PlusFive
New member
I went for about an 8 mile hike, there and back, scouting for elk. At about 2 miles from the trial head I started to see several sets of deer tracks and elk tracks, even found 3 old elk rubs. After the trail went from a decent logging road to a single track horse trail at best, about 2.75 to 3 miles back, I started to loose the trail, but picked up more elk sign. So I found a neat bench connecting two thick north facing gullies, thick with tall timber, and a maze of small south facing meadows. When the wind gusted up one of the gullies I got a smell of this very musty, gamey smell I assume is elk. This pushed me to pursue father off the trails and along this pencil ridge to a bench. The bench sits about 7100', 1000' feet short of the Mtn. that it makes up the other side. the top meadow on this bench was full with beds and scat, I found what looked like a horse trail coming up from one of the timber gullies and followed it up a little bit more thinking it was another hiking trail I could use to get father back to my e-scouted spots. But I was stopped by two wallows on this bench. The main one was dug about 1 to 2 feet into the up hill side of the bench the smaller one was more of just a puddle. When I found this I was ecstatic, the sign was a lot more than I anticipated, even though I talked to a mtn. biker who said he sees elk and deer up there quite regularly until October. However, with all the beds on the bench, would it be smart to hike up to that wallow early in the morning? Or to not risk bumping elk in the dark should I stage up early lower on the trail and wait until shooting light to navigate the meadow/timber edge and hunt my way to the wallow?