Last elk hunt of 7 East

Yes, that's right, I'm sick of 7 east. I've never killed an elk in that unit, and lately I haven't had more than a few seconds chance of any elk in the unit. Beautiful country, and we sure can find them before the hunt, but when hunting day is upon us and mountains of people pour into the woods I just can't seem to find them.

First day was nice and overcast, raining with flurries of snow occassionally. We were way to low in elevation up on Babbit Ranch out in the cedars looking for elk. Not cold enough to push them out this far. We ended up on the powerline between 7East and 9, with a handful of tracks going into 9 and none coming out. The road was a mess and a few times I thought we might get stuck, miles from the road and nothing close enough to winch from.

Second day should have been the money maker. We hiked up a huge crater (yeah, I have no idea what the name is, just how to get there. Guess that is what I get for hunting there a lot and never having maps.) and saw some decent sign. After hiking for a few hours the shooting started down around the crater while we were up on top. We were pushing North spread out a mile or so, or at least I was a mile or so from Steve and my dad, who were probably only a quarter mile apart. My dad spotted a nice little 4 point and took him with a few shots from his new Browning semi-auto in 300wm. Nice kill except it was on top of the crater with no roads in sight. In the meantime I'm still hunting around the crater and pushing more elk off of the North side of the crater where several were taken, but it was a nice crisp morning so I shouldn't complain too much, yet.

After meeting back up with Steve and my dad we go around to load his elk. The hike was treacherous to get in and worse dragging the elk out. It was nice for a little bit until getting down some steep embankments as long as we could stay away from the antlers. Then we hit a ravine and couldn't reasonably get the elk back out of it, so we slogged along, step after tedious step dragging this huge elk over rocks and trees, occassionally under trees. Somewhere at this point my dad took off to go find his knife that fell out of his sheath so I get to do it myself :-D. Note, we have mules and horses back at my Grandpa's house. We're still trying to figure out what posessed us to drag this animal off of the crater instead of just loading it on the mule and riding a horse out.

Sunday we rested. Well, and talked hunting with the other people that got drawn. We needed it and were completely exhausted. This is also the day I started missing my family as I wasn't hunting and too tired to do anything but sit around. We did some church-house scouting by talking with Kevin Call and Lorin Peterson about places they had seen them. They suggested going up high on the Mountain so we figured we'd give that a shot the next day.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are kind of a blur. Wake up before dawn, be sitting in a decent looking clearing as the sun comes up. One morning way up on the mountain, one down in the flats, and I think one was in between. We spotted some elk on the in-between day, but just 3 cows and 2 calfs. Would have been an easy shot. I started to get pretty burned out these days, as we worked thickets all day then found another nice looking spot to watch for sun down. No bulls. Just lots of hunters. I was beginning to think I should be doing more road hunting, as that's what most successful people we talked to were doing, but with my big noisy diesel and desire to get out and stalk it wasn't successful.

Thursday I started feeling better. I had called off working thickets and decided to screw around instead. We picked up firewood and pulled trees out of the road (we had been doing that mid-day throughout the hunt). I shot a crow in the head at 140 yards, I'd like to think I was aiming for the head, but just forgot I had signed in at 300 when I squeezed it off. We went up high that evening and got a bit more firewood for my parents, I always like getting firewood. We left my chainsaw back at my grandparents so we just chopped and smashed with the maul and axe.

We did have a great time together, got in some great wheeling in the truck, but I think I'm done with 7 East. It was our third choice! I've never been drawn for a third choice. We were hoping for 6B or 7 West (which we had seen several bulls cross into while driving in in the morning, and talked with some hikers in my parents ward that saw some huge herds in the area). Hopefully next year!

Traveling from the cedars to the high country:


Me and my dad's elk, shouldn't it be mine?:


My dad and his elk, beautiful morning:


Nice shot of my and my beast:


Steve and I in front of my truck:

Hieroglyphics Trail

A few days after returning from the Wind Cave Trail and the family recovered a bit I was able to convince them that we should go hiking again the following week (on the 24th of January). During the week we went and got the kids some Camelbacks (camouflage of course) and tried to get some hiking boots for the girls, but couldn't find any in Kayla's size.

Angie had mentioned the Hieroglyphics trail as another trail that the kids could probably do and wouldn't be too painful for us adults either. Unfortunately on the morning of the hike Jenny wasn't feeling well and had to stay behind. I was contemplating leaving Blake with her, but knew he would love it so I dragged him along. I also figured I could use more exercise to get rid of my gut.

So off we went, relatively early Saturday morning (8:30 is early, isn't it?) out to the trailhead. We were using my bosses book (60 Hikes within 60 miles of Phoenix: http://www.amazon.com/Hikes-within-Miles-Including-Scottsdale/dp/0897325931) but you can also find some good information here:
http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=61

Blake was excited to get back in the backpack, he was pretty excited to be getting outside. It had rained the night before and was still pretty overcast for the whole hike.

Here are the Owensby's with Kayla and Elizabeth at the trailhead.

