During the season of 1958, Dale Moore and I made a Saturday trip to Clear Creek off the Grimes Creek road. There are some summer homes located in the area and an overnight place, called the Clear Creek Lodge. We had heard there were plenty of deer, and some elk, back up behind the Lodge in the timber. It seemed like a good place to spend the day.
We were at the area early in the morning for the walk across a large pasture behind the Lodge, to the hunting area. The pasture went up the hill about a mile from the main road and was just short grass. It showed like it was very heavily grazed by cattle over the summer. We wanted to be in the timber by daylight, so we hurried right along. The day was crisp, with the sun shining. A light jacket felt pretty good. It was a beautiful fallday. The trees were beginning to change their colors from green to reds and yellows. There was some frost that morning, but the sun melted it leaving the grass sparkling with little droplets of dew. Dale had dropped off the hill to the bottom of a small creek, while I found a good stump to sit on for a while until he returned.
I may have dozed off for a short nap, when I heard a noise behind me. I slowly turned around to see a nice young doe feeding around the hillside. She had no idea that I was anywhere around. I was carrying my .30-30 Model 94 at the time. I have shot many deer with it and it also is light to carry. I took careful aim to be sure to hit her, with a killing shot. At the kick of the rifle, the doe took a couple of steps, then went down hard. I figured she was down for the count. She was only about thirty yards away. She fell above me so I started up to her. As I neared the place where she had fallen, there was a large log laying on the ground pointing at an angle up hill. I stepped up on the log to be able to see her better, because I knew she was right at the end of it. I was nearing the top, when the deer jumped up and went down the hill past me taking large bounds. I was really surprised, because I did not think she would ever get up, but away she went. I stepped on the slick log, fell on the log, twisted my right knee, and popped it out of joint, from the way I landed. It hurt like all get out, and started swelling fast. It had popped back in place so I could still walk on it, but very carefully. I had to chase after the doe before she hid somewhere and died. I hobbled down the trail she had taken looking had for her.
She had only gone just around a small grove of trees, and was standing looking back at me. She was hurting and seemed confused. I was in bad pain and mad for hurting my knee so early in the season. I shot her squarely between the eyes and knew she wasn’t going any farther. As I started to clean her out, Dale showed up to see what was going on. I was hardly able to walk by now. I was sure glad to have him along, he may have to help get me out as well as the deer. We examined her when we cleaned her out to see why the first shot didn’t do her in completely. The bullet had somehow gone between the ribs on the way in, and came out the same way, not breaking a bone either place. She was torn up badly inside, and would die in time.
Now we had a deer to get to the truck about a mile away, maybe even farther. We dragged her to the top of the hill, which wasn’t very far. I fashioned a crutch out of a tree limb, so I could walk at all by now. Dale would have to get the deer to the truck by himself. We pondered about what to do. The idea came to us of making an Indian travois out of two poles, with cross members on it to lay the deer on. By lifting one end and letting the other end drag. One person could go downhill easily. Dale went along real good, until he started getting tired. We still had half the pasture to cross yet. He thought maybe he could drive up through the pasture the rest of the way to get the deer. He walked down to the truck, which was actually a two wheel drive Jeep station wagon. There was an irrigation ditch running across the pasture part-way up with some water in it and a lot of mud. In trying to cross it, he got the jeep stuck really bad. This really added to our problem. One guy badly crippled, a deer up the hill and we are Stuck deep in mud. The first thing to do, was to get unstuck. We found some old boards and sticks and with the shovel, we finally made it back to dry land, but we were still on the wrong side of the ditch. We did not want to risk getting stuck again, so Dale walked back up the hill, and quickly brought the doe down to the truck. This is what we should have done in the first place. Several hours after shooting the deer, we were on our way home.
We had a lot of problems, but we were happy to be going home in one piece and glad we had a deer in the back of the jeep. We watched for another deer on the way down the creek, but none was to be found. When we reached the main highway, we hurried on for home. We still had to skin the doe and put her in bags. After she hung in Dale’s garage for a few days, we cut her in half. Each of us would cut our half up into steaks for the freezer. We always split our game equally. We have done this ever since we have been hunting together. I hobbled for the rest of the winter on a bad knee, but it healed up with time. The coming fall I would be ready to go hunting, again.