Dog Training, Desert Exploring, and Vicious Allergies

It’s been a little while since I have ran the dogs on birds and it is good to know that nothing has changed. Tuesday I ran the dogs with my buddy Paul and his dogs on some planted pigeons. Nothing too exciting about that, unless you are a dog. The little training session went perfectly and there wasn’t a word spoke in regards to corrections to the dogs. They have done this before….

 Cash backing one of Paul’s Setters.

Porter pointing in the low morning sun.

Cash on point.

 This weekend I headed east with my buddy Darin to go look around the area that I drew a muzzleloader deer tag this fall. Darin knows the area like the back of his hand, so I got the quick tour, and hopefully I can remember some of what I saw. Big thanks to Darin for the great weekend. It is really smoky out in the desert right now as there are lots of big fires wreaking havoc on a lot of good mule deer and sage grouse habitat. It is really a bad deal for the wildlife and they will certainly feel the impact of these fires for years to come.

While some of the country that I saw this weekend looked fairly healthy for mid August, I can say with confidence that I saw areas of the state that I have never seen as dry as they are now. A lot of country is just dead, and when I say dead I mean it literally looked like sand dunes, as that is basically what it has become. Anyone who cares about wildlife also cares about habitat, as you cannot have one without the other, and it is sad to see so much habitat being destroyed by fires, and destroyed by drought.

A red sunrise due to all the desert smoke.

The bummer for me is that between the smoke, the dust, and pollen allergies, I am a complete wreck now. One more night in the desert might have finished me off for good. I am not sure what is an acceptable level of just dealing with allergies, but I think that I am well beyond that.
The good news is that in preparation for hunting season I have done the responsible thing and grown a beard, which by the way won a highly regarded award for the “best beard” at the international Glacier Glove headquarters. Just saying….

Jay Kincaid