Idaho Steep Soup

blueridge

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Blue Ridge Mtns, VA
Quick recap of my OTC A tag in central Idaho. My son and I flew into a very smoky Boise last Thursday. Left first thing Friday for my central zone. Lots of both hikers and hunters over the weekend at our first spot. Elk were very quiet (hunters, not so much) and eventually found them pushed back 4+ miles deep and way up high (9800ft). Brutally steep. Had three cows just out of range, then a nice herd bull and about a dozen cows came over a saddle at 200yds away. Cover was pretty sparse up there so we couldn't close as much distance as I would have preferred. As soon as we started the calling sequence he pushed his cows across the open rock face into cover just down from the peak. Storm picked up and started hailing and snowing on us. It was starting to get dark and too late to make a loop around the back side to drop in from above, so we hiked back out. 5 hours to hike in, 3+ to hike out. Made for some long first couple days with no other opportunities. Good thing is the rain really cleared the skies after that. By Monday morning we were the only ones there. We know you don't leave elk to find elk, but we figured we would give them a break (hoping they would relax and come back down a little), and also, being our first time in Idaho, there were some other places we wanted to make sure we checked out.
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Headed up to the White Clouds. Packed in 5 miles before we started seeing good sign. Horse hunters were the only ones we saw back there. Set up camp just before dark. Quickly realized that packing something 6+ miles out in that country was a little more than we were comfortable with (my knee was starting to really bother me from the previous ridge climbing), so we did the 4+hr hike back out. Beautiful country though, and really enjoyed the clear mountain lakes.
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Went to town, washed some clothes, ate a warm meal, and took a break day at a hotel.

Next day headed back south to check out another spot and found some really good elk country. Seems like an initial 3hr hike uphill gets you away from the vast majority of folks. Did some calling sequences in a timber patch. Didn't see anything, so my son and I started to walk parallel down through the timber, stopping every 50 yards or so for him to call some. Just as we start walking down, I spot the body of an elk between two trees about 60 yards away. I try to get my son's attention to stop him before he gets spotted, but it's too late. The bull, a decent 5x5, was onto us and turns and heads downhill.
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We do the same hike the next morning, leaving at 4am at the trailhead to make it to the top of the ridge by daylight. We set up to glass and instantly see nice 6x6 and 14 cows coming down over the opposite ridgeline. We spend the next hour watching them make their way to their bed. The wind is wrong to circle back the way we came along the ridgeline, so we commit to a 3hr loop down the finger ridge, up the opposite side, then back across just above their timber patch to set up and call. Brutal. Idaho is so damn steep. It's 12:30pm by the time we're in position. I sneak out ahead 40 yards of my caller. Just as I am about to give him the signal to start, I hear a branch snap just beyond a raised part in the hill. I walk ahead 5 steps to peak over . . . and it is another hunter. wtf. The bull had been quiet chuckling and soft bugling, so I assumed he had heard him and was sneaking down in on them. He sees me, then waves, and turns uphill and walks away. Hmmm. Two minutes later his buddy comes through. I motion him over (it's public land, he has just as much right to the elk as me, so I wanted to chat about how to handle it or work together on the play). Ends up that they hadn't heard a thing. But, they had just walked in from upwind, the direction we had spent the last 3 hours hiking to avoid. He hunts past, my son and I back out and take a quick nap to let things cool down. Start a calling sequence. Nothing. Make our way down to where they were bedded. Nothing. The other hunters had bumped them out.
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We make our way back up toward the top of the ridge and start heading out through the timber. As we're coming to the last patch of timber, we hear a bugle from the valley below. It's got to be those hunters. We're too tired to go all the way down, just to come all the way back up after disappointment. As we're hiking out through an opening my son looks back and sees the giant herd bull at the edge of the tree line. We duck and head back towards the timber. We backtrack 100 yards, drop down the hill 200 yards, and set up with me just inside the bull's timber patch and my son just inside an adjacent one. He starts an advertising sequence and instantly a bull screams from the opposite side of him, one we were completely unaware of. I am in the wrong position. I try to ease my way back to my son and the bull screams again. Then the first bull that we were set up for screams. Which way do I go? I stay put, hearing branches breaking getting closer, expecting to see him pop out any moment. I see a cow moving uphill through the timber. Wait more. Then nothing. After a minute my son continues the sequence, but we don't hear anything else. After 10 minutes I whistle for him and he comes over with the biggest grin and wide eyes I have ever seen. He says that bull on the other side of him, a 6x6, ran into under 20 yards and screamed at him. He said the bull just stared right through him, and that he was overwhelmed by his "piss aura". :) And also afraid he was going to get impaled. After 30 seconds of staring through him, the bull eventually must have winded him and turned and ran off.

