Fungus Among Us

November 8, 2009

Well this marks the ending of the 2009 Western Oregon Deer Rifle Season. We had over 30 days to find a buck blacktail and it came down to not investing enough time. Lots going on this fall including remodeling the house, kids activities, work, and remodeling the house. I only managed to get out 3 days to hunt. It was a lot of fun being out in the woods anticipating the big buck to be just around the next tree. However, hunting blacktails is very humbling. The odds are on their side from the start. They are so tuned in to movement, sound, and smell. Many folks wait for the end of the season when bucks are getting close to the rut and are more concerned about finding girlfriends than remaining unseen. That was my hope… finding lovesick bucks as the season came closer to the end.

I enlisted the help of a professional, Michael Burrell. Now this guy has a deep passion for hunting. He is a hardcore hunter who takes the fall harvest season seriously. He travels the west in search of big game to hunt and has done quite well. Michael spent a couple of days with me looking for blacktails in the Cascades. It was under some tough conditions. One day it was sunny and warm and the other day it was windy. We made several hunts, checked lots of different spots and tried rattling antlers too. We didn’t find many deer but, we did see highways of tracks and sign. Blacktails are humbling.

As my last remaining grains of sand trickled through the hour glass, I resorted to a last ditch attempt to bring something home. I got out a plastic bag just for this occasion and picked some chanterelle mushrooms. They were popping up everywhere on the forest floor. I felt like a kid on an Easter egg hunt where adults left eggs in the middle of the lawn for an easy find. The mushrooms would’ve been killer on a venison steak or mushroom deerburger. But, it was not to be. Instead, we fried some up with lup cheong sausage, it was good. Blacktails are humbling.

Note the raindrops rolling off my rifle’s barrel.

Michael in seek and destroy mode.

A nice hillside with unseen deer.

Lots of buck tracks around…a .260 Remington round to be exact.

20 minutes of picking chanterelle mushrooms.

Jessie waiting for the cooking to begin.

Lup Cheong Sausage and chanterelles.