One evening, while sitting around chatting at Uncle Lewies Drury, Harry Marlatt, LeRoy and I came up with the idea of going hunting for deer above Idaho City to Illinois gulch for the weekend. This was a good idea, so plans were made to go the following weekend. LeRoy wanted to take along his donkeys to pack any deer we might find and shoot, back to camp. Uncle Lewie would drive his truck and pull the trailer with the donkeys, while Harry and I would take his pickup loaded with camping gear. A tent would be used to sleep in since it was early fall, and the weather would still be warm.
We left home early Friday evening to camp, before it was dark. We really did not have the foggiest idea of where we were going. Uncle Lewie seemed to have been in that area years before as a young man. We found a road on the map which would take us to Illinois Gulch, which is where we wanted to go, if we could find the right turn off. There was an old side road off the main road that dead-ended back in some trees. This would do for a campsite. We put up the tent and fixed a place for the donkeys just in case a storm would come in unexpectedly. Some clouds were hanging over the high hills. With a comfortable camp set up and a good supper, we retired to the tent to get a decent night’s sleep, if possible. We were roused out of our sleeping bags before the sun came up by the ringing of the alarm clock. A good breakfast of bacon and eggs was fixed over the gas camp stove.
The clouds had dropped lower on the hills around us, and a light rain was falling. We would go hunting anyway as long as it was not pouring down. The donkeys would stay at camp, until they were needed. We all took off on foot to find a deer somewhere up the hill. We felt confident that there would be some deer in a large grove of aspen trees above us. Part way up the hill, everyone spread out to cover more of the area.
Uncle Lewie was going through the center of the aspen grove, when a large doe walked out in front of him. Being a good shot, he killed her the first try. We were not far from him; therefore, we went over to help him dress her out. She was hung up in a tree to be picked up later, with the donkeys. On up the hill we went looking for more deer.
I was walking along a good trail when I broke over a small ridge so I could look across a tree filled draw. About a hundred yards away, I spotted a doe standing under a small pine tree on the same trail I was on. I kneeled down for a steady rest to take a shot at her. The first shot seemingly missed because nothing happened that I could see. I was using my new .30.06 rifle I had purchased and knew it shot straight. The next shot the doe jumped in the air, as if either I hit it or just scared and went up into some thick brush. It seemed to be limping very slightly. Not wanting to lose her, I quickly started over to where she had last been standing. About then, Harry showed up beside me. We hurried around the trail to the place where the doe was last seen. To our surprise there was a two-point buck lying in the shadows beside the trail, dead as could be. He must have been standing behind the doe out of sight, when one of the bullets hit him squarely through the heart. This buck was not going anywhere. The doe should be in the chaparral above the trail. We went into the brush to l○○k for her not knowing if or how bad she was injured. We had not gone far, when outran a deer. If this was the same doe, we were sure it was. She did not run like she was wounded at all. We couldn’t even get off a shot at her and she was gone in a flash. The thought came to us that this was not the same deer, but we could not find any signs of another deer anywhere around. Oh Well. Back to the buck to get him dressed out. There was a small pine tree nearby that we could hang him in, until we could get back with the donkeys. We had to come up this way to get Uncle Lewie’s deer also. The flies were not a problem, because of the weather being fairly cool and also it was cloudy with the possibility of rain coming in at any time. The four of us got together soon after shooting the buck and decided to head back to camp. As we l○○ked around to see which way camp was, a thick fog bank was settling in around us. We surmised camp was right below us. How wrong could we be? Just before we started out, I thought about going over to where the doe was hanging, but the other guys were sure where we were, so I followed them down the hill in the wrong direction from camp, like a dumb old sheep. We walked out from under the fog and suddenly realized we were going down a ridge away from camp. The terrain showed us exactly where we had to go. There were three or four large ridges between us and camp. Some rain was falling now, which made walking that much harder because we were not prepared to get too wet. Several hours later we finally staggered into camp, wet, cold, and tired. Darkness was coming on fast. There was no time to go get the two deer we had hanging in the trees, that night. I fixed a good supper of meat and potatoes, with a large pot of hot coffee. We were completely worn out from the extra walk we had taken. Bedtime came early that night. We did not even bother to play our usual game of pinochle.
After breakfast the next morning. LeRoy put the pack saddles on the donkeys to go after the deer. We followed the same route as we had taken the morning before and walked right up to the deer. We also found where we had crossed the trail, we should have taken when the fog moved in on us. We went at a right angle from the camp.
We wanted to hunt a little more for Harry and LeRoy to find a deer. I wanted to 1○○k around for the doe I had shot at when I killed the two-point buck. She was not anywhere around so I assumed if she was hit at all, it was just nicked a little. After a couple of hours of hunting and finding nothing, we decided to get together with LeRoy and the donkeys, to take deer back to the camp. It only took the donkeys about an hour to get to camp with their loads, it was downhill all the way.
Time had passed fast, and it was afternoon, already. Nothing else to do but pack up and head for home. The clouds had opened up to let the sunshine through for the afternoon. Everyone was happy we at least had two deer to take home. They would be split up between us and each of us would have meant for the freezer. Harry and I let LeRoy and Uncle Lewie go ahead of us on the way out in case they had any problems with the truck or the donkeys. We would be close by to help. We didn’t really expect trouble, but we try to be available if something does happen. Harry and I were behind about a half a mile when we topped a ridge overlooking a large valley.
Suddenly, we caught a glimpse of a shine off a deer antler down in the valley. The distance must have been at least 500 yards or maybe more away, it is hard to judge distance, looking downhill. Anyway, we came to a sliding halt to glass the place that the shine had come from. It was a very large buck but too far away to really be sure of the point count. Harry still had his tag; I had used mine on the two-point the day before. So, it was up to him to try to hit the buck standing so far away. Harry had a .30-06 Springfield rifle, and we knew it would reach that far fairly accurately. I was the spotter to tell Harry where he was hitting. After four or five shots, one bullet must have hit pretty close to him, and away he went. It did not take him long to be out of sight, which was g○○d. Should Harry have hit him, we would be on our own to get him to the truck. LeRoy was ahead of us with the donkeys, and we did not know if they had heard us shoot or not. We caught up with LeRoy not far down the road. When we fell behind, they stopped to wait for us to catch up just in case we had had problems. We told them about shooting at the big buck, but Harry could not hit him. That would have classified as a problem had he hit him. The rest of the trip went well. It was dark when we arrived home. We hung the deer in Harry’s garage so we could skin him out and get him bagged, after a few days of hanging to age, we cut him into steaks for the freezer. LeRoy and Uncle Lewie would take care of their deer, on their own. They usually share any game between them anyway as do Harry and me. This was a g○○d trip and we had a great time as usual. We all get along great and enjoy the outing and will be going again soon.