Get Out There | 02 Hunting In Eastern Oregon

Get Out There | 02 Hunting In Eastern Oregon

Robert Biscarret and Billy Newman Robert tells his story of deer hunting in eastern Oregon. Get Out There Podcast billynewmanphoto.com

Get Out There Podcast billynewmanphoto.com

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Hey, what’s going on? My name is Billy Newman. I’m here with Robert Vickery. How you doing, Robert? Hey, I’m good. We are recording Episode Two of the get out there podcast, podcast about the outdoors about outdoor adventure tourism is about travel. I don’t know anything else, probably just that we want to talk about. But Thanks, Robert, for doing this podcast with me today. Yeah, absolutely. No, it’s been cool, man. But yeah, what’s been going on? It’s been not a whole lot. It’s been a week since we last did this. Yeah, we were talking about the lower rogue stuff on our our pilot episode. And that was a crazy story. I was thinking about that, like through the week, singing about that, like, I just kind of took it as a novelty that you were telling us about that story. But then I was kind of playing it back like, man, there’s a lot of situations of different moments in that chain of events that seemed like it was going to be pretty, pretty tight to get out of. Yeah, thanks for talking about it. But yeah, Robert, if you didn’t listen to last week’s episode was a raft guide for a number of years on the Rogue River and lower row River. Which is pretty cool, man. I think it’s a it’s no small no small task.

Yeah, no, it’s a ton of fun. And it’s, it’s opened a lot of opportunities stuff to me, and you know, it’s a passion So, so it’s a win-win.

Now that but I’ve known you for a while. And I know that you haven’t always been on the river. In fact, I remember like when we’d go out we had the worst gear we had like, the little biomart Tahiti that you’d play with a little yellow, yellow. Yeah, we just we just try get by going down for what like hogs to go lease or something like that. We just see that thing taco in the center a few times.

Yeah, it would be popping. Because we have like a 30 rack at the back sitting on top of our life jacket.

You know, I remember Jeremy jumping off of his kayak onto the back of my kayak and a rapid to flip it upside, you know, and roll it over anything. Oh, this is great. This is this is these are the brilliant river people that would one day guide Yeah, you know, and you wonder how I yeah, it’s it’s amazing that they do. But Robert, an avid outdoorsman, has been on the river for a good bit of time skilled in that. But before that, Robert, I wanted to talk to you about some of the old experience you had learning how to hunt, or learning how to do some of those some of those other types of outdoors things like, like I was thinking about trips that my dad and I did Eastern Oregon and I wanted to ask you about yes to like, because my dad and I, I think we started going in like, I don’t know what 2001 2000 or something like that. And that time we go out in the early fall, we were just campers and we just dug that time of year over in that part of the country but we would always cruise out east to Klamath Falls east to Lakeview. And we go up into the mountains over there near Warner rim and plush and heart man, that’s beautiful. I dug that area super cool. But we so we’ve gone out there like a number of times to do like photos and camping and hiking stuff. But that time of year was also I think a bit or well there’s there’s a few different seasons. You could probably explain that over time. But but there’s always like different groups of hunters kind of coming in through that area because it was a lot of it was a big public land out there. I think it was BLM land in that section at least. I think there was a season for antelope through that area. But I’m sure

Well, you’ve probably seen tons of antelope out there. Yeah, tonight. Are you are you familiar with I mean, just how incredible their eyesight is? Not really no, do you know? Okay, I mean, crazy tangent, but I mean, antelope, their eyesight is the equivalent of a 10 power binocular. So I mean, imagine you’re looking through 10 power binoculars and something that’s what an antelope sees. So I typically like when people hunt antelope Well, I don’t want to typically generalize everyone but I know there are a lot of hunters that will use like radio communication and kind of like us to people you know, over like the the radius of a mile and a half two miles. Oh, wow. And have somebody go way around and have somebody almost set up and one person tries to herd them towards

said Hunter. Oh, like someone that’s like stationary, or is that is that Yeah, get into the ghillie suit kind of thing. Where they’re like,

yeah, I mean, I don’t I don’t know if they’re, like, you know, full on snipers status. But I mean, really close, you know, I mean, it’s really, you just want to stay still in, you know, because, I mean, they just have such incredible

eyesight. That’s amazing. Yeah, I’ve wondered about that. You know, we’ve we spotted him out there. Because, you know, in those areas, it’s so flat welds, there’s contour to the land, but you can see for miles and miles and as you lookout, you can you can see packs or you know groups of three or For and sometimes big pack, I think we saw maybe a brown 20 move through an area one time. Yeah. And you just go, yeah, they heard up they cruise. Yeah, it was, it was really interesting to see. And it was cool too, because in the way that the land was, you could see where hundreds of years before the Indian tribes in that area had also been to hunt probably what might have been some of the same game.

But well, isn’t that cool to when you’re out there? I mean, you’re just like, you’re coming across all those like obsidian areas where, you know, the Indians would sit there and like chip their chips ship their arrowheads and spearheads and everything.

Yeah. So cool. Yeah, really interesting. When you get to kind of reflect on how long people have been in the area, or when you get to see the natural elements still just remain there. because nothing’s come by to disturb that sense. It’s, it’s really remote territory that we end up being in a lot of time.

