This is not a happy story:
When I was a much younger man my friends and I would backpack in 13 miles to our honey hole. The trail has not been maintained in several years and the last time I went in there it took us two days just to reach camp as the trail was in such bad shape. I found another trail that got us into the same area in 7 miles but ALOT of switchbacks for the first 2.5 miles.
I had a friend go up to our selected trailhead on the opener to see how many rigs were there. There were none
we loaded up and headed out on Tuesday. We reached the trailhead and still there was no one there. This area holds big non-typicals so I was jacked!
We hit the trail and found that the trail was as steep as I thought. It was wet from rain the day before as well. We had two riding horses and two pack horses. About 45 minutes into our accent one pack horse slipped off the trail and started rolling with all of our gear. We thought for sure we were shooting a horse. We scrambled down after her and found her about 150 feet below. She was OK. I was able to get her packs off and all the gear was fine too. After getting her back up to the trail we hauled all the gear up too. We loaded her back up and started out again. After another half mile, down she went again! Same thing...rolling down the hill, feet up!
She survived that one too without any injuries. We got her packed back up and with frayed nerves all around we turned around and walked them all out. I have never been so frustrated on a hunt.
Some of you know, I did not hunt it last year either because if a new baby boy and I was sure looking forward to this one.
Next year I guess. I still have Idaho and Montana so not all is lost.
