Most of my road trips out west have been in the summer and fall. This recent trip was only my second time being way out west in peak spring. And dang, I already can’t wait to do it again. Oftentimes, when I go on road trips for big game hunts out west, it can be a bit of a stretch to call it a vacation altogether. Between the preparation, the training, the limited window to get something done, and the actual task at hand — it’s never an easy feat, and the pressure is often high. It’s funny to think that I typically choose to spend my “vacation” freezing my ass off and packing out meat in the snow. But this trip was not that at all. Vibes are good out west when the snow melts and the weather turns good. People are happy, the birds are happy, the trout are happy, and everything is bright green, a stark contrast to how I’m used to seeing it when I go out there in October. This trip was just fun. Good people, good dogs, great food, and fun hunts. And one speeding ticket.
Below is a brief photo journal recap from the last month or so, much of which was on the road through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming.
On the road to Washington state. I got pulled over going 97 in a 70 shortly after this. I noticed the officer’s Marathon watch and we started talking watches for a few minutes. He came back and ticketed me for going 5 over.
“It’s not a turkey hunt until you’re sitting in poison oak” - some version of that was spoken this day with Foster
An iconic Washington establishment. RIP Pego
After Washington, I ended up in Oregon. Owen and I hunted 4 mornings, and got very close on closing the deal on two occasions. On day 4, the turkeys beat us despite a 3am wakeup, and I drove 15 hours straight to Wyoming.
In Wyoming, it didn’t take long before Dan Towsley and I had two birds at the truck, the morning after arriving late at night from Oregon.
Over a decade ago, I used to guide fishing trips not too far from where we were on this hunt, so needless to say this was a special place to hunt.
Before I left the mountains, I stopped at my buddy Teddy’s house who had my finished Mule deer skull from this past fall’s hunt. I finally got it up on the wall upon getting home.
Earlier that morning, on my last day in Wyoming, it was 75 and sunny.
I made a quick stop on the way home and managed to find 10 lbs of morels in one 100-yard square, almost 6000 feet up the mountain.
Mule deer backstrap topped with morels from a turkey camp in May. No plates, no forks, prison rules only.
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This is sick and I hope to do this someday. Do you have any posts talking about what careers led you to get to do this?