This year I decided to do a second turkey camp in Southern Oregon to get some more turkey meat in the freezer, to get a few more Rios and to check out the Rogue Valley. I had kind of wanted to do the West Coast Turkey Tour and fit in California but didn’t pull it off this year, maybe next year I’ll go for all three. I had debated on wether or not to tow the trailer or tent camp but decided the trailer would be way more comfy so did the long tow down on Monday and set up camp in Gold Hill, very close to some of the turkey spots we were going to hit.
Tag Archives: turkey
Washington Turkey Camp
This year I headed back over to the Spokane area for turkey hunting. I had originally planned a trip to Winthrop a few weeks ago but the weather (don’t get me started) was horrible so that got canceled and I was placing all my bets on Spokane/Cheney area which also happened to have an extended three bird limit this year. I towed the trailer over on Tuesday and set up camp at Riverside State Park, wandered around finding a few false morels and then tried to get some sleep.
A very short turkey season
After last year’s short and hardly huntable turkey season I had hopes for this year. Everyone was confident cases would be dropping like a rock in April and May so things would be safe this year. Of course Washington and Oregon are still on the increase having fourth waves but at least I’m fully vaccinated as of last Saturday so I went ahead and had my trip that I had booked with Joe for last season. Even with the vaccine I had trepidation about the trip. The counties over here are the fifth worst in the nation for new COVID cases at the moment, I hadn’t shot anything in six months and I hadn’t been out using my shotgun since last fall when Lira got hurt. I did manage to get to the range and zero in my Fastfire red dot but still felt a lot of concern that I’d end up missing or wounding a bird. The whole thing tied me up in knots to the point where I was debating just stopping hunting altogether so I sort of needed today.
Tough Washington turkeys
After a successful Rio hunt in Oregon I was looking forward to getting back over to Eastern Washington to hunt Merriam’s turkeys in May with Joe from Double Barrel Ranch again. We loaded up the new trailer on the 5th and did the long drive across the state and set up camp in Riverside State Park along the Spokane River. The plan was to hunt one and a half days, if needed, then drive back home while Catherine did some foraging in the park. The campground and park were amazing, probably the best state park we’ve visited and we will be back. Tons of trail, an amazing stretch of the Spokane River and a nice quiet campground made for a great spot.
Big K Blast & Cast
My friend Mark and I had tried to get together for a turkey trip last season but didn’t pull it off so this year we set one up in Oregon so I could go after my first Rio Grande and he could go after his first turkey ever. He got us booked into the Big K Guest Ranch outside of Elkton on the Umpqua River for one day of turkey hunting and one day of fishing. I decided to fly down to Eugene instead of doing the 7 hour drive down and back and it worked pretty well since the ranch had a shuttle and I knew I could pack light for a two day trip.
2018 – Looking back
2018 was a good year but a tough year in several respects and I’m actually kind of glad this one is over with. Thanks to Lira I hiked close to 2000 miles this year and we managed to get out and do quite a bit of fishing and hunting, logging 108 days total in the water, hills or fields. I also somehow managed to build a boat for the sole purpose of taking her fishing with me since she coludn’t quite work out in a float tube. Catherine and I had a lot of fun spending many days exploring the Middle Fork Valley this year and also camping and hiking on the Oregon coast.
Turkey Season 2018
My first big Tom
Last season I did my first ever turkey hunt over at the Double Barrel Ranch in Rockford, WA and got totally hooked. This season I had planned a trip with a friend to go back and also do some bird hunting but between Lira going into heat and a changed commitment with my friend I needed to figure out Plan B. I’d also pulled a muscle or tendon in my shoulder a week before so tried to change the dates but couldn’t so taped up my shoulder and hoped for the best. Since I’d already paid a deposit for two hunters at Double Barrel I decided to go on my own but instead of hunting the ranch we opted to hunt the Cheney area on some private ranches but I also got to find some public land in the area that holds turkeys as well as mule deer and elk.
Looking forward to next season
Hunting season pretty much ended at the end of last month when turkey season closed here in Washington. Of course, tag hunting season was still ongoing and I just finally received word of all those efforts and am getting ready for next season. Last year was really my first true hunting season. The year before when I decided take up hunting again it was limited to a few pheasant hunting trips but in 2016-17 it got much more serious. I ended up the season with 30 days of hunting in total, 23 days of pheasant hunting, 5 days of deer hunting and 2 days of turkey hunting. Overall, I was pretty successful, I must have taken about three dozen birds, one Mule Deer buck and two Merriam’s turkeys. I managed to gather enough food that we have been eating wild game a few days a week since last fall. Add in fish that I catch and we are just under half our food supply now from hunting and fishing.
Turkey Time!
First turkeys!
Since taking back up hunting a few years ago I’ve been trying to expand my skills and the critters I’ll go hunting for and turkeys were at the top of my list. I had planned on going on a guided turkey hunt last spring but after getting Lira a few days before the season opened realized it just wasn’t in the cards so I put it off until this season. I decided to use the trip as a lesson in turkey hunting but wanted to be pretty prepared so bought some calls and learned how to use them, read as much as I could on turkey hunting and got out and patterned my shotgun at the range with turkey loads.