Yesterday Rick got an antelope (pronghorn, actually) near Fairfield, ID. I was there. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny fall day. We had pursued this buck all morning, at least four hours, with no success. We finally decided to try to get in front of the herd, which required hiking maybe 500 ft up the side of a hill and around the rocky top. This is where I lost Rick. He had spotted the herd and told me to get down. I couldn't see the antelope, so I just stayed down about 15 ft behind him and tried to stay quiet. He was moving ahead, crouched down. I followed. The terrain was tricky with the slope, sage, and rocks. My water bottle fell from my pocket with a crash, but Rick kept going. I tried to be more careful and quiet, but that slowed me down. Rick was on a mission. He didn't look back and I was falling behind. He crossed a pile of black rocks. I heard a buzzing noise. I have never heard a rattlesnake, but somehow I knew that's what made the noise. I froze. "Rick, Rick!" I whispered as loud as I could, but he didn't hear me. He was going for that buck. The buzzing noise stopped. I made my way slowly across the rocks, but there it was again. I could tell it was a good distance away, so I kept going. I was really moving slowly now - afraid of scaring up another rattlesnake. By this time, Rick was out of sight. He had rounded side of the hill, and I wasn't sure which way to go. But then I heard a gunshot, muffled, to my right. He got the buck with one shot. I'm sorry I missed it, but hey, everyone gets their first rattlesnake experience sometime, I guess...if you live in Idaho.
2 comments:
Sarah, it reminded me of my first experiece;
http://africantrout.blogspot.com/2006/07/hopper-was-hot.html
It was surely scary, but curious also for me.
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