I grew up in north delta till my mid 20's and had no hunting mentors but caught the bug after a plate of venison cooked up for dinner one night by my mom. A gift from my dad's west coast bush pilot and best friend, the late Fred May. It took me years to finally get motivated and got my core on my own when i was 28. Bumbled around chilliwack by taking the boat to the back end of chilliwack lake. Found deer and bears but never got a shot in that bush. Hunted 100 mile house area and saw lots of deer but always too far away for my rifle.... or so I mistakenly thought at the time so passed on many deer. Silly me.
Then I was "blind dated" if that's the right term LOL with another young and kinda frustrated hunter who wanted different experiences than dad and uncle had to offer. He was set up real good and off we went to a spot I picked out from reading a back issue of BC Outdoors magazine. My "X" on the map was the Illahee meadows above clinton. Spent 7 days road hunting and kept bumping into this old guy who had a bull draw. His name was Ed and many new hunters were mentored, even if only in chance meetings, by Ed and in the end he showed us his cabin and had a coffee. Later that evening, not far from Ed's old cabin, I sat in a clear cut on a mound with some bush left and just as last shooting light was creeping down on us. My first buck seemed to appear out of no where. I figure he was sleeping and stood up right where i shot him at 75yards. A short time later Ed showed up in his old jeep wagoneer and the congratulations were saved until he efficiently showed me how to field dress a deer by headlamp. After that it was big smiles , we had hunted hard the best way we knew how at that time and on the 9 th day and after seeing over 30 deer that trip... my first buck tag was cut. My hunting partner for that trip later became a well known taxidermist and owns Ray Wiens Taxidermy. Old Ed..... Well I'm sure he's passed on now and his cabin has long since burnt down and been swallowed by the pines in what was clear cut back then. The Elephant Hill fire destroyed much of that area and the camp I've used for close to 20 years but I have good memories and photos and a few trophies on the wall to remind me.
point is, if you wait for mentors, you will wait a long time. When I'm out hunting and I bump into new or young hunters I try to be like Ed and share what I can without ruining it for myself or the other guys I see year after year sharing the same woods. I was serious about the rod and gun clubs though.... richmond, squamish, chilliwack, would be high on my list as I know that these three for sure, have some old timer members that will share thier stories if you show up and put time in for club events. Some of these guys know a crap load about lowermainland deer and they themselves have mentored some of the guys I see on other sites who post thier Black tail deer photos. All taken from region 2 around the mountains of the lowermainland.
I used to hunt all over chilliwack, harrison, yale and the lower thompson down to boston bar but since moving to region 5 I'm not familiar with the road access as much has changed down there. One of my favorite places to hunt though was the upper reached of the Suicide creek road but I think it's all gated these days. Lots of big deer up high there.
With the wildfires that happened the last 2 years, hunting has changed for everyone and I can see a lot of guys are going to stick to themselves and not want to share what precious little we have left to hunt. That said , if you find yourself heading to region 5-1 or 5-2 , you can always shoot me a p.m. with questions.
