The rains started in the Snoqualmie Valley last Thursday and things got wet fast. Friday mornings pheasant hunt was wet and windy, we got out of the woods when big branches started crashing around and we never found a bird. With the rivers rising and no end of rain in sight it was time to head east and get into a drier climate. On Sunday I packed up the shotguns and Lira and met Lisa for a 3-4 day trip to Ellensburg to hunt chukar, quail and pheasants and also, hopefully, to break my slump.
The drive over had me worried, it was dumping rain all through Snoqualmie Pass and into Cle Elum and beyond, I’d left my ToughShell clothing at home, that could have been a mistake. Luckily about 5 miles from Ellensburg things started looking up and the rain stopped. We arrived at Canyon River Ranch, got our room early, unloaded vehicles and headed over to the shop to grab some units to hunt. We decided to hit the Mt. Baldy area where we’d never been during deer season and were also told to go into the preserve area because there were some holdover birds running about.
We started up on Baldy A and shortly after heading out realized we’d forgotten water. We went back to the truck and just then a covey of quail flew by and down the gully towards the Yakima River. We worked the southern flank of the gully way down and just when we were discussing turning around the covey exploded just out of range. I got off one shot at a bird that went uphill and thought I hit it but we never did find it. Lira then went on to find a partridge which Lisa missed and then as we worked the south flank another partridge took off way out of range nad we never relocated it. We then ran into a few roosters as we were by the road and I missed a shot at one and we never found the other again after they ran. Tough birds, my slump was still going.
We headed down to the Lluma Creek road and knew that the B and C units were wide open to walk and one guy said he knew he had left 3 birds up there somewhere. We parked at the top of B and Lira was back into action and pretty quickly was on a bird. I decided to switch to the 12 gauge Ethos and was glad I did since the first shot was a long one and the bird dropped – slump ended! Working down through the area we ended up finding a total of 5 pheasants and only missed one of them. Things were looking up. We headed up to the C area and went a bit beyond, Lisa saw a few roosters off in the creek bottom and went after them getting her first double on them. We now had six roosters in the bag and went looking for quail. We found one covey fly over and cross the creek and went after them. Lira found one bird that was still on the edge but no shot and we never did relocate the whole covey. Still, a good first afternoon hunt. We saw a lot of birds – two covey of quail, 2 Hungarian partridge and 9 pheasants total – had a limit of roosters and I broke my week long slump.
Day 2 started cold so we made a run to Starbucks after de-icing the truck and then headed back up Mt. Baldy to the B unit higher up. We parked at the lot and Lira got out and was immediately sniffing around the area. She got on a bird right away and when it started to flush she grabbed it and managed to wrangle it down, she had just grabbed herself a wild chukar with no shots fired. We worked about 3.5 miles in this area and Lira got birdy off and on and kept heading in the general direction of a big gully. Finally a group of chukar took off way ahead of us making me think she chased them all the way down the hill and headed across the gully. We worked our way over there and never found them again, seems to be a common theme. We headed back to the truck to take a short break then hit the other side of the hill down to a gully. Again Lira got birdy as we were heading back up the slope to the truck, I was totally ready and two quail flushed hard right and downhill. This shot is my nemesis and I missed completely. Oh well, we’ve managed to see all four bird species in these hills and have two species in the bag. Afterwards we headed back down to Lluma Creek and worked one of the preserve areas for holdover pheasants before lunch but found nothing.
Lisa had to leave after lunch and Lira and I rested and went out for about an hour in the late afternoon. We hit the preserve area for holdovers and found a couple of birds walking off the road into one of them so we pulled over at the end of the unit and worked our way back. Lira found one of the roosters and I hit it but it flew clear across the canyon and up the hill partially on the way down. She was on it in no time as I tried to run over in her direction. She got the bird, it managed to get away and flew over my head so I shot it again and it dropped like a rock. She ran down the hill and over to it to make the retrieve. She got a good point on a chukar which I missed completely and another good point on one that flew so low I had no shot. After that she got a bit bird crazed and I was having a hard time keeping her close so she bumped two roosters who were next to each other and I was too far out of range. On the way back to the truck she found another chukar out of range and I had no shot. Not bad for an hours hunt but still, the dog needs some doggie downers when she gets bird crazed like that.
I awoke on Day 3 tired but not nearly as tired as Lira. She didn’t really want to get up but I got her up and she very stiffly went outside to go to the bathroom. I made her breakfast and she wanted nothing to do with it and crawled back on her pillow for the next 3 hours. She got up again and took a short walk after a lot of stretching and then came back and curled back up on the pillow. I think she is done so we will be going home a day early. The season over here has just begun and I don’t want to wear her out before it really gets going, we’ve put in 3 full days in Eastern Washington already in a season only 10 days old on top of the 14 days we pheasant hunted in Western Washington last month since that season started. As for me, add in another 8 days of deer hunting and I’m a bit tired myself having hunted all but a handful of days in October.
All in all a good trip. We ended up finding lots of pheasant, a few covey of chukar, even more quail and a few huns. Bird wise we got 7 roosters and 1 chukar, should have had a few more chukar at least and a quail would have been nice. Still, not bad for two days of hunting and her first really big trip over to the east side of the mountains. She definitely got better at the quail and chukar by yesterday afternoon and our next trip in a few weeks should go a bit better and I know how much I need to limit her time in the field.