Day 5:
It was still dark as Randy, Tyler and I found ourselves in the truck on our way back up to near where we'd sat the evening of Day 3. Our plan of attack for the final morning's hunt was to hike back in over a mile towards a series of ridges/draws. Headlamps on, Randy led the way with Tyler bringing up the rear. I honestly felt an intensified focus as we hiked along in the darkness. We tried to will some bugles into the air when we paused a few times, without success. I remained hopeful.
We made pretty decent time --- Randy followed game trails that skirted blow downs and paralleled a drainage heading to the northeast. We'd been at it almost an hour and the sun still was below the horizon.
Randy and I were glassing to our left uphill when Tyler whispered we had company ahead. True enough, we could make out 2 camouflaged shapes making their way towards us. We stopped and let them keep coming.
We had barely stuck out our hands to say "hi" when the older of them recognized Randy. Here we go again, way out in the middle of nowhere. Turns out popularity has no borders
The 20ish hunter from Kansas was being guided by a respectful fellow from Santa Fe. We chatted quietly for a few minutes, exchanging how our hunts were going (the hunter had missed a pretty decent bull earlier in the hunt), and what our plans were for that last day. Those plans didn't conflict; everyone was happy about that.
Time to re-assess things on our part as the 2 passed us heading back towards from where we'd just come. We'd been in ponderosa pines all morning --- they still predominated things, with growths of aspens scattered here and there. We had now arrived at the beginning of the draws. Long fingers sloped slowly from a connecting ridge up to our left. The wind was coming from the north, so things looked good for us to move up and around the draws, glassing the opposite sides as we went.
Randy had taken no more than 2 steps when Tyler held up his hand stating that he'd just heard a faint bugle beyond the ridge to the north of us. 15 seconds later I heard it too. Now this is where Randy needs hunting partners
(his high-range hearing's better days are behind him). Tyler and I nodded to each other as a few bugles were repeated. We could now hear 2 different bulls. Randy let out a contact bugle and a bull responded immediately.
The hint of smiles were replaced with "let's get this done" faces. With Randy leading the way, we made our way diagonally cross-hill down and up the other side, cutting off the top 1/4 of the draw. As I mentioned before, this wasn't p/j country here, it was all ponderosa and aspens.
As we had about topped out on the next ridge, I'd whispered to Tyler that there were now 3 distinct bugles, not just the 2 from before. The problem though was that they were definitely moving and going north. That meant we would be repeating our down-and-up-again trek.
One more time, but with increased focus! My lungs went into overdrive --- I just wished my legs were longer. We topped out once more, just to hear the bugles continue their way north. Agggrrrhhh. But we
were closing the gap.
All right bro, it's time to crack a beer and lock the door.
