Deer were few and far between. The water situation was incredible, more water then I have seen in 10 years on the mountain and all i could find were small and mediocre bucks. Monday afternoon I spotted a decent buck, about a 27" 4x4 bedded across the canyon under a mahogany about 50 yards below the ridge. So i jumped on my quad and hauled ass down one canyon, across the bottom of pole canyon, and parked at the bottom of the mountain. Took me an hour and a half to sneak up to the ridge where he was bedded. Once I got up to him to make a long story short I missed and that was that. I couldn't figure out what was goin on on Monroe. No one was seeing anything like the years past. I hiked more then I ever have, even back to ponds where I know NO one goes to and couldn't find a track. Now, As for elk. Holy god I sware if I see one more elk i'm going to shoot it, and tag it with my deer tag. I have seen enough elk in the first 4 days of my hunt to last me 365 more days. I ran into everything. Cows, 4 Monster bulls, spikes, 1 Monstrous 5 pnt, probably pushing the 380 mark. a 6pnt with a HUGE 1 side and the other side was snapped off about 8 inches off the skull. Offered my services to a local who had an archery Elk tag for monroe but he refused and said he had a 380 bull scouted over by box creek. Elk I'd say I ran into at least 50+ head. Deer, probably only saw, maybe 60 head. Total. Tune ups... Hmm yea come and tune up the local ##### head that totally demolished my old mans hunt by driving back and forth past his blind and the pond he had been watching. I'd really love to tune up his freakin quad!
-Cass