Challenging yet rewarding
2009 proved to be the most challenging and yet rewarding deer season of my life. Everything seemed to be against me except for a little bit of luck and a whole lot of determination. The bad karma started when I could only get three days off from work. That would have been ok except a major cold front came out of Canada and plunged those days into single digit temps. Camping out of my pickup proved to be a test in survival with all my food and water frozen solid. Normally mundane tasks of living became tiresome adventures that left little energy and drive for hunting. To top it off, I had a ‘whitetail-only’ tag but could only get hunt access to muley canyon land. The local farmers had not picked their corn yet so all the whitetails were up on the top flat country staying warm and hidden in the fields.
Finally on my last day, I heard several shots about 3 miles away up on top. I pulled out the topo map and estimated where the shots came from, then made my way to the closest canyon below that area. Finding nothing, I thought my plan was a bust so I sat down to rest before my long walk back to the pickup in fading light. One last time I decided to put the binoculars to my eyes before I called it quits. My buck had been pushed off the top by the earlier shots and was hiding in some yucca grass just like a muley would do.
As I balanced the camera on my pack for the enclosed photo, I realized once again that the taste of success is so much sweeter when perseverance is a main ingredient in the recipe. While this deer is not my biggest, he is certainly my most earned. I’m glad when hunts remind my why I am a hunter.—Scott Townsend, Colorado
| Species |
Whitetail |
| Location |
Colorado |
| Sportsmen |
Scott |
| Age |
35 |
