Not a transcript...but night one of hunting season

Well, I didn't write last night because it was too dark and I was too hungry by the time I got back to camp. I had headed out to the south of camp, down a ridge, and was planning on meeting up with the meadow at the bottom and follow THAT back up to the wallows. I was worked down the hill in a burned area, hotter than hell in all my gear, and jumped a mule deer buck! What in the world? Why was he out there in the heat? I looked at his bed and he had nestled into the shadow of a large burned log...he could see everywhere from there, but jeez, too hot for me! I continued down the drainage and where this sidehill swamp met the main "swamp" (wet meadow) I noticed that spike from the night before just as he noticed me. This fella was sleeping in one of the only shady, green tree islands, that was around. Exactly why I was moving in it. Well, we did a standoff for awhile and finally he moved up the hill. I backtracked until he couldn't see what I was exactly and moved on.

Obviously, trail creek is all full of meadows and nice lush areas. Too bad most of it is so far from a road. Very pretty and great elk country. I would have liked to see it prior to being burned.

I moved up the meadow and didn't see or hear anything at all. To make a long story short, I thought I got lost. Here it is, nearly dark, the sun a blood red in the sky due to the smoke, and me, not really sure where I was at. I DID end up finding a hill in the distance that I recognized. The only problem was that I realized that hill was about 4 miles from where I wanted to be! CRAP! I'm hot and sweaty already and now I have to hike at least 5 miles to get back to camp? Again, CRAP! So I changed course and walked through some more dead timber toward camp. Finally, I checked my GPS just to see how close I was to the wallow and if I was heading in the right direction at all. I thought I was, by looking at the map, but then again, I didn't think it would have taken me this long in the first place. Sure enough, I was within a half a mile from the wallows and headed in the right direction. I still have somewhat of an internal compass but I'm glad I have the GPS for confirmation. I had been thinking about how much it would suck to spend the night in moist clothes out in the woods. Doable, but sucky nonetheless. Fire restriction my ass! If I start a fire to survive, put my butt in jail! See if I care.

Anywho, I got to the wallows and nothing at ALL had been using them recently. Hmmm, kinda a downer. But I still had about 3 miles to go to camp, so I hoofed it up the hill and made it. Nothing on the ridge at all. I even set up a couple times and heard absolutely nothing.