We decided to move over near my “plan B” area on the east side of the unit. We got on top of the mountain and listened down into a couple of canyons and surprisingly heard very little. There was an occasional bugle response but nothing sounding very big and not very into it. For some reason my eyes started to itch really bad this morning. We packed up and headed down the mountain to another area just a few miles up the road. We did see a decent bull as we were driving down the mountain but I know there are better bulls so we filmed him briefly and kept moving. After a quick hike back into this new area I couldn’t hardly stand the itching eyes. There wasn’t a bugle to be heard so we headed back to the truck.
By the time we got to the truck my right eye (my shooting eye) is so swollen and discolored I am having a hard time focusing. This is getting bad and as much as I don’t want to admit defeat, the guys convinced me we needed to get to town and have someone take a look at my eye. It was so bad the Iris is recessed into my eye and the Cornea (white part of eye) was sticking out further. It’s disgusting and it’s on my face!! Of all the times for something like this to happen…why does it have to happen on a tag that took me 10 years to acquire?!?!?! We see an Emergency Medical team in a nearby town and took their advice. Much of the afternoon was spent taking it easy around camp. After about 6 hours the swelling had started going down but my eye was still watering badly enough that I had to wipe it every few minutes. All I can think of was it was some kind of allergic reaction to the dust and pollen. We left camp a few hours before dark and heard a few bugles not far out of camp but couldn’t catch up or call any bulls in.
