Day One (Saturday, 11/11/08)
We arrived at our hunting area Friday night late. We met up with a hunting “outfitter” or guide who also has hunting rights to the land. He had been talking about working as a team (with him and his hunters) to get our elk. We figured, since he’s a guide, and knows where the elk are, we might as well team up with him. So, when we got there Friday night, he told us that he had seen a “pile” of elk right near our cabin just that evening, so we decided to hunt just up the hill from our cabin the next morning (Saturday). We woke up early and had hiked up the hill before the sun came up. We didn’t find a great place to sit and “glass” for elk, so we ended up hiking around all morning, and seeing absolutely no fresh sign of elk the entire time. Broc and I saw no mammals that morning other than two other hunters, and a porcupine… That’s when I came to realize that the guide who supposedly was “helping” us was actually getting us out of his way so we wouldn’t disturb his hunt.
Around noon, we decided to drive around another part of our hunting area to see what it was like. We couldn’t find the right road, so we stopped at a house. It turned out to be the house of another hunting outfitter who also had hunting rights to our land… He and the other guide had been having somewhat of a feud, so he told us exactly where the huge herd of elk had been, and told us where and when to go there. This place also happened to be the place we were trying to find on the map, so it confirmed where we were going to hunt that afternoon.
We headed for the cabin, and decided to go hunting around 2:30. So, that afternoon, we arrived at our hunting spot, and sat in various locations to “glass” the meadow, pond, and ridge that were in our view. It was raining, and hailing, and very cold. I was about ready to give up and go back to the cabin, when I looked about 700-800 yards away on the ridge, and saw 15 elk grazing, and slowly working their way down the hill towards us. My buddy, Broc, had an elk call, and was calling to them, and they were answering, but from his vantage point, he couldn’t see them… Anyway, I had watched them for almost an hour, when he and I stalked up to a closer vantage point, but still not close enough to shoot, and the elk were still hidden above a small grove of aspen trees. It was close to getting dark, and the elk were still not down to the meadow, so we decided to go up after them. The brush was much thicker than it appeared from our previous vantage point, and locating the elk was somewhat difficult. We took a course toward the right, which happened to be the thicker brush. Our friend Bill, who was still sitting on another hill, and was watching us, could see the elk to the left, but we didn’t have our radios turned on, so he couldn’t relay the information.
Anyway, we found some elk, but they were in a really brushy area. I took 1 shot at a cow elk, who was only about 50 yards away, but was behind a bunch of brush. She didn’t jump, of flinch, or anything… she just stood there for a few seconds, and then bolted off. I didn’t think I had hit her, but I tried to find a blood trail just in case. It was impossible since the ground was so wet with the rain that had been falling. We continued to stalk the elk, and Broc would call to them, and they would call back. We had bulls bugling on both sides of us, and cows all around as well. We saw a few more elk up the side of the hill about 200 yards, but never got a good shot at them. It started to get dark, and we had left out lights down at the bottom of the hill, so we hurried down before it got dark, knowing that we would come back there the next day.
While all of this was happening, by the way, the unfriendly guide, and all of his men were hanging around trying to pick up our scraps, and they were not pleased at all, that we had invaded their prime hunting territory. This only added to the euphoria I felt at having stalked my first elk!
