Steep Country

“Out West”. That is a phrase I have said many times over the last bunch of years. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to take a trip “out west” in search of elk, mule deer, and beautiful country. It is something my grandpa, dad, uncles, and cousins have all done. I have spent hours on end watching YouTube videos of others doing the same and I know it is something I have to do.

When going on one of these western hunts, there are many ways of doing so. Many choose a guided or outfitted hunt where the outfitter either takes you in to an area on horseback and guides for you or at least puts you in a decent spot where you “guide” yourself. Others choose to do it completely themselves. Obviously, with the latter comes without many of the benefits of having a guide. However, it also comes without the price tag of one.

There are many articles and videos that go in depth on the logistics of going “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) and “OTC” (Over-The-Counter) and I have studied many of them. While it certainly comes with difficulties, I have pretty much landed on giving it a go for my first western hunt. My Uncle Rob has voiced his concerns – mostly with living off of protein bars and freeze dried food for a week or more. Trust me, when it gets tough, I am sure he’ll remind me of those conversations. However, I have convinced myself that with the right mindset of going out there to enjoy a new and amazing landscape, try a different kind of hunting, and maybe if we’re lucky see some game, it will be a win.

We have gone over the logistics of a western trip and have pretty much decided to include Robert, it would have to be after he graduates college in a few years. In the meantime, we figured we could try to replicate a similar trip on a smaller scale to learn a bit that may help when we do finally take the plunge and head westward. To that end, in mid October, Rob, Robert and I headed to the Shawnee State Forest in SE Ohio for our mini-out-west hunt. We planned to camp out of my roof top tent and annex as well as a separate tent Rob would bring.

The forecast for the weekend didn’t look great. The mid-day highs were in the 70s which makes for great camping weather but not so much for hunting. Rob and I arrived around 4:30 PM on Thursday and spent the evening driving around looking for spots to start our hunt. Prior to that, most of our scouting had been done on OnX looking for good terrain features. As we all know, however, nothing beats getting tires and boots on the ground. With that, we found that the landscape was much different than we were used to. It was steep. And thick. And gnarly. We certainly can’t say we didn’t have warnings. Dan lives about 30 minutes away and advised us of the difficulties of the Shawnee. We scoured many articles citing the low deer density and type of country I described above. But hey, we were doing it.

Robert arrived around 9:30 PM and after a couple beers by the campfire we decided on a spot for the morning that Rob drove by on his way to camp. I wish I could say we got a great nights sleep before the hunt but it was ROUGH. Temperatures dropped to the mid 30s overnight and we were all as bundled as we could get. Rob’s air mattress was in a constant state of deflation and he had to add air about every 30 minutes. I’m not sure any of us slept for more than 30 minutes at a time anyway. Lesson one learned for our next “western” trip – warm sleeping bags are a must. Regardless, we were up shortly after 5:00 AM, dressed and driving to the spot. It was about a 20 minute drive through the forest, along which we saw no other trucks or hunters. However, as it goes, as soon as we got to our intended spot there was a truck parked there. Gotta love public land.

We sat there for a few minutes looking at our maps looking for anything we had pinned in a nearby vicinity. We chose one about 10 minutes away that Robert had picked out prior to our arrival. By the time we got there, got ready and hiked in it was already getting light. We all split up and looked for our respective spots. Immediately after getting in my tree, I looked over my shoulder and saw a few deer 100+ yards away. Despite the struggles of the morning thus far, that raised my hopes for the rest of the trip. I would come to learn that was to no avail.

We climbed down around 10:30 AM and headed back to camp. Neither Robert or Rob laid eyes on deer but we all saw some sign and were a little optimistic that there were at least some deer in the area. When we got back to camp, to our surprise, the truck parked at “our spot” in the morning was parked at the campsite across from ours. We talked to those guys around lunchtime and came to learn they were from Kentucky, had been there the whole week, and had seen one deer between the two of them. Ouch. That certainly didn’t raise our hopes for the duration of the weekend.

We chose a different spot for the evening hunt, and headed into the woods around 2:30 PM. Once again we all hiked in together before splitting up. Robert and I pushed in a ways and got set up about 200 yards apart near a fresh rub and some sign we had found. While we all liked our spots for the evening, none of us laid eyes on a deer.

Given the lack of sleep, deer sightings, and news from our friends across the campground, Rob and I opted to keep sleeping Saturday morning while Robert headed out to hunt. He returned a few hours later while Rob and I were relaxing at camp and said he once again didn’t see anything. At this point, we were pretty well decided the hunting here was less than ideal. While there are certainly deer in the area, the density is obviously low and the conditions weren’t helping.

We decided to make our last hunt of the weekend in some familiar territory and made the 30 minute drive to the area near Dan’s we hunt each year. This too, however wouldn’t prove successful. We all liked our set-ups but none of us saw any game.

Despite the lack of sightings, I think we’d all call the weekend a win. The camping was good and company was great, and we definitely learned a thing or two for next time. We spent Saturday night around the campfire with a couple of pizzas, and Dan and the boys came to enjoy it with us. Certainly a great way to top off the weekend.