We made our way back up and out the way we came, and saw the bull and his cows in a small patch of trees near the top of the ridge. Nothing but open hillside between us, and them on high alert. It's 5:30pm by this time. We consider doing a wide loop over the backside, but there would be no cover and it would take us over an hour to do the climb. (I found that I hate false peaks. Just when you think you're almost there . . . another hour, then another.) We were almost out of water; blisters starting on our feet; rashes quickly developing in other places; knees aching with every step; lips chapped from the relentless wind; and 3.5 miles in the opposite direction to hike out. We bowed to the elk as worthy adversaries, the mountains as humbling teachers, one another for giving it all we had, and started the hike back out.

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Considered going back the last day, but our bodies were shot, and we figured it would be too much uncertainty with time to get one taken care of in less than a day if we were successful plus the drive back to Boise for the early morning flight out. We slept in, took showers, bought presents for the family, and made the drive back west to the airport.

Learned so much. Averaged 8-10 miles per day, climbing 1400-2000ft. The last day was 14 miles. Saw some amazing (have I mentioned steep?) country. Challenged our bodies and minds. Were exhilarated. Were humbled. Had great father-son time. Learned some great spots for next time, and how the elk use the terrain in them. Knowing what we know now, with another week and fresh bodies, I would like our chances.

What worked:
Was nice having a dialed in sleep system: Nemo Sonic 0 deg down bag + Klymit V Luxe insulated pad.
Meindl boots again kicked ass. Wasn't until the last hunt day that I started feeling a hot spot (after 10 hard miles), and a little mole skin stopped that from progressing further.
First Lite merino t-shirt. Wore it all week long as my "hike in cold" shirt. Changed out of it once we got to the top, hung it off my pack, dried in no time, and at the end of the week the thing still doesn't stink. Amazing.
Sitka Core Lightweight and Mid weight hoodies were a great layering combo.
It's a little heavy, but for glassing on windy ridges, I left the midweight in the tent and brought my Sitka Fanatic jacket to go over my base layer. I brought it mainly as my "camp jacket", as I hate being cold, and this got the job done in both places. I also used it as a blanket over the upper part of my sleeping bag, letting my keep my arms and shoulders out as I slept at night. I liked the freedom a lot.
Getting a hotel in the middle of the week. Being in the backcountry, especially wilderness areas, and going all day, started to wear on me psychologically. It was nice to take a day in the middle, and also at the end, to go back to civilization to rest, recoup, and let my psyche recover. I think a contributor to that was the fire ban. It would have been nice to have a camp fire. Instead, all we had was headlamps, a jetboil, and a lot of cold, dark night.
Bladder for the win. I have gone back and forth between bladder vs nalgene. I end up drinking more with the bladder.
Trekking poles. In that steep of country, where a good bit of that is climbing up and down hillsides through sage brush or rock slides, they are essential.

What can be improved:
Food. I packed 3600-4000 calories per day, but it was heavier than I preferred, and I was sick of eating quite a lot of it. Yes: blueberry oatmeal, Ramen noodles, MH Biscuits and Gravy, fettuccini + canned chicken, nutty bars, jerky. No: protein bars, dried fruit, tuna and crackers, trail mix (two kinds).
Bow carrier. I tried both a Cabelas sling and strapping it directly to my pack. Wasn't completely satisfied with either, although directly to my pack was better. I hand carried once it was daylight, but for the 3 hrs of hiking in the dark, it needs to be secured somehow.
Daypack. I have the Kuiu 5200 Pro. Love it for packing camp in and carrying meat out. For single day hunts, I would like one half its size.

I don't want them to get slammed with future PM's so I will leave them anonymous, but there were two HTers who were very gracious in answering some initial questions I had when trying to narrow down an Idaho zone to hunt. I have thanked them privately, but will just say again how much I appreciate the time they took to respond to my inquiries.

Onto whitetails for me! Until next year . . .
 
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Great story and pictures. Sorry you weren't able to connect on a bull, but the hunt looks like it was a great success. Nothing beats quality hunt time with your son. Glad to hear you both had a good time and left it all out there on the mountain.
 
Look into some BodyGlide or SquirrelNutButter to prevent those rashy spots in the future.
 
Looks like the same country I was in last week in central Idaho with similar results. Glad you guys got into elk and had some fun!
 
The bulls were very quiet last week. Every hunter we talked to said the same thing. Prior to the last day, we had only heard one bugle, and that was a raghorn bugling back and forth with hunters down below for just a minute or two before he shut up.
The last day, the herd bull was bugling as he pushed cows, and then a couple soft chuckles and bugles from his bed, and that was it until we got right in on him.
Don’t know if rut was earlier, later; quiet from hunting pressure, smoke, or what, but it sure made locating them more difficult. Much different experience compared to NM even in early Oct. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Beautiful country and great write up. They are the best kind of adversaries.
 
Sounds like you guys got to see some pretty country and made the most out of it. Sometimes just getting the deal closed is the hard part. Sounds like you were where the elk were though.
 
Sounds like it was a trip, hunting a B tag in eastern Idaho later this year and can't stop wondering about the steep..
 
Also could be improved upon:
- Horn Hunter Op-X bino harness. I love the fit and the magnetic close top. But nowhere to put a wind detector bottle or calls. All it needs is an elastic pouch on the side. Design flaw, imo.
 
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