We put 40 pounds of water in big old Ivar’s pack in heavy duty camp shower bags, plus three more liters in aluminum bottles in addition my 3 liter bladder and Katie’s 2 liter bladder. All totaled we had 184 pounds of gear, plus a little extra with the muzzleloader, and some gear we kept in our own packs and never weighed.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

We packed in on to Slow Cow Ridge the day before the season opener, with plenty of time to set camp and settle in. As we packed in, we found out that the cattle pond on this side of Thompson also had a spring feeding a tire tank and then feeding the pond with overflow. This was a much better water option for us and the goats if we needed any more than we packed in.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

We didn’t have a great view of Thompson Ridge, just the top 100 yards or so as it was more heavily timbered, but we had a tremendous view of all the ridges coming off the south face of Rough Ridge.

Rough Ridge
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


That night we glassed up two nice bucks from around 1000 yards away on one of the lower fingers of Rough Ridge and Tommy’s Creek. As Katie watched those deer and a few other does, I decided to use the final minutes of daylight to go back toward Thompson Ridge to glass. When I got up with goats, the bucks all ran for some reason. I refused to believe it was because of us at that time.

Camp shots

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

….


"For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks ... the horn of the hunter never winds at all" Robert Ruark, The Horn of the Hunter