Here is the link to the article on Utahwildlife.net "Wasatch Moose Moment" what do you guys think of rifle hunting in Big Cottonwood Canyon ?
As many that frequent this site know, I helped a friend (Dan) that is in remission with cancer on his moose hunt a couple weeks back. Dan had gotten out and scouted about 10 times before the hunt, and although he is doing better stamina-wise, he was still limited to about 1.5 miles off the road. Man...cancer sucks, and not just because of the limitations that it places on hunting. What a rotten disease! Kudos to anyone that has ever had to deal with it.
I'm posting this after getting Dan's approval to do so. I wanted to, most of all, as a thank you to everyone that was willing to share information to help out with the hunt. A big thanks to any and all who did so!
Anyway, I had told Dan that I would keep an ear to the ground and also get out the week before to do some scouting. Dan got a hold of a couple e-bikes and did a few 10-14 miles trips on the bike up Millcreek. He found a couple bulls he liked, but nothing that he wanted to hang a tag on early in the hunt. His daughter had actually got pics of a really nice bull up Lambs late summer, but that bull disappeared not to be seen again. All I could turn up in a couple trips up Millcreek and Big Cottonwood were some cows and calves in the 3 trips I made the week before the hunt. All in all, the moose were around, but...
So, the Friday night before the opener, I decided to run up to Wasatch State Park on a tip and asked Dan if he wanted to come along. He gladly accepted and we were off. About halfway up the canyon there was a "moose convention" on the side of the road, so having a moose tag, we gladly accepted the tip and pulled over too. He was a good one, and Dan kept asking me, "how do I NOT shoot that moose? Would I be stupid not to shoot that moose"? My response was, "it's your 27 years Dan. You do what makes you happy, and I'll support that 100%". The fact that the moose was only 125 yards off the road seemed to complicate the equation
somewhat. Who WOULDN'T shoot a good moose that close to the road?
We watched the moose for a good hour, then shot up and over the top and dropped into Wasatch SP. No moose sighted, so headed back to where we had seen the bull, and he was still there lounging in the willows. Since Dan was unsure of whether he was going to shoot the bull, we made the plan that his brother would come and find him the next morning while Dan and I headed up Millcreek on e-bikes. Opening morning came with rain and cooler temps, and I mentioned to Dan that it was going to be a wet day. He wasn't in the mood to fight the wet and suggested that we just hang out in the upper parking lot until it broke and then head up. Not wanting to just sit around in a truck, I suggested that since it was supposed to rain until at least 9am, why not head back up Big Cottonwood and put eyes on that bull again? Dan liked that idea, so we turned around and got up BC just after light.
Guess where Mr. Bullwinkle was...about a quarter mile lower on the creek, right off the side of the road, and now he was hanging with a smaller bull too! He literally walked up onto the shoulder pullout about 10 feet from us on his way down the creek. This bought him a few more hours as he was actually too close to a relay shack or "structure" only 200 yards away. Once he had moved down to a meadow, both moose bedded down in a meadow on the south side of the creek, and the tourist attraction began...think Yellowstone. Cars were slamming to a stop. Kids and families running back and forth. Budding and established photographers with crazy telephoto lenses that could probably see the zits on an elephants arse on the moon! Brazillian tourists...you name name it, and they were there. This lasted until about 12:30pm with Dan, myself, and another friend that we'd picked up mingling in and out of the crowd. I was asked at least 3 times if I was moose hunting. My response was "no, but I have a friend that does have a moose tag". I just didn't tell them that the friend was standing next to me.
About 12:30, the sun finally started to peek out from the clouds, and it started to warm up. This finally got the bull up, and he started to move into some pines to bed out of the sun. This was our chance now (Oh yeah, Dan had decided by this time that the bull was going to go home with him), so I stayed back to watch a couple escape routes while Dan and his other buddy headed up to take bullwinkle down. After about an hour, I had seen nothing happen, no shots, then the DWR showed up. Some lady had complained, and they were just up investigating. After exchanging some info, we had a nice 15 minute chat, and then they wished us luck an took off to investigate another complaint up the Lake Blanche trail.
After another hour, I was starting to wonder what was going on, and fired off a couple texts. First the response was that the little bull had them pinned, then another a short time later that they were 30 yards from the big bull. A little after that, all that they could see were his antlers as he was bedded taking a nap. Dan's friend, an accomplished hunter himself, started to get ansty. Apparently the bull was less than 10 yards away, and Dan had a rifle. Perhaps, he half jokingly said, he could let Dan borrow his knife and he could walk up and stab the thing?? Anyway, the decision was finally made to shoot through some light brush, and with one shot to the neck with a 7mm 08, the bull was down, and never even made it out of his bed. Now the work begins...
Calls were made and shortly 5 or 6 friends and family showed up to help loading
the moose out. It helped that he was less than 250 yards from the creek, and to further ease our pain and suffering, he had died on a completely flat piece of real estate, so there was no tying off need to keep him from rolling down the mountainside as we broke him down. There were also a nice lateral and vertical trail on the mountain down to the creek, so all in all, it was a pretty "easy" affair getting him out after 3 hours breaking him down and caping him out for a shoulder mount. We made it back to the truck by 6pm and home before 7.
All in all a pretty good hunt for a guy that had some really crappy stuff hit him the past 3 years. The moose ended up going 44 wide, and his fronts are awesome. And what about those 5' plus backstraps??? While there are certainly bigger moose on the mountain, this one will get smiled upon for years while reliving the memories. Well done Dan - after 27 years it all came together in a day!
