Co-Host Mike Cook’s Huntin’ Story!

Our “Pet of the Week” will return as the featured story next week.  But for now, let’s hear what Mike had to say about his hunting trip this year:

 

Hunting season 2011 in the Fort Rock unit started for me September 29^th when I arrived at our camp off the Military Road (Forest Service Road) 70 from Hwy 138 to Hwy 97 east Crater Lake National Park.  Our group has hunted this area for 30 some years so we know and love the area very much. The season started October 1^st and ran until October 12^th.  We hunted every day of the season.

 

Many of our old hunting group have passed away so we are bringing up new ones and now Jim Williams his wife Creagh and I are the old ones.

 

This year for the first time I got to take my Grandson Doug Kirby with me to hunting camp. He was able to hunt the weekends with me and return home for college during the week.

 

We were joined in camp by Jim & Creagh Williams Daughter Barb and Doug, their son in law. Their granddaughter Loren and her new husband Mike, who is from Texas. Also their son in law Bill who is in the Coast Guard stationed at Astoria.

A friend from Lapine Curtis Owen joined us for a couple days also.

 

So all in all we had a good group. Our camp is at the old rail road station on the rail road grade known as Forest Service Road 7006 and the intersection of Road 310.

 

We saw a lot of deer and some real big bucks this year but no one had an ethical shot at any and the bucks were faster than we were. Also we saw coyotes and badgers and a lot of wildlife. For our first three days in camp flocks of geese and swans were flying over one after another both day and night. They were headed south and made a lot of noise, by the hundreds.

Loren who was a designated vehicle driver didn’t have a tag and she was the only one who would have had the chance to shot a big buck as two of them stood and watched her for a long time at about 75 yards. Isn’t that how it always works.

 

This area we hunt in is densely covered with pine trees and bitter brush. The only water is provided for the game by Guzzlers that were just rebuilt and maintained by ODF&W with volunteers who are hunters. Crown Zellerback has about half the area we hunt in along with the Forest Service. This property was once part of the Klamath Indian Reservation that the government purchased back from the Indians back in the 1950’s. I’m told by ODF&W Biologists this is an area the deer fawn in each year. When the migration starts we see deer come down from the mountains around Crater Lake. We also have seen herds of Elk and Antelope in this area.

 

This year we found sign of bear and cougar also in this area. The area was logged over right about the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century and the logs hauled by rail to the mills. There was some very large Ponderosa trees and other pine trees taken from the looks of some of the stumps and logs left with to many knots on them. It takes a long time for anything to rot in this area as it gets very little moisture.

 

This year we had several days of rain which is very unusual. Most of the time it is very dry and dusty. The area is very flat and was laid down when Crater Lake erupted. Pumice rocks and dust are everywhere.

 

I enjoy the are and would love to live there as long as I could leave when the winter snows come. A good time was had by all with many stories around the camp fire and a lot of training for the new hunters. It’s fun to pass on the life style and let other experience the great outdoors here in this part of Oregon.

 

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