cleared up. As you can tell, it was still pretty tough to see very well.

I glassed and move at least a dozen times this day and couldn't find a thing. I put on a lot of miles and saw quite a bit of new country, but struggled to find any sign of life. Finally, at 1:30 in the afternoon I spotted a couple does in the cut below.

It's tough to see them, but this is a zoomed in shot of where they were.

I watched these does for a long time expecting to see a buck tending them. However, I never did see a buck with them. Eventually I worked my way down a finger ridge and much to my surprise, I bumped into Jake and Gabe.

As you can see, they're Bears fans. They even made me an honorary Bears fan for the trip. I was honored and it was nice to cheer for a team that was only a partial embarassment for a change.

Jake and Gabe had seen about a dozen deer that day, but nothing they wanted to hang their tags on. We spent the balance of the day glassing and moving along together, but never did find a buck to chase.

The tent looked a little different when we got back to it.

We cleaned it off and tuck inside for the night.

[Scoot]

A little more info about our tent and camping setup. Gabe got the tent and stove not long before this trip, so this was the virgin run for this setup. Gabe ran the stove the whole time and it was a learning experience for him and us. Here's Gabe getting the fire going.

As you can see, the fire would stoke up and it kicked out a fair bit of heat in the tent.

Jake was able to warm up and chill out with no problem.

The stove was also our source of heat for boiling our water for making our Mountain House Meals too.

The stove took some serious TLC to keep going and to stay stoked up, but Gabe did a nice job with it. Once he got it going it would kick out heat for about 45 minutes or so. After that, it'd cool off very quickly in the tent. Within an hour or so after that (just guessing), it would be cold to the point of the being nearly as cold in the tent as it was outside.

I knew I was going to struggle to stay warm at night on this trip. I'd spent a couple nights in MT this year really, really cold and I was careful to not let that happen again. I tried to purchase a new sleeping bag for this trip that was both ultralight and very warm. It's a long story, but the guy who I was buying it from didn't get it in the mail in time for me to have it along for this trip. I wasn't impressed by this... So, I ended up bringing my 15 degree Big Agnes bag (good to about 30 degrees for me), a 40 degree bag to put inside my Big Agnes bag, a sleeping bag liner that would add another almost 10 degrees of protection. In addition, I added to my Big Agnes pad with a Thermarest closed cell foam pad. Although it'd suck carrying all of this into camp, I was confident I could stay warm and comfy with all of this.

However, with Jakes sleeping bag wet I gave him my 40 degree bag and my bag liner. With Gabe's airpad popped I gave him my Thermarest pad. This left me with the exact same airpad and bag that I froze my butt off in on our MT trip this year. Worse was the fact that it was supposed to get at least ten degrees colder than I had struggled through in MT. I was in for a long, crappy night and I knew it.

I fell asleep at about 10:00 and woke up a while later. I was cold- very cold. I hoped it was at least 4:00 AM so I wouldn't have to deal with this for that much longer. Inside my bag I pulled my watch up and pushed the light button on it-- 11:58 PM. Oh boy, I was in trouble. I had almost seven more hours of being cold and miserable. I laid there slipping in and out of sleep/wake, mostly being awake and uncomfortable. At 3:00 I dug out six hand warmers and put them in my socks, my pockets, and my hands. I was sure I still didn't sleep anymore after that, but Gabe said I snored from 4:30 to after 5:00, so I must have dozed off for some of it.

I had plenty of time, so I did a lot of thinking. I tried like heck to think my way through how I could get enough stuff to stay warm and not leave my buddies without enough to stay warm too. I couldn't ask for my gear back and leave them frozen, but I was not going to deal with another night like this again. In spite of thinking about every imaginable possibility, I couldn't see a satisfactory solution to the problem. We simply didn't have enough sleeping gear to keep all three of us warm and I refused to ask for my stuff back.

I let Jake and Gabe get ready for the morning and I stayed in my bag. Once they cleared out, I started packing up my stuff. I've never bailed on a hunting trip before, but I decided to pack it in on this trip. I'd leave my sleeping gear for the guys and haul out whatever I could- Jake's wet bag, Gabe's pad, garbage, etc.

[pumper317]

Bummer Scoot! That is tough call to make, but if you have that many more nights with that cold of temps... Its probably worth it for you. There's always next time.

I bought a outfitter tent last year, and the stove doesn't hold heat that well. It definitely got cold, and quick. The tent actually ended up blowing over in the wind while i tried to stake it down. It bent a pole, and we spent the rest of the trip in the trailer we hauled out.

Thanks for sharing, as always, a great read. I hope there are some add on parts with some deer pictures from those guys.

[LABS4ME]

back in the day... We tented it for MN rifle season. My trick with the stove was to place larger thin flat stones we collected on each side and on top. If you ran the stove for a few hours the stones would heat up and radiate warmth for and addl hour or so when the fire died down. I'd usually get up one or twice a night and re-kindle the fire, and it was darn near bearable in that tent. At least better than the outside temps...

Good Luck!

Ken