Spring Hunting

In a couple weeks my friend and I have our turkey hunt. I decided I needed to get out this weekend and put some miles in to get ready for the hunt so I went to a secret spot of mine a little over an hour away. My morning didn't have the best start. I had packed everything the night before but when I made my trips to the car I forgot my long sleeve shirt on the table. Yeah it was only slightly chilly in the morning, being April, but I need the sun protection too and sunblock doesn't go well while hunting predators that can smell you a mile away. I didn't realize I forgot my long sleeve shirt until I got out of the car.

Due to some back problems that I've had since I was 19 I have to haul a chair around with me or my feet go numb while I hunt. I got to my first spot where I shot a coyote in October 2016. Back then I was sitting in this chair and my call and decoy were down the hill. A coyote had come up behind me and I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head and couldn't believe a coyote was sitting there 10 feet away from me looking at my decoy trying to decide if it wanted to commit to it. I had my .223 in my lap and my shotgun on my side. I was going to try to reach for my shotgun but the call stopped. So I slowly reached for the remote and started my call back up. After another minute or so the coyote finally decided to commit and started down the hill. I reached for my shotgun and the coyote must have seen me out of the corner of my eye and turned and bolted. 

I put the shotgun down, grabbed my .223 and ran up a hill. By this time the coyote had gone up this hill, down the backside, crossed a wash, up another hill and was behind a big cluster of cactus. I had my .223 ready and as soon as the coyote came out the other side of the cactus I pulled the trigger and watched him go down. Following the shot I heard a few loud yelps. Without paying attention to a landmark I headed towards the coyote. I realized when I got up the hill I should have paid more attention to where I was going. I spent 20 minutes looking for the coyote and it was pushing the mid 90's so I had to leave. Had I gone another 50 yards I would have found it. Back to that in a minute. 

After an hour at this spot yesterday I called nothing. So I did some more hiking but got tired of carrying both my rifle and a chair. As I headed back I found a nice 4 point deer spike. Shortly after that I was next to my first spot when a jack rabbit came out. I had the chair in my left arm still but decided to take a shot at 90 yards. Due to the chair in my arm and the fact I had my 30 06 I got a lot of recoil and the scope went black but I saw a cloud of fur. I did the same thing as with the coyote last year. I forgot to get a good landmark and the terrain is really tough there. After a few minutes of pacing back and forth on the ridge I found my jack. Apparently I hit the heart and must have blown up a rib because a piece of frag pierce the ear and the bullet blew out the mouth. 

A couple minutes later I headed down the hill and saw another jack rabbit at 60 yards. Again chair in hand I took the shot and didn't see anything move so I figured I had to have hit it. On the way down the hill I got distracted so it took me ten minutes to find the rabbit. Yes at just 60 yards the terrain is so tough it took me ten minutes to find it. This area is full scrub land full of hills, rocks, washes, and it's just really rugged. When I found my jack I was surprised that I had split it in half. 

So back to the distraction. On my way to find this jack I found the coyote I shot in 2016, just 50 yards down the hill from where I shot it. Friends and family were mocking me that this coyote got away but I told them there is no way that thing could survive a solid shot from a .223. Then people say well how do you know it's your coyote? I do a lot of hiking, a lot. I have never come across a coyote skull yet. I have found spikes, deer skulls, a full javelina, donkey, but never a coyote. What are the odds of finding a coyote skull under a small tree 50 yards from where I shot it? You can tell by looking at the skull it is about a year and a half old. I have no doubts that is the coyote I shot. Had I just walked down the hill that day I would have found the coyote bleeding out under a tree. I was looking for a blood trail to follow that day however sometimes it takes a while until they start bleeding so there was no blood trail to follow.

So I didn't call any coyotes in yesterday. Sometimes they come right in sometimes they don't. I still had some fun and confirmed that my 30 06 is dialed in tight even after a back packing trip with it. If I can hit a jack at 90 yards I can hit anything so I'm ready for my next hunt.

My first jack.This one got the heart shot, a pierced ear, and blown out mouth. The second jack is too nasty to post on here.

 My coyote skull. You can see there is still just a tiny bit of flesh on it. Everyone one of it's teeth has vertical cracks for some reason.

 My second jack at the bottom of the pic. I have a picture of the whole thing but again, it's really nasty.