It’s amazing. Yeah, you’re out there. And you’re so disconnected from people. I mean, but there’s still roads around. And so I mean, you just assume there’s people everywhere. But it’s amazing that you can walk, you know, 100 yards off of a main highway and find these just completely undisturbed. obsidian deposits, were just a, you know, 150 years ago, or even longer. There was there was some, you know, just, yeah, they’re chipping chipping arrowheads?

Yeah, there’s been a there’s been a handful of areas that I think we’ve seen. there’s a there’s a museum in Klamath Falls and my dad and I went to on a trip back. I think it was the Fayetteville museum. I think it was downtown, but it was it was this guy back in the I don’t know, like 20s 30s 40s 50s probably, excuse me, not not in his age, but the 1920s 1930s 1940s I think for a good portion of his life. What he did all the time was go out to Eastern Oregon just to all sorts of different places across Oregon and collect obsidian and arrowheads and spear tips and knife tools. And it was the biggest collection of things across like the Columbia River area and like things from the pirate over in Eastern Oregon and Central Oregon and stuff from bend in the in the lakes that were around there. There’s like this beautiful piece. They had one from Nevada. That was an opal Arrowhead. That was like the most famous one. Yeah, it was it was almost like a like a decorative ceremonial Arrowhead. But okay, but it was like yeah, cuz it was just such a pretty jewel like kind of Arrowhead. But it was like, yeah, this opal made Arrowhead that came out of Nevada from somewhere, I guess from some open mind area. Wow. Yeah. You think about like, Wow, that’s so cool. But he had some of the most most rare pieces in that area. But it was really cool. You could walk through you can just see all of these different, different pieces that were collected before the times change. And those things were, you know, restricted in collection but but at the time, yeah, it was set up and now it’s just, it’s just set up into a museum where you can observe a lot of the ancient history and ancient Paleolithic tools. It’s cool stuff. That’s, that’s great. I’d love to go check that out. It’s cool. We’re about there. We actually we should Yeah, that’d be a fun one to check out. But I wanted to talk to you about like where you guys used to go hunting or like where you guys would would first go out when you were younger? Yeah. Was it over to Eastern Oregon at first or were you guys more local?

Well, yeah, I was out in the open the fort rock unit and Cod, as long as I’ve been out there, I still can’t really explain that the significance of that area and I’m sure you could probably touch better on that. Maybe. But, but for for rock or the Yeah, the Yeah, Fort rock.

Rock is really cool. What is that area? That’s like, I think it’s in like the Deschutes area.

It’s not quite it’s like okay, so yeah, you would head south of like, of boy, what is that Ben? You know, cruise down through lupine on 97. And then you cruise down through Shilla Quinn and out that

Yeah, I remember Sheila Quinn and cutting ease or cutting East then because I remember coming up on highway 58 I guess I’d figure Ah, or that diamond Lake cut off. Remember that super straight road that cuts. It goes past mouthfeel soon I remember it was just like 30 miles on an absolutely straight road. I was blown away when I first saw it when I was a kid, which is silly now it’s probably just pretty normal. You get out to highway 140 and then you take that that lower highway that cuts out and I remember going out there yeah going out to to Fort rock first and then there’s like Silver Lake. And then further you go out to summer lake. Or you can go out to Christmas Valley out in that area. There’s a whole bunch of cool little spots out there.

Yeah, tons tons to explore. You know, I mean, just an Oregon there’s so much and it’s it’s so cool because it’s just such a vast change of environment you know, it completely is Yeah, yeah. You come from the west coast side of Oregon, you know, and everything’s kind of green and lush that you get out there and you’re in the high desert. Just sagebrush and just that ground palmists from all that volcanic activity. Yeah, yeah, it’s a neat area I have I have a lot of love for that area.

Oh yeah, me too. Yeah, that area is always been really cool and really really close to me But yeah, for rock is really cool. That’s that’s a really interesting geological feature where it looks like a crater almost, you know, where like, like if a meteor came down and like kind of punched out a section like I was just hearing about it was it like our, you know, that meteor crater in Arizona or is that big giant circle, and sort of brings up that image in your head, but this one’s different. It’s it’s built like a fortress almost as it was, but what I’ve understood is that it was sort of like Smith rock in a way where there was an aqua offer, and then there was like an active lava flow. And I guess this type of rock came up and and created that shape. However, it was all at one time, and I guess the area around it eroded away. But that area was okay. I don’t really know if that’s true. Yeah, it’s

kind of the same. The same idea is what is that Devil’s Tower? And like, in Where is that? Is that like, North Dakota? I mean, North Dakota? No, actually, it’s I think you’re right. Or Wyoming? Oh, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think that was kind of the same thing. We’re just like, you know, everything eroded away from it. Slept was that hard material?

I remember on a field trip the said that about Table Rock over in Medford?

Oh, no, I was just I was just gonna say that. But I’m just kind of talking out of my ass. I don’t really know what I’m actually.

See. I don’t know that. I don’t know. But I’m not a geologist. But I remember that on that on the field trip in seventh grade, they said that the RO rivers erosion through the area is what created or you know that that waterway of erosion is what created much of that valley there, which is interesting. I was wondering about that because the Rogue River was from Mount mazama. I was wondering if the Rogue River exists, would the Rogue River have existed in the same channel, before Mount mazama would have blown and become Crater Lake?