Taking a break. Kayla can only take so much before needing a rest and Blake was getting restless in the backpack.

Nice glamor shot of Elizabeth in front of the Superstitions :-).

Here we are up near the petroglyphs. Yes, that's right, no hieroglyphics on Hieroglyphic trail, what a shame. It would be a long way for the Egyptians to come just to make some wall art though.


Blake and I near a snake, we thought he was pretty cool.



Nice shot of the Owensby's and my girls near a pool of water.


Elizabeth and some holes used to grind grains I think. Not sure what they are called and I'm too lazy to look right now.

Ahh, the Dutton clan, or most of us anyway. It was a beautiful morning but a little muggy.


I had to get a shot of my cutie Kayla on the way out. Elizabeth ran off with Angie for a much needed bathroom break.

A hiking we will go

This weekend the Owensby's invited us to hike up to the wind caves at Usery pass. This is a picture of the mountain right as we started our hike.
Blake got to ride on Jared's back during the hike. He even fell asleep! All the hikers passing by us thought he was so cute sleeping during the hike.
Elizabeth and Kayla did a great job. Kayla kept telling everyone she was a mountain climber and was doing well because her dad always takes her hunting.
Angie and Steve posing on top. The picture we have of us didn't turn out so well with the light so I didn't post it.
We had a great time and Jared thinks we should make the most of our nice weather and go on another hike very soon.

Congratulations!

I am so excited that you are going to be a dad! Here is you with Kayla not Tank! Maybe I should think of a good name for your kid when he comes out!

This picture is of you with Blake.

And I know that there are way better pictures of you with Elizabeth that mom has, but this is the only one I have of you with Elizabeth. Nice. I know you will be a great dad. Kayla is so excited, when I told her the baby was due in July she told me all she wanted for her birthday was a cousin. So thanks now I don't have to buy her anything. :) I love you guys and hope all goes well.

More Pictures

Well I don't know if my mom just read my recent post but she just sent me a picture of Nick and Blake at Christmas. I was just saying an hour ago how I wished I had one. So I thought I would post these pictures she just sent me.

Christmas pictures finally

We headed up to Flag for Christmas this year. This is our year to spend with the Dutton family, but since both families were in town this year we got to spend it with both. We actually stayed with my family this year since Jared's brothers are currently living with his parents until they can sell their Tucson home. The pictures are a little out of order. We woke up early and opened presents at Grandpa and Grandma Harris's house then headed over to the Duttons.

Joey, Jared's brother wrapped some silly string for the nieces to open and in the middle of opening presents a big silly string attack was launched. It made quite a mess, but fun and unexpected.
Elizabeth made this tin soldier in school this year out of a Pringles can. It turned out great. She also made me a stiching of an apple.
The girls of course got a ton of high school musical dolls this year. I only got them one set of each doll, which was really hard for me to do. Everytime I would go to the store there would be another one on clearance but I would have to tell myslef, "How many of these dolls do these kids really need?" So I would put them down and not buy them. Yay go me.
Blake got some actual boy toys cars, trains, and blocks. Now he wont have to play with dolls and tea sets anymore.
This is Kayla with her two cousins, Ella and Galey. They played great together. Kayla is still excited for July though when she will get a new baby cousin for her birthday. :)
Here are the pictures at my parents house. My parents went to Disney World a few weeks before Christmas and were able to load up on some great High School Musical merchandise! Towels, journals, games, dolls, and puzzles. We are well stocked.
Here is the cute BYU coed.
Blake loves his Grandpa. He always wants to be held by grandpa. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of Blake and my brother Nick. Nick was the supreme play mate, he would throw Blake all over the place. Im sure when we left Nick took a huge nap because Blake played him hard.
I told you the pictures were out of order. Here are the kids on the stairs waiting to come down Christmas morning. I think this picture is funny because the kids are really happy and ready to go and Jared looks like he needs to go back to sleep. We had a great time. Blake acutally slept all night long this trip, at least I think he did, if he didn't I didn't hear him. :) Now we are back home and school has already been going on for a whole week. It has been tough to get back in to our rhythm of waking up early and doing homework. We are still trying to find a house after a year of searching and hope to actually have one by the time Christmas rolls around next year. We will see. Happy 2009 everyone.

kitchen helper

I thought I would make the girls chocolate chip cookies today for when they got home from school. Blake wasn't being very cooperative so I put him up on the island to help me. I had creamed the sugar and butter together and was starting to add the dry ingredients, when Blake decided he would help me. He grabbed the teaspoon and started to add some sugar. So I told him "no", but of course my children do not listen to me so he continues to add more sugar. I promptly removed the sugar from the island, while I was doing so he dumped half a box of baking soda to the dough! I was not very happy! So I scooped out a quarter or so of dough and threw it in the trash. But now I am not sure how much more flour to add since I have thrown out some of the dough, great. I add about a cup more and call it good. Well as you can see from the picture not much about these cookies turned out right. They got nice a crispy brown on the outside and gooey and undone in the middle. Oh well Jared and the kids still thought they tasted fine.