It’s been raining off and on now for 3 days but I have a plan today to put an elk in the freezer.  I’ve been thinking about how my hunting has been going, first with the camping for 5 days, driving all over high and low, hiking in and out and up and down and not seeing any sign whatsoever.  Then the day trip on Saturday…we did manage to see 4 elk at 1,000 yards or more.  Two very big bulls and a cow with a calf.  It was fun to see them and they are so very magnificent even at that distance.  Munching away without a care, while back on the road, 20 guys and gals wish they were closer.

Yesterday was Sunday and I went to watch the young children sing and show off their talents.  It was a very good program.  But the bigger thing was a discussion I had with one of my neighbors about his elk hunting…..That got me thinking…..and so today, I’m going to try something I have wanted to try for a few years now.

Rain, snow, sleet or hail (I doubt the sun will get involved today)….Tracker, Bones and I are going to take a short hike….maybe even as far as 2 miles.  If nothing else comes of this hike, I will prove to myself that there are or there are not elk using this drainage.  Fresh rain means fresh sign.  Fresh sign just might turn into an elk on the ground and a lot of hiking in and out carrying fresh meat.

More will come later today, or tomorrow, if luck falls in my direction!

October 17, 2016

Bears Butt

Later:

We arrived at our spot right on time.  It was right at the snow line which was a surprise to me as I didn’t know snow was in the forecast.  We put on our driest stuff and we all looked like the Pillsbury Doe Boy as we headed up the trail.  The going was slow, slick and sticky and we were trying to be as quiet as we could.  About a half mile in, I spotted two cow elk and two calves on a hill 600 or so yards away.  I thought by the way they were feeding and the direction the trail was headed we just might intercept them before we hit the mile mark.  That never happened.

As we hiked along the rain/snow/sleet began to tapper off but it was pretty dang cold.  At one point we stopped to catch our breath and make a bit of a plan maybe a change of direction, when Tracker spotted an elk way off in the distance.  Glassing it quickly proved it was a nice big bull elk and it had two other buddies with it.  We watched as two of them raked the trees and then decided to spar a bit with each other.  It wasn’t the hard fighting sparring the big boys do during the rut, but it was fun to watch.  Tracker got it on video.  After the sparring match, they wandered up and over the ridge.

It was then that Tracker and Bones decided they would hike up and around the ridge the bulls went and see if they could chase a cow down my way.  I stayed on the hillside and watched.  They were almost to the top when they turned around and came back my way.  My worst fear was that Bones had twisted her ankle or something.  She was using a stick to steady herself as they slowly made it back down from the top.

As it turned out, Bones had worn tennis shoes and her feet were wet and cold from the wet snow.  She needed to get off the mountain and back to the truck for warmth.  She didn’t want to sit and have us start a big fire to warm up her feet and dry her socks and shoes…nope…let’s get off this nasty slick mountain.  So down we came.

While waiting for them to conquer the hill I glassed up two more cow elk lounging on a hillside again over 700 yards away and up a steep slope.  Had Bones not been in the condition she was I would have made an attempt at them.  But I called it a day and we came down to the truck.  Bones was still wet but very much warmed up by the time we got back to the truck.  I think my next and last attempt will be to try and be that one mile up the trail before it is light enough to see to shoot.  That won’t happen for a couple more days however.

Bears Butt