First elk hunt!

[rjlefty3]

Well I made it back after a great trip!

Figured I'd recap the hunt a bit. This was my first true 'backcountry' hunt, which is some of the most fun I've ever had. The scenery is spectacular, the stars are amazing, and the challenge of the mountains is something I'm already looking forward to doing again.

On Tuesday I put my kids to bed (at this point I hated myself for even thinking of doing this) and set off to the airport, which is a couple hours away from me. Wednesday was my travel day...and it was long. Coming from Maine, it takes a long time no matter where you go. I always fly, because anywhere west of the Mississippi is at least a days travel. I ended up leaving the airport in Maine at 5 AM. I landed (and so did all of my gear!) and made the final 3 hours to my buddies house. We got everything set up, I bought a couple things I needed, and we set off to our unit a couple hours away. We hiked in a ways, got a bit mixed up on where we were (well, I was pretty much lost) and decided to set up camp. At this point it was 11PM, 21 hours after I started my day. I was pretty tired but still excited for elk day 1.

We debated sleeping on the ground without setting up our tents, but decided it was probably best to take the time to set them up. Which turned out to be a great decision as it rained on and off and was really windy the rest of the night.

 

[rjlefty3]

Day 1 of actual hunting started with us being socked in the valley we were in. It wasn't terrible, but enough to put a dampener on things. It slowly wore off and we started hiking up the mountain. The sun came out and pretty much had the fog gone by the time we reached our glassing spot. We glassed for a while, but turned up nothing.

We started glassing the distant hillsides with the spotter and turned up 9 bulls together. My first elk with a tag in my pocket! Unfortunately they were roughly 5 miles away and not on the agenda for that day. But, nonetheless, I guess you could say we were in elk!



We hiked back to camp, wrapped everything up and set off to our actual camping spot.

Once there, we set things up and decided to check out a wallow my buddy had a camera set up on. Turned out to be an awesome spot. We ran into half a dozen mulies on the way in, checked out the card which was loaded with pics. Bears, moose, and elk almost on a daily basis. I was feeling pretty good at this point!

I sat at the wallow that night, and just before dark we had two nice 5-point bulls feed on the hillside above us. We watched them for as long as we could, then headed back to camp.

 

[screamin6x6]

Wow. Sounds like you picked the right place.

 

[rjlefty3]

Day 2 started off with the hike I had been dreading...about 1k vertical gain over roughly 1/2-3/4 of a mile on loose rock/dirt type terrain. I had hiked the tallest peak in Maine (roughly a 4k vertical gain over ~5 miles) and ran before I came (yeah, I know...probably not enough!) but there is nothing out my way that can compare to that. There is only so much you can do living at 250 ft above see level!

Either way, we (eventually) made it to the top and glassed the hillsides. Boom, elk! There was a bull - a pretty good raghorn, feeding roughly 500 yards or so. My buddy had a pretty good idea of where they were headed to bed, so we dropped off the hillside to stay hidden and hiked down towards them. The terrain ended up being too steep to see down the hillside, and I could never keep track of them. My buddy stayed low and I went a bit higher up. I looked for a trail but the place was torn up. There were literally trails everywhere. I quickly picked what I thought was the best spot - an intersection which provided the best cover I could find and set up and waited.

15 minutes later I head a branch crap and look up to see a big spike walking right at me. No way! I debated drawing on him, but couldn't get myself to do it. It was too early and I had higher hopes than that.

This spike ended up walking to 7 yards of me before noticing something wasn't quite right. He slowly moved off around me and eventually out of my sight. I was thinking of how cool that encounter was, when the other bull came up and started walking my way, about 30 yards further than the spike. When he got behind the last tree for my only shooting lane, I drew back. Apparently the spike was still around, as I heard him bound off down the mountain. The other bull heard this and knew something wasn't right either. He started walking away, still on path to cross the lane, although giving me a steep angle. I kept my pin on the gap and waited for him to cross it.

I released, almost out of instinct. It was a bit early as he was quartering away pretty hard and I saw my arrow hit high and left. He bolted down from where he came. Wow, that was fast! I was shaking, but wasn't very impressed with my shot. It was ~35 yards, I had been money while practicing but you know how everything is different in real time.