You know, I don’t so it comes from boundary springs, which is just off the left or the left off the west side of Crater Lake. Okay, about seven miles or so. But I mean, I’ve gotten like a little bit of a geology lesson from a couple people down there since I’ve been in the canyon. Yeah, I wanted to hear perspective. And actually, I got a book called, like the portrait of the rogue, which is really kind of a neat read, especially if you’re from around the area. But one of the experts in there talks about how the coastal range like the coast used to be over near the Blue Mountains in the flowers. I’ve heard that that’s where the coast was, you know, you’d walk out there to your little steamboat and go trawling for grabs. Just Just a couple billion years ago,

and I’ve heard that that was the case. I saw an animation one time that sped up time by a million years a second, but you could see the old coast being I guess what would be kind of a remnant of the Rocky Mountain played that kind of comes down from Canada where the wallflowers are and it would be that sort of section, and then it showed these clumps of different different landmasses sort of landing into into ours. Isn’t there a subduction zone like some of the stuff that causes all the trouble for earthquakes down in California? There’s sort of similar stuff up here where where Yeah, it was a couple of different land or types of landmass that came together.

Well, can you imagine I mean, this area had to be such like a geographical hotspot when all this when these tectonic shifts and volcanic oh my gosh, I turmoil was going on. Could you imagine this had to be like the most inhabitable place you know, like it would be horrible.

What isn’t? Isn’t it known as sort of an interesting geological area because of the way the redwood curtain acts or looks as a piece of land like I heard that it was it was really like mountainous and rigid because it was kind of well I don’t know, it’s just the nature of that that coastal zone that’s come in was like a really rocky kind of lumpy, crinkled piece of land that was coming and it was like unusual for the rest of the area around the United States. It doesn’t have that type of land formation. But I don’t really know anything about we started to Tyler. He’s got he’s got he’s got a degree. At least he’s taking classes in this subject. So that bro Yeah, well, you know, I remember going up on a drive With my cousin Laura, we’ll get back to the rogue and the mazama stuff in a second. I remember going out on a drive with my cousin Lauren, we went up to the top of us. Well, I guess was one of the top sections of the Cisco’s we did that road that I think you and I had been on before. That’s south of Applegate Lake as you go into California, and you can take that road a long ways back, it goes up and up and up and up and up that mountain and you can actually take it all the way through the end out on that Happy Camp highway. At the other end, maybe what is that the Klamath River? I don’t know what that other?

I didn’t. Didn’t we do that drive one time? We did do that over the road. We came we came from a different direction. But yeah, similar.

Yeah, yeah, that same thing. Yeah. But I remember, I think that might have taken a lower pass. But I remember this when we came up to a point and it was just it was a super high elevation I looked at it later was almost 7000 feet above sea level. When you get to that point, then you walk out, you can see Yeah, you can see up to up to Crater Lake ec McGlothlin really well from that spot. But when I looked later, to kind of find out some information about the geology of that area that I mentioned how it was interesting, because the reason it was so high is because it was a different piece of land, that it kind of come in to that area. But it was just weird to think that you know, you’re standing on something that was I guess another piece or played a land that came in and then kind of joined the coast, a rising elevation at a time, like you were saying how the coast used to be over toward Montana.

Yeah, it’s okay, man, I could trip out on the way mountains and everything were formed just like a trip out on space. Time, Man, I wish there. It’s like, it’s I mean, we know so much, but still so little, you know, and we can’t really wrap our heads around the magnitude of how it all formed. Oh, yeah, absolutely. No, I

have absolutely no way of holding, in my mind the understanding of more than 1000 years, probably, I mean, even 1000 years, it seems like a stretch to kind of imagine truly that much, or to keep track of it. But when it goes into million years, or 10,000 years, or, you know, any any number of millions of years in the past before that when things like this and our landmass would have been formed. It’s just like, oh, completely beyond me. What was it 5000 years ago, they say Mount mazama blue, you see that? That the river comes out of the boundary springs, I just remember like all the lava flows, and all the you know, the what, what do they call that? Just the the cinder blocks or the I guess it would be lava flows, where you just see all that kind of piled up for miles and miles and miles around there. I always would have thought that would have diverted some of the water flow. But you said you you would talk to some people about the river and like how it how its channel was further down.

Yeah, this is actually I guy I would love to have on this podcast. His name is Bob Ruffalo. Vich. And he’s a saltiel College. But can I be so cool? Ah, he’s great, man. And he’s actually the guy that you know, founded road wilderness who I now cool work for. Yeah. So that was his business for a number of years. And now it’s come full circle. And now he’s just an employee at his old business. That’s that’s the way to go. But you know, he’s been on the river for 40 years. Like the guy knows everyone and everything. And he has such an array of information. And I think I think maybe getting him on some time would be really, really great. That’d be so yeah. Good to talk to a guy like that. Yeah, it he’ll go for hours. I mean, put on your, you know, put on a cup a pot of coffee. comfortable. Three party. Yeah, exactly. So, so. Yeah. So what did you know about the the low? Rep. Well, yeah, sorry. Yeah, he, he just, he’s taken down several geologists that that all really told him the same thing. And he had told it to me, and you know, it’s just Bob hearsay at that point. Sure. Until, you know, I did a little bit of reading and stuff. And yeah, I read the same thing. I’m just horrible at handling information the way it was actually displayed. And so anytime I try to, you know, repeat something that comes out a little skewed. I won’t do it any justice. But from what I read that that was that was actually a situation at one point. Wow.

