Arizona here i come

[Franklin3]

Good idea Muskeg. I have heard there are a mess of them big cats around. I beleive I might go ahead and check the regs on that.
I started packing today damn I got a lot of crap. I probably won't need 1/2 of it but I'm bringin it anyway.

Dave: I hope this nasty california rain stays put for another week.

As far as the bucket goes............. you can't leave home without it!
If the temperature gets between 0-110 I find I really do rely on one to stabilize my internal core temperature. It involves a lot of science that I'm not up on but apparantly it works and I live by it.
Maybe see you in April!

[muskeg]

don't forget to pack tweeser !!!!!

and they want the lion's killed. It's open all the time and your allowed several a day out of some areas. Most areas are the 1 per year type limit.

Even if you can't take it back into Ca you could send it along to a relative or give the hide away.

You will be saving lots of deer lives if you take one.

[Gyopo]

Pack a comb for the Cholla and prickly stuff.
If you use your boots, the cholla go from your pant leg to your boot, to the other boot.
A long comb will just flick them off.
BTW, my friend says Cougar meat tastes pretty good.
He said it tasted like tacos.

[Franklin3]

Long comb and tweezer. Check!
thanks
Lordy Lordy I'm jonesin for the hunt.
I gotta get out to the range for one last run through with the primary weapon ofd choice. and a cxheck through of the old reliabnle backup. Dinner with my family, wife kids grandkids, take the dog for a hike.
Pick up some .17 HMRv for the neighbor boy who helps me with chores.
I think Im gonna take thursday off to get this all together.
Gonna make one more check of the NOAA weather forcast.

Looks better weather wise, they dropped the forecast for the rain and the snow both. Calling for sunny skies up through Thursday day five into my 6 day hunt.
that holds I will be happy. Guide is in camp started scouting today. I'm gonna get nightly updates through thursday. I plan to pull out friday morning around 10:00
drive to Barstow.

humena humena humena
yep uh huh uh huh uh huh
hunt fever got it bad.

[snoopdogg]

Jeez Franklin, act like you are going hunting while the rest of us think about hunting! Good luck bro, take pictures and remember the details, because were gonna want to hear them.

[Franklin3]

Spoke to my guide tonight said he watched a couple really nice bucks today feeding around. Looks promising and that's the kind of new I like to hear.
That and all these awesome pictures of the big Cali Mulies being posted in the last few weeks here on JHO has got me working. This is the stuff dream hunts are made of.
I have decided to pick up an old family tradition and start a huntin/fishin journal.
My grandfather kept them for years he left about 25 volumes outlining his experiences in the field. I'm gonna start with 1-1-2006 on this Az. hunt. That way I don't have to remember anything too.
I hope to share it all and even more so that it will be an experience worthy of posting here.

[Franklin3]

Well this is it Truck is packed and I'm on the road in five.
Thanks for all the inspirational photos and stories of the last few weeks.
Here's to a successful outing and a story worthy of posting.
thanks again
see you all on the 8th.

[Arrowslinger]

Best of luck .....you can rest & take it easy when you return, hunt hard and hunt all day...don't give up till ones down.

Shoot straight.

[scr83jp]

When I attended the Univ of AZ lots of my friends and our wildlife mgt instructor mapped out the location of stock tanks outside of Tucson to go jump shooting for ducks and geese.

[Franklin3]

