Hunting on the HiLine: Part 3

Many of you have emailed me or commented wondering whatever happened to my antelope tag... Well, first I have to apologize.  I misinformed you all.  I thought the tag expired last weekend, but it turns out I have one more week!  I didn't end up going out on Sunday.  I value sleeping in quite a bit, so I didn't get up early in the morning with Jeff and his buddy, and Jeff had to do work in the afternoon (Yes, farmers still do work during hunting season!)

So as of now, the plan is to hunt and hike pretty hard this coming weekend.  I have told Jeff that I will try to fill my tag.  He has a "monster buck" antelope picked out that I know he would love me to shoot.  We have joked that a nice big antelope head mount would make a lovely Christmas gift to my parents... ;)  The saga continues!

In addition to Jeff's buddy coming up from Bozeman to hunt this past weekend, Jeff's cousin was here as well.  She is interested in learning to hunt ethically and safely and Jeff was a great guide.

Sunday night Jeff and I and his parents were invited to a dinner party in Rudyard. It was hosted by some friends of Tom and Carol in honor of the hunting guests they were hosting.  Seems like around here everyone loves a party and also everyone is very inclusive.

There has been some discussion that perhaps too many licenses are being awarded to this area.  Jeff feels our area is being over hunted and I think it bothers him some to see so many people hunting our otherwise sparsely populated area.  What's more, deer numbers are down this year anyway, but it seems as though numbers of hunters are up.  For people who are harvesting animals solely for food purposes this may not be a big deal.  If you only care about meat, you probably don't want a trophy buck anyway, and I have been told that whitetail meat tastes better.  However, with numbers of animals being down, especially for mule deer, it's probably time for Fish and Game to reevaluate the distribution of tags it awards.

Anyway.  Here's some photos from the hike I took with Jeff and his cousin through the coulees, looking for deer.  The lighting is not great, but I think you will get a sense of what the coulees are like around here.

We were well within bow range of a llama. 

Looking into a large coulee from the road. 

Our descent into the coulee.  Jeff, followed by his cousin. 

We startled these deer up and out of the coulee. 

We never did fill any tags, but it was a great hike all the same.
Here are some swallow nests built into the mud wall of the coulee. 

A fossilized item, probably petrified wood.  

A perfect perch for the nest of a large bird. Eagle? Hawk?

Looking toward another coulee, around sunset.