That’s cool. Yeah, I was I was always curious, like, the way that the coastal range on Oregon works is kind of kind of interesting. Like we don’t see it, you know, much further down like in California. I think as you get past Northern California like past San Francisco seems like it’s pretty flat up until you get closer to what I thought was part of the Cascades or the Sierras as it comes out in elevation. So it’s kind of interesting, like up here. We have that coastal range that kind of runs up Probably up into Canada. But yeah, kind of nutty stuff. So we were talking about timing Eastern Oregon stuff over by fort rock. That’s where you that’s where you started when you were younger.

Yeah. So, um, yeah, I guess I mean, I can really kind of attribute my whole love the outdoors to my first time going hunting. You know? That’s cool. Yeah, my dad was always all about getting me out there. I mean, my first hunting trip with him actually going east. I was eight years old. I was gonna ask how old were you? Yeah, yeah. Um, no, he used to go every year, you know? And I was always so bummed because dad leaves for two weeks, you know? And like, I can’t go. And his friends are there and all the guys are going and. And so when I was finally eight, I got to go over there. It’s also where I learned to drive. Oh, nice spot. Yeah, spot for it. Yeah. So anyway, got out there. And like I said, such a cool environment. And it gets so cold out there at night. But oh, yeah,

man, especially in the fall like that. It gets so cold at night.

Well, I remember always wake up, you know, we’d have the pot of coffee, we would make the pot of coffee the night before, so we just have to heat it up in the morning. and nice. You know, every morning, The coffee is just like a block of ice, just a solid block inside your coffee pot. And you know, there’s there was always ice on the inside the 10 the the what is that the air mattress is all laid in from the cold air always deflated. And always then you know, you get up. And it’s like, it’s like seven degrees. You know, you get up, you’re freezing. You’re shivering just uncontrollably because you’re up at the coldest part of the day that like 15 minutes before sunrise. best time to be out. Well, you know, that’s when you got to do it. You know, catch catch up the deer when they’re up? Yeah, absolutely. Start moving around in the early morning. But yeah, then you get out there, man, and the sun comes out. And then you always dress in layers. Because by 1130 You’re sweating and you’re in a T shirt. You’ve got your pants rolled up into shorts. Oh,

I totally remember that. Especially Okay, yeah, by by even 8am in the summertime, I remember the atmosphere just totally changing from being like in all of my coats just trying to stay warm a little bit. And then just like stepping down to just just having a T shirt on again, but I remember that so much about but so you when you were eight, the first time you get out that’s cool. Wow. That’s pretty Yeah.

Um, you know, my dad gave I had a little 22 that he gave me 22 rifle. And I was allowed to just kind of playing can target practice around camp and stuff. I could pack a real deer rifle, you know until later. But I remember my first confirmed kill was a bluejay that was like really? You shot a bluejay and and so I still got the picture. But we you know, we’ve always had it on you. You know you would you kill. Oh, yeah. So I killed this bluejay and my dad made me skin it out. Clean it up. And I bluejay breasts for dinner. Wow. Yeah, that was that was my first it was a it was a trophy game is pretty good size.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I just didn’t have the cash flow to get out of this. shoe. You missed that. What was? What was bluejay breast-like, was like chicken.

And I can barely remember like, last week in my life, let alone maybe the flavors

of a camping trip in the cold. 20 years. Yeah, that’s

cliche as it sounds. I’m just gonna say. I mean, it was just a white poultry, a white beaded poultry. I mean, I kind of remember it being like a gamey chicken.

That’s that’s what I that’s what I’d suspect. That’d be something like

yeah, so not even really gaming. Just kind of like lean. You know, it wasn’t sitting in a little Foster Farms. pumped with steroids.

Blue J. Then you got a bigger rifle. You’re a little older. Yeah. When when it’s time you go out? Yeah.

When I was 13, my grandpa gave me his 30 odd six. He bought it when he was like 19 years old. It was a model 1903 really cool rifle. I so I started packing my rifle when I was 13 took the hunt. Some safety course that I went through all that kind of made it official. And then I hunted, and we hunted and we hunted and we hide. And pretty unsuccessfully. So when we were out there in that fort rock area, it became a victim do a lot of logging. Oh, really? So, you know, this is where my dad and his buddies have been going forever. They’ve been pulling these big, big mule deer out of there, you know, got all these great stories. You know, everybody gets a deer every year. I come of age, and there’s just not a deer to be found in this area. No. Yeah. And that was because the hunting in the area of poaching. There Well, there was a combination, there was a lot of clear-cutting, and a lot of poaching. And so between those two, you know, a lot of the deer moved out of the area, just due to clear-cutting, and a lot of work killed off with the poaching. Oh, wow. So I became pretty scarce there for like a for about an eight year period. And then I guess, when I was about 16, we moved over to, to what’s called the Sprague unit. And we’ve been hunting that area ever since.

