Outdoors with Don Q: Our favorite cabin visitors are mule deer

My son Jim, daughter-in-law, Kathi, Elaine and I are four joint owners of the “Quilici Cabin,” located on a steep, mountain hillside at an elevation of 6,000 feet in the middle of a forest of pine trees, Quaking Aspen trees and brush, between Portola and Davis Lake in Northern California.

Our cabin was built and finished in 2003 and has become a retreat for Elaine and I, whenever we can get away, plus whenever Jim and Kathi can also sneak out of town. Each year, we try to spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays there, including several times when we have had to snowshoe in (the county does not plow the gravel road where our cabin is located).

Note: A Christmas Eve in the high country when fresh snow is falling and piling up, and you are warm and comfortable, is a very special memory. In the last dozen years, we have had a ton of company, including family members, relatives from near and far, our Carson City neighbors, many good friends and our close-by hillside neighbors.

Our cabin is located in the heart of a special game refuge and as a result, we and/or our neighbors have seen the following wildlife:

Mule Deer, Black Bear, Coyotes, Mountain Lions, Bobcats, Foxes, Raccoons, Squirrels, Chipmunks, Bats, Quail, Pigeons, Dove, Robins, Hawks, Ducks, Goose, Blue Jays, Hummingbirds, Turkeys, all kinds of little “Tweety” Birds, Butterflies, Lizards, and one very obnoxious Woodpecker who delights in pecking on the metal roof exactly at 7:10 a.m.

With all due respect to everyone who has been at the cabin, our favorite visitors, by far, have been the Mule Deer.
Each year, they migrate into our area about mid-to-late April, stay the rest of spring, all summer and then disappear in late November.

During the months they are here, we have been treated to some spectacular sights, many of which have been recorded on digital cameras. Here are some of the more memorable deer incidents:

— That special afternoon when Elaine and I were sitting in folding chairs in front of the cabin, having a cocktail at 4 p.m. A doe wandered down the hillside to check us out. She walked up to Elaine, sniffed her hand, walked behind her to sniff the back of Elaine's neck and then slowly walked away.

— Another afternoon when Elaine, her Mom and I were in front of the cabin having a cocktail and a buck walked up to us. He was a large 4x4 point buck who came to within three steps of us before slowly walking away. Geez, when was the last time, you had a big buck only three steps away?

— A late spring afternoon when Kathi walked out onto the deck and glanced over at a doe standing next to a big bush. The doe laid down and gave birth to a set of twins, while Kathi watched in awe. The mother and twins were frequent visitors for the rest of that year.

— The very large 4x4 buck who showed up one day accompanied by a small fawn still in spots. The two of them spent the afternoon snoozing in the shade of one of our pine trees and then got up and slowly wandered away through the Quaking Aspen, like a father with his young child at his side.

— The same year we were often visited, all at the same time, by a doe with triplet fawns, a doe with twins and another doe with twins. It was like being in a giant deer nursery. The moms would munch on the brush while the little spotted fawns bounced all over the hillside like big rubber balls.

— The magnificent 6x5 buck who spent the summer visiting at our cabin and was the subject of countless photos. Sadly, that fall, that trophy buck was struck and killed by a car while he was crossing Grizzly Road.
As an interesting side note, our neighbor told us that he watched a large, hungry, black bear drag the buck’s carcass back into the forest.

— Standing on our deck and watching a bachelor group of eight bucks. That was the most bucks, all at one time, that we have ever had visit the cabin. Everything was peaceful and harmonious, but you can bet the ranch that all of that changed dramatically when the fall rut began and the eight bucks became very interested in the does.

— Our all-time favorite buck (a magnificent 6x5), who at one time in the past, broke his left front leg and it re-healed crookedly. He could walk, run and jump with all of the other deer, and the crooked leg did not seem to bother him one bit. He was a regular visitor for three straight years, but sadly, has been absent the last two years.

— The time we were watching a large 4x4 buck playfully sparring with a somewhat smaller 3x3 buck. While this was going on, a small “forkie” (2x2) was watching the action, he decided that he would get in on the fun, put his head down, charged the big buck and banged him in his side. As a result, the big guy chased him all over the hillside. So much for having fun.

— One year we planted some Horseradish to see if it would grow at that elevation. It did very nicely until one fall day, a buck walked up to the large plant and ate it right down to the ground. Yipes! I’m not messing with anything that can eat Horseradish like that!
Through the years, we have learned the hard way to protect everything we plant (trees, bushes, plants, vegetables and flowers) with chicken wire. If we don’t, the deer have a ball feasting on just about everything that is green, especially tree leaves.

Finally:
We have also learned that we really don’t need television to be entertained at our cabin. We just wander out onto our front porch or out on the deck and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer. That’s why it is so much fun to spend as much time as we can at our cabin.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you how many deer we have had visit our cabin, all at one time.
If he grins and says, “It was the time, when a total of 13 bucks, does and fawns were there,” he could have been standing on our deck with us and watching that large group down below us.

— 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.