Alyssa's Story: "On My Own"

           My father called me one night              with a big surprise. 

He wanted to congratulate me for my winning lottery youth deer tag.  It was such good news for me, but I was uneasy knowing that I have never hunted big game before.

On the day of my hunt, my father woke me up early in the morning and by the time I got up the sun was already over our camp. My dad told me to go hunt up this trail.  So, I took my hunting pack, which contained my knife, a two-way radio, small lunch and some of my girly things such as such as sunscreen, a mirror, hair clips and ties and headed out.  Oh, I also had my 44 Mag Marlin.

I walked off the trail about a couple hundred yards and I sat down on a rock by a giant, dead tree that had fallen over.   I sat there for maybe 15 minutes until I heard leaves rustle behind me.  I turned quickly and saw a coyote running towards me. I was startled; he stopped right in front of me just to my right.  I saw him sniff the air, then he ran to his right and zigzagged away from me.  I was surprised that he didn’t see me; my heart was pounding.  I quickly called my dad on the radio. “Dad, Dad, guess what, I just saw a coyote run by.”  My dad replied, “you should have shot him, since they kill baby everything.”

I then walked towards the way the coyote ran. As I was walking down a dried-up creek, I saw a coues deer.  It spooked me, I wasn’t sure if it had antlers or not, but I saw its white tail. It looked like a bunny as it trotted away.  I don’t think it saw me. A few minutes later along came two bear hunters. They asked me if I was hunting for squirrel. They were nice, and I told them that I was hunting deer. I felt a little nervous when I knew that there were bears around.

I decided to sit on a comfortable rock and eat my bologna and cheese crackers that I had in my bag. Yummy! I could smell the scent from the bologna. I then thought that some coyote or bears would come by. So I then readied my rifle to shoot, and finished eating. My dad then called me again and told me that there were wolves out there and they were protected and illegal to shoot. “They are not afraid of humans” he said. That got me a little more worried and so I ate quickly and I called my dad on the radio and said I couldn’t find my way back to camp. He then told me to shoot so that he could help me find my way to camp. After I shot he said I was west of camp; I had walked too far.

After I arrived back at camp, we all sat down for drinks and ate pistachios and more goodies. Everyone then took a nap and I helped my brother with his math homework. About two hours later my dad and everyone got back up and went hunting. My dad gave me his GPS and told me to go sit on a stand near where I was before. I wanted to go to the place were I saw the coyote. I chose to start walking southwest. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t loose track of where the camp was.

I walked about a mile from camp. I made sure not to lose my trail so I tried to remember were I was walking.  I remember looking up and I saw trees that look like monsters from a far distance, but I kept walking. I walked uphill from the camp and the creek. I found myself walking in an open spot that I could see far off. I found a nice spot to sit, and sat under a tall tree for an hour. I pulled the hammer down on my 44 Mag and set it off safe, I wanted to be ready for anything that would come my way. I could almost see everything surrounding me. I then found my radio was really low on its batteries so I turned it off so I would have enough for emergencies.

I daydreamed . . . I broke off pieces of a pinecone, twisting thin pin leaves and tied them around twigs. And I amused myself by stabbing dried leaves with my wrapped up twigs. While I was playing, I remember thinking about my day at school the day before. I would think about how my 15th birthday was coming soon. I remember watching the sunlight on the trees fade away. I thought to wait until it got dark enough to see, but there was still light. Just for my one last time, I looked around for anything.

Behind me, to my right, I saw a deer walking towards me. He was eating grass and walking slowly. I was excited; so many thoughts went through my head at once. At first I made sure it had antlers. It sure did, big ones for its size! I was so afraid that it would see me and run away in a blink of an eye.

My head was pounding likea big drum. I could feel my veins in my head pounding and my ears were getting hot. I tried to focus. I waited for it to walk in front of me. I didn’t want him to see me raise my rifle; he was so close maybe only 10 yards. I waited until the deer’s head was hidden by the tree, and then I raised my rifle; I didn’t make a sound.  

He walked further past in front of me, I was thinking things like what if I hit him in the wrong spot, what if I miss and he runs, then what? I kept looking through my scope, I was surprised that I wasn’t all shaky while I was aiming and shot right when I was on target, then I squeezed the trigger. The deer jumped about two feet. He fell down, he tried to get back on his feet, then he fell again on his tummy. I remember him kicking and trying to get back up. He finally stopped, and was breathing deeply.

I walked up to him and poked him with the barrel of my gun. I was afraid that he would get back up and start kicking. I heard stories that deer would move again, he didn’t move. I then walked up further and looked at his eyes and ears and his antlers. I didn’t count his antlers points because I was so excited and in shock.

There I was with the deer lying next to my feet. I then tagged him and grabbed my radio and called for my dad. But right then my radio would fade and then died. It was getting dark so I had to act quickly. I started thinking that the wolves would come. I started shooting in the air about ten times, thinking my dad would know that something was up. I then realized that that wasn’t going to work.

So then I looked at my deer and took out my dad’s GPS and marked it as “deer”. I was so shook up that I just starting to hit random letters and trying it hit “mark.” it was hard for me to think clearly since I was so full of adrenaline. I then looked for camp on the GPS. Right then I looked at my deer and the direction to camp and ran back to camp.

I followed my trail which helped; I walked on the log, which was perhaps a mile back to camp. Then, I didn’t stop running.  When I arrived back at camp I could hardly talk. I shouted out “HELP!” They all were calm and asked what was wrong. “I got a deer!” My dad freaked!  He was so proud of me.