Thanksgiving!

Brandi told me it was Thanksgiving this next week, only because she wanted to point out her birthday would follow shortly thereafter. I realized we would go to Natalie's Family for dinner and then maybe to Alpine for pie or something. But I recalled a time when Thanksgiving was a much bigger deal to me.

Like some of the Thanksgiving's at the church near Grandpa Charlie's house, all the cousins stacked in there, a big feast and then we'd clear the chairs off one end and have a game of basketball... Charlie Bill, Dennis, Doug, Roger Buehner, us McGhie boys, the Asay's, etc... big game of hoops all afternoon. Or some occasional nerf football outside. And there was usually a Cowboys or Lions football game on TV in a lobby.

And then a couple of the classic California Thanksgiving's... the Mud football, the Disneyland trip when Space Mountain was brand new, discovering that Uncle Theron's house was not really big enough to accommodate Aunt Eunice and a 19 year old Dennis Fox.

These days I view Thanksgiving as a day when I'll just get a bit fatter, but there was a time that Thanksgiving rivaled any holiday short of Christmas for action, adventure and good times!! We had some killer Thanksgiving dinners and trips back in the day!!

More Deer Hunts

If I am not mistaken, some of that misery Brent described on the "back side" drove us to the "front side" or the Alpine side of the divide. I was young, but it seems like the first hunt on the Alpine side, with the Foxes in tow, was another disaster. We rode/hiked up in a rain storm, set up a wet camp near McDaniel's Cabin, endured a miserable night, and woke up to 18" of snow the next morning.

I can still remember sleeping in that little orange nylon A-frame tent next to Dennis and (Brent?). I was crammed over against the side and woke up at O-dark-thirty to find the tent pushed against my freezing cold and wet face. I couldn't quite understand why the tent was pressed against me, so I reached up and pushed the nylon wall away from my face. Instantly, two things happened. First, a shower of freezing water rained down all over me and my bag. Secondly, the tent wall sprung back into place as an avalanche of snow slid off the side. It was then that I knew we were in trouble.

Sure enough, when light came, we unzipped the tent to look out and see the damage. You know it is going to be a miserable morning when you look out of the tent from your sleeping bag and can only see a wall of white. We literally had to get on our knees to see over the bank of snow built up in front of our tent. I suspect only the top half of our tent was visible to the naked eye. On top of that, the fog had settled in and you couldn't see more than 20 yards in front of you. Nice!

And so began the cold, wet miserable march back down the mountain. Another excellent McGhie hunt!

McGhie Deer Hunts of the Past

With the deer hunt recently ending, it got me remembering many past McGhie hunt's... First it was up on what we simply called "the backside"... a place of much suffering and much success. Photo attached is of the Bronc sitting very near to where he killed that big 4 point. That year was the DEATH MARCH when Marty and Dad both dropped deer. Marty, Lucky Morse and myself had a similar death march one year with a buck they killed. The DEEP SNOW year where Charlie, Doug and Dennis were just flock shooting at that whole herd of deer. The year Waldo almost froze to death and was wrapped in one of those solar tin foils deals, can't think of the name. The year we camped in the meadow, only to have a raging blizzard set in and drive us back to the house. Mom was pretty happy to see all of us wet and muddy come charging back into the house at 9:00pm.

The year we slept in the meadow and woke to about 3 inches of frost all over our bags. Some horse guys came through in the dark and said, "Them guys look cold." We were all laying awake FREEZING and someone said, "You're very observant." And we all burst out laughing. They just rode off muttering under their breath. We hauled all kinds of characters up there, Paul Reichert, Tom Patterson, Aaron Fox, and others I'm sure...

We slammed some deer on the backside, missed a few, had some immense suffering and cold up there and a lot of good times!! Then we moved on to Fish Lake were the deep snows and misery would follow us... like the night dad was out cooking our steaks in a snow storm and we were all in playing cards by lantern light... Dad wasn't very amused when every time he'd open the tent flap we'd holler, "Shut the door! It's freezing out there!!" Hauled some more people down there with us... Nate Birchall, Jeff Jensen, Stuart Squires, and others... had some good times on Fish Lake and saw some suffering down there too!! I think some record snow fall storms for that area caught us on top of that mountain two different times. McGhie Deer hunts were truly DROUGHT BUSTERS!!! LOL

Truly some classic McGhie Deer hunts over the years! Great memories!