menhadenman
Senior Member
Mine does too, except she don’t like to cook or cleanMy wife sounds like Miss Esther.
Welcome Guest!
My Wyoming turkey hunting adventure, a musical journey in several parts
- Thread starter Danuwoa
- Start date
menhadenman
Senior Member
Love the pics, keep ‘em coming
livinoutdoors
Goatherding Non-socialist Bohemian Luddite
Good deal man. Way ta push through n get out there.
Great story, man! I'm looking forward to the next installment. That is some beautiful country out there. Are those ponderosa pines?
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
They are. You see them down here every now and then but that was mostly what was out there. Saw the first aspens I had ever seen with my own eyes too.
We have a few aspens up here in the mountains, but they are rare and widely scattered. There is a grove down in the Pigeon River Gorge a few miles from my house.
Browning Slayer
Official Voice Of The Dawgs !
What a story Brad!!
Whitefeather
Management Material
I’m riveted. Keep on going.
gma1320
I like a Useles Billy Thread
This has been a great thread. And an awesome ride along for the trip.
Railroader
Billy’s Security Guard.
Ready for the next episode...
Resica
Senior Member
Great story so far Brad, thanks. My butt was kicked up here last week huntin gobblers in Pa. and I was only putting 4 miles in, I'm getting old. Back up tomorrow night!!
Whitefeather
Management Material
TTT
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
Part V.
I’m ready to go
But I don’t want to leave-Brent Cobb
Goodbye yesterday
Goodbye dreams
I won’t be dreamin
Goodbye memories
Of a love I thought was true
Goodbye yesterday
Yesterday
Goodbye-Billy Joe Shaver
Sunday morning came and with our final day of hunting. We got up to cold weather but the wind that had caused us such problems was gone. We were sure that today was going to be the day. When I got to the kitchen that morning Miss Esther handed me a breakfast sandwich that I woofed down with some black coffee and I hustled to get my stuff together and be at the truck when Doug got there. We drove out to the hills and wound back around to the south as we were just about to where we planned to set up a gobbler sounded off in the timber farther up the hill.
If I had been in Georgia my thought would have been we needed to get closer but that more open country makes that impossible. We stopped where we were and as daylight began to fade in Doug started calling. The gobbler answered but as ever, we soon heard hens. They yelped longer and more persistently than any I have ever heard. Daniel looked at me and just shook his head. We called to a few other turkeys but with similar results. We watched a pronghorn antelope buck that morning as we tried to make something happen. I was beginning to get a little impatient for the first time the entire trip. Today was the day. It was now or never. But the morning passed with what was the least amount of action we had had despite the absence of the howling wind.
After another fine mid day meal at the lodge Doug asked us, “You boys feel like doing some walking this afternoon?” This was just after we had privately discussed whether or not he was going to try and walk us slam to death on the final hunt. We told him we weren’t scared and he told Daniel we were going back into the mountains to a place they had been on his previous trip. Daniel told me I was going to love it. But he also said it was far and the going was rough. That was alright.
We drove a long way deep into the countryside, Made our way back into the mountains as promised, and got out and proceeded on foot. We climbed for a bit before descending down into a beautiful valley with cliffs on either said and mountains rising to the east. This was the stuff you go places like that to see. It had all been great but as far as scenery it couldn’t hold a light to this. I thought of how the annoyances of modern life seemed so small in a place like that. As we continued down into the valley Doug pointed toward a big ponderosa pine next to a rock off on a hillside to the north. He told us about one of his first hunts out there before he had become a guide. His guide and told him to find a comfortable spot as he had to go back to the truck to get something. While Doug waited sitting against the pine he he pointed out, a mountain lion had screamed in the timber on the opposite hill. He said it happened a few more times before his guide made it back. Yep. This was the wild country. This was where I wanted to be.
As we made our way up a ridge we all caught site of a turkey about fifty yards ahead. As soon as we realized he was there he headed for cover and we realized there were at least two more. The one we had spooked had been a Jake but the others were big turkeys and hadn’t been badly spooked. They slowly had made their way up a hillside onto a little knoll. As we were headed in that direction Daniel pointed off to my right and there was the Jake at not much more than forty yards. I shook my head. I wasn’t there for him. Doug seemed to approve of the decision even if he was a little surprised I was willing to do that given the fact that our opportunities were growing fewer. Sat quietly for a few minutes and then slowly made our way up the hillside to where we had seen the other turkeys go. The Jake had long since run off to the south and disappeared in the timber. We wound our way up the hillside slowly looking for those gobblers. We finally made it to a clear spot up on top of the hill that seemed like exactly where they would have gone but it was empty. We there on top of that hill alone.
We worked our way back down and then farther into the hills. Somewhere back there in those mountains I had several of the coolest experiences hunting that I will likely ever have. I’ll describe one of them and will just post post pictures of the the rest as anything I say will cheapen them. Standing there on a mountain side in a clearly Doug was trying to locate a gobbler when we heard something moving in the timber above us. We caught movement and a deer came down out of the trees slowly but steadily coming in our direction. As the doe came closer sever more deer made their way down coming straight toward us. I kept waiting for them to eventually spook and run but that wasn’t what happened. The first one we saw came to within about ten feet of us and looked us over as the other came closer and closer. I whispered to Doug I couldn’t believe they didn’t seem threatened at all. He said, “They never see people this far back in here. They ignorant about humans.” We stood there with these deer staring at us for what seemed like a long time when a turkey gobbled farther up the mountain. We headed that way and when we did the deer didn’t run. They just made their way back in the direction they had come.
As we were climbing toward where we had heard the gobble it happened again and this time he was closer. We stopped where we were and set up. What happened next probably took about ten minutes but it seemed like a lot longer. Doug yelped and the turkey answered immediately. As we looked that way we saw a gobbler blown up and coming through the trees down the mountain, then a second one, then another, then another, and another. All mature gobblers. All blown up. Daniel whispered, “We’re both gone get one, buddy. You shoot first. I’ll shoot as soon as I hear it.” I said as they came toward us that I would shoot one on the left.” The turkeys were in a clearing about a hundred yards from us just up the mountain side. Daniel had a straight line view of them with me a little down slope from them. They strutted and gobbled and strutted and gobbled. The two closest to us would start heading in our direction, then turn and head back toward the clearing all blown up. They did that several times and I thought one of those times they were going to head on to us.
While this was going on Doug would cluck softly to which they would gobble. Danuel whispered he saw a hen. I can’t type what I said but the last two words are “…kidding me?” You figure it out. We still had a good view of the two gobblers we had been watching but in a few minutes the lead gobbler we had seen gobbled in the timber farther down the mountain and slowly the other followed. I don’t know how many hens there were but they slowly pushed those turkeys away from us.
The shadows were slowly getting longer. And I knew that was most likely it. I will say I think Doug could have been a little more aggressive in that particular scenario but that’s the only criticism I’ll make. He did what he thought was best. The gobbles came from deeper in the timber. He tried to cut them off but that country is just too big. We went where Doug thought they would most likely go. It didn’t work out.
We were deep in those mountains and had a long walk out. We got in no hurry but slowly started that way stopping and tying to locate a turkey here and there in a last ditch effort. We eventually had it back to the truck and although it was cold we were all sweating.
We made it back and Daniel had th same thought I did. We went to the one store within miles, grabbed some beer, came back to the lodge and just settled in and enjoyed what was left of our trip. We talked to the other hunters and we all exchanged sad stories and we celebrated with the few that had scored. Me and Daniel tipped Doug and thanked him for his efforts while he sipped a liquor drink and apologized to us. He ultimately told us the snow and cold weather leading up to our arrival had the turkeys about two weeks behind where they normally would have been. We had a good conversation and assured him we were in no way sore with him as he had tried his best. I stayed up a little later that night since we weren’t getting up nearly as early and we had a good time. I was disappointed that we hadn’t killed anything but not too disappointed. I could have killed three different jakes and chose not to and the opportunities had been there. Things just hadn’t worked out. It had still been an instance of me living a lifelong dream. I was ready to see my wife and daughter. But I was sad to be leaving.
