Hunting Without Success

The Petersens always go where no one else will dare and they have the horse-power to make it there in style. There's nothing like camping in Dad Petersen's wall tent. They have most of the conveniences of home, including running water (of sorts). But you barely feel like your roughin' it when you camp in this kind of style!

The weather was very nice, unseasonably warm (last year we started in a snow storm). But it was still chilly at 7,000 feet (above sea level) so we had the fires burning. The tent footprint had to be shoveled free of snow before we could set up camp. Mom and Dad Petersen along with Jared, Uncle Daryl and Gabriel got camp set up on Friday afternoon.

Uncle Daryl had a couple of hiccups to getting started on the deer hunt...1) he left on tent pole on his garage floor while packing (Jared had to create a new pole of of the nearby timbers); 2) he also forgot the smoke stack prop (again, a prop was fashioned from the nearby timbers); 3) Gabriel forgot to completely assemble his gun, leaving the bolt safely separate from the rifle (he borrowed Mom's gun for the first morning hunt). You couldn't help but chuckle to yourself at each hiccup. :)

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning, waking at 5:30 am so as to have time to prepare our gear, eat breakfast and make it to our starting point before the sun rose. Everything went like clock-work.

We were on site as the light began to glow for our first sunrise. We hiked into the mountain bowl, whispering only when necessary, watching every tree and scanning all the open hill side. But for all our stealth we didn't see any sign of life! That all changed when we reached the top of the bowl; on every rim surrounding "our" bowl were hunters positioned, identifiable by the hunter orange vests and hats, orange dots on the horizon. There were at least a dozen hunters "glassing" us as we hiked along the bowl.

Obviously that wasn't conducive to our successful deer hunt so we headed out of the bowl to more remote sections of the mountains, scaring a couple of doe as we went. Just over the ridge we encountered more hunters, so we adjusted our course and heading. Running into more hunters at every turn we plunged ourselves into the bottom of the ravine, taking care to climb down without scratching our guns or slipping on the rocks and causing ourselves any harm. We found our way past all the hunters but only saw a few more does running through the trees.

With no bucks in sight we headed back to camp to have lunch. The evening hunt found us heading in the opposite direction, to escape the onslaught of hunters on their 4-wheelers. We hiked over the top of the mountain only to discover 4-wheeler trails and full convoys of 4-wheelers coming over the ridge in our direction! It was no use...we were defeated. There was no sign of any male deer and we were completely surrounded by orange clad hunters! We humbly bowed our heads and headed back to camp.

Uncle Daryl and Gabe headed home Saturday afternoon to retrieve the missing bolt and to pick up Reed so that he could have a good camping/hunting experience. It was fun to have him join our group.

Sunday is a day of rest so we didn't go hunting. But with the snow still on the ground we had to forage for firewood. This was easily accomplished with the chainsaws, splitting mauls and hatchets. Everyone had to have a swing with the axe at least once.

Kyle woke up feeling under the weather and was forced back to bed for the duration of the morning. We did get the opportunity to witness Kyle receiving a blessing and to feel of the Spirit there in the tops of the mountains. After a lazy morning and some friendly conversation it was time to enjoy the beautiful world that our Heavenly Father has created for us. Mom was determined to take some of the beautiful world home with her and she went in search of perfect rocks for her rock garden. One rock she was looking for was on the side of the mountain; the family was not able to find it (a rock identified from last years hunt) she had to settle for a substitute rock.

As we drove around admiring the beauty and trying to figure out the best spot to go hunting on Monday we ran into some minor vehicular difficulties...the jeep stop going forward! But the able bodied Jared was under the hood in a flash and had the repairs quickly in order and we were off and driving once again. We wouldn't stop until we were on top of the world!


After completing our whirlwind tour of the mountain range, literally climbing straight over the top of the mountains, we headed back to camp for a much anticipated Sunday dinner of Elk roast and potatoes, carrots and onions. Of course, after a good Sunday meal no one is much in the mood for anything but relaxing. Reed and Kyle faithfully prepared the kindling for starting the morning fires.

Monday morning we were back at it but our enthusiasm was waning. Could there be any possibility of success? After hunting all morning we came to the sad conclusion that the deer were not to be found in this part of the mountain range. The early snow had driven many deer to lower grounds, the earlier hunters had been too successful and we had nothing to show for our efforts but some pictures and some memories. It was a beautiful camp out but a very unsuccessful hunting expedition.

Labor Day Get-A-Way (Part 3 - Playing With The Petersens)

What do you do when your family gets together? Well here is what we did...


Every camp needs a campfire. Kyle got the fire started first thing in the morning. And, of course, he has many eager and willing little helpers (David, Ammon and Michael)

Next, you need to have light to see in order to fix breakfast. Michael's motto for the camp (and life right now) is "I do it myself!" So Grandpa let Michael help pump the lantern after it had been lit. David and Donovan would have eager helped too if there had been more room around the latern.

Breakfast, on this morning, was breakfast burritos. But what a role reversal! Jared is doing the cooking and Tosha is working the power tools. You have to admit that they make a great team.

Our boys actually did prety good eating breakfast but some encouragement was still required. And my boys had to race to see who would get to sit by Ammon.


What is a Petersen outing without shooting guns. This trip we used about 2 1/2 boxes of .22 ammo so that everyone had plenty of opportunities to shoot. David was first in line but everyone else lined up too (except Tosha and Aleky).

