Spring has come the Summer Camp Ranch

I made a quick trip to the Summer Camp this weekend. While I was there I was able to take a few hikes and snap a few pictures. Below are some highlights, the new baby calf elk was the most memorable!

This is a view of the Lone Cone taken from near the top of North Mountain.

A Bumble Bee searching for some pollen.

I a lot of deer, hand fulls of smaller bucks, and a few good bucks that look like they will be respectable bucks once they have finished growing their antlers this year.

This Buck was hiding behind the oak brush - waiting for some cars to drive by out on the main road north of the corrals. I probably could have gotten closer but when the cars came by he decided to run off.

I was able to find this brand new little calf elk one after sitting in the middle of an elk herd for almost an hour. There were cows all around me and although they could smell that something odd was close by - they didn't know that it was me and couldn't see me. They wouldn't leave and once I found this brand new calf I knew why they did not want to leave the area. This new elk calf was probably less than 24hrs old - he was still VERY wobbly when he tried to walk.

I got within 5 ft of this new little calf and could have easily picked it up like a little baby - it was that new!

I found a pretty good sized Black Bear in the area as well. I'm sure the smell from all the elk calving attracted him to the area.

It looks like this cow elk had twins -either that or she was baby sitting for someone. The one little calf was on the wrong side of the fence and was searching for a way to get on the same side as it's mother. I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually - the mom surely wasn't going anywhere without it.

I found a new hatching of Killdeer birds. They were also very new and could not fly. They were cute little buggers, small too! - you could fit two of these in the palm of your hand.

The mother was not about to fly off without her new babies - she stuck around for the photo shoot as well.

I found this on the front porch of the cabin Sunday morning. It was BIG (approx 5" from wing to wing). I was curious what kind of moth it was so I googled it. Turns out it is a "Polyphemus moth" (Antheraea polyphemus ). Here is a link to a site with more info if your interested. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3290

Here are a few pictures from the Archery Hunt 2008. (Click on "View all immages")

Muzzeloader Success for Brian!

After a few years of passing on smaller bucks, and a few misses on some shooters over the last few years - Brian connected with success on this years muzzeloader hunt. It was a good year for respectable bucks on the ranch; those of you who visited the ranch during the summer and fall this year can attest to this fact. One did not have to go far to see multiple quality bucks. (More Pictures to come later!)

Arnold was the trusted guide on this successful hunt. Some would say - The deer know his truck and do not run away when they see it coming - This may have contibuted to the success of this hunt! :)

No official score is availble on this buck, but most will agree that it is a respectable trophy buck. It will look good on the wall along with the other big bucks that have been taken from the Summercamp ranch over the years.

Summer Visit July 2008

We had a nice visit to the Ranch last week. It was a family reunion of sorts for the Brian and Becky Lambert Family. (You can see multiple pictures of our activities on the Brad and Holly Lambert Blog).

The Ranch was looking good. Everything was green thanks to a great snow pack from last winter and Arnold's knowledgeable irrigation practices. The new Tractor has helped get ditches cleared and water out to all the pastures. It has also proved to make a much smoother drive into the cabin and up to Nellie's flats as Arnold has been grading the roads with the new blade.



I did not get to spend much time hiking around and looking for game, but was able to come across some that got me pretty excited for this upcoming fall. I saw plenty of elk tracks and Arnold said that a large heard of Cow and Calfs had been calling the SCR home for the last few weeks but had recently left for higher ground, cooler temps and less bugs. (the deer flys were fairly prominate this year!) I also saw fresh bear sign on the logging roads above the old beaver ponds. As far as bucks go, I did not see any big bachelor groups of bucks , but did see plenty of deer including bucks every day. One little 2-3 point buck even came inside the fence around the Cabin and fed on the freshly mowed grass. This little guy did not seem to have much fear of cabin. The Biggest buck I saw was on the way to Mirimonte Reservoir. He was feeding in a pasture just across the main road from the SCR (kind of by Bob and Barbara's ranch) He looked impressive then and still has a month or so of growth yet to come!

For those of you coming out hunting we are excited for you to come have another successful hunt and enjoyable time. We wish we could have all of our friends and clients come every year, unfortunately that is not always possible given the limited # of hunts we have to offer. We like to keep the pressure on the animals and the ranch to a minimum in attempt to enhance the experience for all those who come to the ranch.

I will be contacting each hunting group to confirm your arrival and departure dates. If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to call or email me or Brian and we will get you taken care of. Thanks, Brad Lambert (801-636-5086, thesummercampkid@yahoo.com)

Sharing

Some of you have expressed intrest in updates and pictures from the Summer Camp Ranch. I have just recently started a blog for my family and got the idea that it could work for the ranch as well.

Check back for updated info on the ranch and hopefully some new pictures & videos. For those of you who have visited the ranch feel free to send me any pictures you have of the ranch or of your hunting party that I could add as well. It will be nice to share the good times and success you have had with other ranch visitors. Send your emails to me at this email address (thesummercampkid@yahoo.com)

Thanks,

Brad Lambert

Aspen's First Hunt

Last Year (2007) I brought my oldest daughter, Aspen, with me on a late season Cow Elk hunt. It was here first hunting experience on the ranch; all her other visits were just summer visits consisting of riding horses & 4-wheelers and such.
She had a great time and cannot wait to come back this year. It's a little different having a little girl at huning camp, the burping and farting was minimized (Marc made sure it was not completely eliminated), and the language was cleaner!

Aspen was my chauffeur on the 4 wheeler, wherever we were going - Aspen was driving! She loves to ride the 4 wheelers. Next year we will bring down the 4 wheeler that's more her size - Santa Clause brought it to our family this past Chirstmas!

We had great time hunting together and Aspen soaked up all the talking I did trying to tell her everything there is to know about the mountians, animals, and hunting. (Mom doesn't know about the bear sign pictures, so keep these under your hats. Holly might freak out if she knew everything we did and everywhere we went!)

Thanks to Granpa Brian, Aspen was able to start learning to shoot with a new Youth sized .22 rifle. She's a pretty good shot!