Sage Hen Chronicles:
Managed to get away for a few days with my buddies Ben and Matt, to hit the holy lands of Sage Hens.
Miles and miles of hills and flats, rocky faraway vistas and places most folks just don’t ever get a chance to experience.
We packed up our dogs (a trio) had Bens German Shorthaired Pointer “Brittany” a seasoned dynam-o that locks and stops dead on top of anything with feathers. We also had my dog “Alex” A crossbred mutt of Coyote, badger and flatcoated lab. He knows a thing or 2 about birds and how to work a breeze in his laid back easy fashion. Thers is little wasted energy with Alex, He is an efficient hound.
Matt’s newest trooper “Sig” also attended. Sig is a Brittany Spaniel that is pushing 8 months old that is unstoppable. This pup is going to to go down in the hall of fame of bird dogs. Matt keeps him in close, works him in tight corners and if there is a bird, or a big or even a feather in there, Sig will find it and pounce.
Ben and Matt have a buddy named Richard. Richard is something else. One heck of a guy in general, a big kid wrapped in the skin of a seasoned veteran. It just so happens that Richard has a place in the heart of Sage Hen country.
Here is a shot of Richard and his SuperJeep, it is probably a proto-version of the Nasa Mars landing rover. This rig can go anywhere.
We were able to get out and hunt some lowland draws and areas within a mile or so of Alfalfa, but had no luck,
we didn’t even see any hen poop, so we packed it up.
As we headed back, Me and Ben ran into a couple of older fellows that had a bird each. Nice guys, they sure seemed surprised that we came all the way out from Vancouver Wa to chase “Chickens”. They wished us well.
The temperature started to drop and Ben said “Lets get a shot in the sunshine before we loose it. I agreed. Here is me and Alex in a shot of the last sunshine of the day.
Richard and Matt took off into the Mtn ranges and we radioed that we’d meet them back at the farm.
We all met up and decided to go to the highlands, despite the snow that was rolling in.
We went up and up and up, slipping and slopping
On the way back down, Matt and Richard stopped and grabbed their guns. Richard mounted his and we watched a big Sage Hen flush, 1 shot at about 40 Yards and Richard anchored the bird. Our first Hen, now the skunk was off.
We continued on our way down into the valley beyond.
I had Ben drop me off with Alex to push over a high saddle and beyond to the bowl of the valley on the other side (about a 4 or 5 mile trip to meet up with them).
I wrapped up tight and worked the slope to the saddle and down, Richard and the boys continued to the other side and started hunting the Hen Flats.
I hiked hard and fast, it was windy and snowing, My ears wished they had a stocking cap, and Alex plowed along looking for sign.
After an hour or so, me and Alex crossed the saddle and worked the wind into the valley on the other side.
I radioed the boys and they responded that they were working birds on the flats, bit the snow and clouds obscured them from view, I pressed on through another mile of sage Following Alex.
Finally, I heard shots from Ben and Matt. Far off on the flats, birds must be flushing. “lucky [celery sticks!]” I thought to myself.
Alex looked back and I said aloud “don’t worry boy, we’ll get some too” off we went.
Soon Alex was plowing sage at a full tilt, I knew we’d bust Birds. I could see some guys on the ridge with 4 wheelers, they stopped and waved. I waved back. They watched alex bust a brace of Hens, I shot and winged one, followed it and shot again, Paydirt! Alex flowed over the sage like liquid obsidian, and I lost him.
A few minutes later, I saw his tail up high, and his bird in his mouth. He was on parade! He was a proud hound. All was right with the world at that moment.
All of the years we have worked, all of the running on trails, all of the training, all of the frustrations along the way. It was all ironed out smooth in just a moment or two up on that hillside. It all came together right then.
I suppose that there is a place that exists between a man and his dog. It is not a place on a map, and it can not be appropriately described with words, but the closest thing I can conjure is that me and Alex were one, a “Union”, maybe of hearts,, maybe of souls. At that moment, we were one entity. I knew him and he knew me.
It felt pretty good.
We worked the ridge down Alex Boosted a nice Snowshoe for me. I got it and Alex really ragdolled it.
Here we are:
In 10 minutes or so, We all were together again, Ben and Matt got their birds too, we were all wiped out. Here is Ben with a brace of birds
We all went back to Richard’s farm and he stuffed us with Roast Beef and Potatoes. We crashed out.
