I went back home this weekend for a weekend of dedicated shed hunting. The group met up before sunrise to cook up a pre-hunt breakfast to put some fuel in our legs.
After breakfast we through on our packs; loaded with extra clothes, water, binoculars, and most importantly toilet paper. It was long before I found the first antler, adding to the enthusiasm for the rest of the day. I got my first "hanger"!
We continued scouring the canyons, and saw plenty of fresh deer sign. But it was several more miles before Eric stumbled on this skull in a plum thicket.
I brought my GPS along today. We had always been curious how much ground we covered during a day of walking. I would glance down occasionally to check our progress. 3 miles.....5 miles...5 1/2 miles...
We seemed to be "racking up" more miles than antlers, but it was a perfect morning to be outside.
Eric had to head home around Noon, so we looped our way back towards the truck. By the time we got back to the cold beer, we had walked just under 9 miles. My legs were getting wobbly and my knees started to burn. Looking at my tracks, it looked like we were fairly thorough.
I was glad to sit back with a Busch Light and let somebody else fire up the grill.
So far the day was a little disappointing in the "finding" department.
After lunch we loaded up the truck and headed to another location. Our luck started to change as Ryan saw an antler from the truck out in the middle of a wheat field. As he ran out to get it he found another smaller one he didn't see at first.
Another mile down the road he spotted another from the truck (on a spot we had permission to be on).
We had doubled our shed count on a 2 mile drive, but it was time to get back out on our feet.
It didn't take long for Clint to spot this one. Followed by another that Ryan spotted with his binoculars from several hundred yards across the pasture.
We were nearing the end of the main canyon when I found what I considered the best find of the day. Nobody else knew that they were pre-historic dinosaur fins until I showed them how they would have looked back then.
When we turned around to head back to the truck, we split in pairs and walked the smaller "tributary" canyons back. Charlie and Ryan headed East, while Clint and I took the Westerly route. It had been a long time since I had found an antler, and I didn't appreciate it when Clint "poached" this one from out in front of me.
I took the high ground back. It didn't lead to any more antlers, but the views from atop the vast hills were better than you'd expect to see in western Kansas.
We beat Ryan and Charlie back to the truck, but could see them coming from a long ways off. It appeared they hit the mother-lode, as we could see they each had both hands full of bone. It had been a long day, 14 miles in all, and I was glad we finally had a little something to show for it.
We covered a lot of ground, but I see some good looking stuff we didn't get to off to the East. Maybe have to get back out there another weekend and match some sets.
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