To begin this story, we have to set the scene. I was going deer scouting with 2 of my friends, of whom we shall call Craymin and Juanito.
“Craymin, what’s the forecast supposed to look like?”
“Well, it says it’s supposed to be a 30% chance of rain before 9AM, and clear after that”
“Alright let’s take the windows off”, Juanito said as we removed the windows from his Jeep Wrangler. It was the night before we were going scouting for my upcoming deer hunt, and we all were going to pile into the Wrangler with the top and windows off, the best way to cruise the backroads.
We woke early the next morning, so as to begin scouting when the sun came up. Gear loaded, we began our trek.
It wasn’t too far of a drive as the brisk autumn air cooled our faces. It seemed humid out, but I wasn’t concerned as we continued to our first location, of which was a new area that we found on Google Maps. This area was supposed to have some good deer numbers, but glassing points were to be limited.
The sun started to creep over the mountains, but the sky remained dark. Why was this? Because the sky was blanketed with clouds. This was no “30% chance of rain before 9AM” sky, this was a “it’s going to rain all day” type of sky. However, we continued.
We finally got into the unit and began driving down a long road that would take us to our next turn off.
“JAVO!”
There was a dead javelina on the side of the road, of which looked like had been hit by a car only a few hours prior. I took a few pictures, and we continued on our journey.
We finally got to the area that we found on Google Maps, sky still looking ominous, and it was posted as private property. I was bummed but not defeated, as I knew of another road that could get us in. We traveled several more miles to find the road, only for it to be posted as private property as well. Disappointed, I crossed this hunting spot off my list.
From this point, we could have either driven about 30 miles one way to the next spot, or about 20 miles another way. The decision was obvious, and we continued our drive.
Well, we were suddenly stopped by a river crossing the road. This river is usually somewhat nonexistent, and didn’t expect it to be running as it was. We pondered crossing the river for 20-30 minutes – the height of the water was unknown, though the ground below seemed hard. We finally decided to turn around and go a different direction.
This road would take us to the same spot, just not as quickly (according to Google Maps). We drove 10-minutes, only to find that our road read “NO OUTLET”. We hit another dead-end road, just as a dark cloud came upon us.
It first started to sprinkle lightly. We pulled over and put the top on the Jeep, but didn’t have any of the windows. We continued our drive as we stayed mostly dry. Sure enough, we had to drive back the way we came to the 30 mile trail.
We hit the dirt road once again as the rain stopped. There was someone grating the roads as we continued on the freshly-smooth dirt. We passed the big truck and, about 0.5 mile ahead of him, found a very small Gila monster. This was easily the smallest I’d ever seen. I took a few pictures as it opened its mouth and hissed lightly at me. I then coaxed it off the road to avoid being trampled by the grater, and we continued on our way.
At this point, we could see that our road of travel was being hit hard by rain ahead of us, but we weren’t expecting for an all-out downpour to happen upon us. Heavy raindrops and pea-sized hail began pelting us from the side. We continued driving slowly as mud was being flung up into the cab of the vehicle.
“WE”RE GOING TO DIE”, Craymin yelled.
Juan stopped the vehicle in anger. It’d be better to be wet than be wet and muddy, so waited out the storm as thunder and lightning rang all around us.
With the interior of the Jeep covered in mud and rain, we decided to take a long pit stop. We couldn’t even see through the windshield for Juan to drive, so we needed to do some cleaning. I took my time and used paper towels to clean off the inside of the windshield, along with other interior areas.
The storm completely passed as we continued on our way. This was the perfect weather to try and glass and also call in some predators, so we hiked into this mountain (my #2 hunting spot). We glassed and glassed, only to find nothing.
In front of us was a storm forming, heading directly at us, and there was a storm to the right of us, also heading directly at us. Our time was limited, but we decided to call for predators. We put in a 15 minute stand, ended by me telling Juan “I think it’s time to go” as I pointed to the storm to the right of us, flashing with lightening and roaring with thunder.
We took our time to pack our gear, and then, the titans clashed. Both storms collided over head as a lightning bolt struck not far from us. Thunder raged as lightning illuminated our path down the mountain – we’d already had such bad luck this morning, the last thing we wanted was to get struck by lightning.
We speed walked/ran down the mountain, trying to outrun the rain that had now began. I stepped upon an uneasy rock and fell backwards, catching myself on a rock and ripping my hand open. We all stumbled down the mountain as quickly as possible, trying to avoid the elements. I stepped upon a rodent burrow that caved in below me, twisting my ankle in the process, but I didn’t stop.
We all finally got to the Jeep as the rain subsided. All of us slightly injured and cut up, we made it out alive.
At this point, we headed back into town as the rain continued. There was no use in trying to scout in the rain.
We went to my new #1 hunting spot, and put up a trail camera, hoping to catch some movement over the next week or so. After, we decided to head home. The day was action-packed, filled with ill-fated events, but it was a day in the wilderness nonetheless. A day, an adventure, that I’ll never forget.