The next morning we drive back to South Dakota and ate at the airport, telling stories about the trip, exchanging pictures, and laughing about how even the TSA people in South Dakota were nice. Some fruit pie was sitting in my seat on the plane. I didn’t even say anything. I just told him, “I gotta get by ya, man.” Got in what was supposed to be his seat and shut my eyes for the flight. After a quick layover in Minneapolis we were in the air and headed back to Atlanta. I watched a movie. Some thing with George Clooney were played a bank robber. It was ok but I was mostly thinking about the place I had just left. That wide open wild country. It made me think of a poem my sister read at my daddy’s funeral, Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service. I was never going to stop thinking about that place.
The plane landed before I knew it. We were hustling to get to where we would be picked up and I was soon back at Daniel’s house and my truck where we said our goodbyes. I was soon driving though the dark in the familiar Georgia country side where you can’t see that far even in daylight. Too much thick woods. I listened to Joe Rogan interview Dan Flores as I drove closer to my family excited to see them and happy but a little sad that it was over. As Rogan and Flores talked about coyotes I thought of a huge one we had seen on a hillside my first morning out there and I thought about when I was going back. Not if. When.
That’s it for now. But but you can bet this story is to be continued at some much later date. Thanks for reading…
And my heart is sinking
Like the setting sun
Setting on the things
I wish I’d done
The last goodbye’s
The hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away-George Strait.
The Guardian. At the mouth of the Indian cave.
Me and Miss Esther. The Boss.
I’m ready to go
But I don’t want to leave-Brent Cobb
Goodbye yesterday
Goodbye dreams
I won’t be dreamin
Goodbye memories
Of a love I thought was true
Goodbye yesterday
Yesterday
Goodbye-Billy Joe Shaver
Sunday morning came and with our final day of hunting. We got up to cold weather but the wind that had caused us such problems was gone. We were sure that today was going to be the day. When I got to the kitchen that morning Miss Esther handed me a breakfast sandwich that I woofed down with some black coffee and I hustled to get my stuff together and be at the truck when Doug got there. We drove out to the hills and wound back around to the south as we were just about to where we planned to set up a gobbler sounded off in the timber farther up the hill.
If I had been in Georgia my thought would have been we needed to get closer but that more open country makes that impossible. We stopped where we were and as daylight began to fade in Doug started calling. The gobbler answered but as ever, we soon heard hens. They yelped longer and more persistently than any I have ever heard. Daniel looked at me and just shook his head. We called to a few other turkeys but with similar results. We watched a pronghorn antelope buck that morning as we tried to make something happen. I was beginning to get a little impatient for the first time the entire trip. Today was the day. It was now or never. But the morning passed with what was the least amount of action we had had despite the absence of the howling wind.
After another fine mid day meal at the lodge Doug asked us, “You boys feel like doing some walking this afternoon?” This was just after we had privately discussed whether or not he was going to try and walk us slam to death on the final hunt. We told him we weren’t scared and he told Daniel we were going back into the mountains to a place they had been on his previous trip. Daniel told me I was going to love it. But he also said it was far and the going was rough. That was alright.
We drove a long way deep into the countryside, Made our way back into the mountains as promised, and got out and proceeded on foot. We climbed for a bit before descending down into a beautiful valley with cliffs on either said and mountains rising to the east. This was the stuff you go places like that to see. It had all been great but as far as scenery it couldn’t hold a light to this. I thought of how the annoyances of modern life seemed so small in a place like that. As we continued down into the valley Doug pointed toward a big ponderosa pine next to a rock off on a hillside to the north. He told us about one of his first hunts out there before he had become a guide. His guide and told him to find a comfortable spot as he had to go back to the truck to get something. While Doug waited sitting against the pine he he pointed out, a mountain lion had screamed in the timber on the opposite hill. He said it happened a few more times before his guide made it back. Yep. This was the wild country. This was where I wanted to be.
