Public land turkey hunt & Camping tip

With all the craziness going on in the world Chase, Cole(our friend), and I decided to go on a adventure.There was about a week of preparation figuring out exactly where we wanted to go. Chase looked on OnX and found the perfect spot at the Jefferson National Forest. He called the ranger to make sure everything we were doing was legal.

We packed up the truck with plenty of food, water, tents, and hunting gear. We drove to the mountains.. and found the perfect spot to pitch our tents. Once we got our campsite set up we decided to go for a walk to find turkey sign. We walked about 3 miles and found the perfect place to start our morning hunt.

The next morning we got up earlllllly… 4:30am.. getting up early is easy when you’re going turkey hunting. We started our walk in the woods.. and heard a few goobles. We followed them, we had to scale a mountain. It was terrifying. We finally got to the top and it was a beautiful flat spot, with a low spot filled with water. We were walking around and heard a hen and a tom. They weren’t far so we got into position.

It was probably one of the coolest hunt I had been on where we didn’t harvest a turkey. For about a hour we had one tom about 30 yards from us. He was in a lot of brush and Cole couldn’t get a shot. We also had a hen 10 yards. TENNNNN. It was crazy. She also gobbled which was incredible. First time hearing a hen gobble. While all of this was going on, we heard about 200 gobbles during that hour period. Unfortunately we didn’t make it happen but was still a cool experience.

We ended up hiking 6 miles that morning. We made it back to the camp around 1pm, with AK47 rifles in our bags. I took a quick nap. The guys decided they wanted to go on another hike to a waterfall. Online it showed the hike was closed – so Chase found another alternate route. Which once again pretty much had us scaling a mountain HAHA. During this time I also fell and busted my butt on a rock. I still have a bruise and scrape.

It was worth it though once we got to the bottom. Come to find out the hike was actually open haha. We enjoyed the view at the waterfall and relaxed with our feet in the water. We decided to do some more exploring and went past the waterfall. We ended up finding another waterfall that was beautiful and secluded. We hung out, ate our snacks. I also jumped in the water to rinse off since we were primitive camping. The water was freezing!!!

We ended up hiking back up the mountain to Cole’s truck and went back to the campsite for the night.

The next morning we got up early.. had plans to go back to ‘turkey mountain.’ Unfortunately a truck beat us to it. We decided since he was first we would go elsewhere. We ended up going another 6ish miles. I was exhausted. I honestly think we all were. We didn’t hear anything that morning – it was disappointing but thats hunting for you.

We came back to the campsite got lunch and packed up. Chase found another waterfall to go too that was on the way home. We decided to go there. It was beautiful and huge!!! You used to be able to walk to the bottom of it but they had it closed. We decided to break the law (don’t be like us) and go to the bottom. I’m so glad we did. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!! It was pretty chilly but at this point I was pretty much soaked from the waterfall/wind and decided to walk behind the falls. I’m so thankful I did. It was a out of bottom experience. It was incredible.

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