My girlfriend and I were lucky enough in the draw in ID to draw bull tags. We took a trip down to scout some areas I had marked on my maps to see if they are feasible to do on foot

what looks doable on a map becomes a reality when you see it and say "uh..no way" as if any of you have hunted that area know what I am talking about.
We arrived at camp later than expected thursday evening after replacing all the tires on the Jeep

As I get out of the Jeep I think I hear a elk cow call..then I hear it again there are elk 100 yards from us and there must be atleast 60-80 head of elk in 3 seperate groups!

there is non stop cow calling, bulls bugling the whole time I set up camp, cut firewood, radio on and they would not leave they stayed the whole time we were there.
The next day I decided to go check out a ridge that I had marked to see what it looked like, loaded up the packs and headed in, got about half mile in to a saddle as Im telling my gf this is a great spot to see animals moving thru I see movement running thru the burned timber at about 100 yards..what the is that? throw up binos..its a huge white wolf with a radio collar! theres another and another!! :yike:6 in total they move up the hill as we are in awe more than anything...I remember I have my vid cam in my pack! dang it, So I try to head them off and it get 2 of them at 75 yards and cam didnt turn on in time to film them. They get above us and start howling.
Next day finds us walking into another area where people have cut a quad trail in the mt side to connect to a closed fs road..as we are nearing the road I see what looked like an elk laying in the road..no way its gotta be a rock..nope its an elk

big fork horn..then I realize why its laying there..there is a salt block for the range cattle...as I walk up to the the block I see somehthing red..its blood! tons of it..its on the salt block there was enough to follow a trail...it had to be from that fork bull as he walked right where the blood was, but we watched him for quite awhile he looked healthy and fine.

We continued into the area checking it out, found a cattle water tank and I blew on my Phelps call..the woods erupted! we had elk running at us! my gf has never experienced any of this with elk..called a cow and spike to 5 yards..never saw us and continued on. Then a bull sounded off..I think shes hooke on elk

Later that night took us to a road where we can glass alot of area on the way we saw a huge 6 pt bull with 7 cows run across the road. Finally get to an area to glass and there are elk on almost every open hill..this happened at every spot we stopped..this is what elk hunting is like

spent to long chasing elk in WA
Also saw a 160" 4x4 muley and a 145" 5x5 whitey at 6,800 ft
Some pics



A taste of a local IPA

getting guns dialed in..As you can see its quite smoky
