>Very nice bull Elkman. So
>I figured the pictures of
>him would surface soon.
>I got to thank you
>though, I shot a bear
>off his carcass last Tuesday
>during muzzle loader season.
>I actually was up above
>on the ridgeline the day
>you shot him. You
>likely saw me glassing that
>Saturday morning on opening day,
>up above him. I
>bet when you saw him
>from across the basin and
>likely saw me, you were
>praying I wasn?t an archery
>hunter.
I was
>scouting for ML season and
>you burst my bubble with
>that shot. We were
>chasing a few bucks for
>archery though up at the
>very top of the mountain,
>which turned out well.
> I was going to
>hike on down and say
>congrats, but with a bull
>that big, it wasn't my
>business to come bother you
>guys.....plus I didn't want to
>be on the hook for
>having to help hike meat
>out of there
I
>turned my tag back right
>before the opening due to
>being in the construction business
>and all our vacation time
>was called off due to
>responding to the floods.
> I will have it
>next year for sure.
>You will have to let
>me know what mountain house
>flavor you ate while gutting
>him out?..I picked up your
>plastic moisture savor package
> Turns out that bear
>was living in the willows
>just about 50 yards to
>the West of where you
>shot that elk eating on
>the carcass. He had
>been eating off that carcass
>for about a week (and
>all the maggots).
> Anyways, congratulations. Definitely
>one of the better bulls
>that will come out of
>that unit this year.
> Don?t worry, when
>the 50 guys send me
>an email asking where it
>was, they will all get
>the same answer ?No Tell?um
>Ridge?. I will be
>in there next year and
>the many years to come.
>
WOW, small world, I actually didn't see you up there. I was just back up there on Tuesday and was shocked that there wasn't anything but a spine left of the carcass, the bear explains that. The mountain house packet must have fallen out of my buddys pack, that is what he had for lunch before we spotted that bull and made the trek after him.
I went back up there this time hiking over the mountain. I apparently missed grabbing my rangefinder in the dark when we were loading everything up after quartering him up. We had to dig through some snow but we were able to find it and it still works. I hadn't noticed it was missing until I went through all my gear and couldn't find it a couple days later while getting ready for my Utah archery hunt. I figured that was the only place that it could be.
Maybe we'll see you up on the mountain sometime, although we tend to avoid the muzzleloader week. It was definitely a day I'll never forget and it was awesome but It would have been good to talk with you that day, sounds like you know the area better than me and could have probably given me some advise on the best route to get the bull down off the mountain, that was the first time I went up there.
Good luck next year, there are undoubtably some bulls up there bigger than the one that I got. I might be up there next year too with my buddy that was there with me trying to repay my debt to him for all his help.
