Well, it’s one of those times when all you can say is, what a day. I was at the ramp and backing down the skiff in the dark when I felt a nudge. Not like I hit something, as I was barely moving, but just a nudge. I pulled forward and looked around and then tried again. When I got started down to the ramp I saw a break between the asphalt and cement. Oh, I thought. That must have been the nudge. I was going so slow the wheel didn’t want to go over the little bump.
I launched the boat, started the engine, and messed around with my backup propane heater. I couldn’t get it lit, so I gave up. I’d just let myself drift off the dock towards the channel with the engine idling. When I put the outboard in gear to take off, there was a sickening “click, click, click, click” noise. I put the boat in neutral. I knew now what the nudge might be. I got the boat turned and paddled to the dock. I raised the motor and my suspicioun was confirmed: I’d bent the prop guard, probably on the guard rail by the ramp, and it was now hitting the prop. I thought I could back the boat by hand up to the water’s edge at the ramp and get the guard off without hauling it out, since no one else was there to launch at this early hour. It worked until, of course, I couldn’t get at the last nut holding on the guard. So, I put the boat back on the trailer, pulled it up, got the guard off, relaunched, and off we go.
That’s when I noticed it- the motor was running totally different. I’ve been very disappointed with my new 200 Yamaha Sho motor. It was burning over 13 gal an hour and I had to get the rpms up to 4700 to get on step, and even then, I wasn’t making 20 knots. Brian has 300 hp outboards and they burn 13.5 gal/hour. I thought I was underpowered now, after replacing the 20+ year old 225 hp Yamaha. But now, I’m running at 3700 rpms and burning less than 9 gph and making 23 knots! It was the guard! Their website says they only cause a slight decline in efficiency, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. What a stroke of luck to ding the guard and have to take it off and figure out that that was my problem and not the outboard.
As I headed to my planned hunting spot, I noticed the wind was wrong to hunt it. So, I was going to go instead to the last spot I hunted 2 days ago. This would be the first time this fall I repeat hunted a spot. I’d seen a fork horn buck there, but didn’t get him. It was a very cool spot with a lonnnnnnnng muskeg with big timber on either side. The lower muskeg sort of transitions from the gold grass and ground cedar to more bull pine on the uphill. In the upper reaches, it narrows to a little corridor of a creek and grass with timber on either side. That’s as far as I got today.
I went in the easy way today, having gone in the hard way my first time there 2 days ago, and learned the easy way on my way out. When I got to my first calling spot, I went to pull my phone out to mark the spot on Onx and …. uh oh. My phone. Be gone. It was a beautiful calm day and the sun was just coming up into the muskeg, which was frozen on the very top. I knew that I lost the phone from beach to this spot, and that distance wasn’t all that far. I knew I couldn’t get lost, as I would stay in this muskeg all day, so I figured I’d hope to find it on the way out.
I blew the call for close to an hour, and nothing. I’d called in a doe on the upper part of this section of muskeg 2 days ago, and it looked so good. There were fresh tracks on the beach. Tracks in the woods. But nobody home. I finally got cold and after putting an orange vest in the tree to mark my spot for the trip down to look for the phone, I continued up the hill.
Walking is such a pleasure now with a new hip and added agility from weight loss. I tell myself I’m going on a hike on these trips, and if I get a deer, all the better. If not, the there will be more hikes to take.
I worked my way up near where I’d called out a buck a few days ago, and called here for about 30 minutes. I got cold sooner than the first spot, and now what to do. The day was so nice, I thought I’m going to just keep going further than I did the other day, and be careful to keep my bearings to get back to this muskeg. I took a compass reading as I left the muskeg proper and entered a corridor of muskeg and woods that lead to new country. A step-across creek was coming down to my right out of a little grassy muskeg, with broken woods and brush all around. I duffed my pack, put a shell in the chamber, got the ear muffs out, leaned the gun within reach against a little tree, and blew the call my standard three times. After the third bleat, I heard footsteps coming. I grabbed the gun and when I reached for the ear muffs, there’s a big buck looking right at me, 10 yards away. Then he just kept on coming. He looked like he was either going to gore me or mount me. A neck shot and the deer tipped over into the tiny creek. Wow. A few moments later, I hear his girlfriend snorting in the brushy timber. I never did see her, but she bounded back and forth for 5 minutes, snorting and wheezing like agitated does do.
After a good amount of practice this year, I was all ready to take care of the deer. I found a nearby tree with a solid branch about 8 feet high, and hung the hoist. I punched my deer tags. Then I cut off the deer’s hocks, gutted him, and pulled him over to the hoist. I tied on the antlers and up he went. Easy peazy. I got the hide off in 5 or 10 minutes, pulled up the full size deer game bag around the hind legs, over the butt, and up to the front legs. I tucked the front legs into the bag, then emptied the main chamber on my pack and pulled the pack up around the deer. I lowered the hoist and worked the deer into the pack. I sawed off the head, put the heart in the top of the meat sack, tied it off, and got it all settled down into pack. I gathered up all my gear that I removed from the pack to get the deer in, and found space for it all in other pack pockets or alongside the deer. I put the hocks and hide and head in a respectful pile next to the creek. Away we go.
I slowly made my way back to the front door of the muskeg. I would rest as needed by bending over 90 degrees at the waist so the pack was across my back, and not hanging from my shoulders. When I got to my vest on the tree where I started, I gathered it up, took one last little rest, and headed down to the beach.
I crossed my track at some places and not at others on the way down. I didn’t see the phone. I made it to the beach, dropped my pack into the porta-bote, then grabbed my bottle of magesium water and drank most of it in the mid-day sunshine. Now to find the phone. I started back up to the muskeg, sort of remembering the trail I took this morning since I was now leaving from the known starting spot where the punt was. I worked my way up the hill and about half way up – there it was!!! What a day. I was soon back to the beach and let Brian know I was out of the woods and on my way home.
