Friday, December 05, 2008
Wilderness reward
Three Roanoke County hunters find a big buck and more during a burly backcountry hunting trip.
From left, Bob Hage, Mike Bowling and Matt Ireland of Roanoke County recently spent four days on a backcountry hunt deep in the James River Face Wilderness area.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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As Mike Bowling led them down the trail, Bob Hage and Matt Ireland couldn't stop looking at their friend.
Bowling carried not only a heavy backpack full of camping gear, but the head and cape of an enormous whitetail buck.
The deer was a tangible result of what the men had been through the past four days.
But the grueling late-November hunt deep in a Virginia wilderness area was about more than just taking home a set of trophy antlers.
It was about three men pushing themselves physically and mentally for five days while pursuing the satisfaction that comes from knowing you've done something truly special.
Residents of Southwest Roanoke County who live within a few miles of each other, Bowling, Hage and Ireland are veteran hunters of public land.
Over the years they have stayed in campgrounds and trudged deep into the woods to hunt from dawn to dark each day. They have traveled West and to Canada for backcountry fishing and hunting trips.
But the local wilderness beckoned.
Hage and Bowling, who are brothers-in-law and are both in the construction industry, started seriously planning a backpack hunt several years ago.
They settled on the James River Face Wilderness, a steep and rugged tract of about 9,000 acres just south of Glasgow.
Bowling printed a large topographic map of the area, and they marked trails and potential hunting hot spots. They also studied satellite photos of the wilderness.
Several years ago during the late muzzleloader season in December, they spent all day hiking the area scouting. They didn't find much deer sign, but what they found showed that at least some mature whitetail bucks lived in the area.
From left, Bob Hage, Mike Bowling and Matt Ireland of Roanoke County recently spent four days on a backcountry hunt deep in the James River Face Wilderness area.
Still, the plan was mostly just a fantasy until Ireland got antsy earlier this fall.
"Matt probably pushed us over the edge," Bowling said.
The men committed to the trip, making detailed gear lists and plans, and buying special equipment they figured they would need.
In the early morning of Wednesday, Nov. 19, the men shouldered their 70-pound packs and started the strenuous hike, with plans to return four days later.
"After we left the truck, about 100 yards in, I was like, 'I'm not going to make it,'" said Bowling, a fit 41.
Using a variety of trails, including the Appalachian Trail, the men covered about 5 miles and reached the area they wanted to hunt in about five hours.
But the camp needed to be near water, so the trio had to drop down the mountain to an area near a creek. In doing so they gave up about 800 feet of elevation, meaning each day's hunt would start with a brutal uphill hike.
The first task was to set up camp.
To save weight, the men had packed a two-man tent. At night the three slept like tightly packed sardines.
"Say we all had our own tent," Ireland said with a laugh, seriously adding that the cozy arrangements helped the men stay relatively warm in temperatures that dipped into the teens and single digits at night.
They also built a lean-to to protect their gear, gathered firewood and collected water. Only after the work was done did the men have time to reflect on what they'd gotten themselves into.
"When we were planning it, our wives were like, 'You guys are stupid,'" Ireland said with a wry smirk.
And as they sat around their fire that night, the men were thinking their wives might have been right.
Not only were they tired and cold, but they were worried about their hunting prospects. They had seen some deer sign while hiking in, but hadn't jumped even a single whitetail. In fact, they hadn't even seen a squirrel.
Later, all three admitted that had one member of the group suggested bailing out the next day, the others would have happily agreed.
But no one was willing to be the first one to admit defeat.
Heading out to hunt the next morning, the men tried to stay optimistic. They didn't expect to see a lot of deer, but hoped they might spot a big buck or two in the lightly hunted area.
"That's the appeal," Ireland said.
Bowling had fueled the excitement.
"The first thing I told Matt was, 'Dude, a buck is born in here with eight points,'" Bowling said.
But the first hunting day the men saw just two does among them.
That night a howling wind started blowing out of the northwest as an Arctic system pushed into the region.
The men listened to the gusts roaring through the trees, grimacing as the computerized voice on their weather radio warned of high winds.
Friday they were back at it.
While whitetails often hunker down in high winds, the hunters thought the wind might have actually helped them on Friday by covering their noise as they moved through the woods.
That morning Ireland spotted a doe and two spikes. Later in the morning Hage found an area with lots of deer sign, and his spirits were buoyed.
About noon Hage saw movement ahead, and spotted a good buck stealing through the woods.
Hage, who was hunting with a Thompson/Center Contender pistol, aimed and fired. The buck bounded off untouched.
Hage was crestfallen.
"I was ready to throw my gun off a cliff," he said.
A chance for redemption came quickly, as Hage soon spotted another buck. This time he didn't miss.
But after tracking the deer for a couple of hours he realized he had to turn around so he could get back to camp before dark. Hage marked the area on his GPS and dejectedly started the hike down the mountain.
Unknown to Hage, Bowling had also seen a buck that afternoon.
"About 2:30, I looked up and saw big horns coming," Bowling remembered. "He was just sneaking along."
The buck was only about 50 yards away but Bowling could not find a clear shooting lane in the thick woods. Bowling, who has had a string of bad luck in hunting in recent years, was on the verge of panic, thinking the deer was going to get by him.
Eventually, he was able to get a shot with his Remington rifle chambered for the massive .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge.
The deer dropped.
After reaching his buck, which had 13 points and long, heavy tines, Bowling tried to raise Ireland on the radio.
"He said, 'I just shot a huge buck,'" Ireland said. "Mike is a guy who doesn't change his voice much.
"But it changed that day."
The two spent the rest of the day dealing with the buck, which they quartered and deboned so they could pack the head, cape and meat back to camp.
Camp wasn't so cold that night as the men ate fresh venison and celebrated.
His buck down, Bowling helped Hage search for his deer the next day. Eventually they tracked it to a tangle of thick mountain laurel on a hillside so steep it was practically a cliff.
"I wanted to stay there all day and look," said Hage, who eventually agreed that they had to abandon the search.
Ireland hunted the final day and saw more deer, but nothing to shoot. He was OK with that because he felt like he had already been successful.
"We all felt like we shot Mike's buck," Ireland said.
Wiley agreed.
"It's all of our buck," he said.
And as they hiked out, laughing the whole way, they realized that their success wasn't just in the form of a trophy buck.
"It wasn't about the deer," Ireland said. "We've hunted all over and this is by far our best hunt.
"It's the most rewarding, and it was right here in our backyard."
