When I go out hunting in the Rocky Mountains now I carry with me a SPOT Gen 3 but it wasn’t always so. About a year before I ended up getting one, my friend Brian showed me his system and why it is so handy especially in areas where you have no cell phone coverage. The SPOT device links to a satellite and allows you to send pre-set messages with a GPS marking of where you are that is then relayed in a text message or email to others. The SPOT device also can send your location to Emergency Responders if you need help. Since buying the unit, both SPOT and Garmin now offer similar devices that allow you to text messages via satellite as well.
During our honeymoon, I discovered my wife talks in her sleep. As the morning light was coming in through the curtains at our hotel room I was stirred by the sound of someone’s voice. Being a light sleeper, this isn’t unusual for me to be easily woken up. As I came round, my wife muttered something again. I sat up and asked, “What did you say?” The next thing I know, her hand came up off the bed and hit me in the face turning my head. It didn’t hurt as much as surprise me. She woke up to me asking why she hit me. She explained she was having a dream and was giving someone directions. In her dream, she pointed to where they needed to go which apparently happened to be, you guessed it, my direction. We had a good laugh about it before heading to breakfast at the restaurant nearby.
We have now been married for twenty years, going on twenty-one. In those years, I have had interesting conversations with my wife while she was completely asleep. Her uncle, Rick, is a known sleepwalker and family has some pretty wild stories of his antics. So I consider myself lucky. What is the oddest thing to me is that her eyes can be completely wide open but she is still asleep. Several times, she has looked at me, answered a question and then flopped back on her pillow sound asleep.
Now I have my quirks too. For instance, during the course of a normal workweek, I can easily hit the snooze button on the alarm clock five to ten times. Getting up in the morning for me is an exercise in self-discipline especially on Mondays. The sound of the fan we have in our room with the warm sheets and blackout curtains makes getting up seem like a chore. However, this all changes when it is hunting season. Somehow, this lazy riser no longer needs the alarm. In fact, I typically get up fifteen to thirty minutes before the alarm is to even go off. I have caught some grief for this especially when I forget to turn the alarm off in the earlier hours of the morning before jumping in the shower.
Two days before I got my SPOT, I had been talking with my friends Clif and Brain separately about where to go for Rifle Deer. Clif had shown me an Access Yes location near Squaw Butte. He thought that might be a good place to go. Later that day, I talked with Brian and he thought Pilot Peak above Idaho City would be a good place to try. That night I talked with Ann and said I was going hunting the next morning and should be back a little after noon. I still hadn’t decided which area I would go to. I loaded my gear and ATV in the truck and headed off to bed.
The morning came quickly and I remembered to turn off the alarm. I hopped into the shower and washed down with Dead Down Wind body wash. Afterward, I put on my hunting gear. In the commotion, I heard my wife stir and I went to her side. She grasped my hand and we prayed the “Our Father” together like we often do before I go on a trip. She asked me where I was going and I told her, Pilot Peak. She said okay and told me to be safe.
As I stepped out into the dark morning, the cold air met me with a swift welcome. I pet our dog Charli and jumped into the cab of our GMC. She fired right up and I was soon on the road head down I-84 toward the Lucky Peak/Idaho City exit. I turned off the Interstate and headed up Highway 21 about a half-hour later. The road to Idaho City was clear and as I climbed in elevation my headlights revealed it hadn’t snowed yet as predicted. As I drove through Idaho City, I made my way up 21 toward the parking pad near Forrest Service Road 380. I unloaded my ATV, gear and made sure everything was buttoned up before crossing the highway to 380.
I spent the early morning riding my ATV up the road until I found a good flat spot to park it. From there I hiked around looking for sign, tracks or movement. The morning went on like this for some time and never yielding any results. I finally headed back to my ATV remembering my promise to be home that afternoon. As I headed back, I caught sight of a young buck and a doe on the side of a drainage. I stopped the ATV and got off. I pulled up my binoculars and confirmed it was a legal buck to shoot. At this point, I unsecured my rifle and stepped off the road and down into the drainage.
Once I was far enough away from the road and had a safe shooting lane I looked again with binoculars to confirm the buck and doe were still there. Luckily they hadn’t moved much from where I had last spotted them. They were slightly downhill from me and just across the drainage. I rested the rifle on a rock, took aim, dropped the safety and squeezed. The .30-06 rang out and the buck seemed to stumble before both he and the doe took off into the underbrush. I watched as they moved uphill, which is never a good sign.
I took time to recall where I was standing and where they were before the shot then made a B-line to that spot. When I got to the point I had mentally marked, the forensics started. When there wasn’t any visible sign, I immediately checked my rifle. Unknown to me, the windage turret of the scope had been moved one full rotation. I learned this after shooting a few shots at a stump to check my zero. I spent another few hours slowly moving toward where the buck and doe had run to make sure it was a clean miss.
By the time I got back to my truck, I was several hours overdue with no way to call home. As I got closer to Boise, my phone started to blow up with texts and voicemails. I waited until I cleared the bridge over the Boise River before trying to call to let them know I was okay. My wife was relieved to hear my voice and glad I was okay. She explained she had called both Clif and Brian trying to figure out where I had gone. Both of them had a different idea of where I might have been based on their respective conversations with several hundred square miles in between. The next day I was the proud owner of a new SPOT Gen 3. Though I don’t recommend scaring your friends and family to get new gear, being prepared and communicating where you are going is a lesson we can all learn.
- L. Yarbrough, Bucks & Beers
