“Mule Deer in the Targhee”
An Eastern Idaho Deer Hunt
In 2019 a fellow retired paratrooper and I took to the mountains in South Eastern Idaho in search of a massive mountain Mule Deer and adventure.
Set the Tone:
Crossing the pass from Wyoming into Idaho near Jackson hole, I was struck by the elevation of the mountains. The snow covered peaks and the jagged rock faces shouted one message.
“You are NOT ready for this”
I later learned this area is one of the most rugged areas for western hunting. In terms of the average degree of slope and ability to traverse the terrain this is a hard landscape. At the time I had more hubris than experience and a mountain seemed like any other mountain.
Our plan was to walk 8 to 10 miles back into the hunt area and start glassing. This was an early October tag and I was hoping to find bucks in the high country.
Wrong Altitude:
We did a lot of things wrong on this trip. What we thought of as high country was 7,000 to 8000 feet. I made that estimation based on absolutely nothing. Only that the tops of the peaks seemed too jagged and high for much to be around up there. We saw several mountain goats which I took to be a sign that we were too high.
We arrived at our camping spot near a high Alpine lake only to find the lake surrounded by four outfitter camps. A cowboy on a horse asked us what we were doing up there. I said, “hunting” he asked how we got back there and I replied, “we walked.” He spat on the ground, shook his head and rode away.
The country was beautiful and we saw critters every day. Including several does and yearlings, a bull elk, a cow, moose, and an amazing color phase black bear. That wiley mountain buck never stepped out of the timber. My friend and I walked 67 miles in five days with 55 pound packs. By day four, we were smoked.
Rock Bottom:
The temperature dropped into the 20s at night and we had both packed for 30° weather. Neither of us got much sleep. The cold and the heavy packs combined with us being too far into the backcountry was demoralizing.
Our muscles ached with every step. Both of us being from the eastern half of the United States had us clawing at the air for oxygen. We were not ready for this trip, physically or mentally. Sleeping was miserable. Not just due to the cold but we simply couldn’t get enough air to recover.
We debated heading home early, moving spots or trying to find a different part of our hunting zone. But alas, we stayed with the fawns and does grazing on a hillside, hoping that a buck would step out.
The End
On our last day of the hunt, we passed two hunters. They walked out with a very large mule deer rack strapped across one of their packs. Since we were on our way out, they didn’t mind telling us they found this buck grazing in the long grass just before the snow line. We should have known.
Neither of us filled a tag on this adventure. We learned a ton about Western hunting, about landscape reading, and about the difference between listening to podcast and watching folks on YouTube and actually getting out and doing the work. A year later, I took Kevin into Montana for another attempt and both of us found success.
Just because you have a hard hunt with no success doesn’t mean you didn’t learn anything. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to stop hunting. Part of me wants to go back to Idaho and chase deer just to show the mountains what I learned.
Good Luck!
Good luck this fall. Send pictures or stories from the field to [email protected] to be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article, or any of our articles helped you become a better conservation steward, join the mule deer foundation. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/
Trevor J Hubbs https://www.instagram.com/trevorhubbs/
Trevor is the Communications Manager for the Mule Deer Foundation. He grew up hunting and fishing the eastern edge of the Ozark mountains for quail, ducks, and bucks. Trevor is a contributor for “Fur, Fish, and Game”, Lethal Minds Journal, Strung Magazine, and Feathers and Whiskey, among others.