These great photos of the buck we call Tree Scraper were taken by Daren Brooks.  I didn’t realize this was Tree Scraper at first as he is smaller this year than he has been the 2 years prior.  He has also not had the one weak fork in the back prior to this year.  He is still a fantastic buck, it will be interesting to see how he looks next year, i am wondering if the antler growth is a result of nutrition or if he is just getting old.  Thanks to Daren for sharing the photos!
Photo by Darren Brooks

I snapped this last photo as old Tree Scraper tried to figure out just what I was and what I was doing.  It is always awesome to see some of these big bucks return year after year.  I cant help but wonder where he goes in the summer and how he consistently avoids the hunters; its as if hes a ghost and appears every year out of nowhere.
Photo by Seth Topham

I quickly noted the way the ram was headed and marked the spot mentally, using a unique rock outcrop. I then drove as close to those rocks as the road would get me and began to hike. I reached to rocks not knowing if the ram had already passed or perhaps gone a different direction; all I could do was sit, wait, and hope. I only sat for about 10 minutes when the ram rounded a rocky bend exactly where I had predicted he would. My only problem was that he was too close to fit in the lens I had on, so, I had to wait for him to get a little further out so I could snap some photos. It was awesome to watch him feed along as I patiently waited for my chance. When he was where I wanted him, I bleated at him and he turned perfectly for one last look prior to disappearing over the ridge. Above are the results.

This is an Elusive t-shirt that my brother and I designed and had made up.  I drew the ram skull that appears on the front and my brother drew and designed the logo on the back.  We, like everyone else, are feeling the financial impact of the economy so we only made what shirts we had pre-sold.  I also must apologize to all those that ordered an XL and didn’t get it.  When we got the shirts they ran much smaller than we anticipated so the folks that ordered L would only fit into the XL and the folks who ordered XL would have needed a XXL.  We may print some more if interest is high enough and those that didn’t get a shirt will be top of the list.  It was fun to do the shirts and the ram skull is drawn proportional to a Southern Utah ram skull.  My brother and I love doing shirt designs so hopefully in the future we can get some other shirts printed up.