I met up with my buddy and we waited a bit before finding blood. A pretty good amount to start.



The blood eventually started to slow, then picked up again, then slowed down once more. The mountain was steep enough we couldn't see the bottom, and I was hopeful he'd be piled up there. He wasn't, but wasn't going uphill either. Once on the bottom, he sidehilled the ridge for a bit, before we found his bed. It was roughly 1/2 mile from where I shot.

We knew we didn't bump him, but there was no other blood around to follow. We started to get a bit discouraged when my buddy and I saw antler at the same time. Roughly 30 yards away he was laying there! It all happened so quick we let out a quick 'yeah!' when we saw him.

Turns out he was just resting, as his head snapped up after we did that. I nocked another arrow as the bull got up and took off, never offering a follow up shot. We watched him go, with really no trouble at all. Shot ended up being neck, obviously not hitting anything vital. We knew it wasn't a lethal hit. He went over the next ridge and we took off after him, hoping to find him in his bed and put another stalk on him. But when we got there there was no elk.

We gave up and made the brutal hike back to camp. Rough morning for me. I had my opportunity and blew it with that shot. I'd made that shot over and over while practicing and it just didn't happen. I was obviously pretty bummed with how everything happened, obviously disappointed in injuring an animal like that, but unfortunately that's hunting. It was still a memorable morning on the mountain.

I debated notching my tag, but knew that the hit wasn't lethal. I was hopeful I'd be able to turn him up again later in the hunt so I kept hunting.

 

[rjlefty3]

My buddy packed out that night, and I sat at the wallow again. This time I saw nothing and hiked back to camp. That night was a rough one for me, didn't really sleep all that much.

I woke up the next morning and climbed the same hill. Found a group of 8 cows and that same spike from the previous morning. I hiked to the top and glassed all the other basins. Nothing.

I worked back down to the elk and decided to get as close as I could. They ended up crossing my path at about 50 yards and hit the timber. Another cool encounter, but nothing really worth going after.

I wasn't really in a great mind set with my lack and sleep, and how everything went down, so I decided to pack out for a couple days and get some rest. I wasn't really thrilled about not seeing a whole lot (I know it was only a day but it's a really open unit where finding the isn't the hard part).

I ended up spending a couple days fishing and caught my first (of many) cutties. I had never caught one but always have wanted to. They are beautiful fish!

 

[rjlefty3]

We went back in after those couple of days and I really felt like a different person. Mentally I was much more with it, physically I felt strong, and I had the typical drive to do the crazy stuff I usually do! Plus, I only had 3 days left so we had to make something happen.

We decided to glass around and try to find the elk instead of our original plan.

It didn't take long, and we found 3 big groups of elk roughly 4 miles off. We marked it on the GPS and checked out our options.

We ended up driving around the mountain and would camp to the west of the elk. We once again packed everything up and hiked up a draw and eventually dropped our packs at an awesome sight. We took a little walk to scope out the area when we saw another tent. Obviously someone had seen those elk too. We were already too committed to that area at this point, and we knew there were plenty of elk for both of us to chase. We hiked up a bit further to create some space between us. We guessed the group they were going after was over the closest hillside, so we hiked way up and around them to the other groups. We were at roughly 9500K elevation.

We hiked to the edge of a huge canyon and started seeing elk right away on the other side. The elk came pouring out of the timber. It started with a group of 6-8 and real nice 6 point, followed by group after group after group. It was unreal to see. The weather had also cooperated and it got really cold. The bugling started and the herd bulls were starting to take control of things. We had no shot of making a move that night, but were pretty excited about the next day, which would also be our last in this area. My flight out was soon approaching and it would take us at least a day to get an elk out of here.

 

[rjlefty3]

We set off early the next morning to the canyon and the elk were still there. The sunrise was awesome!



We found elk. Lots of elk! We hit the jackpot but it was also in one of the most inaccessible spot in the unit (I'm assuming..it had to be!).





There was a good bull not too far from us across the canyon. He had half a dozen or so cows with him, but he was bugling a bit so we figured we had a chance.



The canyon was miserable, but we had to cross it. It took us 2 hours to get down and come up the other side. I know there are steeper areas, but this was brutal. There was no solid footing the entire time and it was probably the steepest slope I'd ever been on. I loved and hated every step of it.

