clearwater150
Member
- Messages
- 75
My daughter (36) and I (63) hunted elk in Unit 22. I had a great bow season and was just tagging along. Right up to the end of bow season and one week before the Oct 25 opening two mature bulls, two (getting mature)other bulls and at least one raghorn occupied a canyon along with somewhere around 15 cows. This canyon is only accessible by foot but there are numerous old logging roads that lace the surrounding area and access the main ridge line....all of which are closed on October 1 to motorized travel. They were open during archery season and I drove some and walked others. I checked with the Forest Service to make sure I was understanding their travel map (which is too general to really determine when a road closes) correctly and to make sure that the roads were closed. So...one hour before daylight, up the ridge we go. No headlamps, slow, picking our way along and up the steep slopes across several of these roads to find 16 other hunters who had accessed the area on the closed roads with their ATVs. We pushed on, crossing the above the canyon on the main ridge to get into position, entered the canyon to a glassing poine, but nary an elk to be seen. The second day, we avoided the ATV carnival and hunted the canyon using a second, more difficult route to get onto the opposite ridge at daylight. As it was just getting light enough to glass the opposite side, we could clearly hear the ATVs on the roads to the South and high on the main ridge above us. We didn't see an elk and we didn't hear a single shot in that entire area in the two days we hunted. I don't know if the noise of the ATVs moved elk into the timber before it was light enough to see them or not on that second day. Normally, I would just head in to the timber and work the timber, but the opening week this year was so noisy that tactic was simply not an option. When it did get light and we could glass the far ridge we counted six riders buzzing out toward us. Who has the magic wand to cure stupid? Don't these folks understand that the very thing they seek....the secret spot where elk stand around munching in the open at daylight....they destroy by driving to it? Gah......and not a one of the "hunters" we saw on the first day were a day over 40 or 45. What a bunch of limp-wristed bedwetters. I wish the State would take a stand on this. Hunting is big business in Idaho and critical to many of our small communities. One would think that there would be political support to create some substantial penalty for these slob hunters that so negatively affect our hunting opportunity. Now...before anyone jumps me about being anti ATV...I own one, two motorcycles, and a snowmobile. I love my motors but I love my hunting even more and I sure know when and where to use the motors. How about a one-strike penalty. When a rider is caught operating a motorized vehicle on a closed road or area (motorcycle, pickup, ATV, you name it) it is forfeited and sold with the proceeds going to wildlife management. That would get those "hunters" attention.