The next day I had to fly solo, the boys went to Sunday Service and I scouted with Alex. I hit the hills above 7500 feet. I was 16 degrees up there at sunrise. We had our birds in short order. Alex was a pro, a pup at nearly 10 years old.
It was 9:45 and I had a limit of little fryer Sage hens, so I decided to work the highlands and ridges for Blues. Me and Alex hiked up to a point where Oxygen was just too hard to get for us, and never saw a blue grouse, but I did get a nice shot of my boy with the aspens turning.
Got this one at well over a mile and a half of elevation.
Then I headed back to meet the boys for after church adventure.
We crossed a high mountain pass about 15 minutes from Richard’s house and could see the curvature of the earth. We decided to let the dogs get out and grab some water at a pond on the far side, sure enough, Ben’s dog Brittany got birdy and busted a single hen.
We continued up a ways to a good looking canyon and Richard said that he’d seen birds there a few weeks back.
We broke out the dogs and after about 45 minutes of hitting a really tight canyon, we had 5 more birds.
Matt made an incredible shot at a bird as it blazed down the canyon.
Here is a photo of Richard, Ben and the dogs and Captain Matt with their birds.
Then we headed back to the valley on the other side and busted about 100 clay pigeons!
Then it was back to the farm and off to bed.
Monday came along and we knew where we wanted to go, because we saw some great creases to work from the day before.
We all got into birds, All of the dogs were on fire and everyone got a limit!
I tried to get some shots of Matts dog Sig, But he was a rocket in the sage, That dog will be a master hunter within 4 years!.
Here is Me Working a hillside
Captain Matt:
and another one of me and Alex and Richard at the Jeep
Me and Richard and The Superjeep with Alex:
Ben has a great Camera, He uses it for his dental practice for teeth pictures down at his new place in Ridgefield Washington, but it also comes in handy for shots at flushing Sage Hens like this one:
I hunted a good looking washout pan with Alex and got my bird, here is a shot where Alex brought the bird back but couldn’t see at all because of the grouse wings in his face. Guess that makes it a literal “Blind Retrieve”
I knew that there should be more birds on down the washout so I called to Richard on the Radio, I said “Hey , get down here, me and alex left the washout the way we came in and those other birds should hold, come on down and meet us and we’ll walk up another flush for you”.
He did, and then We did!
Then we called Matt and Ben and did it again! Matt let one Hen go by in the hopes of getting a big Bull Grouse to flush, since nearly all the birds we got this season were first year Fryers, But then he got a shot that he decided to take.
1 shot and it was in the Bag!
Then we had some lunch. Alex and Richard seem to understand one another. I suppose that when you get a couple of Seasoned hunters together over a good spread of food, there is a bond. They found it.
Then we decided to catch a few trout up in a secret spot that Richard knew about.
I forgot to mention that when Richard finds a spot, it will be primo, and there will be a full on adventure.
Along the way, we found out that Richard had a hole in his tire and was leaking out air.
He performed an operation which was amazing.
Check this out:
He Jammed this Pick into the hole and rounded it out, then he took this tarred rope stuff and pushed it into the space where the pick was and it worked!
He stopped a big puncture from stopping him dead in his tracks. What a lesson that was!
Then ben shouted out “oh my god, there are African Sicklid in this hot springs pond!”
Very strange that there would be African fish way way up in the highlands of Interior America, but even more strange that Ben would know exactly what they were.
Then things started to get really crazy when Bend proceed to catch them on a flyrod!
I cleaned a grouse and threw the guts into the springs, the fish went absolutely crazy, a frenzy of ravenous fish. Things got so out of control that Richard let them have it with a .22 Pistol.
Richard said “Lets bag this, I think I know of a place where we might be able to get a trout or two”.
And boy did we.
Here is me with a fish on :
Here is the brute :
\
Richard managed a nice one, or ˝ dozen of them. And then Matt landed his fair share too. Here is one we got a photo of
I picked up another one
Here he is
We were all thinking that we were kings when all of a sudden Ben started to yell out, Get up here, bring the camera.
He put all of us to shame with his fish, a Leviathan, a creature of the deep. The biggest Rainbow trout ever.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you,
Dr Ben Crusan and El’ Gigante:
What a great trip we had, everyone got birds, everyone got fish, we saw sun and snow, we covered hundreds of miles of country and got some memories we’ll take with us to the grave.
A great time for all.
duckboy
The greatest hunting trip EVER!!!!!
I'm green with envy :grin: 
AWESOME read and AWESOME pictures 
Replica of a Hagg Monster 8.1 pounds!
:grin:
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