Fun at the Y.O. Ranch

Hannah Stevens

I had a lot of fun at the Y.O. Ranch! The people were nice, the food was great and the scenery was amazing! Here is a little bit of what I did while there: The whole week was “ladies first” since I was the only girl camper there. Needless to say, I was treated very well! I got to eat first, go first in the camp store, and sit in the front seat of the vehicles. We spent Sunday afternoon playing capture the flag, and then we had an amazing birthday cake for one of the campers.

Monday morning we split up into two groups and one group went to the rifle range and the other went to the archery range. I went to archery. After lunch the counselors taught us how to age and score deer. Tuesday my group went to the rifle range. After lunch we took the Hunters Education Safety Course, and then we shot some skeet. Since it was always “ladies first”, I was the first to shoot! After that, we went hog hunting. It was my first time to hunt hogs without a gun. We used dogs and a knife. We only got two and I was fortunate enough to kill one. When we got back from that, we packed out stuff and hiked a mile and half or so to go on an overnight campout. While there we learned how to build our own fire and cook our own food. Unfortunately it started storming and we had to go back to camp early.

Wednesday morning we shot the rifles we would be hunting with. After lunch, we started hunting. Two of the people in my group got what they were looking for but I didn’t get a chance to shoot.

On Thursday, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. and went hunting. No one in my group got anything. We weren’t hungry so we hunted through breakfast. We got back just in time to do the ropes course. In the ropes course, you climb a pole, walk across a tight-rope then slide down a big cable slide. After that we had a late lunch and went hunting again. I went hunting in a blind with my guide and counselor. We sat there for hours and only saw Whitetail deer. I was after an Axis deer. It was getting pretty dark so we finally got down. On the way back we saw a herd of Axis. There was still a little light left so I set up. My guide told me to shoot the one on the right. I finally got a clear shot and took it. We went looking for it but couldn’t find a blood trail. We ended up just going the direction we saw it go and found it! It was really hard to see because the spots on its back looked just like the rocks it was laying on. When we got to it we saw that it was actually a yearling buck.

On Friday morning we went hog hunting again with one of the ranch wranglers. We saw big tracks but we never heard or saw the hog so we followed the tracks until we finally had to go back to eat. When lunch was over, all the campers went and took pictures of the animals that we harvested. Since everyone was through hunting, we went on a safari. I got to feed a giraffe an apple out of my mouth!

On Saturday, the campers got to cook the dessert, beans and biscuits in Dutch-ovens for our parents. While we were waiting for the dessert to cook we got the make a pizza. I don’t think we would have been able to cook any of it without the help of Cee-Dub and Penny. After all of the parents got there, we had an awards ceremony. They gave everyone a great picture of the group and picture-awards for the camper that won the archery, rifle and shotgun competitions. I was lucky enough to win the archery and rifle and came in second on the shotgun. We watched a video that the camp director, Cathy Martell made. After lunch we gathered up my stuff including my Axis meat and hide and headed home.

Thank you SCI for giving me the opportunity to have the experiences at the Y.O Ranch. I had an awesome time!

Sincerely,
Hannah Stevens