This year I was going to hunt the opening weekend of Elk Season with my good friend Jim. His plan was for us to mountain bike our gear a few miles back in behind a gate on some old skid roads, then hunt from there. He had taken an elk in there the year before, and it seemed as good as any place for my Elk hunting season.
We loaded packs, and a small trailer Jim pulled behind his bike and headed in the day before opener. I hadn't road a bike in well over a decade, but managed to not wreck...more coasted downhill, and pushed the bike uphill... all in all it wasn't a bad way to get in to camp. We set up a rough spike camp, and tried to make things as comfortable as a mummy bag and small Bivy tent can be. We were welcomed to the woods this year by mother nature throwing record cold temps at us...I am pretty sure we were in the single digits the first night.
Opening morning, I went with Jim at daylight, to check out the area he took his bull in the previous season. After sunrise, we did some glassing. I told Jim I would head an opposite direction for the day, so we could cover more ground. I hiked several miles, and found some great hunting ground and terrain. I saw two whitetail bucks, one of which was a nice 17 inch 4 point, but not big enough for this early in the season, and 6 miles from the gate. I attempted to get some pics of the bucks as they walked within 30 yards of me, but my batteries died in the camera due to the cold. By the time I fumbled with the pack for new batteries the bucks winded me and took off. I continued to wander for the day, enjoying being in the mountains during my favorite time of year. I found lots of fresh elk sign, including some rubs, but no elk crossed my path.
I returned to camp and enjoyed a hot evening meal around the fire. I began to worry about Jim when darkness fell and he had not returned. I turned on the radio to try and call, but no reply. As hours went by, I worried more, thinking either he had something down and was dealing with it, or had some other situation arise and was huddled around a fire somewhere in the cold dark woods for the night...hoping he had not injured himself to the point of not getting a fire started. Finally at about 9:30 I tried the radio one last time (before going to bed and starting a search for him at daylight) and Jim came across in reply, asking if I had any plans for the morning as he had shot an elk. Upon his return to camp, he informed us he had hit an elk right before dark, and had tried to trail it, but his batteries gave out in the flashlight. He had built a fire and warmed for awhile before hiking back to camp. During his hike he had to shuffle his last working batteries between his light and GPS, and thought he had wolf go past him in the dark, as he only could see its eyes in his dim light.
The next morning, we strapped on the pack frames and went looking for his elk. We scoured the place where Jim had shot the bull, but could not find a single drop of blood, or piece of hair. There were so many elk tracks in the area, we couldn't figure out which way the bull had gone. 4 hours into the search, we jumped some more elk, and without a single sign of Jim's bull, I told him I would go after them while he searched. After chasing elk for a few hours and a couple miles I heard another guy from our camp come across the radio to inform us he had found Jim's elk. He had wandered down to check on us, and in a stroke of luck walked right up to the bull.I had struck out on relocating the jumped elk, so cruised back to help with the found bull.
Upon inspection, Jim had made a good heart shot, but the bullet didn't exit...I think he was so close to the bull, his bullet blew up, causing massive internal damage, but not leaving a blood trail. Somehow with a bullet through the heart, this bull had made its way uphill and to the right several hundred yards, while from the noises Jim heard we thought the bull had gone down to the left....The Bull was a nice 6x7, with very nice sword points, one of which flattened out into 2 points on the tip.
After taking some quick pics, we set to work taking care of the elk. Night and falling temps were coming quick, so we set upon boning out the meat.
After getting the meat bagged, Jim and I both took half, electing to try our luck with overloaded packs vs making a second trip. Jim's friend Chris didn't have a pack frame, so he volunteered to take the horns and head out. We had about a 4 1/2 mile trip up out of there, heading cross country to a skid road that would lead to a gate near where our vehicles were. We made it to the skid road before dark, but while trudging up the road darkness swept over us. Chris and Jim got out ahead of me, as we all set into our own pace while dealing with the weight of our loads. While taking a break leaning up against a cut bank I heard something in the brush above me. I figured it was just a deer, so continued on. Upon stopping again, I heard the brush rattling again, and after a couple more occasions could tell something non-hooved was following me. My headlamp was growing dim from the cold, and I had well over 100 pounds of bloody elk meat strapped to my back, so I was a little unnerved about having who knows what trailing me. I had a little .38 pistol, so I drew it, and walked on with it in hand. I was about to the point of stopping to build a fire, as my back had started to spasm, causing flashes of light in my eyes, which I figured was not a good sign, on top of something trailing me, when I saw a light come around the corner ahead of me. It was Jim hiking back in to help with the load. Once we met up, Jim informed me we were almost to the truck, and we split my pack for the last 1/4 mile.....the tail lights of the waiting truck at the gate were a beautiful sight....
We elected to spend the night in my FJ versus walking back into camp in the darkness and the car thermometer reading 10 degrees cemented the decision. After a restless night of sleeping in the bucket seats, running the car and heater every hour or so we set off at daylight to break camp and pack it out. After half a day of hiking and biking we were done, and more than ready to head home for a hot shower, Excedrine, and a warm bed.........
Congrats Jim on a very fine Idaho Bull!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment