Every year for as long as I’ve been hunting I take the Sept. 1st opener off. Bird counts weren’t great so I didn’t this year figuring I’d either just hunt during the week or wait for the second season to open later. Work was slow so I got a pass from my boss grabbed a shotgun and decided to sit down for the evening flight. I was rusty so I didn’t bother with shots that I might normally attempt. I ended the day with two shots fired and two birds dead.
The next day was a scheduled day off and some carp were on the menu. The full moon affected their feeding but I still managed one from the river, that was enough to make me reasonably happy.
I almost failed to mention that we ran across a couple walking their pet goats, yes goats!
After getting our butts kicked by carp my friend and I decided to make a drive up to a fairly local trout stream. I forgot however; that it was Labor day weekend and that meant that even the sides of the roads were jammed with parked cars. The decision to abandon the foray had pretty much been made when a giant plume of smoke was spotted just slightly to the East of us.
This is fire season in Southern California and fools with bbq’s and alcohol enhance that problem. From this meager start the fire would be at 3,600 acres the next day. It still is only about 20% contained and the Police, Fire and Park services deserve a lot of respect for being able to evacuate the estimated 5,000 plus people using the forest that day.
