End Of An Era

[ARCAT]

Thanks to Mr. Wolf and Mr. Forest Fire.

Some of you may remember that I am a former guide in Idaho. I still go out once a year and guide 1 or 2 hunts for Bighorn Outfitters in unit 27. This year I guided in my favorite camp on the middle fork. My trip was delayed by three weeks due to the area being closed by fire. Well the fire was much much worse than we had been led to believe. When we got in after a 24 mile pack there was really no place to hunt. At least it was darn cold (15) windy, with 1 1/2 feet of snow. We never heard a bull bugle or saw a fresh elk track. When you enter a basin and there are no tracks in the snow it makes for a long day. We did hear wolves howl every day and on day 3 saw wolves and got within 30 yards of them and took flash pictures. they were not really scared of us at all. Two of them looked to be young, maybe 50-60 pounds, but the third one was a big grey that must have gone over 100. He was a little wary, but still let us take his picture.

This has been my favorite place to hunt elk in the world for several years, but I'm afraid its ruined. TO RECAP, we did not see an elk, we did not hear a bugle, the only deer we saw we hit with a brand new truck doing over $5000 in damage on I-80 at 3;30 am. My favorite packer whom I have worked with for 17 years chose to stay in town with his girlfriend rather than go in with us to hunt ( a good decision on his part it seems). At least it was really cold and snowy.

The only good thing that happened is Bighorn guided the idaho lottery sheep tag winner in a different unit to a 186 3/8 bighorn while I was out there. It is a real pig. you can see it on their website at www.huntidaho.com under 2005 hunt pictures.

 

[Canoe]

Let's see some pictures of those wolves.

 

[danr55]

Let's see a picture of that truck.. Too bad. Sounds like it was a rough year.

 

[T Bone]

Arcat,

What a bummer! Hopefully a season will open on them soon so they won't run unchecked.

The fire will heal itself with time. Do you know how far north the fire burned?

 

[Horn Seeker]

DANG!!!!! Bum deal!

 

[Elkhunter]

Seems to me that if you saw and heard wolves that there would have been elk & deer still in the area. I would not think that you would find wolves where there is no food for them. There are wolves where I hunt also and the elk hunting has not been as good as in the past. Last year i did not see any elk, but I also did not see any sign of wolves. In years before that, the elk have been harder to find, but we always saw fresh wolf tracks, indicating that the elk were still in the area. This year we saw lots of elk and also saw fresh wolf sign. Point being is, where there are wolves there is also big game, just harder to locate. Sorry to hear that it was a bummer year for you and sorry to hear about the truck, that really does shuck.

 

[TheTone]

Your story kind of illustrates what is scaring me about some of our elk herd issues. you were 24 miles back in, in an area I would assume gets little pressure and they aren't there. Supposebly our problem up here is habitat, but even if the habitat improves where are new elk going to come from to colonize those areas? They are not in the backcountry, not in the mixed use zones, most of the elk I'm seeing killed and seeing sign of are in the ag zones now. Its a bum deal for sure, I hope things can turn around.

 

[Ithaca 37]

ARCAT, Chances are the elk will be back in your area next year. My accountant hunts the same spot every year. He came back from his hunt in '04 and claimed the wolves had eaten all the elk. Worst hunt they ever had. No tracks, no bugling, nothing but elk skeletons and wolf shit.

This year, same spot. Elk all over the place. He couldn't even sleep at night with all the bugling. Best hunt they ever had.

You and everybody else might as well get used to the fact that wolves move the elk around and even the ones that stay put are harder to find.

 

[Tom]

Yeah, after a fire, the grass comes back bigtime. Elk eat grass. That's good, right?

 

[AZ402]

Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled.

 

[ARCAT]

fire and wolves

T Bone The fire burned all the way from the middle fork to terrace lakes, up to the head of wilson, and over to the head of alpine. it also burned some at the mouth of Big Creek on the other side. I too suspect that the elk will be back, and we did find a doe that the wolves had just killed in the last day or so, but it was a grim picture all around. The fire is as much a culprit as the wolves for the lack of elk I think. The wolves appeaqred to be traveling hard, as there wee tracks in every drainage. even the burned ones. if there were elk, they werent doing much walking around, there were no tracks. There were plenty of squirrel and grouse tracks, and even the tracks of a lonely 5 ft blackbear. he too was traveleing, and we found his tracks crossing the trail all the way to the crags.

Did you check out that ram?

 

[Cameron Hunt]

Sorry to hear you had a bad year. I guess we all have them from time to time. Lets see some pics of the wolves and share a story.

 

[Moosie]

Let's see some

DEAD

pictures of those wolves.

 

[gar man]

Sorry to hear about the hunt Arcat.

 

[T Bone]

Arcat,

Thats a fatty of a ram! He carries the mass all the way to the ends. Just a guess but was it the late ram hunt on the west side?

I try not to look at rams much. The animal and the Middle Fork country push buttons like nothing else! Next year, its my turn. again.

 

[ARCAT]

that ram came right out of your and moosies favorite ram area in the crags, 2 weeks ago. thats what makes it such a monster. its the biggest ram taken in idaho outside of hells canyon in many years. They killed it while I was out there. The guy drew the lottery tag so he paid like $20 for the tag. They spotted it from 2 miles away and watched him for 3 days, came out to town, regrouped, rested up, and went back in a different way and killed him the first day back in camp. Dave told me they were on a 183 ram and when we got out, they had been in and got him killed. Dave really screwed up on score, it went 186 3/8. Its just an awesome deal all around.