As we made our way up a ridge we all caught site of a turkey about fifty yards ahead. As soon as we realized he was there he headed for cover and we realized there were at least two more. The one we had spooked had been a Jake but the others were big turkeys and hadn’t been badly spooked. They slowly had made their way up a hillside onto a little knoll. As we were headed in that direction Daniel pointed off to my right and there was the Jake at not much more than forty yards. I shook my head. I wasn’t there for him. Doug seemed to approve of the decision even if he was a little surprised I was willing to do that given the fact that our opportunities were growing fewer. Sat quietly for a few minutes and then slowly made our way up the hillside to where we had seen the other turkeys go. The Jake had long since run off to the south and disappeared in the timber. We wound our way up the hillside slowly looking for those gobblers. We finally made it to a clear spot up on top of the hill that seemed like exactly where they would have gone but it was empty. We there on top of that hill alone.
We worked our way back down and then farther into the hills. Somewhere back there in those mountains I had several of the coolest experiences hunting that I will likely ever have. I’ll describe one of them and will just post post pictures of the the rest as anything I say will cheapen them. Standing there on a mountain side in a clearly Doug was trying to locate a gobbler when we heard something moving in the timber above us. We caught movement and a deer came down out of the trees slowly but steadily coming in our direction. As the doe came closer sever more deer made their way down coming straight toward us. I kept waiting for them to eventually spook and run but that wasn’t what happened. The first one we saw came to within about ten feet of us and looked us over as the other came closer and closer. I whispered to Doug I couldn’t believe they didn’t seem threatened at all. He said, “They never see people this far back in here. They ignorant about humans.” We stood there with these deer staring at us for what seemed like a long time when a turkey gobbled farther up the mountain. We headed that way and when we did the deer didn’t run. They just made their way back in the direction they had come.
As we were climbing toward where we had heard the gobble it happened again and this time he was closer. We stopped where we were and set up. What happened next probably took about ten minutes but it seemed like a lot longer. Doug yelped and the turkey answered immediately. As we looked that way we saw a gobbler blown up and coming through the trees down the mountain, then a second one, then another, then another, and another. All mature gobblers. All blown up. Daniel whispered, “We’re both gone get one, buddy. You shoot first. I’ll shoot as soon as I hear it.” I said as they came toward us that I would shoot one on the left.” The turkeys were in a clearing about a hundred yards from us just up the mountain side. Daniel had a straight line view of them with me a little down slope from them. They strutted and gobbled and strutted and gobbled. The two closest to us would start heading in our direction, then turn and head back toward the clearing all blown up. They did that several times and I thought one of those times they were going to head on to us.
While this was going on Doug would cluck softly to which they would gobble. Danuel whispered he saw a hen. I can’t type what I said but the last two words are “…kidding me?” You figure it out. We still had a good view of the two gobblers we had been watching but in a few minutes the lead gobbler we had seen gobbled in the timber farther down the mountain and slowly the other followed. I don’t know how many hens there were but they slowly pushed those turkeys away from us.
The shadows were slowly getting longer. And I knew that was most likely it. I will say I think Doug could have been a little more aggressive in that particular scenario but that’s the only criticism I’ll make. He did what he thought was best. The gobbles came from deeper in the timber. He tried to cut them off but that country is just too big. We went where Doug thought they would most likely go. It didn’t work out.
We were deep in those mountains and had a long walk out. We got in no hurry but slowly started that way stopping and tying to locate a turkey here and there in a last ditch effort. We eventually had it back to the truck and although it was cold we were all sweating.
We made it back and Daniel had th same thought I did. We went to the one store within miles, grabbed some beer, came back to the lodge and just settled in and enjoyed what was left of our trip. We talked to the other hunters and we all exchanged sad stories and we celebrated with the few that had scored. Me and Daniel tipped Doug and thanked him for his efforts while he sipped a liquor drink and apologized to us. He ultimately told us the snow and cold weather leading up to our arrival had the turkeys about two weeks behind where they normally would have been. We had a good conversation and assured him we were in no way sore with him as he had tried his best. I stayed up a little later that night since we weren’t getting up nearly as early and we had a good time. I was disappointed that we hadn’t killed anything but not too disappointed. I could have killed three different jakes and chose not to and the opportunities had been there. Things just hadn’t worked out. It had still been an instance of me living a lifelong dream. I was ready to see my wife and daughter. But I was sad to be leaving.