When we hit the other side, we bumped a couple of cows into the timber only to shortly be followed by a chuckle. We hit the timber fast and started cow calling. Nothing.

We let loose a couple of bugles. The bull bugled back. So obviously we ripped off again. So did he. Back and forth until you could tell this bull was really getting worked up over us. He cut the distance in half, but we still couldn't see him. I knew he was in the bottom of this hillside we were on, only 70-80 yards away.

When he got to this point, I experienced a top 5 hunting moment for me. I could feel the vibration in my chest from this bulls growling/bugling/anger. It was unbelievable. I've never experienced anything like that. I was almost paralyzed. I didn't dare creep further and push him off on. I thought he was coming in. And then...silence.

And that was it. He was gone. A cow came up to investigate our area and after she passed my buddy and I just smiled. Unreal! I can see how you guys get into this stuff!

We tried to track down the herd. Our cow call was met with a response from another cow. I started to stalk towards the group in desperation to make something happen at this point. I checked the wind, circled downwind which let me follow a drainage for a bit of cover noise. After a few yards, I see elk. A spike was feeding 35 yards away, but no shot. Then 2 cows, then 2 more. I knew the big guy had to be here somewhere, but I was pinned. The elk fed off and I was never able to catch up with them again.

I met up with my buddy and waited for the thermals to steady. We hiked along the ridge, again trying to make something happen.

We called a calf in to 4 yards, which was pretty cool! Would have been great eating and an easy pack out, but I couldn't do it!

We had a couple other fairly close encounters but nothing really great before we had to make our way out. We had to cross that canyon once again and then hike back the couple miles back to camp, then the 3 miles back to the truck. Tomorrow was my last day so we tried our luck with a more accessible area that night.

 

[rjlefty3]

That night we ended up finding a group of 6 elk in a fairly accessible spot. 2 were bulls, a decent raghorn and a nice 6 point. The fed up and over the hillside. We made our plan for my last morning.

We got up early and started hiking. We spotted the elk doing exactly what we had anticipated they'd do. We had a good feeling about this.

We eventually got within 150 yards before being pinned down. We were above them, and the wind was good, but the area was really open. We waited a bit before making a more towards the tree line. It wasn't the best time to move as the sun was up and we had decent shadows, but we had to make a move based on where they were going. I'm assuming one caught an eye of something, because next thing we know they are sailing over the ridge where they came from.

And just like that, it was over. As much as I wanted to stay, I was looking forward to being back home with my kids.

Kind of a sour ending not being able to put my hands on one and get some meat for this winter, but in the end, it was a very successful trip. I learned a lot about myself, my abilities, my motivations, you all know how that goes. I wish I had a better camera, as the views were spectacular and my point and shoot camera didn't really do it much justice.

The gear I had really performed flawlessly and I didn't really have any wasted items. I obviously did my research, but a lot of topics/individuals on here were really helpful in this regard.

Huge thanks to my buddy who helped me out on this hunt. He put me on elk wherever we went. The dudes a badass, no doubt about it!

Hope you enjoy the read!

 

[nidahunter]

Great write up and even better adventure. Sounds to me like you had a successful trip even thought you didn't harvest an elk.

 

[screamin6x6]

Congrats on a good hunt. Thanks for posting.

 

[C17loadclear]

Great story!! That is what hunting is all about...

 

[dcopas78]

I would call that a very successful first elk hunt, and good experience!

 

[teej89]

Man thanks for the story and the pictures that was great! It got me all revved up for my hunts this fall. What state were you in if you don't mind?

 

[MT_elk]

Sounds like a great time!

 

[Boarmaster]

Beautiful country. Thanks for posting. Boarmaster.

 

[7mm08mo]

Sounds like you had fun, and got to see some beautiful country.

 

[Muley_Stalker]

Are you leaving out what state you were in on purpose?

 

[LWC55]

Awesome write up! Sounds like you had a blast.

 

[duckhunt]

Great story. Hopefully next time you put one on the ground.

 

[huntnkat]

Great story. Thanks for taking the time to write it all up. Sounds like a ton of fun.