Bucket List

[Hammy]

My dad and I have each shared the same dream, since I can remember, to venture on a backcountry elk hunt by horseback and hunt bugling bulls in the Rockies. When my dad retired a couple years ago, we made plans to check this trip off the bucket list. For almost three years, we anticipated the day where we would head to the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming. My best bud and our hunting partner, Cory would join us on this special trip although he would not be carrying a tag.

The plan was to give ourselves a few days to enjoy traveling and acclimate to the 6-10,000’ elevation increase from home. We left western Washington Tuesday morning, enjoyed a bbq lunch outside of Lagrande and made it to a hotel in Pocatello for the night.

 

[Hammy]

The next morning, we made it to the Costco in Idaho Falls to stock up on a few last minute essentials. As I went to fire up the truck to leave, the battery was dead. Luckily, there isn’t really a better place to be with a dead battery than a costco parking lot. I walked back in, purchased a new battery and we were back in business. Although, a new problem was found. Long story short, the blend door actuator had blown, killing the heater and creating a persistent and loud knocking noise. The only way to kill the obnoxious noise was to pull the fuse. With the fuse pulled, we had no heat or even flowing air to defrost the windshield. We called multiple mechanics but none could fit us in on our tight schedule so with the windows cracked, we kept heading East to Jackson.

 

[Hammy]

We made it to Jackson, had a great lunch at Stillwest Brewery and enjoyed exploring the town for the afternoon. We hit up the Cowboy Bar for whiskeys and live music, had an amazing dinner at The Local and relaxed in the hot tub at the Elk Country Inn.

 

[Hammy]

Thursday was a laid back day spent exploring the Elk Refuge and stopping along the Teton range to glass at animals on our way to Dubois. The drive through Togwotee Pass was incredibly beautiful.

As we arrived in Dubois, we raced against the impending rain storm to fire a couple shots from the rifles on some BLM ground, just on the outside of town. It absolutely poured that night but we enjoyed our dinner at Noon Pizza and did some last second organizing of gear into dry bags in our motel room. We actually got to meet our outfitter at Noon Pizza as were sitting at the next table over when they overheard us talking about our impending elk hunt.

 

[Hammy]

Friday morning was full of jitters as we met up with our outfitter at a local breakfast diner and met the other two gentlemen that we would be sharing a camp with. Dwight and Lee were from Georgia, both in their mid 70’s and on their first elk hunt. What a joy to share elk camp with such good guys, we would soon learn.



On our way to the trailhead, we stopped by the local NAPA as they opened to purchase a plug in heater for the truck, hoping to be an effective substitute for a defroster. Shout out to Jessica at NAPA who had made the last second overnight order for us the night prior.

 

[Hammy]

An hour drive on a gravel road from town had us at one of the most scenic trailheads I’ve ever been to. After quite a process of loading, 31 mules and mare carried us and our gear into the wilderness. 2 1/2 hours later, we rode into camp and were greeted warmly by the camp cook, Mary. We ate a fabulous Dutch oven dinner and fell asleep to the sound of rain on the wall tent and the occasional bells from the herd of mules orbiting around camp.

 

[Hammy]

Opening morning of our hunt found us riding the mules up a game trail in the snow and gaining elevation to a ridge where we would eventually spot a large herd of 30+ elk across the drainage. A large herd bull, a 330” type bull had his right side matched his left, he had about a 2 1/2’ spike on his right side. Nevertheless, a unique and beautiful bull. We tied up the mules and the five of us did our best to sneak through the burn into a position for dad to take a shot. We got picked off by a few cows and the herd began to file out. Dad ended the chess match with a clean miss as we all watched the bull not react and then follow his cows up the basin where they eventually mellowed out and began feeding again. Dejected but still full of optimism for the day, we set up on a major vantage point and made a fire to stay warm next to.