The next morning we drive back to South Dakota and ate at the airport, telling stories about the trip, exchanging pictures, and laughing about how even the TSA people in South Dakota were nice. Some fruit pie was sitting in my seat on the plane. I didn’t even say anything. I just told him, “I gotta get by ya, man.” Got in what was supposed to be his seat and shut my eyes for the flight. After a quick layover in Minneapolis we were in the air and headed back to Atlanta. I watched a movie. Some thing with George Clooney were played a bank robber. It was ok but I was mostly thinking about the place I had just left. That wide open wild country. It made me think of a poem my sister read at my daddy’s funeral, Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service. I was never going to stop thinking about that place.
The plane landed before I knew it. We were hustling to get to where we would be picked up and I was soon back at Daniel’s house and my truck where we said our goodbyes. I was soon driving though the dark in the familiar Georgia country side where you can’t see that far even in daylight. Too much thick woods. I listened to Joe Rogan interview Dan Flores as I drove closer to my family excited to see them and happy but a little sad that it was over. As Rogan and Flores talked about coyotes I thought of a huge one we had seen on a hillside my first morning out there and I thought about when I was going back. Not if. When.
That’s it for now. But but you can bet this story is to be continued at some much later date. Thanks for reading…
And my heart is sinking
Like the setting sun
Setting on the things
I wish I’d done
The last goodbye’s
The hardest one to say
This is where the cowboy rides away-George Strait.
The Guardian. At the mouth of the Indian cave.
Me and Miss Esther. The Boss.
Last edited:
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
…it was suposed to end with this but it exceeded limitations put on posts.
There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth—and I’m one…
I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top…
There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will-Exceprts from Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service.
Sometimes huntin
Ain’t all about the kill-Jamey Johnson
Life is an exciting adventure. From the day we are born authority figures try to crush that idea in us. Don’t let them. Go out and live yours.
There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth—and I’m one…
I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top…
There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will-Exceprts from Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service.
Sometimes huntin
Ain’t all about the kill-Jamey Johnson
Life is an exciting adventure. From the day we are born authority figures try to crush that idea in us. Don’t let them. Go out and live yours.
Railroader
Billy’s Security Guard.
Wow.
From where I set Dan-O, you had a perfect trip and adventure. One you'd been waiting a long time for. Spent with good friends, old and new.
Y'all squeezed as much outta that few days as was humanly possible, and your vivid account of the tale proves this.
There was no need to kill a turkey...
From where I set Dan-O, you had a perfect trip and adventure. One you'd been waiting a long time for. Spent with good friends, old and new.
Y'all squeezed as much outta that few days as was humanly possible, and your vivid account of the tale proves this.
There was no need to kill a turkey...
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
Thanks, brother. I surely agree. A turkey would have just been icing on the cake. I’m just thankful I got to go.
livinoutdoors
Goatherding Non-socialist Bohemian Luddite
Thank you for the story! Im glad that place lived up to what you dreamed it was.
Man, what a ride! Thank you for taking us along. Great story well told.
Those petroglyphs would make your hair stand up seeing them in person, I bet.
You'll ride a black tornado across the western sky
Rope an old blue norther and milk it til it's dry
Bulldog the Mississippi and pin its ears down flat
Long before you'll beat ol' Brad's turkey huntin' story......Chris LeDoux (except for the last line.)
Those petroglyphs would make your hair stand up seeing them in person, I bet.
You'll ride a black tornado across the western sky
Rope an old blue norther and milk it til it's dry
Bulldog the Mississippi and pin its ears down flat
Long before you'll beat ol' Brad's turkey huntin' story......Chris LeDoux (except for the last line.)
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
I’ve been waiting to show you those. You’re absolutely right. I’ve got a video of a mountain lion we saw that I couldn’t post. I’ll text it to you. Hair standing on end is right about those glyphs. Just hard to put into words.
