Fathers 2013 Any Bull short story...

[crabcreekhunter]

My father and I have been dedicated hunting buddies all through my life.  We are avid backcountry mule deer hunters and never really gave much thought to elk hunting but have sporadically put in for the draws here in Washington and in 2013 he was lucky enough to draw an any bull tag.  The unit is not known for monstrous bulls but we have hunted the unit for four years with our general spike tags.  We had our game plan in place with a wall tent packed into a river bottom, as a retreat point (Hunted this area for the first few days before general season started up) and headed back into the backcountry about nine miles.   We spiked a camp at a touch over 6k in a meadow with a simple A frame and a tarp using our down bags and the horse mats to sleep on and settled in for a couple days, saw plenty of bulls from the high country but nothing bigger than 270-280" six bys.  The weather came in hard and put a foot on snow on us and with not much happening we decided to load up and work back to the unload and drop into camp #2.  On the way out descending into a river bottom a raghorn busted across the trail in front of me, I dropped my walking stick and flipped my scope covers up.  I eased down the trail and saw two cows and a young spike still feeding in the timber and I sent one through its vitals and watched him spin, I knew he was hit good and put it on him again and dropped him not 100 yards off the trail.  We quartered him up, loaded him on the horses and were on our way within the hour.  We dropped the meat off at our partners house just down the hill and headed up to camp two.  With over a week left of the season we hunted hard, everyday seeing elk and usually a few bulls everyday but nothing we wanted to harvest with a pressure relief bull on the ground.  Fast forward to two days left in the season... A storm was suppose to move into the area the day before and we woke up to blue skies and sunshine.  We were a little weary as we didn't know if the storm missed us or if it was stacking on the mountains, waiting to unleash the Kraken.  We were in store for the latter.  As the last day approached before we had to pull camp we hunted down river from camp, to an area we hadn't put any interest into before.  That morning the skies had turned dark and a snowy rain mixture was falling.  Not the most fun to hunt in but made the woods quiet for the time being.  As my father worked down the trail in front of me, he stopped and slowly popped the scope covers up and took a step forward.  At this time our mind set was if it had horns, he was going to harvest it.  I managed to see the bull bedded behind a tree and see that it had decent antler well just the one side I could see.  He sent the 150 grain partition behind the shoulder and the bull hunched in his bed and was motionless for a second.  The bull started figuring things out and got his front feet under him and another was sent into his vitals which had little effect as the bull kept getting up and then a final shot to the upper neck finished him.  We celebrated and radio'd back to camp for our partner to bring the horses down.  Not as soon as we got done with pictures and the horses tied up the Kraken was heard ripping down the valley.  For all of those who have been in a steep, timbered, river bottom in a wind storm, we both know the dangers.  We got to work as quickly as we could quartering the bull, two of us would be working on the animal and the other would be looking for incoming trees.  I have been aware the dangers of wind and trees but never fully understood the severity of what can happen.  It may sound a bit extreme and I cant do the event justice but to see trees bend over 45 degrees and whip back snapping as they swing back and catapulting 50 to 70 foot tree tops down the mountain into the bottom (where we at) from 200 yards plus up the mountain.  The spotter would yell which way to run as a tree would come and it would be an all out sprint.  The earth would shake as these thousand of pound pieces of timber would explode other trees as shrapnel as they come through the lower tree tops.  We were stuck, no place to run, no place to hide, only thing we could do was keep our minds about us.  As I loaded the last quarter on my back and headed towards the horses, which weren't having any fun either, I hear my dad say "get moving" as a big 50 foot section smashed the rib cage.  Horses are loaded and we start working up trail to camp, with the wind storm still hammering and trees across the trail it was slow going.  Made it back to camp after negotiating over 40 trees across the trail in a half mile, with only a bone saw to cut, when we had too.  Since my dad and I had backpacked in from another unload, we took the elk up to our truck.  Our partner headed back down to camp and we brought his trailer around and as far up as we could get it (snow) since there was no way he was able to make it the six miles out the bottom after the storm.  He came out in the next day and got everything situated.  I've spent many days in the backcountry alone and with partners, and that was the first time that I thought everything might not end alright.  Running a hind quarter to the horses, I distinctly remember a timber coming over my head and heading straight for my partners.  I had visions of crushed friends and sucking chest wounds, things at the time you couldn't help but think about.  I feel blessed and lucky to have things end as they did and a higher respect for the capabilities of wind.  After returning back home to moses, our hay had been cut and there was nothing left except a clear field, no clue where it went from the wind.  Reports showed of gusts over 100 mph if I remember correctly.       

[Karl Blanchard]

Thanks for sharing!  Thats a great bull

[Dan-o]

Nice!!!

Thanks for sharing.

[Mfowl]

Great bull(s)! Congrats! Glad everyone made it out OK!

[T Pearce]

Z,
PM inbound.
T

[crabcreekhunter]

Thanks everyone and T pm replied

[coachcw]

sounds like a great hunt 

[willapawapiti]

What an adventure!  Great story, great bulls!

[Eli346]

Neat story. I've been in windy timber before but never that bad. Took cahonies to stick it out. Congrats.

[Watimberghost]

What a great hunt! Incredible story and some nice animals! Mother nature can be crazy

[Spawnstar]

Great story and nice bull!!

[crabcreekhunter]

Thanks everyone, been busy lately and just made it back around to see the post! Can't wait til I pull a tag someday!

[SemperFidelis97]

Great bulls, and a great story thank you for sharing.

[4fletch]

Great story great bulls congrats

[Ridgerunner]

Crazy story, great bulls though.