I got home at 8:00 last night after driving back nonstop except for gas. I'm tired can't hardly walk. No kill. Speeding tickets in arizona can be very expensive! There's about a million varieties of cactus there DO NOT touch any of them and for absolute sure if a bee buzzes your face while glassing don't just swat it away without looking. You might just jam a Chollo into the end of your release finger and that will hurt. Also I don't recommend wearing house slippers when you get up in the middle of the night and step outside to relieve yourself. Prickly Pear thorns go right through them and let me tell you something about pricly pear thorns you take a 1.5 inch thorn into the ball of your left foot and then jump and curse and kick it with ytour right foot you do not want to fall on the ground in the dark or as your dad used to tell you, "you might really get something to cry about"
That's all the cautions i can offer except maybe one more and that would be get yourself in shape or you might find yourself begging for a merciful death on the trail somewhere rather than walk another step.
Now for the good stuff and there was a lot more of that than there was bad. I am waiting for the guide to email me the pictures of the trip so I can post them and narrate also. But I wanted to post some of the things that I got to enjoy.
Day 1 a huge bull elk and 5 deer two bucks and three does.
Day 2 another big bull elk and a 300+ pound three pointer with maybe 15+
G-2's watched him for two hours Passed on him and a forkie in favor of
finding this 195 buck the guide(Robert) had been watching before I
arrived.
Day 3 Got back on the big three pointer he was 28-29" and about that tall
After putting him to bed I decided I wanted this one so made a nearly
2000yd walk, a two hundred yard sneak, and a 125yd. super sneak
to get within what I thought was shooting range. Twilight does funny
things to depth perception.
got to live the twilight stalk I dream of, 99% of it. Pics and video
when I get them will be posted.
Day 4 another Bull elk and lots of cows.
Day 5. Discovered dinosaur footprints in the ancient rock on a mountain
plateau.
Day 6 Another Bull elk with broken antler about 15 Javelina within feet for
about an hour. Pics and video here also. No Javi tag or could have
easily arrowed one or two. one feisty boar wanted to kick my ass
something awful. Herd of antelope.

All in all about 75 miles walked but half was down hill! Beautiful scenery and a lot of lessons taken to heart. Foremost being approach every stalk as though it is your one and only opportunity of a lifetime. If you blow it shake it off and start working on the next one. I'm still working on shaking it off as visions of this buck fill my head almost constantly
I will definately go back cuz I know whre a big four pointer is gonna be next September. I'm booking a combo blackbear/deer hunt.

[jrobbd7]

Sounds like a great week. looking forward to the pics.

[BOWUNTR]

Sounds like you had a good hunt. I'm leaving tonight for 11 days. If you were seeing elk, you were a lot farther north than I'll be. Ed F

[ELKBUSTER]

Franklin3,
Great sense of humor. Most of the best hunting trips i've had were unsuccessful. Just to be in the presence of wildlife at it's finest is what makes the trip. I bet you could have done without the ticket though. Too bad about the cactus they can be a real prick. (Ha Ha Ha) It was awesome to follow your story. Thanks for the posts. Can't wait for the pictures.

[SDHNTR]

Awesome! Cant wait to hear and see the rest of the story. Who was your guide?

[Arrowslinger]

Franklin, quit fartin'round and post up some pics!!

[prohunter]

your not kidding about the million types of cactus. it seems everything in the desert has thorns! some of those damn things can go thru leather! sounds like you had fun!
good luck ed! can't wait til i go again.

[blazintowers]

Sounds like a great time you had while most of us were back at the same old grind! Most have been pretty cool to see the dino prints too and thinking about the ancient hunters that might have been tracking dinos in the same place you were tracking mulies....Too cool!!!

[Franklin3]

I had surgery on my right knee today it was scheduled before my trip so no big deal. Bad news and good news. Good news the surgery went well and I'm already walking on the leg. Bad news the problem was not what they thought. Turns out instead of a torn miniscus it was degenerative arthritis and the cartilage was all tore up. Doctor says I can expect the pain to return in a year maybe two probably looking at knee replacement in ten years. I don't think so! These quacks will tell you anything. So the therapy will be hunting, long and hard every chance I get.
I was hiunting in unit 10 north of hwy 40 out of Seligman. I got a couple pictures of Javelina from my camera and a bull elk that you have to know is there or you won't see it. I'm waiting for the guide. Robert Frost owner of Diablo Canyon Outfitters to send me emails from his pics so I can post them up for all to enjoy. What a drag it is to wait. I think I'm gonna have to call him and prod him a bit. So the question now becomes. Where to go next? Lake Sonoma? Maybe Cottenwood? I gotta let an arrow fly soon.

[Franklin3]

Heard from Diablo Canyon this morning. He's burned all the pics onto a cd and will be in todays mail (outgoing from Phoenix Az) I should get it by friday or saturday and pics will be uploaded.

[ozstriker22]

Hot Dang! What a story. What a buck! Can't wait to see the videos and pics!

