2010 Elk – Round 1

Dworak’s 0 – Elk 1

Just returned from the weekend opener and left all the elk gallivanting up on the mountain side. I definitely lost this battle, I think the elk may have stampeded over my bivy setup a couple times during the night, judging by the complete body soreness I’m suffering from today (Monday).

We’re hunting a new area this year which puts us at a BIG disadvantage. We’ll be learning new country and trying to figure out how the elk move around it. We’ll also be figuring out where the outfitter places drop camps, where other “crazy” guys like us are camping, etc, etc.

Drew and I arrived at the trailhead Friday afternoon, loaded up gear and got on the trail. We had a general idea where we were headed but that was about it. About a mile down the trail we decided to stop and glass a near slope and sure enough spotted some elk. After a few minutes we spotted some more. Looked like we found our spot! It appeared all the elk were utilizing a small saddle so we decided that’s where we wanted to be in the morning.

We slept in a meadow about a mile from the spot we’d glassed. We had a full moon that evening so we never needed to turn on a headlamp while navigating to the saddle the next morning.  Unfortunately, walking in we jumped a group of bedded cows, dang. A quick mew stopped them at about 80-100 yards and they tried to figure out what was going on. After a few minutes they assumed everything was alright and started grazing. About this time a second bunch of elk appeared below us. We decided Drew would try to circle around and get ahead of the first bunch.

After a few minutes I thought I’d drop down and see if I could get close to the second bunch below us. Almost as soon as I moved a cow barked (elk sound a warning bark, that almost sounds like a dog barking) when elk hunting you never want to hear a bark. I couldn’t believe that they’d busted me and stood watching them for a few minutes. About that time a dark figure crawled out from some brush near the lower group. Dang, I’d thought Drew was heading uphill? Oh well. Just then a bugle rang out from up ahead, so I forgot the cows and headed for the bull. As usual, when chasing bugles the only thing you end up with is a good workout, this was no exception.

I was just about to turn around to find Drew when I see him up above me on the mountain. How’d he get up there so quick? He’s like a mountain goat-Ninja cross! We meet up and I gave him a hard time about being busted by the cows, he gave me a disgusted look and laughed saying I was the one who got busted. Turns out it was another hunter, we never knew he was there until I saw him crawl out of the trees. That’s public land hunting for you.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the mountainside, grazing on currant berries and homemade elk jerky and waiting out the occasional thunderstorm. We set up our bivy camp near the top on a finger ridge. We found a mountain spring right next to camp which was a huge bonus; we wouldn’t have to trudge all the way down to the valley bottom to fill our water bladders.
And while the water looked great while filling our bottles once they were full it didn’t look so good. I nicknamed it “the murk” because it was about the color of milk along with a fair amount of “stuff” floating around. I think we may have got our water, vitamins, minerals and protein all at once by drinking that stuff. At least it was wet.

That evening was fairly uneventful. We both took a seat and hoped we’d have something wander by but without luck.

The next morning we spotted a couple cows and tried to work in for a shot. I got to about 70 yards and only needed to clear another bush and I’d have a great shot. When I cleared the brush the cows were gone, we never figured out what had happened there?

While I was trying to sneak on the cows Drew spotted another bull and cow back on the hillside we’d just came from, so back we go. We ended up getting to within 40 yards of the bull while he was raking a tree. He was oblivious to our presence but the cow had seen movement and was eyeballing us pretty hard. I could only see the bulls back leg sticking out from the tree and Drew could only see bits and pieces of antler. We knew he’d have to step out quick or the wind would give us away. Sure enough a hint of wind on the back of our necks had them both running for cover. Bummer.
Overall we were excited to find so many elk and so much sign, learn the new county a little bit and breathe some cool autumn air. We’re headed back out this weekend, this time with Big Ron, hopefully this go-round we’ll do a bit better.

I’ll keep you posted.