I know the Sprague river, and I know Sprague mountain that I’ve been to is that is that kind of the same area you would say is kind of the Yeah, that was it. chilla Quinn kind of shinik and pass that area. Is that spread? Yeah,

there’s a Sprague River. Yeah, that spring. And you know, we’re the Williamson rivers. No,

I don’t think so. Actually, is, is that over there. It’s

Yeah, it’s right out in that area. There’s, there’s a big casino off 97. And there’s in between. Boy, in between, like shallow going in Klamath Falls. Okay. Anyway, out there is Williamson, and we’re kind of over in that area now. And it’s really beautiful. there’s a there’s a water Wildlife Refuge out there. I bet that’s a cool spot. And just absolutely gorgeous area. Yeah. So you know, kind of same, same landscape and everything. And we’ve been out there for Well, for, I don’t know, 12 years now. And, you know, I’ve actually still never taken a deer out there as bears as that is. Oh, really?

Well, so. Okay, so yeah, go back to when you’re 13. You got your 36? Is that when you got your first year that year? No. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I like to like to assume that you just kind of walkout and just take a deer and just blast it. And that’s like, a good day of hunting. No, no,

it’s, it’s supposed to be by I feel if I understand, right, I think it’s supposed to be like, one in five times you might get it. Is that would that say about right?

Well, that’s the thing too. Yeah, that’s, that’s very accurate. And the thing is over there, it’s such a short season. I mean, if you come over here to a Western deer, you’re you’re looking at a 30 day season. You know, they’re you’re looking at a 90 Oh, Rana. So I mean, yeah, and also, the Klamath Indians are in that area, and they have full hunting rights all year long. Oh, interesting. Okay. So it’s, it’s, it’s frequently hunted, you know, so I mean, the deer, the deer, I understand that people are, are not a good, a good sign, you know, so they’re pretty skittish and hard to come by. Yeah. And mule deer are interesting. And the way they kind of sleep and watch your, their, their predator is cool. So the way they the way they set up is they like ridges, little kind of areas that they can sit just at the top. And they like to sit with the wind of their back, looking down the hill. Oh, interest. So what they’re doing is they have the view down off this ridge to the flat area below so they can see anything coming from that way. Okay. And they also have the wind at their back. So they’re smelling anything coming from behind them. Oh, rich. Yeah, that’s

an interesting thing. You know, I’ve heard of types of maneuvers the animals do that seem far more strategic than what than what laypeople might place on an animal to do in the wild like that. But I’ve heard of some really interesting things like that, like the experience that a buck will have over a doe or over, over younger, male do deer the same time like how it’ll go in and the buck will be the one in a group of deer as a predator comes in, and it’ll scare the rest of the deer out but the buck will stay still in that same spot and not move because it’s seen that before or knows that as it goes out. It’s gonna expose itself to more danger than whatever was there, but it’s just kind of interesting. These little behaviors like what You’re talking about how they know how to evade their predators that are around them. Yeah, nature scary man. Gotta get smart out there that way. Yeah, it seems like it’d be pretty cool otherwise. Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s really cool, though. That’s interesting. So is that? Is that where you guys try and find them? Well, you guys are out there in the Sprague area.

Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, we go out there and we beat the brush and dry out there, you’re making so much noise as quiet as you try to be. And a lot of times, you jump there, you never, they can smell so much better than you can. And these mule deer are called mule deer because of their ears, they have these these large ears that are larger than other deer species. And in fact, they’re much larger, other deer species. Okay. So these these ears act is like, you know, the old man and like the the horn-like, hey. Yeah, that’s what they’re doing. They’re just amplifying everything. And, and they can hear so well. And so, I mean, you’re really talking, you’re trying hard. And, you know, so a lot of times you jump them and you just hear him, you know, going off to the brush. Oh, yeah. And then that promise you can kind of feel like in the ground, you know, just kind of like it’s got that base, he kind of Oh, wow. feel to it. And yeah, so no, I’ve never had any luck out there. My luck actually has been over West, which I just kind of started hunting over here again, this last two years. And these last two years, I’ve been really fortunate.

Now, is that white tailed deer over here, or is that LaSalle black too. So what’s the difference? So there’s mule Tam. Or there’s there’s whitetail, where do you find those is that the Midwest and Canada are so whitetail?

You know, I’m not sure how our west I think, I know that I know their whitetail or like an East Coast deer loci, you know, like, Arkansas. Alright, that makes sense. Yeah. And then you get the black tail over here on the west, and then the mule deer are more like Arizona, Utah. They like that. deserty Oh, interesting stuff.

Is that why they’re a little bigger as it comes? Or they’re, they seem like they’re they’re a little bit larger for their environment out there. Is that what are it seems like they’re out in the higher desert area. But you said they were a little bit of a bigger animal. Is that right?

Yeah. In fact, they’re I yeah, I mean, a mule deer is generally going to have about you know, 40 to 50 pounds on a on a good side. blacktail. Oh, really, you know, they’re, they’re significantly larger. Yeah, even. It’s crazy to because after being over there hunting for so many years, you see these big O’s, you know, they just have a big body on. And then you come over here, and you get a nice buck over here. A nice black tail on the left side. Yeah. And, and they’re smaller than, like, you know, 85% of the dose You see, over in Eastern Oregon. It’s unreal. Really? Wow,

that’s so what’s it like? have like, has people in your party had each of our average got one of the deers are like I was, I was gonna ask you, what’s the difference in like, the meat or the quality of the way that it tastes when you have it? Does it seem any different, like deer to deer? Or is it about the same?

