Man it is hard to get back into work today!!
While I am not near the photographer Gerald and Travis are, this is amplified because I get so wrapped up in the experience I forget to even get my camera out. Regardless, I will throw a few in and share some of my thoughts on this hunt.
Moose are pretty awesome animals, the young ones look like gangly, awkward teenagers, and the mature bulls look like bulldozers. They exude an attitude of fearlessness, and proved at least a couple of times on this hunt that they can be pretty aggressive.
Before I even arrived last Sunday it was clear that Randy was getting pretty pumped up with how many moose he had been seeing, and when I got there we were in the action right away. That first night we had the encounter where we got "pursued". When Randy called that bull in and it was clear he was passing, I was stuck about 100yds off to the moose's right, and was sure that as soon as I moved in the blowdown and regrowth lodgepole, the bull was going to mistake me for the love struck cow. The rest involved a bunch of yelling, cursing, and stumbling in hopes that the bull didn't take out his frustration on us.
The next few days included a lot of walking and waiting for the temps to cool off for the moose to come out of the timber.
Randy glassing while we were on our way into the spot where he had hoped to test out his experimental catnip scented long underwear. long story short, they work great. They are to the lion hunter, what bacon pants are to the bear chaser.
The second night sitting on the meadow where we found the other big bull, he showed again, but it would be the last time we saw him. Coldsmoke does a great job cutting the dust of the trail....
Saturday morning. Reinforcements arrived the night before, and we were prepared to pack a moose out of just about any hell hole on the mountain.
Glassing from the rocks over looking a socked in drainage that had five moose in it the morning before.
Randy was the master of all that he surveyed, unfortunately this morning it was just one small cow.
In the end it was one of the best hunts I have been on. I am a little disappointed that we didn't recreate one of Randy's spirit animal poses, but drinking Jeff's beer and watching Randy pack out a moose head and cape that might have weighed as much as he does, surely made up for it.