Tines Up in Arizona

No, that isn't a typo in the title.  It really is Tines - as in a prong or sharp point, such as that on a fork or antler.  Springtime is when elk and deer shed their antlers and there is an opportunity to go find such things out in the mountains before either someone else or some critter stake their claim first.  Obviously any avid hunter will use this as another excuse to do a type of hunting even if it is without a gun (aka, my brother <g>).  While many people might not have heard about shed hunting it is becoming more popular.   I think one reason is that you can take your whole family out to look for sheds and, except for transportation, costs nothing to do.  In fact, some people will buy the sheds (or antlers) that you find! 

I went shed hunting this spring with my brother and his family in the Payson, Arizona area to find antlers for his cabin.  It's important to remember that while animals do follow trails they sometimes aren't super well defined trails.  Here's where we were hiking and you can see the well defined trail - 'er grove?! Okay, there wasn't one.  But, there was sort of a trail to get to the area.  Sort of.  It's a good thing my brother has an internal GPS in his head!

The first day we went to a watering hole and saw some beautiful manzanita trees. 

Notice I don't say anything about sheds or antlers. Well, that isn't true...we found this chunk of an antler that was left mostly eaten by something. 

We decided that wouldn't look very good in a cabin as decoration so we left it for the critters to finish off eating it and didn't count it as a shed. 

The second day my brother and I went up to another mountain top.  Low and behold I found a good size shed.  I was able to yell, "Tines Up!"  Cuz that's what you do according to my brother.  Typically you find antlers with their tines up.  I thought it might mean that times up and we can go home now we found something but that's not always the case.  In fact, if you find one shed you just might find another close by because deer and elk do have 2 antlers typically.  We had no such luck that day but it was a beautiful hike.

Can you spot the "Tines Up"?

My find of the trip.  It looks great by the fireplace!

Maybe some day we will have collected enough to make an antler arch like the one found in Jackson Hole.  Or not.

You can view more pictures in my Public Gallery.