The hunting weekend that started the business | Southern Utah Hunting Fam
To say this Bear Hunting weekend was chaos might be an understatement! I've decided when doing things in a rush probably isn't a good way to start things off.
The week kicked off with Dustin not being sure if he was going to be able to get work off Friday which led to me not prepping too much ahead of time.
We were also unsure if we wanted to buy a trailer this year, but one popped up that we couldn't resist so we ended up buying a trailer Wednesday night + Dustin telling me that he got work off Friday.
Now we were planning to leave Thursday evening. So, we brought a trailer home Wednesday night and needed to empty, clean, and re-load it all in one day.
We began Thursday morning around eight and didn't finish until after Dustin got home at 4:30 that afternoon.
We arrived at our camp spot around 9 pm and got the trailer all set up + unhooked the truck, ate dinner and climbed in bed.
The next morning we woke up to head out and began realizing all the things we forgot:
The girls' backpacks for packing water and snacks
Dinner for both nights
My bra! ha I did have a sports bra, but boy those things stick out everywhere with a normal top!
We headed up the mountain regardless....
The morning was great. The dogs kept bumping all the way up the road and Dustin turned them out a couple times, but they kept coming back. Finally the last time they were rigging awesome so he turned them out and off they went.
The ran about 100 yards up the road and were by a tree acting a little unsure so Dustin put them back on the box, but they kept barking. He said, "You had your chance!"
I was snapping photos and realized they were looking at something so I turned to look and see what they were looking at only to realize a bear was climbing up the tree!!
When I pointed it out to Dustin, he said, "Oh shit, they already had the thing treed," and unhooked them again!
This was our first bear tree as a family and it was sweeeeet! Dustin was happy even though the chase wasn't as long as he'd like for the pups, but the kids thought it was AWESOME!!
It's different when you get the entire family to the tree and your hard work pays off. We started from scratch and nothing ever goes the way you plan it in your head, but we made it here together!
After we left, we found the dogs a spot to cool off in the river and this is where everything began going downhill.
We stopped at the store in Richfield and grabbed some meat for dinner and headed back to camp. We got back, fired up the generator and I began getting dinner ready.
Dustin comes around the trailer and said that the generator wasn't working and asked what we should do. We borrowed this one from his boss because we were in such a time crunch and it had this problem before so he headed back to town to buy one while I got the kids fed.
When he got back, I helped him pull it out and he got it set up.
About five minutes later he came around and asked if I had seen his handheld. By now it had been missing for a few hours, but he had an idea on where it was. When we took collars off to load the dogs by the river, he set his handheld on his box.
He had a feeling it was on the hill that we had to drive up to get back on the main road and he was right on location, but by the time he made it back it had been ran over by a 4-wheeler and screen cracked to the point of not being able to use it.
Not having a backup, we planned to leave the next morning to regroup.
The next morning we packed up the trailer, ate breakfast and let the kids play for a little bit. When we went to hook on the trailer, Dustin put the hitch in only to realize the hitch pin was missing. He realized that when he pulled the hitch out the first night, he set it on the bumper and it probably bounced off when we headed up the mountain.
We drove the road up + back with no luck. Back to Richfield he went to get a hitch pin so we could finally get home. Don't worry, he bought an extra!
As excited as we were about the bear, we were also excited to be home! To find the time to regroup and head back out the next weekend... with better preparation and a new handheld!
I must say that Double U Hunting Supply is awesome to work with! We called them Monday to tell them what happened and ask what we could do.
All we had to do was pay for a refurbished handheld, give them the serial number to ours as well as a tracking number after mailing ours back and they had it shipped the same day so we'd be able to hunt during the coming weekend.
I can't say enough good about them and their customer service. Everyone you talk to over there is friendly and leaves you with a smile when getting off the phone.
They are where we have bought all of our hound gear for years and have never been disappointed!
You bet your bottom dollar that we will be purchasing another to have as back up this fall as well! It will allow Dustin and I to track each other if I drop him in a canyon + we will have a back up should we ever need it!