Well the season is over and what a crazy one this year. Went out labor day weekend and set up camp. Eight of this year. First couple days of the season were pretty good. We got into the elk everyday till the storms came in and dumped on us. I've never seen it rain so hard. Pretty crazy laying in the wall tent and having the lightning and thunder right on top of us.
A tree we had been hiking past everyday got struck by lightning was split up the middle and had huge splinters that were thrown all over the place. We ended the first week on a low note with nothing hangin.
Went back to work for 4 days then headed back up on Thursday night about 11. Got into camp at 3 am and we were right next to a couple of guys that weren't too happy about us pulling in so late. The way I looked at it was we were just a little early for the morning hunt.
unfortunately there were off duty game wardens and later busted my balls a bit about riding my UTV down a trail that I thought was open but I guess it wasn't. My bad.
Anyway, we headed up the ridge and did our normal walk and talk. About 7:30 we had a spike come into us in some pretty thick trees. He ran past my buddy and right into me at 3 yards and stopped behind a tree. I was at full draw and one more step I would have drilled him at 2 yards, he caught wind of me or saw me and turned and ran out to 11 yards. I had one opening with nothing but lungs and I drilled him with my new Hoyt Carbon Element shooting FMJ's w/ slick tricks. He was slightly quartering away and I put it in there perfectly. Went clear thru him and made one heck of a thud when it blew thru a rib. At first I thought I hit a tree or something. He ran about 5 yards past my buddy dang near running him over and made it about 50 yards before piling up. He was toast within 20 seconds. Easy blood trail to follow.
Now the hell begins! It was about 8:15 when I got to him after letting him lay for 1/2 or so. It was about 75 degrees and the bugs were horrible. I had to wear a head net to gut and quarter him. The nats bit the crap out of my hands and wrists which are now all swelled up and itching like crazy. Took me a little over an hour and I had him all bagged up and on the packs ready to go. There were three of us so we were able to pack him out in one trip. Got him down the hill and to the crik to cool the meat. Got the meat all set up and cooling and so I headed up to make a phone call to get some extra coolers cause my dad was heading up that night. I got to the top and there were two gals from the forest service putting up tape on the trail and closing it. They proceeded to tell me the whole area south of 3100 is closed and I better get out of there or I run the chance of getting a ticket. Now, according to the Cle Elum ranger district posting on 9/11/13, the areas closures were relaxed and the 3100 was open and only a select few trails and roads were closed. They had all the paperwork in front of them but were not understanding what it said. I tried to explain to them, but they were not listening. So we packed up and left after that and went down to hunt Frost. Basically those gals cost me a day of hunting in my favorite area because they were not educated properly. Turns out I was right after I tracked down the incident commander for the fire the next day. We decided to drive up the mtn on Saturday and Sunday to hunt the same area again and weren't able to find the elk. We ate tag soup on two bull tags. Out of eight guys this year only one elk, but better than none.