Um, so I can’t I can’t really find any quality difference between a black tail and a mule deer. But there’s the definite difference between a young deer and an old deer. Okay. Yeah, I could. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Um, you know, we we first hunt for food. We secondly, hunt for, you know, a trophy size. I mean, ideally, everybody wants to get that big buck. You know that one? Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Oh, awesome. But when it comes down to it, you know, if you shoot a fork in Horner spike or something, you’re gonna have great meat when you get into that older box that have been out there for seven, eight years. That’s an old gear. You know, the me’s kind of gaming is just kind of chewy. Doesn’t have really good flavor. I was gonna Yeah, it’s been a season that a little bit more.

Sure. Sure. That makes a good bit of sense that I’ve heard that before and, and what does it what is their diet? This is just, they for

mushrooms, they eat a lot of mushrooms. That’s a good way to track them. Really, these spots in the pine needles will that will use their hooves and kind of pop these mushrooms, okay. And so you’ll find them in these like shady areas underneath the trees. The pine hills lobby torn back and they dig through that Duff layer on the forest floor there, and they’ll find These mushrooms that haven’t even surfaced, they smell them through the pine needles of the Duff. And in those high moisture areas, they’ll pull them out and eat those. I mean, they’re grazers. So I mean, whatever they can pick off of the floor in the area. Huh? That’s pretty interesting.

So you and then on the, on the west side of the Cascades, it’s black tailed deer. And where do you guys try and hunt now? You said it was like the last two years or so? You’ve been over here on the west side?

Yeah. And in fact, I’ve been hunting in the rogue Siskiyou National Forest. The last couple years. That makes sense. And yeah, I mean, I’ve been spending a lot of time in that area, kind of getting the lay of the land. And beautiful country. But man, that’s the difference to the terrain over here on the west side is so steep, it’s so steep. Yeah. Ah, I mean, over in Eastern Oregon, if you knock a deer down, you know, it’s gonna run, but it’s predominantly flat. Sure, you can track it, and you can, you can get it back out to a road or something somewhere in a short amount of time, you need to but what you find over here is, it might run, you know, 600 yards down into a ravine Oh, man, you’re spending all day long, trying to pack it out, you know, hundreds of feet.

What’s that work? Like? Are you know if that happens? I mean, yeah, you see, you have to you go down, and like, what’s the process even forgetting that packed out.

So I always take rope with me, you know, in your pack, you take more than what you need, because you never know what you’re gonna need. One thing is cool, I use one of those river systems where you can make a three point pulley out of your rope drag. So you can have a three to one pull ratio, anchor off a tree, you’ve got 100 foot rope, you can take it up 100 feet at a time. And you can do that by yourself pretty easily. Oh. Another option is you can just kind of just throw it on your back and hike it out at slow going.

And that’s what I’ve heard. I’ve heard just like these health stories of these guys that like shot one in a canyon and they had to like climb down to the canyon and then and then walk this creek bed out to the road with I think they had a pig or their you know, okay, like Yeah, what is it? Like, for wild boar or something? Yeah, boy. Yeah. But yeah, so they had a pack out this pig-like, yeah, however long down that just this terrible crappy ravine of a creek. And it just sounds like a hell story of like, you know, carrying hundreds of pounds on your pack to try and get it out. Yeah, just as exhausting.

Well, yeah. Okay. So just today I was listening. I was telling you a little bit. Oh, yeah. Tell me about that, too. That, that Joe Rogan podcast? Yeah. And he was talking about a buddy of his, during his podcast, and his buddy hiked in 12 miles on this hunt, right, just by himself. ends up knocking down this Alec out there. So first off, you figure it out, because you know, 900 pounds. I mean, it’s a big animal. And so he’s 12 miles. And so he he quarters this thing out, and he bones it and everything. And now he’s packing it. He he packed it out piece by piece. Of course of four days. Wow. Yeah. And it was just in, in. later on. He goes on to say, you know, it was just the most hellacious experience like yeah, it would have to be. You’re walking a minimum of 24 miles a day. Oh, my goodness. It just but I mean, but not easy walking. It’s not like you got a day pack and your camel pack on, you know, yeah, you’ve got you’ve got 80 to 100 pounds of meat on your back.

Is there a system or a technology like, you know, there’s like technical backpacker backpacks and stuff are there or is there some kind of meatpacking? Like gear you get for hunting? Or is it just is it just old school?

Uh, you know, I? I don’t know if I’ve never been in that situation. We’ve always just kind of, you know, thrown it on our packs and just gone. Yeah, sure. Yeah, secure it somehow and, and just pack it out?

Yeah. I felt I don’t know. I’ve heard people will sometimes in those remote situations, though. Or at least I needed clarification on this. They’d like they got the animal there. And they, I guess, like just prep the meat and then they leave the remains as after they cleaned it. Does that make sense? And then they just pack out the meat itself instead of the whole animal?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So when I say deboning, you know you Removing, I mean, you’re cleaning off the rib bones, you’re cleaning everything off taking all the usable meat. And you’re just you’re essentially just leaving the waste parts, the parts that the crows and the yellow jackets and things like that will come take care of coyotes, that things of that nature.

