The Wyoming desert is an amazing remote, relentless, unforgiving and magical place. The stomping grounds of Butch Cassidy, cris crossed by the Overland trail, Oregon, Trail and the Cherokee Trail. the history is fun and exciting to learn. The desolate lands provide a person with the ability to completely escape. If you are brave (or dumb enough) you can venture hours into the country and find roads that disappear into washes, and places where a full day hike means you might see nothing indicating another human had ever been there. Fossils, horses, sage, snakes, lope, artifacts, mastodon bones and more.
Along the trail was Fort LaClede. This military fort supported 2 relatively large rock buildings that were built with sand stone from the surrounding area. Each building had small gun windows in every direction. The windows were designed to remain open and probably made the winter horrible. In addition to the rock fort there was also a gun tower and a stage stop.
The fort was occupied by the the B Company of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Calvary. They had several run ins with the natives and also issues with bandits robing stages etc.
Interestingly the pronghorn lack a clavicle(collar bone). This allows the pronghorn to have a significantly longer stride than other animals of similar size. In fact the stride length of a pronghorn at full speed is 29 feet. And at full speed a lope can cover the distance of a foot ball field in 11 strides and under 4 seconds...
The hunt was supposed to be from a box, but recent rains had left the ground soaked and the blind was a boring place to sit. Thus all our exploring... We resorted to spot and stalk...
We tried a couple stalks closing the distance to under 20 yards twice, only to have the lope blow up out of its bed. In our adventure we found several good bucks and named a few. Jesse, Chris, Vader, Buster, Wish, Hooker, etc.
On Sunday as we started heading back to camp we spotted a group of bucks in the sand dunes. I make a quick exit from the truck. and slip up. The largest buck was 40 yards away and behind a greasewood. I was able to come to full draw with my son. The buck stepped out and looked at me. The yellow pin instantly on the crease and arrow was gone in split second. The lope exploded into the distance and out of sight instantly. The arrow was lost in flight but the sound of the thwack was solid and reaction meant a hit. My son was not able to see the lope so we had no idea where the arrow hit.
We went back to shot location, retraced the shot the buck location etc. Found where the buck was standing at the shot. We had a good track in the damp firm sand. We looked for 20 minutes for the arrow with no luck before starting the track. The track bailed off and went 20 yards until it merged with all the other lope tracks. No hair, no blood nothing... We started looking at tracks after the merge spot (luckily all the bucks spread out in different directions as they left. The first track followed 50 yards no blood or sign. Back to the merge... Nest track 30 yards in and finally a little drop of blood, pin head sized. The a little bigger drop. The track was super easy to follow the blood was almost nonexistent and impossible to find every where except where the lope jump a chest high brush and rubbed off.
We were going really slow expecting the lope to be hurt but alive. easing along, 80 yards in, 100 yards in, still a solid track and almost no blood. 130 yards in and we spot shine in the brush. We approach slow and confirm the lope is down.
Shot was 3" above the heart, center punched both lungs, the lope ran full speed until it dropped. It was so fast there was barely any blood in mouth etc.
We went back to find the arrow since it was a clean passthrough and not found. The lope was at 43 yards. The arrow actually went another 38 yard and stuck 4" in a wet sand bank. Love the energy of my set up.
My son was rewarded with some drive time back to camp. I love that soon I can have him pick me up on the other end, etc.
UNO was invented by a barber in 1971. He was having an argument about the Game Crazy Eights with his son. So in an attempt to solve the argument he made a new game. The traditional deck has 108 cards.
Kebabs originated in turke. Sish means skewer and kebab mean to roast meat. Skewered roasted meat. In many cultures today, it is a popular way to marinate and cook the less desirable and gamey meats.
Well as a PSA, even that may not be enough. Saturday morning I am out doing my early morning business. As I finish I look over and see this dude about 3 feet away. He was cold and the sun had just came up. he was in no mood to fight. But it really brought back that scene.
FYI - I can't count on my son suck the poison from my rear... He was a hard NO!!!
Remind me not to play Trivial Pursuit against you...
I’m betting your son is looking even more forward to being able to drive and pick you up, than you are of him being able to do it!
Congrats Young fella for sure,
Robb
Thanks for sharing, great story and enjoyable to read.
