CHAD PEZZLE
Lil-Rokslider
I put in for a guaranteed draw in X3B this year with a couple buddies, together we had 4 tags. I had hunted this zone once before, 4 years ago, so I was a bit familiar with it. But the first time hunting it I felt like I spent more time driving checking out spots than I did actually hunting, and after my buddy crashed his truck on the 5th day we called it quits, he shot a small buck and ate tag soup that year.
Fast forward four years later I had enough points to draw again and was ready to hunt some different country. I decided I wanted to focus my efforts in the wilderness area as I had seen bucks in there before and there would hopefully be less people. My three other friends didn't share the same ideas, so I decided I'd go it alone.
After lots of internet searching and my prior experience years earlier I picked an area and convinced my wife to join me on a short backpacking trip over labor day weekend. X3B is in the furthest North Eastern part of CA, so it's about a 6.5 hour drive, after getting a late start Friday after work we didn't quite make it to our destination. We opted to pull over and camp some where before Alturas that night and drive the rest of the way to the trail head on Saturday. After arriving at the trail head Saturday morning, we packed our gear and hit the trail. The weather was perfect sunny and warm. We hiked in wearing t-shirts and shorts and made it to the spot I wanted to check out, about 5.5 miles in, we set up camp and got settled in. As the afternoon rolled on so did the fog, the basin I was glassing was pretty well socked in before the sun went down and I'd only seen three deer, non were bucks.
It got cold that night and I heard what I thought were rain drops on the tent. I got up in the middle of the night to drag our packs under the tent only to find snow, not rain. We woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground the next morning. It was a little cold, but we were pretty well prepared. Definitely didn't think we'd see snow after the weather we had the day before, but at 8000 feet weather can do strange things.
The snow had stopped early in the morning but the fog was thick, we opted to head out and see if the fog would clear. After making it back to the trail head we decided we'd drive around to check out a few other spots. After not seeing many deer, we called the trip and headed home.
Fast forward four years later I had enough points to draw again and was ready to hunt some different country. I decided I wanted to focus my efforts in the wilderness area as I had seen bucks in there before and there would hopefully be less people. My three other friends didn't share the same ideas, so I decided I'd go it alone.
After lots of internet searching and my prior experience years earlier I picked an area and convinced my wife to join me on a short backpacking trip over labor day weekend. X3B is in the furthest North Eastern part of CA, so it's about a 6.5 hour drive, after getting a late start Friday after work we didn't quite make it to our destination. We opted to pull over and camp some where before Alturas that night and drive the rest of the way to the trail head on Saturday. After arriving at the trail head Saturday morning, we packed our gear and hit the trail. The weather was perfect sunny and warm. We hiked in wearing t-shirts and shorts and made it to the spot I wanted to check out, about 5.5 miles in, we set up camp and got settled in. As the afternoon rolled on so did the fog, the basin I was glassing was pretty well socked in before the sun went down and I'd only seen three deer, non were bucks.
It got cold that night and I heard what I thought were rain drops on the tent. I got up in the middle of the night to drag our packs under the tent only to find snow, not rain. We woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground the next morning. It was a little cold, but we were pretty well prepared. Definitely didn't think we'd see snow after the weather we had the day before, but at 8000 feet weather can do strange things.
The snow had stopped early in the morning but the fog was thick, we opted to head out and see if the fog would clear. After making it back to the trail head we decided we'd drive around to check out a few other spots. After not seeing many deer, we called the trip and headed home.
