While you guys discuss football, how women think, politics, and mortality, I've been busy trying to turn mortal coyotes into dead coyotes. However, this one about did me in. I made a long'ish shot on him at close to 400 yards. The trouble was he was in the bottom of a literal Hell-hole. As the crow flies he was nearly 400 yards, but on foot was a whole nuther deal. It was super steep, icy (read slippery), and just plain miserable reaching the coyote...and that was just the hike in. He died at the lowest point of the canyon he could find, and I was at the very top of the canyon when I shot him. It was a loooong way to the bottom! The hike out cannot be accurately described, and would have to experienced to know just how difficult it was. I literally would throw the coyote ahead of me a few feet, then grab a sage brush or some other small bush and pull myself up the hill to the coyote, then repeat over and over. For the next two days my arms were actually sore from all the pulling and throwing. The first 100 were as tough as any hike I've ever been on, and worse than anything I experienced in military basic training. The snow was about a foot deep, but underneath it was clay based mud that was frozen solid. Just FYI frozen mud is just dirty ice and extremely slippery. I huffed, puffed, wheezed, slipped, fell, cussed, pert near had a heart attack the entire first 100 yards. Then I finally found a faint game trail that wasn't quite as slippery as the rest of the terrain, though it was still plenty slick. It took me close to an hour to ascend my way back to the top. My partner said he was awful glad to see me pop back up on the ridge as he was seriously starting to wonder if I had indeed had a heart attack. Trust me, all the way out I was wondering if I was going to have one as well. It was -8 below zero and by the time I reached the top I think my personal body temperature was well over 100. I was on fire and sweating like crazy. I had to take my hat off as my head was burning up. My partner started to laugh when he saw the back of my head. Apparently despite being hot and sweating, the part of my hair that was exposed on the back of my head, had frozen into a white mass of hair, frost, and ice. He said there was a very distinct line where my hat was and where it wasn't. I wish I would have had him take a photo of it. Anyway, this is one of the smallest coyotes I've killed this year. Probably one of the least pretty as well, but the hardest earned one in a while. I'm just glad I'm still here to tell the story. Methinks I need to seriously drop at least 30 lbs as I felt every last ounce coming back up out of that Hell hole.
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