Well I got my elk...and I'm very happy. I started off this season with aspirations of a 6x6. In the last 3 years I have killed a 3x4 and a 5x5 in the same area and figured this would be the year I would hold out for a big boy.
Ok...now for the rest of the story! After a 4 mile hike in to spike camp, our party was welcomed by the worst mosquitoes I had ever seen, let alone hunted in. It was hot and I decided to pack in my "perforated camo"....not a good choice, nor was Deet that was not 100%. Made it 2 days in spike camp until we decided to hike back to base, gear up in heavy thick camo, get some real Deet and pick up a some Benadril for the 500 or so bites I endured. Back up to spike, and ready to dig in. As most of you know, both the weather and moon phase made things tough. We all saw elk the first week, some nice bulls, had our obvious blown chances, though overall hunting was tough. The elk movement was basically the first 3 hours in the am, with sporadic bugles at best. I'm sure most of the rutting activity was happening at night.
On the 7th day I made my way into possibly the thickest vine maple i think i could find and found abundant fresh sign. I cow called and got a growl back up wind from me. I thought this bull may have been by himself and would try to wind me, so i kept working down the thicket, however I soon found that if I was going to continue in this direction i was going to basically need to get on my hands and knees. I proceed on to the point of basically getting stuck and then that's when it happened. In a matter of seconds a heard of about 25 animals descended upon me and i was right in the middle of the heard. I could make out the heard bull at about 15 yards....and he was huge, though there was now way in hell i could even draw my bow, not to mention my pack was stuck in-between some maples. I small spike then walked directly towards me and came within 3 yards....cows were every where...so here i am stuck in the middle of a heard, knees shaking with adrenaline and about to have a heart attack. I remember thinking if i dint get unstuck and move i will never have a chance, so i lunged and pushed my way about 5 yards. The elk at this point began running everywhere and it was mayhem, luckily for me there were still elk upwind that didn't know what was going on. Once free 3 more elk came into range and i saw i had a small window of about 6 inches and a good vital shot on a cow. I knocked, drew back and took a 10 yard shot. The cow maybe ran 20 yards if that and piled up. I ended up with the only elk taken this year from our party. Who knows, maybe if i stuck to my guns I may have had another crack at that bull, or maybe i go empty handed, all I know now is I'm pretty gratefull just to have the opportunity i did.
Pics are from spike camp, elk, what i was shoot in and meat back at spike camp. Pack out was pretty good, maybe 5 miles max and all down hill.
