Tales From Los Cazadores: May 2007
Article by: Larrry Weishuhn
Pleasures in life sometimes come along unexpectedly. Take for instance a few years ago. I was hunting on the plains of northeastern New Mexico for pronghorn antelope with Bridger Petrini of TriState Outfitters. Untypical of normal September weather for that region of the country, it was raining.
My primary purpose of the hunt had been to try my darnedest to shoot a monstrous pronghorn, one I had seen the year before and to do so for a tv show. To make the show a bit more dramatic I had chosen to stay in a little two man tent I had erected up the canyon from where the ranch's comfortable headquarters was situated, dry and warm, the headquarters building that is. Where I had set up my tent, right next to a rock facing it was anything but dry.
The night before the season opened I had crawled into the little tent at about 9:30 or so. Ever since it had gotten dark I had watched a most brilliant and magnificent lightning show off to the south. It seemed a long way off, but then started moving my way. I suspected and hoped it would play out along before it got to where I was.
I was wrong. About an hour or so after crawling into my sleeping bag and having fallen asleep while reading a well worn copy of Hemingway's GREEN HILLS OF AFRICA, I was awaken by a mighty crash and the darkness being momentarily turned into full daylight. I was glad my tent was not one that used metal tent poles. I crawled deeper into my bag.
Then the wind started blowing, softly at first, as I could hear it whispering through the juniper and pinon below. But then the whisper turned to an almost deafening roar, complete with more thunder and lightning, followed by what sounded like bucket sized rain hitting the fly on my tent. Other than the lightening and the loud thunder the sound of the rain hitting the tent fly had an almost soothing effect on me.
Knowing there was little I could do, such as drive back to the main camp because I had left my vehicle back at the ranch's headquarters a good mile or so away, and I wasn't about to brave the storm on foot, I laid back down and went soundly to sleep.
Throughout the night I awaken and listened to the sound of rain falling.
I was wide awake right before what should have been first light, but the gray rain-laden clouds stalled daylight for quite some time. While waiting I poured a cup of now somewhat lukewarm coffee I'd saved for breakfast from the day before. Outside it continued raining, varying between drizzling and down right torrential rains.
About an hour after it was light outside, the rain stopped for a while. I took advantage of the lull in stuff falling from the skies to wander outside, and also to try to determine whether or not Bridger would be able to maneuver his four wheel drive pickup up the canyon to retrieve me. A quick look left me feeling his getting there would at best be "iffy". Oh well, the season was 3-days long, surely sometime during that time it would stop raining. If or rather when the rain stopped, I'd simply hike over the tall ridge and walk back to camp. We planned on hunting another area any.
While glassing the surrounding area, for I knew it to be rich with elk, mule deer and black bear (I'd hunted bear successfully on the property a couple of times before). While doing so I spotted what looked like a cave I had not seen the afternoon before. It was on the same ridge as the one I was camped on. Being interested in the early west history I decided to hike over a take a look. It appeared the cave was deep enough to hide in should it start raining once again when I got there. But just in case I stuffed a rain top in my pack, holstered my Encore .30-06 pistol and headed toward the cave.
As I got closer I noticed what at first appeared to be bird dropping on the rock facings on either side of the cave. But when I stood right at the cave's opening I realized they were distinct designs etched into the basalt rock. They were of various geometric designs, but one seemed to obviously have been made to resemble a turtle. I stopped at the opening which was nearly five feet tall and about seven or so feet wide. The cave appeared to make a bend about six feet in.
I dug into my pack and found a flashlight, then shined into the darkness. There where the cave indeed made a bend were more rock etchings, shaped in the form of a buffalo and a pronghorn as well as several marking that were wavy lines, and some circles with lines through them. Just as I was about to enter the cave it started thundering and lightning once again. It was then I happened to look at the cave floor, mostly dust.
There in the dust were several snake drags, small to large. I quickly shined the flashlight to the cave's floor and confirmed the snake drags. Some looked as if they had just been made.
I quickly backed away from the cave. The last thing I wanted at that point was an encounter with either a prairie or diamondback rattler, and for that matter a snake of any kind!
Off in the distance the thunder grew louder and I could see what appeared to be a solid wall of rain coming my way.
Back in my tent, I crawled back into my sleeping bag, grabbed my Hemingway book and read and dreamed of returning to Africa.
Life indeed is filled with pleasant and unexpected surprises!