I've experienced the jumping chollo cactus too... wearing sandals, at a full run, between 2nd and 3rd toes... I was only about 10 yrs old chasing my little brother, still remember it like it was yesterday...

[jrobbd7]

I can relate with the knee issue, with one surgery in the books. It wont stop me from climbing mountians. just motivates you to get in better shape.

[Franklin3]

Pictures dont look so good from 350yds. But this is the buck I tried to put the sneak on. He got up and walked slowly away into the darkness when I was about 20yds from him.

[Gyopo]

Franklin,
Can you describe your stalk on the muley? Any details or hints.
The stalk could be the most nerve racking, knee wobbling part of a hunt and I want to read the details of a stalk in open country like you hunted.
Plus I need all the help I can get.
The buck probably felt your heartbeats from 25 yards away.

Do you have any pics of the dinosaur track?
My son loves dinos and a track pic would be neat.

Did you try the comb on the cholla? One would swear gremlins are tossing the cholla at unsuspecting passers-by.

Sounds like you had a great time.

I hope you don't get sunburned or Island fever in Maui. Say "hi" to Dog and his crew if you see them there.

[Franklin3]

Gyopo:
My guide spotted that buck from 2500yds behind the brush when he flicked his ear. We stayed on the glass for three more hours with no sign before the doe moved out to graze. He finally got up and walked all of twenty feet and bedded down right were you see him in the pic. We covered the first 2000yds across prarie with no problem. light was beginning to fade so we pressed up the next 250yds to the top of a rim. The terrain was like a bowl 300yds across and he was bedded down on the opposite rim about 100yds below a rim rock shelf and I had to sneak down into the bowl and up the other side. My guide took thge pics and was against the stalk he thought there was no way to get in on him. I wanted to try but we let valuable time expire before I finally said thats it Im going in. It was in my opinion perfect timing. the sun had just dropped below the horizon and light was in my favor. The guide told me to work down to the tree line and move around the right and i should get an opportunity. I thought the range from that angle was to great so I decided to move left up the tree line and cut through for a shiorter shot. I totally misjudged the distance. I took the the shot to the right to be about 70-80 yds and it was really 40-50 yds I was able to get right down to the trrewe line and the buck held fast. That's when I erred I moved left and closed the distance. If I had moved right I might have had a great opportunity. There was sparse junipers that afforded cover i was definAtely pumped but not wrecked. By the time I cleared the tree line it was to dark to make a shot and I came out five yds from the tree he was bedded under. The guide told me thet he held fast until I was within yds of him then just got up real slow and walked up the hill and over the rim. It was a rush and I can't wait to get it again. The twilight stalk is the ultimate move without a doubt. I really felt good that I had made the stalk and gotten within yds of the beast and never really spooked him. Unfortunately there never came another opportunity the entire trip. I will live that moment when I decided to go left insted of right for ever.
On the next point. We were coming down from the top where the buck had dissapeared. It was the next day and we wanted to see if he had stayed up on top. It was late and we had a few thousdand feet to descend and I did not want to dodge those cactus in the dark. We had stopped to colect a bunch of fossilized coral when the guide tells me he has a freind who knows where there is a dinasaur footprint and he wants to find it some day. That's when I notice this huge expanse of perfectly flat black silty rock. I recognized it to be an ancient river bed so i tell the guide if there are footprints here they are in this area. He says oh yeah and I start looking in earnest and beleive it or not I just walked right up to it. It is a three toe print about 2-3 inches deep except wherre the claws are deeper. The middle toe is about 14 inches long and the two outside toes are about 10 inches. We looked at it awe then started bnack on track it was getting dark. Robert says I should get a picture of that and I told him it wasn't going anywhere so we left. kicking myself for that one also.
As for the Chollo, well I'm still pulling them things out of my clothes. I did use the comb on the ones I could see and it worked fine. It was the ones I did not see that caused the problems.
Im going back in August for a combo early archery deer and bear hunt looking for one guy to go along. 5K for the package and a hunt to remember for life.
Plane leaves 8:50am 19th.

[Gyopo]

Awesome!!! Thanks for sharing your adventure.