Robin Leatherman and I left early. we drove an hour from the house, unloaded the quad. The ride in the overgrown road would be a wet one. It had rained all night and the brush was soaked. We got to our parking spot just as it was light enough to see. Soaked from the ride in, it felt good to hike. I was using my father’s Remington 721 .30-06 this morning. It would not be a good Hawken day. we climbed for the first hour covering about a mile and a half. We decided to split up and meat back at a designated time. every hunter knows how that goes… I worked south up the ridge and Robin worked back and forth across the ridge. Fog drifted in and out, the ceiling rose and dropped. Rain came and went. Kind of a typical day hunting in Southeast Alaska. I had always wanted to explore the area beyond the knobs. I slowly worked through the landscape. I called in a few does and walked up on others. we had scheduled an 11:00 rendezvous. I had just finally gotten into more deer sign at about 10:00. The ceiling was low, visibility just over 100 yards. I scanned as I moved forward. I thought that is a particularly red piece of moss on that ridge, closer inspection showed a deer’s back half. I moved to the right and I could see that moss had antlers. I steadied for the shot which was just under 100 yards and squeezed the trigger. The bock disappeared into the fog. I hiked across the draw to where the buck had stood. Nothing, no hair, no blood, nothing. Had I missed? It began to rain. I saw one set of tracks leaving. There were four trails he might have taken. I jumped a doe and fawn. For 30 minutes I walked out each trail. Noting. I began second guessing my shot. I walked back to where I had shot from and once more looked through the scope. I know I had not missed. I made a few more circles. Maybe he had turned sharply and dove into the deep stream valley behind the ridge. I found where a deer had slipped running and turned down hill, there in the timber ahead lay the buck. He had not gone 40 yards. Relived, I moved to the buck, paid my respect, took a few images, and began boning him out. I would be late getting back to Robin, but he heard me shoot. He knew I’d be a bit late. Made my dad happy today! #publicland #tongassnationalforest #sitkablacktail #sitkablacktailcoalition #muledeerfoundation