Deer Hunting and The Ranch
When I was really young I was always very jealous of the older boys who got to go deer hunting with dad and my uncles and cousins. I just couldn’t wait until it was my turn to start going. Well, finally the day came and I got to go with them to the ranch where we all slept in the cabin in Indian Canyon. We ate supper there and cleaned and prepared the rifles and sharpened the hunting knives and basically just had a good time. I was probably 8 or 10 years old, I really don’t remember for sure. Anyway I got to sleep on the floor and didn’t really sleep that well. It was 4 am when everyone started to get up. It wasn’t really too hard for me to get up then considering I had been too excited to sleep all night anyway. We had breakfast and that was a treat in itself since the cabin only had a wood burning stove and I got to see Uncle Mont get that ready before he could cook.
After breakfast we all went out and saddled the horses. We went across the road and rode up into the hills while it was still dark outside. The gorses were really good at being able to see their way so it was almost like everyone went back to sleep while on the horses. I am sure they were not asleep but that was the feeling I got because we rode along in such silence. I was on the back of the horse behind dad and was going to be with him all day. It was fun but we didn’t see any deer. The thing that I remember most from that day was when it was noon dad decided to stop riding and to sit under a pinyon pine tree for lunch. I have no idea where anyone else was but knew that we were on the edge of a hill and there were pine nuts right there where we were eating lunch. Dad then following lunch laid down under the tree and went to sleep. I wanted too but was still too excited to do it. So I sat there listening to the quietness of the day. We had heard rifle shots earlier in the day but even the rifle shots had ended. I suppose that is because everyone else was doing just what dad was doing and the deer for the most part settle down at that time of the day as well.
It wasn’t but maybe a half hour though that dad had been asleep when I heard rocks sliding on the hillside just below where we were staying. I jumped up and ran over to where I could see what was causing the noise just and saw a deer going across the rocks below us. Apparently someone had started to move and caused it to move as well. I ran back and woke dad up but by the time we were back to the spot the deer had disappeared. I don’t remember getting a deer that day and I don’t think that dad was too disappointed about it either. I had fun though and the fact that I finally got to even see a deer was pretty special. The best part though was spending the entire day with my dad. I was really sore that night from riding on the horse so long but that didn’t even matter either cause now I had been on the deer hunt for the first time.
