Originally, I had planned to go check out the Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility a quite nice looking shooting facility north of town. I haven't been there yet, and it seemed like a nice thing to do with a Saturday. Long about Thursday though, my boss asked me if I might be interested in going grouse hunting. Even after he told me Friday afternoon that he couldn't go, the idea continued to rattle around in my head, eventually replacing the idea of punching holes in paper.
Confession time: I'm not much of a bird hunter...but from my understanding of grouse hunting, it's not much like other bird hunting. Most grouse hunting(in my circle at least, I can't vouch for everyone) consists of driving the back roads, spotting the grouse on the sides of the road getting gravel in their gullets, and popping a cap in them. Not very sporting...but you don't need a dog, and grouse are EVERYWHERE.
By Saturday morning, what it really came down to, was the idea of grouse hunting, not so much for the sake of actually taking a grouse, had taken over my mind instead of going to the gun range. It was also one heck of a great excuse to head out to the east, and do a little more exploring in the Blue Mountains. I had only made other trip there, a months ago with my boss and one of my other co-workers. I figured I would get up in the hills a bit, cruise the dirt roads, get out and walk around, holding a gun so I could justify it by saying I was hunting.
From that point of view, it was a very successful day. From the point of view of did I bring home a grouse? Nope. I did see one...missed it though as it was flying from tree to tree. Truthfully, I would have been WAY impressed if I had hit a grouse in the air with my Ruger Mk II. In addition to the one grouse, I saw about 7or 8 pheasants in the low lands as I was heading to the Blues, but I didn't buy a small game license this year. Of course, since deer season is over, I also saw a pretty little 2-point mule deer buck. His alarm clock must have gone off telling him it was okay to be out and about.
I might have had a more successful day, but I guessed WAY wrong on where the snow level was going to be. I had hoped that when I got up to where I had gone on my previous trip to the Blues, I would be flirting with the snow line, and find nice little pockets of snow. Instead, I found 6-inches of snow, and quite...thrilling conditions to drive in. Rather than spending a few hours criss-crossing the mountains, I parked and walked around in the snow for a bit. Heck...I made a snow angel, and enjoyed some beautiful views. If my cell-phone camera took better panoramic style pictures, I would have taken a few.
When my feet got too cold, I piled back in the truck and headed back in to the town of Dayton for lunch. Found a cute(yeah, I said cute...you wanna make something of it?)brew-pub, that really deserves a post of it's own...then I made it back to my apartment with plenty of time to watch 'Kick Ass' before snuggling in for a good nights sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment