These last few weeks have been filled with some epic duck hunting, very little work, and helping buddies fill their big game tags. Let me first start off like I always do when telling the elk hunting stories--I'm much luckier than I am good. This year definitely worked out for all of us as out of the 7 times I went out; either on my own or with friends, we shot three elk and three nice whitetails. Two weeks ago, Mike Kuhnert's girlfriend shot a nice buck quick enough for us to get back to Craig for an afternoon duck hunt. The elk were a little different. We definitely put some work in but it was worth every minute--even the 5 minutes Floyd and I spent in the pitch black darkness yelling at each other while dragging his elk through a fricken jungle.
It started Friday on my way back from Missoula. I was looking for something to do and since I had already shot my elk, I needed someone with a tag to hang out with. John La Rue helped me with my bull so I called him first. After not getting a hold of him, I called Floyd. He's never shot an elk so I thought it would be cool to get him on one.
We headed out at around 1 o'clock. It's not too far of a drive from my place but there hadn't been a lot of pressure there in the past. There were however, three trucks parked at the gate when we got there. We hiked around for a while until we got up high enough to glass a ridge and sure enough, six elk were up on top about a mile away. We debated going after them but since we didn't know if we would get into others closer we started hoofing it. We got about half-way when a shot rang out and the elk turned and busted out of there single file. (We found out later the shot came from a road hunter who blasted a deer.)
A little frustrated we hiked further away from the trucks into another drainage and glassed three more elk--again, about a mile away. It was 4:10. Shooting hours end at 5:15 so without any debate I said, "Let's go. We are going to shoot an elk today."
The snow was knee deep in spots and when we got to the park the elk were in, the drifts had crusted over. We were post-holing it into a saddle where I thought we might get a shot. It was noisy and slow-going but we were running out of time. We got into the saddle and looked up the ridge to see two of the three. We picked out the biggest one and on the count of three, let her have it. It was 5:06 when we shot. She slid down the hill towards us coming to rest about 50 yards away and then the work began. We were in some pretty deep snow about two miles from the truck.
We opted for the shortest distance to the road which was still a good mile. There were old logging roads that I knew of and figured if we could catch one on the way down, we could make it out with the elk in a reasonable amount of time. We did catch a trail but it was grown over with tiny spruce trees and lodge-poles and at about 8:30 we called it quits. We hiked out without the elk and called for back-up. We were only about a quarter mile from the road when we quit so with five people the next morning, and being able to see, it only took about an hour to get it out. Again, still enough time to get into the evening ducks.
On Sunday I told John La Rue I would go with him to try to get his elk. He had a cow tag for an area I knew had a ton of hunters and that I wasn't real familiar with. We decided to go back to my honey hole. After the 15th of November, this area was opened up for cows as well so the special permit was kind of a mute point. Besides, I knew that where we had gone on Friday had elk and the people that were out there didn't travel back as far as we were going to go. When we got to the parking area, there was only one truck. We ran into the guys on the way in as they were dragging an elk out in two pieces. They had shot the elk close to where we were going and were cool enough to give us the skinny on where they had been and where they had seen elk going.
We followed their tracks in and checked out a clear-cut they had mentioned. We walked out on a finger where we thought we could get a good vantage point to glass the area. Just as we were about to walk away I glanced across to the same park Floyd got his elk and sure enough, caught a glimpse of one walking through the trees coming out to the park. It didn't take long to develop a plan and we hoofed it down the gully, through the trees, and back up to where the elk were feeding.
Sneaking through the trees below the elk, John caught some movement and took a knee. I was right behind him so I dropped down as well and looked up to see two elk standing 200 yards away. I pulled the shooting sticks off John's pack and put the range finder on them. "Shoot the calf," I thought to myself and then boom! John shot and the cow dropped. It was only about 200 yards from where Floyd got his and my legs where still burning from that drag. "Shoot the calf," I thought again as we headed up to her.
We did the high-fiving and hand shakes for a moment but standing over her all I could think of was how fricken hard it was to get Floyd's elk out. My legs were dead, it was cold and I was soaking wet from sweat just getting to the elk. This would be the third elk I had packed out of there and I wasn't thinking they were getting any easier. But it was about 4:10 now and we had to get moving.
We decided to drag John's elk out to the truck. It was further but we knew the trail was clear and now groomed from the guys that dragged their elk out earlier. Fortunately, I had brought a dry fleece so I stripped off some layers and got something warm and dry on. We got back to the truck by 7:00 and were eating burgers and drinking bourbon by 8:00...perfect. The drag wasn't nearly as difficult and again, totally worth the effort.
The big game season ended Sunday a half hour after sunset. The snow definitely helped the hunting. We were very successful but I also remember how last year ended up with a bagel in the elk department. We worked extremely hard too but that's just how it goes. Sometimes elk seem to be the smartest animals on earth and sometimes it works out. This year it just happened to work out. I also feel incredibly fortunate to not only have had the success we had but to do it with the folks I was hunting with. I had a good time and now we all have plenty of tasty eats for the year.
Keep 'em where they live...
No comments:
Post a Comment