This is the place I had to visit ... awesome, isn't it?

Got to the place I'd been craving to hunt all season on a crisp, 15-degree day ... shirtsleeve weather, if the shirts were made of polypropylene and wool. But weather wasn't the point behind the epic hunt ... instead, it was the setting, the dogs, the birds ... WOW! We snaked along a small-but-raging creek, the bed a tangle of willow, alder, cattails and wild rye. The valley quail were in scattered bunches, their heavenly scent wafting upslope to Buddy and Manny when they were running the top bank, clouding in the thicket to tempt them when they were busting the brush.

Points were rampant, often followed by covey flushes then the suspense of sussing out singles. Three weeks away from the hunt, the pup soon glommed onto his job, working independently of his uncle. Buddy was his usual incredible bird-finding self, ghosting from brush patch to willow thicket, crossing the creek confidently to seek and ultimately fly valley quail from their streamside hiding places.

Manny backed, even brought a few birds almost back to me. I remembered a lesson from trainer Doug Burnett, and gave them back for a few minutes. Dead bird soon lost its allure and he raced to the stream for more live ones. He leaped cross-creek with abandon, bird scent beckoning.

A wild flush at my feet was quickly followed by a shot and Buddy was all over it. Then, silence. He didn't return from where it dropped.  I hustled over to find both dogs on point, a dead quail in Buddy's mouth. One bird flew upstream and soon fell to the gun's report. That triggered another flush from the same sagebrush, the cockbird rocketing downstream until it splashed it into the creek at my shot.

I caught my breath, looked at the robin's egg blue sky, the massive stone pillars watching over us, two panting wirehairs at my side, and two brilliantly-colored quail in my hand. Time to go, as it couldn't possibly get any better.