How long does that take to, to debone? or What is? Is that dressing an animal? Or is that different?

Yeah, there’s there’s very variations of that. So there’s, there’s field dressing, which is just a quick, you remove the vitals. And you know, and you, you can do what’s called caping, which some, some, like trophy hunters will do if they plan on having the animal mounted. And that’s where they’ll take the entire hide off of the deer, or whatever animal it is. So you can take it down to the carcass like that. We’ve always just feel dressed, you know, removed the vitals, cleaned out the inner cavity and then pack the deer out like that. And then once we get back to camp, that’s when we’ll go ahead and actually skinned deer. Sure that makes sense. Then remove those pieces. It seems like that’s what I’ve seen before. Yeah, and it really depends on your terrain. Oh, that makes it so how are you going to keep the animal cool, like, you know, things like that. And all those things play a factor as soon as you do that. Sure. Yeah.

That’s pretty interesting. So what’s the hunting hunting experiences for you like Ben over here? Over in the the Rogue River area.

They’ve been great. They’ve been great. I’ve had some really nice deer. My first one was a young buck, but it was really, really great deer. I mean, we were still eating it. You know what? I mean? I had it made into like, I got 65 pounds of hamburger out of it and some tenderloin and stuff

you see is wow. Is it good? Yeah. Is it good for steaks at all? would you would you never do that you would just always go.

It’s just not really big enough for steaks. tenderloins are like little steaks, they’re like almost, you know, a little flaming yarn. You get this little bacon wrap sirloins or something you get sure they’re about that size. And those are great man, you pan fry them up with like a little salt and pepper, a little garlic powder. I bet that’s Pam serum and a little butter. It’s fantastic. really tender. That’s why they called the tenderloin. Okay,

for sure. So most of the time when you’re preparing theme and you’re kicking, are you guys making like, like burgers? Is that? Is that the kind of thing? Or what do you guys?

Yeah, I mean, I will make like spaghetti out of it. You know? Oh, yeah, definitely. That or, I mean, anything that you would use, like ground beef or ground turkey for? Yeah. You can. You can use medicine the same way and it looks very much like beef. That’s cool. That’s really yeah. And it’s, it’s great. And you can taste the difference. You know, you can, it’s so crazy. You can taste the difference between a farm animal and a wild animal.

I must be really strange. What do you notice in it? It’s just, I don’t know, I know. It’s kind of Yeah, it’s strange to describe what another senses is able to experience, but I was just trying to figure it out. Because I’ve kind of had that experience to at least at least like on a smaller scale. Or maybe like with eggs you can say even if you kind of notice the difference between like a store-bought egg and then one from a farm like where it’s been out picking through bugs and grass and all sorts of different things that the chicken eats and consumes and then has those nutrients to make the egg from It’s so weird this to notice how much of a different flavor or a different consistency that has when you when you put in just the pan to eat. Let’s go absolutely

i mean i mean color, texture. Everything. Yeah, it’s like milky white,

versus like orange like this dark Auburn color and yeah, that’s the same thing even animal could have made that

makes you wonder man going in it. What What is different about this? Why does this look taste and smell different?

It’s Yeah, it is. It is kind of nuts. But so do you think that just kind of comes from having a natural diet or a natural

diet and it’s just the healthy animal shares? They’re out there and they’re they’re moving around and staying active. I mean, they’re eating natural, you know, natural fully off the land. Yeah. Yeah. How

old are these deer I was trying to put that in my mind a little bit too about how big an in mass these animals are. But also like how many years they are like, you know, I see him grow up pretty quick in my backyard when I when they kind of run through and after. I mean, what is it like the one you you got? How old? Would you have said that was

this? Oh, the the one that we currently have? He was I would say about two or three? Yeah, maybe. I mean, a long life for a deer is eight or nine years.

That’s what I was thinking it was it was like a dog or something like that. But you also think about the size of the animal. I guess this may be true with horses sometimes to be really big animals, these animals that are able to take on a ton of mass and be pretty enormous, really quite quickly. But yeah, I was thinking about that, that me you’re saying is what? Two or three years old? It’s like, it’s just been grown? It doesn’t really seem like it’d be that old at all.

No, not at all. Yeah. And and that’s, you know, they’d haven’t had that chance to, to I mean, they. I’m sorry, did you? Did you say something about I guess I misunderstood that.

Oh, well, no, not too much of a question. But I just thought it was interesting, though. Yeah. Like, the deer you got is just a couple of years old. So it Are they really don’t live very long. These deer, you know, when they when they come to maturity and then are available to be part of the the public trust of food to be shot at?

Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s, I mean, they’ve, they’re really into maturity after their brilliant stage. You know, I mean, they’re already reproducing, they were pretty, you know, contributed to, to the development of more species. More of the species, not just species in general.

But yeah, it’s kind of nutty, though. That Yeah, they’re able to come about so quick, I guess. Yeah. It’s kind of like a dog’s timeline to I just saw is, you know, you get kind of caught up being people centric. Sometimes we you think like, oh, man, like, a one year old? Like that. Isn’t that much meat on it?

