Mid Summer Scouting and a Little Shed Hunting

We headed out this weekend to do a little scouting and to hang some cams. Monsoons in Arizona have officially started so the kids and I headed out and dodged the brewing storms the best we could.

We started out by checking the tanks to see if the summer storms had replenished their supplies and when the weather broke some we bailed off the ranger to look for some antlers.

Ive taken them out a couple times to look for sheds but never really made too much of an effort in hiking around too much in fear of wearing them out and having them not enjoy the experience. We headed to a spot that Ive found sheds in the past and wasn't too nasty of country to hike around in. I prayed that we would actually find something to fuel their desire to get out in the woods again with there Dad. It turned out to be a great day...

Not 300 yards from where we started Maty found a pile of old bones. I told her to just keep circling around and maybe we would get lucky and find the head. She soon found the jaw bones and both of them were pretty excited about just that. Any little find like that is a treasure to a little kid and they already had plans of how they were going to show Mom when we got home. I noticed something a little higher on the hill sticking out of the grass and directed Maty to go see if there was anything else up there.... Both kids spotted the spike bull skull and you would have thought they found a pot of gold the way they reacted, it was cool to watch.

We headed over the next ridge and as soon as we did I saw a white 6 point across the canyon. I asked Maty if she saw anything and her eyes soon lit up and she looked up at me with that goofy smile those kids have when there permanent teeth coming in just look too big for that little face... The two of them bailed off in a race to get to the white gold on the other side.

The kids were getting a little tired so we circled back towards the ranger. Conner was lagging behind and asked us to wait. We stopped for him and I looked up the hill and saw the tine sticking up out of the grass. I showed Maty and we decided that Conner needed to find one himself. I told Conner we need to try one more spot and that he should lead the way. We followed the little guy with some minor directing and the entire time heading up the hill he kept asking me "If I find a shed, would I be awesome?"..

He got within in 5 feet of it and finally looked up and saw it. "An antler!! Dad I found an antler!" He was stoked to say the least.

He was excited but very serious for the picture...

We headed back down the hill to head home and Conner asked me " Dad, am I awesome?" I just responded, "Yeah bud your awesome."

It turned out to be a perfect day and I was thankful that we actually found some sheds to keep them interested. I'm grateful every time I get to go out into the outdoors, even more so when its with my kids!

Jay