 The spike I found.

Cornville

Last week Natalie's sister was visiting from Vegas so we decided to take out the trailer for the weekend. I tried to get a spot in Sedona but everything fills up several months in advanced so we ended up going just southwest of Sedona to Cornville. I found this RV park that was cheap, on the water, and close to Red Rock so I thought it would make a good second trip in our trailer.

When we got there the first thing we noticed is that they cram these RVs in like sardines. I didn't think I was going to be able to park. Lucky for me a friendly drunk neighbor came over and guided me in. My first attempt I had parked perfect, so perfect that when my slide out was fully open it was 1/16 of an inch from the electrical box. However the back end was too high because of the drop-off by the creek so I had to move the trailer and bring it up. Note to self, get bigger blocks. So about the friendly neighbor it reminded me a lot of that movie RV, which I didn't find all that funny. I was trying to figure out how to set up my bar-b-que and this guy kept coming over and talking and invited us over for game night, which we didn't do. 

I was supposed to go hunting the following morning by that first night my back was killing me so I decided to stay in bed. We ended up going to Sedona and tried to go to Crescent Ranch but it was already full. So after a quick drive through town we went back to the trailer for lunch, let the kids swim in the creek while we watched some deer come down the hill, then visited a couple wineries. I enjoyed checking out the wineries but I absolutely hate wine. Everyone says I just need to find the right one but there is no right wine for me. I tried a couple sips of different wines and hate them all.

The next morning I took the kids for a hike then we headed home. It's a good thing we have done a couple small trips before the big one because there are things I never thought of that I need. For instance this campground had electric and water on site but no sewer. Black water takes a while to fill up but the grey fills up pretty quick and trying to get to the dump station isn't a good option when parking is that tight. My dad found me a good solution, a cap for my sewer pipe that a garden hose can connect to for grey water. I'm sure this will be useful when we are dry camping in Colorado. 

Although this park was jam packed it was pretty decent. It was still quite and we parked right up on the creek. Next time I'll be more prepared. Another group had chairs and were sitting in the creek while their kids played. An easy up would be useful as well. There is a nicer park down the street but it cost double what this one cost. Either way I'll be back in that area again for another trip. 

Hooked up my bbq. The next time will be much easier. I had to assemble all the parts the first time. Next time I just snap a couple pieces on the trailer and it's ready to go.

 We had a nice shady spot under a big tree.

 Morning hike with the kids.

 A stop we made on the way to Crescent Ranch.

 The kids swimming in the creek.

 There were some deer behind Adri in the trees/bushes.

 Dean and I hanging outside at the winery.

 This is the second winery we stopped at. A lot bigger than the first one and it had really good views of the creek.

 At the Page Springs Winery they had this big chess board.

 Sunday morning hike with the kids. We found a coyote den and I could smell the coyotes nearby but we never did see them.

 This tree was massive, the picture just doesn't do it justice. The fallen branch in the picture above that Adri is sitting on came from this tree.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

A couple weeks ago we took a trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum by Old Tuscon. We were debating between this and Biosphere II and this trip won because we can always do Biosphere II when the weather sucks. Even though the name says Museum it is really a botanical garden and zoo with native animals.

By the time we got to the park it was close to noon. It was supposed to be sunny skies all day but clouds moved in right after we got there and by 3:30 it was starting to rain. This was a pretty cool park and the kids enjoyed it. They got their own maps and there were animal track ink stations at some of the exhibits so they kids tried to collect all the stamps they could. The park had a pretty cool hummingbird exhibit I just didn't get any pictures in it that were worth sharing. Along with all the reptiles they had javelina. coyote, wild cats and a couple wolves. The wolf was cool because it got down into the bottom of its exhibit then jumped up a 6-8 foot dirt wall. I definitely wouldn't want to be chased down by a wolf after seeing that.

At the sting ray exhibit. Zach was having a good time playing with the sting rays but Adri was being a chicken butt and didn't want to touch them.

An exibit showing how slow a Saguaro cactus grows. The one on the far left is five years old, the middle one is ten years old, and the biggest one is 30 years old.

Bobcats.

Javalina, aka, stink pigs.

Coyote just chilling for the camera.

Mountain Lion

Mexican wolf

Another Mexican wolf.