Outdoors with Don Q: Scouting for buck mule deer in the mountains

Last week, Rob Buonamici of Carson City and I spent a fun-filled day, "supposedly" scouting for buck mule deer.
I say supposedly, because we actually spent the day, having a ton of fun, enjoying the scenery and my taking a whole bunch of photos (over 60!) We were in Nevada's Big Game Management Area 192.

That Management Area is bounded by U.S. 50 on the north side, the California state line on the south side, U.S. 395 on the east side and Lake Tahoe on the west side.

My son Jim and I had applied as a party of two, rifle deer hunters for the 2014 hunting seasons, and in the computerized Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) drawings, we drew our second choice of Area 192.
Our first choice was Area 194-196, directly west of Carson City.

Rob had spent many years as a Nevada Department of Wildlife game warden patrolling in this part of Nevada, and he knows our nearby mountains like the back of his hand.
I, on the other hand, have not been in Area 192 for years and years, preferring to hunt (when successful in the drawings) in Area 194-196.
Rob picked me up at 8:00 a.m. and after a great tasting breakfast at Bodine's, we took off for an adventure in the Great Outdoors.

A word to the wise:
If after reading this story, you're tempted to travel in the same area we did, be sure to do so in a four-wheel drive vehicle, on an ATV or on a dirt bike, because to say the dirt roads are gnarly, would be a gross understatement.
At times, I wasn't sure that we could go any further in the little jeep.
That area is crisscrossed with all kinds of dirt roads, many of which are in bad shape: Rutted, rocky, steep, dusty, narrow and hemmed in by pine trees.
When we were traveling 10-15 MPH, it felt like we were speeding!
There is no way that my little, red, four wheel drive, Ford Ranger pickup could have traveled on some of those hair-raising roads.
In addition to my not wanting to take it there, I don't think my Ranger could have navigated some of the rocky areas without doing damage to itself.

Our travels:
Our four-wheeling adventure began when we turned off U.S. 50, drove behind the Nevada Department of Transportation Maintenance Station at the Spooner Summit Intersection, and got onto the first dirt road.
During the course of the day, we traveled on all kinds of rough roads, and if you held a gun to my head, I could not take you back to many of them.
You had better know those roads intimately, or if you are like me, you will be hopelessly lost in the blink of an eye. Thank God for Rob!

An oddity:
Most interesting, at a number of different locations, we would slowly bump and grind up or down a gnarly piece of primitive road, only to encounter a small section of the road that was paved!
Paved in the middle of nowhere!
It sure as heck did not make any sense to me, but maybe it is because I don't have a college degree in forest management. If you're going to pave one small section, why not pave the whole thing?

Photo Ops:
To say that the scenery on this trip was spectacular would be the understatement of the year. It was AWESOME!
And, that is probably why I took more than 60 photos!
1. At our first stop, I took a number of photos, looking down on the Spooner Junction of U.S. 50 and S.R. 28, with Spooner Lake on the east and North Lake Tahoe in the background.
2. At several different locations, the fall colors of the Quaking Aspen Trees were bright yellow against the green background of the pine trees.
3. Our lunch break was taken while sitting on a ridge top (8,000+ elevation), looking down on Carson City, plus Jacks Valley and the Johnston Lane and Stephanie Lane areas of Northern Douglas County. A great view!
4. Stopping at a rather large, nice looking, boarded-up cabin in the middle of nowhere. It had been built by the U.S. Forest Service many years ago, but it appears to be privately owned now.
5. The most spectacular scenery was saved for the last stop of the day: The end of the road near the top of Genoa Peak (9,150').
Sadly, that peak was the site of the worst plane crash in Lake Tahoe's history when on March 01, 1964, a commercial airline with 85 people on board crashed into it during a snow storm.
The scenery from Genoa Peak has to be seen to be appreciated, because mere words or photos can't describe what you see:
A. The entire length and wide of spectacular Lake Tahoe, far below, and Fallen Leaf Lake on the southwest side of Tahoe.
B. The rugged mountains to the south, which tower over the west side of Douglas County. Normally they are covered with snow, but not this year, due to our prolonged drought.
C. The mountainous country of the Desolation Wilderness Area on the west side of Lake Tahoe. Again, without their normal snow cover.
D. The gnarly pine trees misshaped by the high winds on Genoa Peak. You can definitely see that the wind blows from west to the east up there.

Wildlife:
On our entire trip, we saw some hawks, a number of squirrels, lots of chipmunks and one lonely doe deer. Geez, only one doe. Not very promising for having a successful deer hunt later this year.

Finally:
IMO, the U.S. Forest Service is missing out on an opportunity to showcase high mountain scenery by not providing a decent road to the Genoa Peak area, where visitors can "Ooh and Aah," while enjoying spectacular scenery.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon he can't tell you who were the only people we met on our day-long trip in Area 192.
If he grins and says, "When Don and Rob were coming out, they encountered a four-wheel drive vehicle that contained Jim and Marcia Warne of Carson City, who were on their way to Genoa Peak," he could be one of the people, I've told about our adventure.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photographer. They live in Carson City and can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.