When monitoring for CWD (chronic wasting disease), one of the most important things to write down when you collect a sample from a deer, elk or moose is where the sample came from. Preferably by GPS coordinates, but at least by section, township and range.

But in the hecticness that is hunting seasons, that doesn't always happen. So every year about this time, the lab circulates a list of all the samples that weren't properly mapped, asking folks if they recognize the vague descriptions noted on the data forms.

Fortunately, this year none of them were mine. All my samples had proper coordinates, even if I had to Google-Earth them late at night when I got home.

Just the same, I was able to map a couple omissions other folks had made. The one listed as "old ranch below the towers"?

I know where that is.

Likewise the one someone just listed as "Olson's land" by our local historic fort. That's in section 25.

Other descriptions are too common, and probably won't get identified unless the warden or biologist who collected the sample remembers where they were when they did it. Locations like "Deep Creek". There's just too many Deep Creeks in our state (and Cottonwood Creeks, Sage Creeks, Chicken Springs and Windy Ridges, etc.).

But there was one location mentioned in the lab's spreadsheet that I'm not sure if anyone will be able to pin down on a map:

"1/2 MILE SOUTH OF STARBUCKS".

Really. That's what it said...