Today I did not expect to be taking a hike, but thats what ended up happening. Ladyface is a mountain down the street from my house that my friends and I have been hiking and exploring since we were kids... It is a place that I often go when I just need to get away for a minute. My original plan was to head down to a creek near my house and fish for about an hour, I left my house at 6:00 PM. That plan quickly changed when I got to a spot on the creek that was completely filled with trash and other debris from the tiny "rain" we got a few days ago... Just didn't look fun. So, I decided a quick hike up to a ridge overlooking the valley below the peak of this little mountain called Ladyface would be the way I would end up spending my evening. Good plan.
I got to a spot on the ridge that I like to stop at and survey the little valley below for wildlife. There are a surprising number of good sized bucks on this mountain, probably because of the year round creek near by, and my plan was to try and spot one of these elusive guys. After about ten minutes of glassing the valley and base of the mountain, I spotted what I was after. A decent buck, probably 2-3 years old with a decent set of forks. He was grazing at the base of a hill about 200 yards from where I was sitting, and after about ten minutes of watching, he slipped behind a hill and I could no longer see him. I wanted to get another look at him, so I made my way a little further up the ridge, encountering this guy along the way...
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| Tarantula |
Upon reaching a higher vantage on the ridge top, I was still unable to see the buck. So I made the decision that I would try to descend into the valley and attempt to stalk up on this guy. After about 30 minutes, I had covered the roughly 200 yards between the ridge and where I had last seen the deer. I stopped at the base of the small hill he had dissapeared behind and listened. After a few minutes I heard a slight movement in the bushes just over the hill. I slowly moved up a little higher, the buck heard me and raised his head so that I could clearly see his eyes and antlers about 30 feet ahead of me in the brush. I stood as still as possible while he stared at me, after about 30 seconds he dipped his head back down and continued to feed. I was so into just watching him, that I forgot I had my camera out to get a picture. By the time I realized my camera was in my hand, he had grown weary of me. As I raised the camera to snap a photo, he realized I was standing right there and bolted into the brush as fast as he could possibly move. I watched him bound up the side of the mountain, and then made my way back to my car as the sun went down.
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| Sunset on the valley. |
