One of the things I like to do with my trail cams is hike them into some remote basins and set them up on wallows and springs. Obviously I get some pretty neat elk pictures and bear pictures, but I am more surprised at what I don’t get. Not one picture of a lion, lynx, wolverine, or other small carnivores like weasels or martens.

Like I said, I get lots of elk, and two bulls stirred my interest in the summer of 2007, one I dubbed “toad sticker” and the other “thirds”. The “toad sticker” bull had a freakishly long left second tine, it stuck out to the side like a sword. Overall he was a nice six, long main beams but very narrow, not being 36 inches wide. “Thirds” was a nice bull, the big dog in the basin; his third tines were much longer than any other bull I had ever seen in this country. They never showed up together, but “thirds” had a little tag-along rag horn that was always with him. Both bulls played into archery season 2007, but “toad sticker” is the most interesting story.

My buddies and I were on the second day of one of our usual weekend over-nighters. We were hunting two basins to the south of where I had the bulls on camera and were heading back toward our trucks pretty much beaten. Sitting down, filling our water bottles, bugles started ringing out above us, two bulls, bugling right on top of each other. I had obligations back home to get to, so I told me buddies, good luck, let me know if we need to pack them out tomorrow, and I headed up the packers trail. They were going to keep the wind and bushwhack straight to the bulls.

Well, as luck would have it, the packers trail looped up and back right under the two screamers. I can’t see them as I am stuck in an alder patch, but they couldn’t be 80 yards up the hillside. I hopped up on a root wad of a wind-thrown tree to see over the alder and asses the situation. There they are, 5 feet apart, screaming in each other’s face. What a sight. One turned his head, and WHOA, it’s “toad sticker”!

I fumble around in my pockets for my little camera to get a picture. Just then they start fighting! Major rumble, not just pushing and shoving. I get a couple pictures taken, jump down, and knocked an arrow. This is my chance to move in, right?

Let me tell you, next time you try to get close to two fighting elk, know that you are risking your life. I started up that packers trail trying to get to the end of this idiotic alder to where I could see them. They wouldn’t be more than 40 yards away from there. You could feel the ground shaking from those two behemoths throwing each other around the hillside. I was ten yards from the end of the alder, ten yards from glory. Then I heard them come apart and one is running. Coming like a train right at me. I had to enough time to kneel down and see this bull blast into the alders, head down, legs and feet flailing, dirt flying. Right past me, nearly over the top of me, that left second sword missed my shoulder by mere inches. I literally ate dirt coming off that elk. Down the trail and over hill he went. Crushing trees and brush all the way, I could hear him going clear down toward the creek. Now the other bull, a descent six, is trotting down the hill to, just to make sure “toad sticker” is gone, I guess. He pops his head into the alder, but won’t show me any vitals. I am shaking like a leaf now, he zeroes in on me and then bolts. It was all over in a flash.

I didn’t see him ever again that year, or on my cameras during the summer of 2008. “Thirds” had disappeared as well. That is the worst part of trail cameras. I always wonder what happens to them. I want to know if someone harvested them, did a lion or wolves kill them, did they succumb to winter on a snowy ridge somewhere, or did they just move off to new country.

As luck would have it, at the end of this past rifle season, I was talking with a guy who was uncharacteristically forthcoming about where he was hunting. He was hunting 3 basins to the north of where I keep my cameras. I knew it well as I had hunted there occasionally. He told me he saw a giant bull way up in a slide. He got a quick look at it through binocs and said it had a third main beam sticking out the left side. I just grinned, because I knew what he saw.

Big Daddy was keeping watch.

A Tule elk herd near Laytonville.

Ok.   Here is a look at the big guy…

At first glance, you might think that the high fence is part of a deer farm, but that is NOT THE CASE.  One of my friends was kind enough to send me these photos of some bucks who were in the city limits at a manufacturing facility.  Goes to show what kind of blacktail genetics are in Sonoma and Marin County. 

A den of foxes has set up shop in the blackberry bushes just 200 yards friom the house. In the evenings the pups come out and roughhouse with one another. I was able to get a few photo’s the other night.

From the LEFT
Chuck Bricker (on the ground looking to his left)
Back row L-R
Frank Bean
Chuck Reeves (boy with no hat)
Paul Martin (John’s dad)
Colby Martin (John’s Uncle)
Marie Roberts
Fletcher Roberts
Gene Steinbeck

Front row L-R
George Reeves
Ken Martin II
Harry Steinbeck
Ken Martin I (John’s Great Uncle)
Kenny Reeves
Billy Steinbeck

Charlie Hall (on the ground on the Right of the picture)
Dog-Jill (Harry Steinbeck’s Turkey herding dog)
Taken in 1962,
at the Steinbeck Ranch on Roblar Rd.

I bought my Canon S2 IS in December of 2005.  Since then I have pretty much taken it everywhere with me.  I’ve taken pictures of family events, critters along the roadside, lots of Sunsets (we get good ones with the fog rolling in the evening).  While on my Alaska trip I noticed that sometimes when I powered it up, I would have a black display in the viewfinder.  It happened again when I was archery hunting on the weekend of August 18th.  I thought it was cold, but when I did some research it seems that this is a common occurrence in Canon Powershots.   Apparently it is (for you techies out there) a fault with the CCD chip connection to the LCD screen.  So common in fact that many models have a free repair advisory.  I was hopeful that was the case for my camera.

After sending my camera to Canon, they sent me an estimate for $127 including shipping.  I reluctantly agreed and authorized the repair.  I should have the camera back in seven business days.  My alternative was a refurbished camera for $175.  So I guess I will take my lumps and get my camera repaired.  I feel empty with out it.