Bill Nevada 2010 page 2

The late deer season in unit 111 is Oct 21 to November 5. Weather in Ely is a high of 63° and a low of 34°, mostly cloudy, with clouds at 6000 ft (Ely is at 6260 ft), winds 12 mph. Forecast is for thunderstorms with a 20% precip tomorrow, high of 52, low of 34. For reference, North Schell Peak, the highest peak in the area, is 11,883ft.

Fri Oct 22 Second day of the Deer Season

Weather today had a high of 59° and tonight should have a low of 37°. Balmy. Cloudy and rainy, with snow above 8000. Ted offered this insight:

Bill is camped below North Lovell Peak (about 1/3 of the way down from the top and slightly to the south [see map of entire range and these maps of Lovell- David]). I hope he likes snow, because I think he is going to get some. A few inches of snow should let him know what the area holds...a foot or so will be less pleasant.

North Lovell Peak, 9562 feet and rising 1992 feet from the sage brush plateau around it

Topo of North Lovell Peak

Sat Oct 23 Third day of the Deer Season

Still no word, but that was expected. Temp now is 47° at Ely Airport (6259), with a low tonite of 36°. Raining in Ely, but Bill is on Mt Lovell, tops out at 9652. He is at the upper third, based on Ted's estimate, so he may well have a third day of snow or pretty cold rain.

His plan was to move on to another area if he did not see anything or the area got pressure. This is the weekend, don't know if the locals who drew a late season tag could be out in the field.

We all await his report, it will be interesting to see how close my guesses are.

Sun Oct 24 Fourth day of the Deer Season

Cold, windy, and precipitation are the watchwords today. Ely is currently the coldest city in Nevada, with the snow level last night in many areas in the 6000 ft range. My guess is that Bill is a tad above 7000.

Winds today 10 to 20 mph in am, 20 to 30 in pm, with gusts to 45. Temps in the afternoon with highs in the 52° to 62° range, snow level at 8000. So he should do OK in the day.

Bill's routine is usu to wake up at 5 and reach out for the thermos of coffee, kept rolled in a wool blanket by his bedside (see this cartoon). A cigarette and morning coffee get him ready for the hunt. He is too tough to turn on the Lil Heater Buddy, just rolls out of bed like the old-time cowboys, slips on his pants and shoulders on his coat.

He probably has two tents set up, one for gear and one for sleeping. The sleeping tent has a vestibule where he has a table setup with a stove for making coffee. After dressing, he will fire up the stove and reheat whatever coffee is leftover in the thermos and start a new one as well. He won't waste much time, throw some food together, fill his coffee cup (you know the one, stained dark from innumerable cups of coffee), put the rest in the thermos, and he is ready to go.

I am going to guess that he is not yet ready for a rest day, but if he has not seen any good horns (yes, Bill, I know that they are really antlers, but this is my tale, just shut up and keep hunting) he may try shifting areas. He told me before he left that he was not locked into any area but would move around to find a good area. I think that Craig is right: you need to cover a lot of area, esp. when you are new to a place, if you are to find where the big ones are hanging out. It is very different from the Ranch, where we know the lay of the land and where the deer are likely to be found.

So my bet is that today Bill moves to another area to hunt. He won't move camp, but he will take the Bronco and try another place that looked good on the map or that he could see from his hunt area yesterday.

Ted hunted this area last year (right, Ted?) and the deer are mighty scarce.

So our hero is probably still beating the hillsides pretty hard, or he might have headed to town and we would have heard from him.

Hope he is safe.

Good luck, brother.

I think his camp is around 8,000 feet, maybe a little higher. There is a rather steep stretch of road getting up the last few hundred yards, plus a short side hill below that...both of which I didn't think would be easy in snow. So I'm guessing he have to wait until midday Tuesday to move about with his Bronco.

Craig's intel said the deer and elk were further south, south of Ely...I figure Bill will radically relocate if he sees nothing at spot 1.

Ted Eyre

Mon Oct 25 Fifth day of the Deer Season

No word yet from Bill, so our guesses in the dark continue. Weather in Ely: 30 right now, with a hi of 43 and a low of 24. Snowing today at 6000, so certaily snowing where Bill is. Weather should be worse tomorrow, so today and/or tomorrow would be good days for Bill to come into town to resupply and we might get some word.

Schell Range in snow; this is probably Mt Grafton, which is south and west of the area Bill is in.

The area where Bill is hunting is mostly pinyon-juniper forest and sage-grassland, with some rare Aspen stands and white pine (it is White Pine County, after all). Due to fire suppression and grazing, the pinyon-juniper forest has steadily encroached on the sage-grassland, negatively affecting the mule deer and elk populations. The Forest Service, in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy, is working to remove the encroaching pinyon pin and junipers where they are not yet established as a mature forest, and re-establish the sage-grassland communities. The work is described here. The term "pinyon pine" covers a range of eight species of pines, including the single-leaf pinyon pine (the only single-needled pine in the world), which is the dominant pinyon of Nevada and the state tree. All of the pinyon pines produce excellent nuts and the wood is very fragrant when burned.

Pinyon Pine is a characteristic tree of the Southwest and is well adapted to arid conditions. It grows from 4,500 to 7,500 feet, often found with junipers, sage, and rabbitbrush.

This is a Utah Juniper, located in the Wasatch Mountains of Nevada. Utah juniper is the dominant juniper in Nevada. Both the pinyon pine and Utah juniper are conifers, as they both produce cones.

These are the berries of the Utah Juniper. Note the overlapping scales of the needles. This helps reduce water loss.

This is Cave Lake, located in the southern end of the Schell Range, where Bill may go if the hunting in the northern end does not show game.
I believe that the pines you see are Pinyon Pines.

This is Steptoe Creek, Cave Lake State Park, in the Schell Range.
This is in the southern end of Bill's hunt area, and can be seen in the main map, linked to on the first page of this narrative.
It shows the mix of juniper and pinyon pines, blending into the sagebrush and grasslands of the valley.

This is another view of North Schell Peak. This part of the area is called the High Schells Wilderness.

The Schells Range had elk introduced in 1932 and hosts Nevada's largest elk herd. Bill has a chance at a good bull. This photo is from the BLM and is supposed to be from the Schells Range herd.

By 5 pm, the weather forecast has changed: the night's low is now predicted to be 21° but the day has proven to be cloudy, without snow. The forecast for tomorrow has also brightened: cloudy overnight, no snow during the day, a high of 42° but a low of 15°. Remember, these temps are at Ely, nearly 2000 lower then where Bill is camping. No snow or rain is forecasted for the rest of the week.

Next: Tues Oct 26.