Yeah, are you are you put this almost like, is human-like characteristic with it? Yeah, sure. You know, you’re like, Well, I have a child. That’s too. Like, what if? What if somebody shot that? You know, it wouldn’t know any people? Yeah. And

let alone that it’s their nature to come out of the womb walking. They’re kind of different than we are.

Yeah, man. I mean, they come out and they’re just like, let’s get something to eat. Yeah, let’s go. We’re already at it. When we got 24 months left. And right away, I can’t I can’t wait around. Babies. I gotta go now. Got you ever think about that, like a cat. Terrible. We are as people. Oh, yeah. Like,

how do we ever survive? Like, who was the first person that survived nature? I mean, like we go out with, with nice, like, GoreTex and waterproof boots and stuff. And you get out in the elements on like, a 40 degree, or let’s say, like, a 35 degree day and it’s raining. It’s kind of like that. sleet, the wind blowing. It’s nasty. Yeah, you’re like, I mean, I’ve been in some situations, and I’m smart about being outdoors, where you’re thinking, like, I gotta get out of here.

Oh, yeah. It’s like, this is too much exposure. This is weird. Yeah, I’ve had that a couple of times too. And heat and cold and and you’re like, oh, oh, it’s like a weird signal your body gives you like, yeah. Oh, no, too much, too much.

How do you put like a newborn? Like the first baby? Like, how do you put the first baby out there? for like, the first?

I don’t know, the first life. Yeah. Oh, you know, after I was reflecting on this, it’s been one year since we got we went to Hawaii. Marina and I that was the first time I was in an island atmosphere, a tropical climate. And then you think it dawns on you, all of a sudden, like, oh, people didn’t get born in North America. It’s cold up there. Like people, people. Everywhere monkeys grow people grew where they could grow with no clothes on. That’s where that’s where the populations, but yeah, no, 40,000 years ago when the first I don’t know, people were coming over the Bering Strait from China, or what is that part of, of Asia? Coming over into America and you think I’m just cruising through through Kamchatka and Alaska and down and through British Columbia into Oregon and then settling all the way down to the southern tip of South America and you think man, like walked that?

And only that like I I mean, I love this area now. Oh, yeah. You know, I love this area. This always be home, but I don’t know, man. If I’m coming over the Pangea land bridge or something. And I’m walking into Oregon in the winter. No one’s gonna say that bad choice. Let’s go somewhere else.

He goes south. There’s more. Yeah, let’s let’s try. We’re just a few more days. Just Just two more months of walking. We could be in Santa Cruz.

Let’s do it. boardwalk.

Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know how they would have done it back then. It’s amazing at all. But and it’s also amazing that there are still native people kind of living the way they would have in really harsh conditions or harsh climates, kind of. So, I don’t know, it seems like people adapt to it.

And you know, it’s interesting, like when you’re on these long these, like long hunting trips, and you’re out in the woods for days on end, or, you know, you’re out on a fishing trip or something. Right? It isgives you such an appreciation for what life would have been like back then First off, Oh, absolutely. You haven’t showered in several days, you know, like, you’ve gotten to that point where you’re like, man, I need to clean up, and then you know, you’re cold. You’re a little hungrier than you’d normally be. And then the thing that gets me is any little cut. I mean, you Nick, your knuckle on Sunday. Oh, that’s just something here you go. Whatever. No, totally. I totally understand. You’re talking. But yeah, I mean, infection it so quickly. Yeah. And that’s a big time deal when you don’t have access to any medicine or any way to really clean that wound. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, our survival rate must have been horrible. Just horrible back then.

I yeah, we should count our lucky stars. We were born this century. Ways ways. We just get the podcast in our houses. And then like 200 years ago, on the spot, this was just like jungle land. Yeah. Well, I mean, it was, it was just wilderness and probably, you know, the area you live in the area. I live right now. There was nothing here. So yeah. How is that? What 1817? Like? Yeah, what would have been going on in the Willamette Valley in the in the Rogue Valley during that time is like there’s no development out here. So it’s just yeah, it’s amazing that it’s just now So recently, we have all of it. I read a lot of like, EDM festivals and things like that. Oh, yeah. There’s tons. Yeah, back in like 1799. This forest raise. We’re going crazy out here. Yeah. That’s pretty funny. Well, Thanks, Robert. I really appreciate you doing this podcast doing Episode Two of the get out there podcast. digging out the stuff. I want to get in deeper with you about hunting stuff. I know these podcasts kind of combine time passes, but I really appreciate you hanging out with doc. No, absolutely. And I was a little rambley tonight. It was great. It’s fun. You know, it’s just yeah, it’s for podcasters

exactly diggin it. I think 90% of the podcast I listen to her nothing but just you know, rambles for like three hours you know my Wow, it’s a great podcast. Yeah.

Baby, we’re gonna do a bunch more of them, and it’s gonna be pretty cool. But yeah, Robert, I really appreciate it. Thank you for for doing the podcast stuff with me. Absolutely. It’s great man. So on behalf of Robert Fisker at my name is Billy Newman. And thank you guys very much for listening to Episode Two of the get out there podcast.