I was a little apprehensive when I pulled off the pavement at Sweetwater Junction late in the afternoon. I had a whole antelope unit to drive through before reaching my unit and a place to camp for the night. The road quickly turned into a two- track through some incredible country, and I often wondered if I was on the correct route. Shortly before dark as I was crossing an endless sagebrush flat, my GPS/map told me I had just crossed into unit 60. I turned off onto a smaller two-track and found some small sand hills to park on. Out came the cot, air mattress, sleeping bag, Coleman one burner white gas stove, pot water, tea, and the book I had chosen for this trip. The book was One Bullet Away about a Marine LT with the first battalion into Afghanistan and later as a Recon platoon leader in the invasion of Iraq. With a headlamp ready, I watched the sunset and contemplated what had brought me here.
I grew up in the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, and the military, work, and hunting have allowed me to explore many interesting, arid regions, like Ft. Irwin, White Sands, Dugway, the Great Sand Dunes, the Gates of Lodore, Camp Guernsey, and Adobe Town, but the Red Desert had always intrigued me the most. The continental divide splits to the south of I-80 and comes back together on the northwest corner of the unit near South Pass. It forms a large basin with a legendary elk herd, the Oregon Trail, and Deer 255. What better way to get that done than by having an antelope tag in my pocket? Huntin’ Fool referred me to Rusty Hall. He thought that with max points and the special draw I could draw the tag. After I drew the tag, he set me up with Eric Adams. Eric was guiding hunters near Cheyenne the week prior to our season. He told me where he had been scouting and where he had seen some good bucks. He also gave me a list of places he hadn’t been to and encouraged me to find them.
The next morning, I stumbled across my first elk. I watched and filmed them for quite a while. They were just the first of many to come. Over the next two days, I crisscrossed the unit learning the major roads and noting them on the map. I spoke with an antelope bowhunter and talked with Andy from Washington, another Huntin’ Fool member, who was meeting a friend from Cheyenne. I saw a lot of antelope, horses, and dry lakebeds and met Gold Pan Billy. He referred me to his favorite auto parts store in Rock Springs so I could fix my trailer light connector that got left in “Rocky Crossing,” I presume.
Eric pulled up to where I was parked at the Wal-Mart in Rock Springs at 5 a.m. We shook hands, introduced ourselves, and went inside to get some groceries for the hunt. We talked a little about what we had been doing and how we got to where we were today along with throwing some Oreos in the cart. I learned he was a former Light Armored Recon (LAV) Marine. I followed him 55 miles east on I-80 before we exited. It was dark and I had trouble following with the dust, but I found the trailer off a side road and Eric unloading the Razor.
Together on the Razor, we were now hunting. Eric asked me where I had been, and I showed him the pictures I had taken. He explained that for this first day we would run a lot of territory and look for some bucks he had seen earlier, cover some new ground, and see what we could see. Sure enough, he showed me some bucks he had seen before and asked me what I thought of them. At one spot where we stopped to glass, he spotted a coyote at 300 yards. He had me get my rifle to see if I could shoot. I guess I was adequate. We saw a buck that needed a closer look disappear over a ridge, so we strapped on the daypacks and walked a few miles to see if I could walk. Eric showed me some quicksand where he had got his Razor stuck and had serious thoughts of survival and vehicle recovery. There was a recent cow and numerous horse skeletons scattered about. We ate sandwiches while watching a large, dry lakebed with numerous groups of rutting and dozing antelope, trying to find a great buck. We covered well over 100 miles that day and were following a fence line south back toward camp. With about 20 miles to go, we came upon a bull elk that had tangled its horns in the fence and expired. We stopped, looked at the sign, and took pictures with the elk. We had a long way to go to camp and not much sun.
Sabrina had dinner ready, and I got to meet Eric’s son, Dawson. After equipment maintenance, personal hygiene, and food, sleep came fast.
The next day, we covered another 150 miles, stopping periodically to glass and video bucks. Many landmarks were looking familiar now. It was awesome to watch Eric use his GPS and satellite images to navigate. GPS has come a long way since I worked on the program in 1990-92 and purchased all the SLGRs/PLGRs for Desert Storm. Dawson has a gift. Sitting in the backseat, he could see antelope three miles away with his bare eyes. Late in the day while cruising the two-track, a buck stood up not 200 yards off the road. Eric said it was a really good buck that he had seen earlier in the summer in this area. We drove down the road another 200 yards, got out, and made our way over to look into the valley. We were expecting the buck to be a few hundred yards out, but Dawson spotted him up the valley over a mile away.
Twelve miles later, we were parked on a hill watching him watch us 1,300 yards down a small valley. When he bedded, we put on a stalk down the bottom of a wash. We made it to about 400 yards from the antelope. Eric set up the tripod to film him and could only see his horns through the grass. As I crawled up to Eric, the buck decided to get up and leave. It was late, so we hustled back to the Razor and drove mostly in the dark 60 or so miles back to camp.
Early the next morning, about 30 miles from camp, we came to a large basin and watched two good bucks we had not seen before. One had good forks, and the other was extremely tall. After watching the bucks and does move back and forth around the basin, the one with good forks presented itself at a very doable range. Eric kept telling me to wait. I had no idea the tall buck had showed up too and Eric was deciding which was better. Finally, he said I was on the right one, and two shots later, we walked up on an amazing animal.
The adventure wasn’t over yet. I had a generator and freezer for the meat and cape, so I spent a relaxing evening in the Red Desert finishing my book. The next morning, I drove out northwest through the Oregon Buttes and saw a monster elk.
This Wyoming antelope completed my “Border to Border Antelope Slam.” Pick your states. Mine are New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
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