The Weekend

Saturday morning I got up at 4:45 a.m., loaded up the Tahoe, filled my Thermos with coffee, and set off driving North of Kemmerer around 40 miles to Commissary Ridge. It was still dark when I arrived to my destination, but after getting all of my gear ready the hint of morning was enough light to see by. I put on my pack and slid 5 Hornady 150 Grain 30-06 Bullets into my Savage rifle. I was going elk hunting.

The area where I was hunting was a walk-in area only. I climbed up the side of the ridge for about a mile and half to the end of a two track road. Off to the left is a great clearing where a friend has set up a tree stand. I perched myself in the stand for about 2 hours and saw only mule deer, squirrels, and birds. It was perfectly still and quiet and you could hear every little sound. The squirrels digging around in the dried up leaves, the swish of the birds' wings as they flew overhead, the sound of gunshots that were not mine.

My view to the left of the tree stand

And my view to the right, perched right above a nice game trail.

It was early and cold.

After sitting for a couple of hours I decided to get down and walk around some. I ended up stumbling across a trail that led all the way to the top of the ridge, roughly 3 miles up with about 1,000 ft. of elevation gain. I hiked all the way to the top just to see what was there, and the ridges only keep going and going, up and down, up and down.

Last little rise to reach the top.

Little Bear Creek Trail is the one I was on.

View from the top.

I hiked all the way back down to where I parked, ate my lunch and headed home. I didn't see any elk that day, but I sure had a great time being out in the mountains with a gorgeous fall sunny day.

On Sunday I baptized a boy who is 12 yrs. old outside in our local children's fishing pond. Needless to say the water was freezing and it might have been one of the quickest baptisms ever. And then Sunday evening we had a game night at the Church. It was fun to just hang out and laugh together. We played "What's Yours Like?" A game kind of like 20 questions. It was a pretty good weekend all in all.