Our Hunting Adventure

Needless to say, I will probably never go hunting with Jake again.  I'll do us both the favor and stay home. ;)  We went up Mendon Canyon late Friday night, made sure I was equiped with my hand warmers and plenty of warm clothes!  I still was very cold that night.  We woke up about 4:15 AM and hurry and got ready to go have an AWESOME hike.  We met up with two other hikers, there was five of us including Jake, myself and his brother.  One of the other guys was going to bring his ten year old son, which I was hoping he would, just so that I wasn't the only one complaining!  We started our hike, ten minutes into it I got really hot because we had the layers packed on!  I started out carrying a camelback w/ just water and snacks, binoculars, and a spotting scope.  Half way through the hike, Jake had gained all of my extra stuff..my coat, the binoculars, and the spotting scope.  I felt so bad, but I was struggling.  I had blisters starting on my heels and my legs were almost numb.  We finally reached the point where we were stopping, about .25 miles from the top, maybe not even that.  As soon as I sat down they spotted some deer and was shooting with in two minutes of reaching our "destination." Well, they shot one...AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN!  We then had to hike up further to go collect our prize.  That .25 miles was almost straight vertical rock climbing.  I have never been so frustrated in my life!  My brother in law was really amazing though.  He would hike to a certain point, put his stuff down and come back and help me and Jake, mostly me.

This was the picture that I took while we stopped to take a rest.  We were not even at the top yet.  Once we reached the top we went and looked for that deer.  We went on the other side of the mountain and found some blood spots, looked for about an hour, the trail of blood had dissappeared.  Needless to say, we never found the deer.  We then decided to just  head down the back side of this mountain.  It was heck!  We went down the mountain in a dried up canal, thinking we would avoid all of the heavy brush, but instead we faced patches of snow and a little mud.  Both me and Jake could not walk 10 ft. without falling down.  We finally made it to a horse trail and at that point walked four miles out.  My feet have never been so sore.  I could barely walk, my leg muscles were so tight, still are.  It was a great experience and I give all those hunters credit for doing it.  It is really hard work.  But really, why do they keep doing it.  It is not worth the pain!