So, no photos for this deer, but I have lots of them still in my head.
I launched the boat, started the engine, and messed around with my backup propane heater. I couldn’t get it lit, so I gave up. I’d just let myself drift off the dock towards the channel with the engine idling. When I put the outboard in gear to take off, there was a sickening “click, click, click, click” noise. I put the boat in neutral. I knew now what the nudge might be. I got the boat turned and paddled to the dock. I raised the motor and my suspicioun was confirmed: I’d bent the prop guard, probably on the guard rail by the ramp, and it was now hitting the prop. I thought I could back the boat by hand up to the water’s edge at the ramp and get the guard off without hauling it out, since no one else was there to launch at this early hour. It worked until, of course, I couldn’t get at the last nut holding on the guard. So, I put the boat back on the trailer, pulled it up, got the guard off, relaunched, and off we go.
That’s when I noticed it- the motor was running totally different. I’ve been very disappointed with my new 200 Yamaha Sho motor. It was burning over 13 gal an hour and I had to get the rpms up to 4700 to get on step, and even then, I wasn’t making 20 knots. Brian has 300 hp outboards and they burn 13.5 gal/hour. I thought I was underpowered now, after replacing the 20+ year old 225 hp Yamaha. But now, I’m running at 3700 rpms and burning less than 9 gph and making 23 knots! It was the guard! Their website says they only cause a slight decline in efficiency, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. What a stroke of luck to ding the guard and have to take it off and figure out that that was my problem and not the outboard.
As I headed to my planned hunting spot, I noticed the wind was wrong to hunt it. So, I was going to go instead to the last spot I hunted 2 days ago. This would be the first time this fall I repeat hunted a spot. I’d seen a fork horn buck there, but didn’t get him. It was a very cool spot with a lonnnnnnnng muskeg with big timber on either side. The lower muskeg sort of transitions from the gold grass and ground cedar to more bull pine on the uphill. In the upper reaches, it narrows to a little corridor of a creek and grass with timber on either side. That’s as far as I got today.
I went in the easy way today, having gone in the hard way my first time there 2 days ago, and learned the easy way on my way out. When I got to my first calling spot, I went to pull my phone out to mark the spot on Onx and …. uh oh. My phone. Be gone. It was a beautiful calm day and the sun was just coming up into the muskeg, which was frozen on the very top. I knew that I lost the phone from beach to this spot, and that distance wasn’t all that far. I knew I couldn’t get lost, as I would stay in this muskeg all day, so I figured I’d hope to find it on the way out.
I blew the call for close to an hour, and nothing. I’d called in a doe on the upper part of this section of muskeg 2 days ago, and it looked so good. There were fresh tracks on the beach. Tracks in the woods. But nobody home. I finally got cold and after putting an orange vest in the tree to mark my spot for the trip down to look for the phone, I continued up the hill.
Walking is such a pleasure now with a new hip and added agility from weight loss. I tell myself I’m going on a hike on these trips, and if I get a deer, all the better. If not, the there will be more hikes to take.
I worked my way up near where I’d called out a buck a few days ago, and called here for about 30 minutes. I got cold sooner than the first spot, and now what to do. The day was so nice, I thought I’m going to just keep going further than I did the other day, and be careful to keep my bearings to get back to this muskeg. I took a compass reading as I left the muskeg proper and entered a corridor of muskeg and woods that lead to new country. A step-across creek was coming down to my right out of a little grassy muskeg, with broken woods and brush all around. I duffed my pack, put a shell in the chamber, got the ear muffs out, leaned the gun within reach against a little tree, and blew the call my standard three times. After the third bleat, I heard footsteps coming. I grabbed the gun and when I reached for the ear muffs, there’s a big buck looking right at me, 10 yards away. Then he just kept on coming. He looked like he was either going to gore me or mount me. A neck shot and the deer tipped over into the tiny creek. Wow. A few moments later, I hear his girlfriend snorting in the brushy timber. I never did see her, but she bounded back and forth for 5 minutes, snorting and wheezing like agitated does do.
After a good amount of practice this year, I was all ready to take care of the deer. I found a nearby tree with a solid branch about 8 feet high, and hung the hoist. I punched my deer tags. Then I cut off the deer’s hocks, gutted him, and pulled him over to the hoist. I tied on the antlers and up he went. Easy peazy. I got the hide off in 5 or 10 minutes, pulled up the full size deer game bag around the hind legs, over the butt, and up to the front legs. I tucked the front legs into the bag, then emptied the main chamber on my pack and pulled the pack up around the deer. I lowered the hoist and worked the deer into the pack. I sawed off the head, put the heart in the top of the meat sack, tied it off, and got it all settled down into pack. I gathered up all my gear that I removed from the pack to get the deer in, and found space for it all in other pack pockets or alongside the deer. I put the hocks and hide and head in a respectful pile next to the creek. Away we go.
I slowly made my way back to the front door of the muskeg. I would rest as needed by bending over 90 degrees at the waist so the pack was across my back, and not hanging from my shoulders. When I got to my vest on the tree where I started, I gathered it up, took one last little rest, and headed down to the beach.
I crossed my track at some places and not at others on the way down. I didn’t see the phone. I made it to the beach, dropped my pack into the porta-bote, then grabbed my bottle of magesium water and drank most of it in the mid-day sunshine. Now to find the phone. I started back up to the muskeg, sort of remembering the trail I took this morning since I was now leaving from the known starting spot where the punt was. I worked my way up the hill and about half way up – there it was!!! What a day. I was soon back to the beach and let Brian know I was out of the woods and on my way home.
So, no photos for this deer, but I have lots of them still in my head.