A picture from our stand location, looking over a canyon and mountainsides.
We awoke to cool temperatures, more than likely in the 60’s. We drove to our designated hunting spot for the beginning of day 2, and started the hike in. Our goal was to hike over the top of a ridge, of which we assumed would reveal either a canyon or a bowl on the other side. The vegetation consisted of chaparral with prickly pear, though the amount of fruit was somewhat low. For those of you that don’t know, chaparral is a particular biotic community that consists of dense growth of shrubs and small trees. Particular vegetation types includes mostly manzanita and scrub oak, along with other species mixed in (prickly pear, grasses, Dasylirion spp, Yucca spp, and more).
We finally got to the top of the ridge, and proceeded with caution so as to not reveal our ridgelined position of any near animals. I was stepping between what I thought was two Dasylirion wheeleri plants, of which sort of look like an agave or yucca, but are softer and relatively harmless. Well, I was wrong, because I stepped between two overlapping Yucca plants, which aren’t harmless. Multiple Yucca spines entered my leg as I experienced some intense pain. I stepped back and looked for a way around the two Yucca plants, but there just wasn’t any other way around. I looked back down and my pant leg was wet with a good amount of blood. In fact, I couldn’t believe how much blood there actually was. I carefully got through the Yucca plants, and got some wipes from my pack to stop the bleeding and clean my leg. (Go look at the picture on my Instagram!)
We continued on and found our first stand of the day. It overlooked a canyon that we were able to glass as we also predator called. Once again, we started with a deer fawn call, followed by a cottontail. This time, however, we didn’t even call in a deer. After an hour of calling, we decided to return to the vehicle.
A giant Coues buck that we came across while driving.
At this point, we made the decision to hike back and drive down a well-known dirt road that is known to offer a variety of animal species, including mule deer, black bear, and even some coatis. We took this road a good distance until we saw a snake in the road.
“There’s a Mojave!” I yelled as we drove over the somewhat large snake.
I stopped the car, got out, and looked at the snake from a distance.
“That’s not a Mojave, that’s a black-tail!” I yelled with sheer excitement.
I’d never seen a black-tail rattlesnake in the wild, and this was a big one. Unfortunately, someone found the snake before I, and shot it multiple times. It had died more than likely the day before, but still was in decent shape. I cut the head off with a shovel, buried it, and threw the body off the road.
The deceased, beautiful, black-tailed rattlesnake.
We kept driving down this road until we reached a creek that I wouldn’t be able to cross in my vehicle, consequently we turned around and headed back to camp. At this point, it was roughly 12PM, and I was running on a little over a quarter of a tank of gas, so we made the decision to run to the nearest town to get gas. The nearest town was only about 20 miles, but 20 miles of rough dirt roads that led to a long trip. Finally, after about an hour, we got gas and headed back to camp.
I’m not afraid to admit that I have become slightly complacent when it comes to driving on dirt roads. I have a pretty good understanding of how vehicles act on dirt roads, whether it be with hard pack, sand, gravel, or other, and am not afraid to give my vehicle a little speed. With this said, I always consider my driving safe.
On our way back, we approached a straight portion of the road that was mostly downhill, and mostly gravel. There I was, driving with some speed when, all of a sudden, I can feel a flat tire.
This was the very thing that I worried about the most during this trip, because tire failure can lead to someone being stranded. However, I was prepared. I purchased tire patches, valve replacements, a compressor, and made sure my spare was in good shape. A flat tire? No big deal, as I can just patch the tire, fill the tire, and get back on the road. All we need are the tire patches in my yellow tool bag that is behind the seat.
But it wasn’t behind the seat. The bag was mistakenly taken out of the truck the night prior to establish more space in the vehicle. My option to fix the tire was gone until we returned to camp, so we would have to drive back to camp on a spare.
This was sketchy, to say the least. Spare tires are generally pretty thin, and if I pop this tire than we would be stranded until someone drove by to help. I drove back to camp with extreme caution, not exceeding 15mph at any given point.
We got back to camp and I worked on patching the tire. The process didn’t take me long, and all I needed to do was inflate the tire and put it back on.
I hooked my compressor up to my cigarette lighter, turned it on, and began to inflate the tire.
But the tire didn’t inflate. The compressor itself wouldn’t attach securely enough to the tire in order to inflate it. I tirelessly tried to make the compressor work, but it just wouldn’t.
At this point, we had some decisions to make. We could either wait and see if we could find someone that had a compressor, we could walk out of camp and hunt, or we could go home. I wasn’t about to risk driving in this isolated part of Arizona without a backup plan for a tire, so I didn’t want to drive unless we were heading home. I also could have gone to the nearest town to buy a new tire, but I wasn’t about to overpay for a tire in a small town.
The apple tree found in the middle of nowhere. If you look closely, you can see the apples upon the tree.
We were considering our options, when something caught my eye in the distance. Multiple Stellar’s jays were in a tree across the road, and there were small sphere-shaped items upon the tree. It was an apple tree. Sure enough, the pile of apples near our camp derived from the apple tree right across the way. I walked over to the tree and observed many apples upon the tree. Something caught my attention to the right – another apple tree? Nope. A peach tree, of which had several, small, immature peaches.
Then, suddenly, thunder rang in the distance. We could barely see clouds upon the crown of the tree that surrounded our camp, but the sudden constant roar of thunder filled our ears. It was at this moment that we unanimously made the decision to call the trip. There would be no way that we would be able to navigate muddy roads with my tires, let alone with a spare tire. We knew we had limited time to pack and leave before this storm hit, so we began to hustle.
We packed our items and filled the car as quickly as possible. Dark clouds could now be seen over the horizon, heading in our direction. We began our long drive home, trying to outrun the now vicious looking storm. We hit just the edge of the storm, but were fortunate enough to miss it.
The storm encroaching upon our location at camp.
And so we continued upon our 50mph drive home, of which time seemed to stand still. It took us roughly 3 hours to return to town, and should have taken us less than 2 hours.
That concludes my August 2018 bear hunt. It was an ill-fated trip, and I feel as if I could have shot a bear if I had another day or two. I learned some valuable lessons, like make sure your compressor works, slow down on dirt roads with gravel, and buy a new truck that is made for the backcountry. Am I disappointed? Yeah, but I did get to explore some new, very cool country. We were able to see about 12 Coues deer, including 1 small buck. I’m going to try my best to get out in attempt to shoot a bear later this year and, as always, I’ll keep you all updated.
If you missed the day 1 update, click HERE.