Elk Hunting... Day 3

Day Three (Monday, 11/13/08)
Broc and I slept in a little, because our plan was to go up where Bill had shot his elk the day before, and wait for them to cross the ridge. It was obvious from the trails there that they crossed regularly. Bill had seen his elk around 8:00 am, well after sun rise, so we planned to be there just before sun rise, and wait.
We hiked up the steep hill, and got to the top of the ridge just in time to see about 10 elk crossing where Bill had harvested his the day before. Alas, we were just about 10 minutes to late. We spooked them, and most ran off. One bull waited behind some trees for about 10 minutes, but we waited too. Finally, he bolted from the trees, and through the clearing, but not long enough for us to get a shot off… We decided to sit and watch, in case another group tried to cross, but all we saw was a coyote, using the same trail as the elk, but headed the opposite direction. We hiked around, dejectedly all morning, without seeing another elk.
That afternoon, we went back to the pond, and sat to watch the hillside and the pond. We had thoroughly disturbed the elk in the last couple of days, and they decided they didn’t need to drink from that pond today, so we never saw a thing…