(Travis wouldn't sit still for a decent picture.) The last two weeks has been deer hunt mania at our house. Opening weekend we went up to Flaming Forge where we always hunt. This year we went up a day early to get everything ready and to sight in the guns. While target shooting, a shell got jammed in Trav's rifle. Fortunately, Trav's dad brought up some of his other guns and let Trav use his rifle to hunt. Opening morning, Trav's mom and aunt saw the biggest buck they had ever seen up there and his dad was the only hunter with them at time. He grabbed his replacement gun and took aim. Unfortunately he didn't pull the hammer back so the gun didn't fire. By the time he shot again the buck was gone. It sucks because if he had had the rifle he's used to he would have gotten him. Later that day, right before dark, Trav's aunt saw some more deer on a hillside across the street from where we parked. Trav's dad sped over there and went off the rode through a field to get as close to the deer as possible. We eventually came to a fence and had to stop but had that fence not been there I am convinced we would have driven right up the mountain to the deer. There was one buck but his horns were barely bigger than his ears so he didn't want to shoot him. If Trav or his cousin Cole (who has never gotten a deer) been with us they probably would have shot. So the only time we saw any bucks Trav's dad was the only hunter in sight. The next two days we didn't see anything. There were hardly any doe either. It must have been a really bad winter or something. We didn't see any other hunters with deer hanging or in their trucks either. I am proud to say that I went out with them everytime except one morning. This is rare because I usually stay at the trailer and sleep in. I'm not too fond of waking up before dark and sitting out in the cold. I also proud to report that the entire Jensen clan was only fifteen minutes later than planned getting out every morning. For those of you who don't know the Jensens that is quite the feat. We were disapointed we didn't get any deer but we had a lot of fun. I have now added deer to my list of things not at Flaming Gorge. After several summers of boating I have already come to the conclusion that there are no fish there either.
The next weekend Travis and Cole continued their quest for deer. This time they drove up to Strawberry for the day. They didn't have any luck at Strawberry either though but Travis got to spend some quality time with his cousin, dad, and grandpa.
