sbhooper
Well-known member
I had not been quail hunting in Arizona in a number of years, so I decided that it was time to return to my prior state of residence for a bit of hunting and visit with friends. A friend of mine has good pointers and his buddy is a quail guide and raises dogs and birds, so I was in good company. My main focus was going to be the Mearns, as I had never shot any. I shot hundreds of Gambel's quail through the years that I lived there, so they were secondary for me.
The guide (Dave) and a couple guys from Phoenix had planned to go up on the San Carlos Reservation for Gambel's, as they had not been there for awhile and the birds were good. I had never been there, so I was up for the adventure. We found out as soon as we got there, that they had an excess of moisture, so the roads were in terrible shape. We got into some birds and put a few in the bag along with lots of exercise.
Later in the day, the Phoenix guys said that they wanted to go over to another spot that had lots of scalies. We headed that way-although good sense should have turned us around when we had to ford a swollen stream. They headed off the main road-which was also slimy and headed toward the quail spot. Logic told Dave not to follow those two crazy guys, but he caved and followed them. The minute we got off the road and felt that F-350 start to sink it did not go well. We sunk! The Tundra went on ahead and seeing us stopped turned around, came back and SUNK!
Now we were really screwed! The sun was going down and we were in the middle of nowhere buried to the frames. Fortunately, we had good cell service. After a few phone calls, the Phoenix guys got ahold of the number for the tribal police. They dispatched a game warden to evaluate the situation. He arrived on scene well after dark. He was able to winch us out, but before he could finish retrieving the Tundra, a loose wire on his winch shorted out the winch motor.
We loaded up the other guys and their dogs and retreated to Globe, where their friends from Phoenix picked them up. We went back to Tucson, arriving at 0230. The Tundra was not retrieved until several days later. Man, they had some serious mud to remove from under that truck. That place has a whole different level of mud!
It was an adventure for sure, but cut into our Mearn's hunt the next day. I will continue that saga in a new post. Here are some pics from the res.
These are two of Dave's dogs.
Dave's buried dog truck.
The stuck Toyota.
Quail laying on an old Indian matate that we found.
These guys were even dumber than we were. They did not like the road going through the creek and so drove off to the side and high centered. They were a piece of work to say the least, but I will not address that!
The guide (Dave) and a couple guys from Phoenix had planned to go up on the San Carlos Reservation for Gambel's, as they had not been there for awhile and the birds were good. I had never been there, so I was up for the adventure. We found out as soon as we got there, that they had an excess of moisture, so the roads were in terrible shape. We got into some birds and put a few in the bag along with lots of exercise.
Later in the day, the Phoenix guys said that they wanted to go over to another spot that had lots of scalies. We headed that way-although good sense should have turned us around when we had to ford a swollen stream. They headed off the main road-which was also slimy and headed toward the quail spot. Logic told Dave not to follow those two crazy guys, but he caved and followed them. The minute we got off the road and felt that F-350 start to sink it did not go well. We sunk! The Tundra went on ahead and seeing us stopped turned around, came back and SUNK!
Now we were really screwed! The sun was going down and we were in the middle of nowhere buried to the frames. Fortunately, we had good cell service. After a few phone calls, the Phoenix guys got ahold of the number for the tribal police. They dispatched a game warden to evaluate the situation. He arrived on scene well after dark. He was able to winch us out, but before he could finish retrieving the Tundra, a loose wire on his winch shorted out the winch motor.
We loaded up the other guys and their dogs and retreated to Globe, where their friends from Phoenix picked them up. We went back to Tucson, arriving at 0230. The Tundra was not retrieved until several days later. Man, they had some serious mud to remove from under that truck. That place has a whole different level of mud!
It was an adventure for sure, but cut into our Mearn's hunt the next day. I will continue that saga in a new post. Here are some pics from the res.
These are two of Dave's dogs.
Dave's buried dog truck.
The stuck Toyota.
Quail laying on an old Indian matate that we found.
These guys were even dumber than we were. They did not like the road going through the creek and so drove off to the side and high centered. They were a piece of work to say the least, but I will not address that!
