Archery season opened up last weekend. I worked. That's ok though because elk aren't really doing their thing yet and I'd rather bank some days to take time off later when the gettin's good. I did have a few days during the week to do some scouting and now I'm really looking forward to getting after it.
I got off the water on Tuesday at around 5pm. I hustled home, grabbed my stuff and headed into the hills. I was going to camp out and see what's up with my honey hole. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll understand that this little honey hole has produced. I've shot a 6 point, 5 point a rag horn and two cows with my bow up there. I've also shot elk with my rifle and have helped on several other's. I know this area like the back of my hand. But so do a LOT of other people.
I woke up Wednesday morning to heavy frost. I was not prepared for that. I had my summer bag with me and let me tell you, I didn't sleep much. I was happy to get moving well before the sun came up and get back into some parks where I've had success before. Although I didn't see anything, I did conjure up a light bugle and a cow call from a gully off the parks where a pretty good wallow is located. The bull didn't put much effort into talking to me and it was too dry to put a serious sneak on, so I left him alone. It wasn't all that promising and with the traffic I know this place is going to get, it just confirmed for me that I think it's time to move on.
So here's the plan. My good buddy, John LaRue and I, are going to do a short elk camp in a couple weeks. We've talked about it in the past but it just never came together. He's usually got his thing going on with family and I'm usually fine doing my thing. This year, his normal trip isn't going to happen and I just so happen to have the days off that week so bam! We're going to make this happen. The problem is we just needed to find a place to do this. Well, Wednesday was a good day scouting.
After scouting the honey hole, I jumped into my truck and headed south a couple hours. Back in the early 2,000's I worked for a back country rehab program for adjudicated kids. I spent a ton of time exploring the mountains in Southwest Montana. It had been a while but I remembered a place that I thought would be perfect for this little endeavor so I headed down there to check it out. I'm glad I did.
From the exit off the highway, I drove for about 50 minutes into the mountains up one of the coolest and burliest drainages I know of. Four-wheel drives are a requirement and if you're going to be there for more than a day, you definitely should have chains as well. I actually found what I was looking for without much trouble. I was actually kind of impressed I remembered how to get there.
I parked the truck and grabbed a snack. I changed into my camos and headed up through a clear-cut and into some timber. I was 20 minutes into my hike and bumped a spike bull. That's a good sign. At about an hour before dark, bulls started talking and from my vantage point, I could see a bull come out into a park about two miles away. This is really encouraging and on my way back to the truck only a few hundred yards from the road, I bumped into a small 5 point. I chirped at him. He barked at me and that was that but again, really encouraging.
I'm looking forward to this season. John and I have connected on many successful hunts. This should be fun and I will definitely keep you posted.
Keep 'em where they live...
No comments:
Post a Comment