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My pack is loaded and I didn't shave this morning

S

smalls

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red river of the north
It's probably considered cheating since I don't leave until tomorrow morning, but I neglected shave today as to get a head start on my elk beard. Whenever I get too focused on work, I just slide my hand over my man stubble and get taken back to visualizing the hunt. I've never been to the area we're going into, but my expectations are high. In the past 5 or 6 years my buddy has hiked into this drainage he's only seen a handful of people, and all of them clients of an outfitter as they ride their horses beyond the reasonable range for us to hunt. Apparently, the cell phone stops working about 30 miles from the trailhead which is a-ok by this cowboy.

I promised my wife that I wouldn't repack my bag (again) tonight, so that means it is loaded and ready to go. 6-days worth of food and gear is weighing in at about 46 pounds, which I thought was pretty good. I'll only be carrying the full weight the first day until we set up camp. I was hoping to really give my gear a good test in chilly weather, but the forecast is showing highs in the 70's and 80's and overnight lows in the 40's... stupid global warming.

With the warmer temps, the thing that does concern me is getting meat cooled down if a guy does slay the beast. I'm thinking gutless method, hang and pepper the meat in the shade, then bag it in contractor bags and get it in the stream. Gosh I hope I have to worry about that.

Anyway, good luck to all those who'll also be chasing tail this weekend!
 
Good luck, smalls. I'll be chasing speedgoats this weekend...no beard required.
 
Good luck! If I didn't shave it wouldn't be no thang, as I only shave about 2-3 times a week. Got arse hair up to my neck, but can't grow a beard...

IMO, the gutless method is the only way to deal with an elk if it's coming out on your back.
 
Best of luck....and take lots of pictures. We expect a detailed report.

: )
 
I'm home... empty handed.

The hunting was pretty tough. We are theorizing that the forest service put out new maps for this area this year with an arrow pointed to our valley labeled "Elk Here" as there were 6 camps set up in a matter of 4 miles... kind of disheartening after a 3 hour pack in to find a slug of other hunters.

We didn't see many elk and a majority of the animals in the area had holed up on one particular bench in some terribly thick timber. They were bugling fairly well both morning and night, but you had to get with in about 30 yards just to see them. My buddy had a small six point at 23 yards for 10 minutes on Sunday evening and couldn't get a lane to shoot through.

My closest encounter came on Sunday evening as well. I hiked down another fork of the drainage we were in to try and find another group of elk and glassed miles upon miles of very "elky" looking country to find only 5 cows bedded on the opposite side of the canyon above a burn that has turned into a mess of deadfall and below some cliffs. Discouraged, I figured I'd drop down into the bottom to see if I could find any areas the elk may be watering in the creek with about 30 minutes of legal light left. As I neared the creek I heard a moose grunting below me, a first for me hearing that in the wild. As I was glassing trying to find my bullwinkle friend I saw a black figure walk out of some thick brush into a small meadow. It wasn't the moose, but a small bull elk walking away from me down the valley about 250 yards away. I fairly easily cut the distance to 150 yards and gave a few soft cow calls. The bull did a 180, climbed up to the trail I'd just been walking on and was coming in on a string. I needed about 30 more yards from him when I felt the breeze hit the back of my neck (the breeze that had just been in my face moments earlier) and I watched as he tilted his head back, licked his nose and trotted stiff legged back into the timber away from me.

The highlight of the trip however was probably the amount of bears we saw. I've only seen one live bear since moving to Montana despite many days afield and in my first 24 hours in camp I saw 6. One of them was much bigger than the rest and happened to be pacing back and forth on a ridge about 75 yards above one of the other camps in the valley. No one was around and in walking through their camp I could definitively say they were not "bear aware". We never did run into that group out hunting so I don't know if they ever got a special visitor or not. We didn't have any bear problems but the coyotes woke us up at least once a night as they patrolled the valley.

All in all it was a good trip and it was nice to simply be in the mountains again, not to be bothered by cell phones and honey-doos.
 
Well, it sounds like you had fun anyway. Is bear season open there? A buddy had something even scarier than a bear walk through his camp the other day....a skunk! :D
 
Still sounds like a heck of a trip. I hear you on the packing in only to have 'your' spot crowded. But, I guess that's one of the great things about public land. Now I know you have some pics to share...
 
Uh, yah, about those pics. I forgot two things in the truck... my camera and my rangefinder.

You'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful!
 
All hunts are great glad you had fun smalls maybe next yr you'll get the only copy of the elk here map
 
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