Shooting the guns took some time so by noon everyone decided to take a break and eat lunch. Grandma wanted to make ice cream for dessert and her rule is that "if you want some ice cream you have to take a "TURN." These boys wanted some ice cream!

But once the ice cream is done what do you do with the bucket? Michael discovered the accoustic characteristics of the ice cream bucket.

When lunch had a chance to settle we turned to chopping wood. Jared started it all by trying to create wood for the fire and it spread from there. Everyone needed a chance to swing their axe. Michael and Aaron were a bit small to be trusted with such sharp tools and were given wood-stacking duty instead.

Once the great trees had fallen and been prepared for the fire the boys decided to explore the far reaches of our pond. David was the tour guide and Donovan and Ammon followed along. The rule was that you had to be able to see the tent (or you were too far away) and to stay out of the water (we didn't have the means of drying out multiple pairs of shoes). When David came back from exploring it was too much (everyone tried hard to control their laughter; under the circumstances he should have been in trouble but he fell all the way in the pond, not just his shoes).


After so much excitement all our boys needed a nap. And while the little ones slept the games continued. First came the log chopping contest...(I am so unworthy; Jared the Lumberjack can chop through the tree in 41 seconds, Kyle took a full 48 seconds, even Grandpa could do it in about 75 seconds - at a fatter end of the tree; it took me over 3 minutes!)

After chopping trees down and chopping logs for the fire we decided to start throwing the trees just to see how far they would go. It took several attempts with several styles to determine that the hammer throw style worked the best (a golf swing had good results too). With each changing style the distance increased and now I don't remember who actually had the best overall throw.

After all the throws the log finally broke so a new game was created. There were two circles with a log in the middle. You got 3 points for hitting the log, 2 if your rock stopped inside the smaller circle, 1 point if your rock stopped inside the larger circle and 0 points for everything else. I finally found a game I could win (at least I was winning by 2 points after 3 tosses and then it started to rain putting us into a permanent rain delay).

The boys were not phased by the rain...they just moved the games inside the wall tent. But how do you keep 4 active boys from bouncing of the canvass walls of a tent?

So while the boys went crazy it was time to prepare dinner. And what good is dinner without some yummy dessert? (Smores didn't work because by this point the rain/hail was still falling and the firepit now had a moat of ice water; not so good for active boys to discover. So Grandma whipped up some nice chocolate pudding instead.)

The night came to a close as the rain poured down, alternating with hail. The pond moved about 10 feet closer to the wall tent and there were mud holes everywhere. We even discovered that our tent floor could double as a water bed! Our new tent held up pretty good but the tent doors started to leak under the relentless downpour. We hurried to get our kids in pjs and into their sleeping bags. Once they were bedded down for the night they went right to sleep, all tuckered out from the days activities! As I lay there, sleeping on and off, I listened to the rhythmic sound of the rain, later to turn to snow! But safe in the tent, in my warm sleeping bag, I could enjoy the continuous down pour.

What a full day!

Labor Day Get-A-Way (part 2 - First Day at Camp)

We were excited to finally be at camp. Everyone was there...Grandma, Grandpa, Kyle, Uncle Dan, Aunt Monica, Shilo, Jared, Tosha, Ammon, Aaron, and the Jones Family (Khayyam, Michelle, David, Donovan, Michael and Aleky). Since we were already warmed up we were able to set up camp in no time! Jared and Tosha were able to get settled in quickly as well. Uncle Dan & Aunt Monica had drove up in their truck with the camper shell.

Once everyone was situated we started lunch (that was our first meal and everyone had to wait until we made it to camp to be able to eat). While lunch was being prepared the boys (and that was just about everyone!) went out to play. Kyle and Jared started playing with the axe; they chopped down a couple of dead trees to start the firewood supply pile. The little boys (David, Donovan and Ammon) found great pleasure in playing with the ants they found in the base of the fallen tree.

Aaron seemed content just doing his own thing.

Once the initial euphoria of tree chopping had worn off David found a way to con his Uncle Jared into helping him do a little pistol (.22) shooting. David definitely loves the opportunity to shoot and if there is shooting going on you can bet he is somewhere very close by, just waiting for his turn.

We did have one slight mishap while shooting. Grandpa brought his brand new ultra light weight pistol. And from what I gather (and I'm not expert) it is a pretty nice gun. Unfortunately we didn't get to shoot it very many times (in fact, I never had the opportunity). The gun blew apart! We feel quite lucky that no one was hurt in that accident.

(Jared gets the first shot with Grandpa's new gun)

Aleky did not go unnoticed on this trip even though he rarely complained. His two cousins couldn't get enough of him (I'm sure it has to do with the pending arrival of their next sibling). Even providing a protective sheild wasn't good enough on this trip. Aaron was especially interested in taking care of Aleky and making sure he wasn't neglected.

David was sure busy and going fishing was next on his list of things to do while camping. Ammon also felt the need to fish. So there was a little fishing expedition to Hourglass lake, just before sunset. It turned out to be a successful endeavor as both boys were able to "catch" fish (or at least reel them in). David has now caught 3 fish at Hourglass lake! Not only did these two fishermen catch fish but they insisted on carrying the load together (they made it most of the way before dropping the fish in the dirt).

With such a busy day it was nice to sit back and relax around a campfire.