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The success is in the journey
Plans for this journey started many years ago when my wife, Rita, and I traveled to Tucson Arizona to visit her family. From her brother’s home in Oro Valley, one can look to the west and see the Santa Catalina Mountains with Mt Lemmon rising up 9,157 feet. It was mid-February and the mountains were snowcapped. We made plans to go hiking at Catalina State Park and hoped to spot a road runner, javelina and Coues deer. We did see a buck, doe and fawn but the bird of cartoon lore and little pig were not to be found.
While it was a great trip, the idea to return someday to hunt the top of the mountain for deer was starting to form. Three years ago I started looking into the logistics of a Coues deer hunt. I researched the subject on the World Wide Web, calculated costs, looked at season dates, checked weather conditions, hunting pressure/land access, and read all I could about hunting Coues deer. The fore mentioned mountains are part of the Coronado National Forest. Maps were ordered and goggle earth scouting began. The Pinaleno Mountains with Mt. Graham rising up 11,720 feet to the East are also part of the same forest district where I planned to hunt.
My plans changed when I found that a fishing License was included with my tag. I felt the White Mountains would provide good hunting for both Coues and Mule deer plus lots of trout fishing opportunities. More maps were bought and research done.
I left on my trip August 24th, 2016 at 4:00 am making it to Foss State Park in Oklahoma. I camped that evening, then traveled to Alpine Arizona the next day. With camp set, I strung my long bow and scouted for about an hour. Friday I awoke to rain. Half the day was spent in camp reading and waiting for the rain to stop. When it did, I hung my tree stand and enjoyed my first evening in a stand this year. No deer were seen that day or the next. Saturday, I packed up camp to head towards Mt Graham. I stopped at the East Fork of the Black River to try some trout fishing. Two nice fish hit my spinners but neither was hooked. More bad weather set in so I wrapped up the fishing and headed out. I decided to take a short cut to Hannagan Meadows on Road 24. This soon turned into a narrow two track, high mountain road. With rain, hail and fog, I was very glad when I made it to Hwy 191. If you have ever driven 191, you know as I now do, it is not for the faint of heart! Mountain grades and curves with no guard rails, and constant rain had me on edge. Once I cleared the mountains and got to the Morenci Copper Mine, I had good roads to the town of Safford. Just before town, a Road Runner ran in front of me. This was the first one I had seen. Soon I was at the base of Mt. Graham ready to head up Hwy 366, “the Swift Trail.” This 30 plus mile road made 191 feel like a Sunday drive! By the time I got halfway up, the black top ended and the road turned to washed-out gravel. I traveled up to 9,000 feet and noticed other bow hunting camps. It was getting late, so I pulled into National Forest Service’s Cunningham campground at 8,800 feet set up camp. Sunday I scouted up the mountain side climbing over 1,200 feet to an elevation of 10,054 feet. I hunted back down to camp and found a nice spot to hang a stand. Returning to camp, I met Benny, a bow hunter from Safford AZ, who was new to bow hunting. He had an old Jennings compound bow that had a string ready to break. He had a new string but had no way to replace it. Luckily, I had the needed tools to do the repairs. After getting him sighted in, we shot for a bit. As we were finishing up, he told me about the arrow tree which is a large dead pine located nearby, into which bow hunters shoot arrows for good luck!
While I did not harvest a Coues deer, I did see 14 does and fawns with one doe 4 yards from my tree. Monday, a nice 6 point buck came in but spotted me as I was setting up for a shot. He was nervous and as I released the arrow, he dropped to run with my arrow passing just over his shoulder. On Tuesday, I had a black bear come in at 11 yards.
Other highlights of the trip were spotting four Mt. Graham red squirrels. There are only about 300 left in the world. After seeing the first one, I talked with a Forest Service employee working with the little rodent’s recovery efforts and told him about my sighting. He gave me contact information and I have now sent the details of my sightings on to them. I also had a Mexican Spotted Owl perch in a tree near my stand on three different occasions.
On Wednesday I packed up 45 pounds of gear and hiked up to 10,000 feet, setting up camp, then hunting until dark. The next day I hunted up to the summit at 10,604 feet, drank from a mountain spring and took lots of photos. Later I got caught in an ice/rain storm and headed back to the campground, trying to stay ahead of the next storm. It was one of the best 26 hours of my life!
I got back to camp packed up and headed for home, spending nights in New Mexico and Oklahoma State parks. As I was going through the Oklahoma City area, the radio reported a series of earthquakes hitting but I did not notice anything riding in my jeep. In all, I drove 3,720 miles.
One last note- even though it was raining on my way back down the mountain, I did stop and deposited one of my homemade wooden arrows into the arrow tree! While I did not harvest a Coues deer on this trip, the success of any venture is in the journey!
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