We watched that same herd for a couple hours until they became increasingly nervous and blew out over the top of a 11,000’ ridge. In the haze of blanketing snow, we watched another herd of about 70 that included 6 other massive 6 pt bulls, emerge out of a hidden basin high up in the drainage. It was one of the most majestic scenes I have ever witnessed, watching three of those giant bulls break off from the herd and skyline together as they traipsed along the snowy ridge line on their own path to sanctuary. Wondering what had bumped all of those elk out of our canyon, we soon glassed up a sow grizzly bear with a young cub pick their way out of the same hidden basin that all of those elk had erupted from. What a cool sight to glass my first griz. She was so hard to spot in the rocks until she began to move through. Her and her cub went into a patch of trees and never came back out while we sat there. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful and we walked our mules down the mountain with some daylight to spare.

 

[Hammy]

The next morning we went after another herd that we had spotted from across the canyon the morning prior. The herd consisted of one big bull, a couple satellite bulls that had been sparring and about 10 cows that we had seen.
We learned very quickly that our mules were very capable of going straight up a mountain although, the three of us held onto the saddle horn with our eyes closed and teeth clenched as we followed our guide, Billy Joe, up to a spot to tie them off.

 

[Hammy]

We stalked in but the herd had moved into the timber by the time we had cut the distance. Dad and Billy Joe moved up the drainage while Cory and I were allowed to move across the draw for a different angle on where the elk had been previously. Cory and I were on our way back over to our meet up spot when a shot rang out from Dad’s location. We made the trek back across the ravine and met up with dad. He and Billy Joe had been in the right place at the right time when a herd filtered through the burnt timber, 70 yards away. A nice 5 pt. gave dad a great opportunity and dad obliged with a perfect shot behind the front shoulder. A second shot to the neck for insurance dropped the bull in his tracks. We were so happy for dad. We processed the bull while Billy Joe hiked back to grab the mules. It was quite a treat to allow the mules to do the packing as we are accustomed to being our own pack mules in these situations.

 

[Hammy]

Made it back to camp for lunch, raised the game bags full of meat into the “bear tree” and prepared to go back out for an evening hunt. The evening found us in a great place to glass from and we did locate a couple herds of elk. One was just too far away for the limited daylight we had left and the other herd, we felt, would be best left for in the morning as they had a great vantage on us if we decided to stalk in from the bottom. Instead, we chose to enjoy listening to two bulls bugling back and forth and anticipate the plan for the next morning.
That night, we had pits in our stomachs due to the weather forecast on the am radio calling for heavy snow that would likely shut down highways in the region. Not knowing if we would be able to hunt with white out conditions the rest of our trip or if we would be snowbound in camp, we were flirting with the idea of packing out the next afternoon. The idea of calling it quits on our dream hunt with three days to go in the hunt, didn’t seem fair but with bigger priorities back home, we had to practical. Our group discussion ended with a “let’s go get it done in the morning and cross that bridge if we have to tomorrow.”
Not too proud to turn away any good luck, I had found a horse shoe in the trail while riding back to camp that evening and stopped to pick it up for good luck. I hung it above our wall tent door that evening when we got back to camp and pulled a fresh bottle of Pendleton 1910 and coke cans that had been chilling in the creek next to camp for the last couple days, anticipating Dad’s tag being filled .

 

[Hammy]

The next morning came and so did the snow. We had a couple inches in camp with consistent snow flurrying. Dwight and Lee’s guide would be taking our trip out of camp that morning on foot as Dwight and Lee did not care to go out into the storm that morning. The night prior they had spotted a big herd with multiple bulls just above camp. It seemed like a promising plan so off we went, hopeful that i could avoid having to make a difficult decision on whether to pull out that afternoon or not.



Half way up the ridge, trying to keep up with our long legged guide, Chris, we realized quickly that we had overdressed for the hike up. We finally stopped and threw our layers in packs and it was decided that dad and Cory would take their time coming up the ridge, following Chris’s and my boot tracks in the snow. Chris and I would push hard to gain the elevation and find the herd from the night before.



