Hindsight is 20/20 as the saying goes, and I’ve been buried in it!! For those of you who don’t really know what hindsight means, it’s like when you are in an argument walk away and think of all the things you should have said. It applies to things you should have done, said or acted upon differently. Opening door two in a game show to find out the brand new truck was behind door one, get the picture?? I have been looking back on a lot of things and noticing a lot of mistakes and also trying to fix or salvage what I could for the last month or so!
To start off ill mention I have a slightly “upgraded” iPhone and downloaded the app for wordpress, I gave it a shot on the last one and had some issues. I’m not saying the app is bad, a lot of apps don’t entirely work with some of the programming I have on my phone. I lost some of my last post and had to redo it and it never would post the pictures I wanted it to. Well in hindsight I shouldn’t have relied on it so heavily, but I did and tried to use it on another post, I lost the whole thing. Being upset about it I didn’t feel like retyping the whole story so now I’m way behind on my posts, so time for some catch up!
As I had posted on here a few times I was expecting to draw a LE Utah tag for an area close to me, Utah is not a true points system where you hit max points and you draw. It is like winning the lottery, you may draw the first time you ever put in you might put in for 10+ years and never see a tag. I spent 5+ weekends scouting that mountain and setting up trail cams before draw results ever hit, I found an area I liked and hit it hard. The only problem was there were almost no fresh deer signs, lots of older trails and quite a few sheds but nothing moving through at the time. The last trip over I was packed and ready by Thursday, I had everything checked off my list and ready to load Friday after work. Friday came and I was loading and running, I got to the mountain a little late and so I was in a hurry to unload my rhino from the truck. Sure enough I hurried too much, the ramp slid out and I was high centered on my tailgate! After an hour of some mechanic language and ingenuity I was out of the truck and 2 hours behind. Being a little angry that it was starting to get dark and I was still at the parking spot I threw in my gear and hammered down. Once arriving at the end of the small four-wheeler trail where I had decided to make camp I began to get camp set up only to notice I had no coat or sleeping bag…..
Everything I would use for a usual late summer early fall hunt was in my pack and rhino like usual, but the things I needed for the colder weather had been thrown in the back seat of my truck and left! It’s now minutes from dark, temps dropping quick and no choice but to get to the truck quick. The 10 mile drive was freezing cold having no windshield on the rhino and no coat for warmth! Once I got to the truck I was so cold that the coat and mummy bag didn’t help to warm me up much… Now closer to 4 hours behind schedule and back at the camp I’m in the dark trying to start a fire and get food cooked. I managed to get a warm fire and a warm meal, but after checking my watch that was sitting on the rhino tailgate I found it was almost 32 degrees F. Good thing I didn’t try to go without that sleeping bag! Due to all the loss of time I found myself sleeping in the next morning and missing the magic hours for hunting, luckily I was scouting and had more time and less pressure since I was one of the few people on the mountain! After a few hours I realized that the place I had chosen really was not where the bucks were now, which meant they may not be there for my early archery season. Off I ventured into a few new areas, I found an area later in the morning that revealed 5 small bucks in early antler growth close to 6 miles from my dedicated area. After this trip to the mountain I found out that I hadn’t drawn this tag, I had trail cams on the mountain and lots of hiking and glassing done for an area I wasn’t even going to be hunting.
Hindsight: I had been on the mountain preparing before anyone else and got a lot of exercise and found some good sheds, but once draw results came out I was scouting a mountain I wasn’t going to be hunting. I lost another weekend gathering my trail cam off the mountain, I now am going to start scouting for my elk unit and am at ground zero. If I would have distributed time evenly between the two before I knew the draw result I would be a step ahead on the unit I drew versus five steps ahead on one I didn’t. Another thing I realized is no matter how prepared I get at my house if I don’t double check on the mountain I can be in an iffy situation. I have since put an emergency survival kit in the rhino that would get me through most situations. However no matter how cold the ride back to the truck was if I were to have not gone with my instinct to go back I would have froze through the night and could have ended up in bad shape. Don’t underestimate Mother Nature, do what you have to as soon as possible to prevent problems further down the road! I focused all my time on an area where I found an awesome shed and lots of old trails but didn’t think till later on to venture into more areas, I just kept telling myself that they are in the area. Granted they are in that area but they weren’t at that time and I should have moved locations after the second trip of seeing only 4 does. Most importantly I should have kept calm and not gotten worked up and rushed things. Just like in hunting, waiting a buck or bull out may present a shot but rushing one will almost always equal a blow out. I was lucky enough that only one small dent was in my tailgate after rushing and not securing the ramp but it could have been much worse, if not deadly.
Stop looking to the past, it never seems to change. Never forget your past, or your future may repeat it.
AMP
(Part 2 to come soon with some reviews on some products and mistakes I’ve made)
AMPED ARCHER 
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