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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2018)
Community Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, October 24, 2018 A7 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Karl Coghill is the new superintendent/principal at Long Creek School this year. Long Creek teacher now leads school as superintendent/principal Contributed photo Columnist Dale Valade, left, and Zarom Bruce shot these bucks on the last day of the season. S HOOTING THE B REEZE By Angel Carpenter Last day at Juniper Gulch By Dale Valade For the Blue Mountain Eagle We’ve all had seasons where you have to just about give up before the “magic” happens. This year for me was the dictionary definition of enduring to the end. I had two opportunities at younger bucks at different times but just couldn’t do it. Since this was the first qual- ity buck tag I had drawn in five years, I scarcely wanted to punch it on a button buck. At times I regretted that de- cision, wondering if I was getting too greedy. Still I felt I should stick to my resolu- tion and hold out for a mature buck. Things went pretty sta- tus quo until the last day of buck season. My friend Za- rom Bruce and I decided to hunt together to make a final go of it. Early on, we passed on some young bucks, yet ran into large herds of both antelope and elk. The big bulls were bugling and gath- ering their hordes while the billies and nannies raced on by. The wide open country allowed one to see for miles, yet was dappled with juniper and conifers providing mixed cover. It was almost noon when Zarom spotted a 3x4 mu- ley buck bedded down on a ridge top at just a little over 200 yards away. We dropped down to take a look, and after a brief evaluation we decided to take him. Zarom had never killed a buck so we decided he should take the shot. The buck was bedded down, and so only his head and neck were exposed. This is not an ideal shot to take, but Zarom can shoot. I’ve mentioned one of his many long range coyote exploits in a previ- ous article. Taking a steady rest with his 6.5 Creedmoor, while I spotted through my binoculars, he squeezed off a shot. He nailed the buck squarely in the neck deliver- ing an instant kill. No sooner had he shot when two more bucks stood up. They gazed around curi- ously trying to locate where the sound originated from. What a pleasant surprise! Quickly I abandoned my binoculars in favor of Old Reliable. Zarom, still peer- ing through his rifle scope, informed me that the one on the right was the best of the two as I chambered a round and got on target. Once I found him and steadied my crosshairs, I squeezed off a shot. He jumped and kicked, ran a few feet and dropped dead. My bullet had met its mark, and we had two great trophies on the ground. Karl Coghill leads Long Creek School The whole event didn’t take 30 seconds to unfold, but that’s a moment I will cherish for a lifetime. Those two bucks fell only yards apart from one another. It was only when I saw him on the ground that I fully realized how great a buck this old 4x4 was! To see my friend Zarom take his first buck with such a good shot, combined with being able to fill my own tag with a such great buck in a matter of mo- ments, was simply euphoric. We literally could not stop smiling. What an epic finale to buck season 2018! How did you do this sea- son? We would love to hear from you! Email us at shoo- tingthebreezebme@gmail. com! Dale Valade is a local country gent with a deep love for handloading, hunting and shooting. Blue Mountain Eagle Karl Coghill has taken on the new title of superinten- dent/principal at Long Creek School this school year. From 2015-2017 he taught history, health and PE and was the middle school head teacher. Over the last two years, Coghill completed his mas- ter’s in education administra- tion through Northwest Naz- arene University in Nampa, Idaho. Before working at Long Creek School, he was em- ployed at the Caldwell School District, teaching special ed- ucation, and before that he worked for the Idaho Depart- ment of Corrections. “I’m a rookie,” he said, but added the staff’s support has been “phenomenal.” “We do a lot of collabora- tion to ensure that we’re doing things for the best interest of the school and the students,” Coghill said. “The bottom line is the students. Without the students, we have no school.” Long Creek School has 35 students this year, down from 40 last school year. Included on the school ros- ter this year are six foreign ex- change students from Germa- ny, Mexico, Thailand, China, France and South Korea. Coghill said he enjoys liv- ing in Long Creek and know- ing the students and their par- ents. “The small student body allows me to get to know each student,” he said. “I know their strengths and weakness- es, so I know how to address those.” He hopes in the future to develop a cooperative learn- ing situation with the North Fork John Day Watershed Council and with the Native American Council in Pendle- ton “to create a holistic learn- ing environment, studying the lives of early Americans and how they used the land and how that environment has changed and how that has im- pacted food sources.” His goal for the students is to teach self-reliance “when they leave here, to give them the ability to learn and teach themselves because we won’t be as accessible to the stu- dents once they graduate, so I want them to have that inde- pendent skill,” he said. 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