It wasn’t long before we cut fresh tracks in the snow and another finger ridge later, we began hearing bugles. We side hilled through the snowy burn until Chris froze in front of me. A few cows had been feeding about 50 yards up from us when they caught our approach. As soon as the cows took off towards the bugles in the next drainage over, Chris looked at me and I knew what he was going to say, “ we gotta get over there now!” Already soaking in sweat, rubber legged and feeling the elevation kick me in the gut, I did my best to sprint after Chris but I was red lining as hard as I ever had on a hunt. As I grabbed for branches and logs to pull myself up and over through the snow, I questioned how I was going to compose myself enough to make a steady shot if given the opportunity.



The cows had rejoined the herd but there was already so much commotion with 5-6 bulls bugling and cows meandering through the timber feeding, the herd did not spook. I was able to crest the ridge, set my pack up against a tree for a dead rest and settle myself. Chris ranged a bull below some cows that were skylined, 190 yards away. But the bull didn’t cooperate and stood in the cover of burnt timber. Meanwhile, several bulls closer to my elevation were signaling their presence. I told Chris, “I would be happy with any of these 6 pts.” “Ok, let’s shoot that one then,” and he pointed to a bull standing about 190 yards on my elevation, slightly quartering away. At first, I was going to wait for him to turn broadside but as I settled the crosshairs on his ribs, I felt so comfortable, I just squeezed the trigger and absorbed the recoil. The bull rolled until he came to a stop against a downed log. He picked his head up as he laid there broadside so without hesitation, I gave him a follow up (2 inches away from the first shot) and the hunt was over. I was elated and beyond grateful for a quick, clean kill and that we were tagged out. I could hear the “whohoo” of dad and Cory, still one drainage behind us. I couldn’t wait for them to arrive! Hugs all around once they got to me and we made it over to the bull for pics. Between the four of us, we took the bull out in one trip back to camp. What an amazing feeling to get that bull back to camp.

 

[Hammy]

We quickly packed our bags for the pack out that would happen that afternoon. We dressed in all of our puffy layers and made the pack out on mules later that day. The last 45 minutes of riding was in complete dark, relying totally on our mules to follow the path back to the trailhead.

 

[Hammy]

We hustled to load the truck with gear, coolers with meat and secure the racks to the back of the truck. With an impending blizzard hitting the region, we kept all of our puffy layers on and peeled out down the mountain road with our windows partly down in the absence of a working defroster. A long night ensued as we drove back up and over Togowotee Pass. At times, I could not even see the lines in the road as the wind blew the snow around the highway but thanks to our little plug in heater, it kept the windshield from totally fogging up and we crept over the pass and arrived back in Jackson at 1 am. We rented a cabin at Elk Country Inn to spread out in and store our antlers. We cracked open a beer and cheered for making it safely to the end of an incredibly long but successful day.

 

[Hammy]

We spent the next day enjoying being lazy around Jackson and eating good food, hot tubbing and recapping the trip.

 

[Hammy]

Second night on the trip home, found us staying at the Hot Lake Hot Springs in La Grande and enjoying a good dinner at Side A Brewing.

 

[Hammy]

Made it home the next morning to the families and the process of butchering and wrapping began.

 

[Hammy]

This trip was so different from any other hunt we had done, from the luxury accommodations we treated ourselves to on the way to and from the hunt, riding mules, hunting in griz country, working with an outfitter but without a doubt factors into why this trip stands out. Even with all the new experiences, there was plenty of familiarities in that we repeatedly found ourselves laughing to tears throughout the 10 days, pushing our bodies and minds out of our comfort zones to be successful, packing our groceries off the mountain with our legs and backs, riding the emotional roller coaster of failing and succeeding, overcoming adversity and feeling humbled by how blessed we are to have shared yet another adventure together.

 

[kiwi hunter]

an adventure for sure, love to do something like that next yr

 

[Bambistew]

What a great trip congrats on the critters and thanks for sharing!

 

[duckhunt]

Amazing hunt for sure.