Hunting Trip #4 - "Oh well..."

So Friday night, after deciding that I couldn't find anyone to go hunting with me this weekend, Devin decides he will come. So we go to a service/party thing and then we get ready to go hunting. We leave at about 1AM. I go to the store, buy some chains for my truck (you'll see why in a sec) and some water and we are off.

We arrive to the bottom of the mountain about 5:00am and we begin our climb up to the top. We saw some deer on the way up but it was too dark to make out if there were any males in the group. by 5:45am we hit the heavy steep roads and it starts to get slick, muddy, and really foggy. We hit the spot where last weekend we couldn't pass because of the snow and we pass it just fine (the snow has melted a little). But it continues to get worse as we climb. We finally hit the worst part and we had to get out in the 30 mph winds and icey fog to put on chains on the steep road. They work and everything goes well and we reach the top of the highest mountain at 6:20am.

We take a little nap until it gets light enough to see and with teh fog that took a while. We then started driving around in the fog until it finally started to break up a little and we got glimpses of clear meadows every 10 minutes or so. The wind was still blowing so hard in the fog. I think we were just in a storm cloud at about 9,500 ft in the air. It was so cold and windy that ice began to acculmulate on the antenna of my truck. Ice storm... In the glimpses of clear meadows we finally we about 15 head of deer at the top of a hill about 300 yards away... no bucks, all doe's.

We continue all day and see about 20 more head of deer...all doe's. By the afternoon we had driven a ton and seen only females and so we decided to head down the mountain to the bottom until we got cell phone reception and call a friend of my boss who has private land nearby. He told us that if we didn't get anything in the mountains that we could go down and shoot a spike buck that frequents his alfalfa fields.

On our way down the mountain we get stopped by a fish and game warden. I forgot to unchamber the bullet from my gun and he caught me. So he issued me a citation considered a class B misdemeanor. I guess you can have ammo in your gun in the magazine but in a vehicle you can't have a bullet in the chamber ready to shoot even if the safety is on. I thought that once you hit hunting forest roads that rule didn't apply. Apparently it does. So after no sleep for 36 hours and a citation, I wasn't in the mood to finish out the hunt shooting the spike so we headed home. What an unsuccessful and expensive hunting season this year.

The citation has the potential of giving me 6 months in prison and up to $1000 in fines. So I guess its pretty serious. Oh well...

Tonight I was thinking about what could be my new hobby. Hunting is only one month a year and many times does yield results. I have spent a ton of money on hunting and have nothing to show for it except for a criminal record...so hunting is out of the question. So I figured it out! I need a hobby that always yields returns every time I do it. I need a hobby that I can feel like was successful even if you don't "bag that deer." That new hobby is....... Extreme Dating! hahahahahaha

So I realized tonight in an adult session of stake conference that my new hobby is going to be extreme dating. I am thinking about moving to another apartment complex again this winter semester. So I can practice getting good at extreme dating until then and when I move, I will be a professional. I have nothing to lose except money and I don't have much of that anymore either (most likely the fine associated with my citation will take all of that away now too). When people ask me, "hey so what are your hobbies? What do you do for fun?" I won't be saying hunting anymore. I will just say, "Dating." haha