D
dakotakid
Guest
Whew,
What a season. I've worked harder to locate elk this year than I have for quite awhile. But yesterday I finally filled my tag after 5+ weeks of disappointments. It started Oct 9 with heat and heat and more heat. Elk were virtually non existent or it seems I was just behind them by a few hours or a day. They were where I wasn't to put it simply. It wasn't for a lack of shoe leather or effort. Opening weekend we probably put in 15+ miles worth of hiking in all my favorite areas only to be disappointed. I had three other tags in the house besides mine and also had my father as a non-res hunter to boot. We hunted hard that first week then sort of slacked off and filled some antelope tags in the mean time. Second week of season was looking as bleak as the first week but we eventually ran into three head and took two of them, we all had cow tags this year ( I know, whens the last time you had trouble finding cows). My dad filled his non-res tag which was the first elk my 56 year old man ever had in cross hairs and my girlfriend filled her tag on that outing also. Unfortunately we had to go steep and deep to get them and it was a 4+ mile pack out with one frame pack, many trips were made getting that meat to the freezer. I still had two youth hunters in the house with open tags and mine as well, so we took a couple of trips with the boys but their spirits were low and I didn't figure it would help the matters any to push a couple of youngsters harder than they wanted to hunt. So at that point I focused on filling my tag and my spirits were getting low also, it was becoming a chore to go hunting! Twice I had the weather turn on me to where I couldn't see 20 yards. Stumbling along in the fog/snow and walking through fresh elk crap knowing good and well you are pushing them out in front of you is disheartening. Saw some monster Muleys on those "no elk" days and me with no deer tag this year, well thats like salt in the wound. Yesterday morning I decided to give it one last go, the final hurrah. The alarm went off at 0400hrs and I just shut it off, to hell with it I said and back to bed I went. But deep inside that primal stirring was gnawing at me, it simply would not allow me to fall back asleep as visions of me sitting on the couch while the elk roamed the hills ran through my pre-dawn subconsciousness. Alright I finally said aloud, and I forced myself out of bed! Put the coffee on to boil and began my pre-hunt packing ritual. Make sammies, get water, get rifle, triple and quadruple check that I infact do have ammo. Get the optics, check the maps for the forty fifth time. I was out and on the road by 0445 and arrived at my spot near 7 am, sun was just cracking over the peaks. I unload my gear and head off down the trail ever cognizant of my surroundings. I wished for every brown spot to turn into an elk, every silly little wing flash I caught in my peripheral vision made me snap my neck to see what it was, yeah just another mocking bird. How ironic! I scanned the terrain like my life depended on it. As I made my way down the trail and onto a creek bottom I saw another damn wing flash and I said to myself, no you don't, not this time. I fully know its another disappointment in the making so I tried to ignore it not wanting to be made the fool of by mother nature yet again. But wait, there it was again, this time I had to look and as I peered down the creek bottom my despair was quickly turned into jubilation as there were elk in my eyesight. I did a quick re-take of the situation and triple insured that nothing was wearing headgear and my initial assessment said they were cows. I got into position and they broke the creek and started heading up the embankment and I raised my iron and peered through the scope and all I see is horns. I was in complete disbelief, there was no way in hell this could be happening to me. I lowered my iron and had to have a little laugh at myself for there with 30+ head of cow elk was a buck deer. He quickly became second player as I raised my iron again and took aim on a cow. Pulled the trigger and ventilated her right through the top of the shoulders. I finally scored for the year and I took a moment to give thanks to the One responsible for my good fortune and something deep inside me tells me I was rewarded for my persistence, not that I just finally got lucky enough to stumble upon 30 head of cows.
Sorry for the long post, thanks to those of you who took time to read it, I just needed to put this down on paper so to speak.
Mike
What a season. I've worked harder to locate elk this year than I have for quite awhile. But yesterday I finally filled my tag after 5+ weeks of disappointments. It started Oct 9 with heat and heat and more heat. Elk were virtually non existent or it seems I was just behind them by a few hours or a day. They were where I wasn't to put it simply. It wasn't for a lack of shoe leather or effort. Opening weekend we probably put in 15+ miles worth of hiking in all my favorite areas only to be disappointed. I had three other tags in the house besides mine and also had my father as a non-res hunter to boot. We hunted hard that first week then sort of slacked off and filled some antelope tags in the mean time. Second week of season was looking as bleak as the first week but we eventually ran into three head and took two of them, we all had cow tags this year ( I know, whens the last time you had trouble finding cows). My dad filled his non-res tag which was the first elk my 56 year old man ever had in cross hairs and my girlfriend filled her tag on that outing also. Unfortunately we had to go steep and deep to get them and it was a 4+ mile pack out with one frame pack, many trips were made getting that meat to the freezer. I still had two youth hunters in the house with open tags and mine as well, so we took a couple of trips with the boys but their spirits were low and I didn't figure it would help the matters any to push a couple of youngsters harder than they wanted to hunt. So at that point I focused on filling my tag and my spirits were getting low also, it was becoming a chore to go hunting! Twice I had the weather turn on me to where I couldn't see 20 yards. Stumbling along in the fog/snow and walking through fresh elk crap knowing good and well you are pushing them out in front of you is disheartening. Saw some monster Muleys on those "no elk" days and me with no deer tag this year, well thats like salt in the wound. Yesterday morning I decided to give it one last go, the final hurrah. The alarm went off at 0400hrs and I just shut it off, to hell with it I said and back to bed I went. But deep inside that primal stirring was gnawing at me, it simply would not allow me to fall back asleep as visions of me sitting on the couch while the elk roamed the hills ran through my pre-dawn subconsciousness. Alright I finally said aloud, and I forced myself out of bed! Put the coffee on to boil and began my pre-hunt packing ritual. Make sammies, get water, get rifle, triple and quadruple check that I infact do have ammo. Get the optics, check the maps for the forty fifth time. I was out and on the road by 0445 and arrived at my spot near 7 am, sun was just cracking over the peaks. I unload my gear and head off down the trail ever cognizant of my surroundings. I wished for every brown spot to turn into an elk, every silly little wing flash I caught in my peripheral vision made me snap my neck to see what it was, yeah just another mocking bird. How ironic! I scanned the terrain like my life depended on it. As I made my way down the trail and onto a creek bottom I saw another damn wing flash and I said to myself, no you don't, not this time. I fully know its another disappointment in the making so I tried to ignore it not wanting to be made the fool of by mother nature yet again. But wait, there it was again, this time I had to look and as I peered down the creek bottom my despair was quickly turned into jubilation as there were elk in my eyesight. I did a quick re-take of the situation and triple insured that nothing was wearing headgear and my initial assessment said they were cows. I got into position and they broke the creek and started heading up the embankment and I raised my iron and peered through the scope and all I see is horns. I was in complete disbelief, there was no way in hell this could be happening to me. I lowered my iron and had to have a little laugh at myself for there with 30+ head of cow elk was a buck deer. He quickly became second player as I raised my iron again and took aim on a cow. Pulled the trigger and ventilated her right through the top of the shoulders. I finally scored for the year and I took a moment to give thanks to the One responsible for my good fortune and something deep inside me tells me I was rewarded for my persistence, not that I just finally got lucky enough to stumble upon 30 head of cows.
Sorry for the long post, thanks to those of you who took time to read it, I just needed to put this down on paper so to speak.
Mike