My Brothers Bull - Elk season 2016

[robertsjd]

Well done man . Amazing bull and amazing background to the story I loved following along man congrats to you

[Karl Blanchard]

I apologize for slacking on this thread.  I've typed this thing out a dozen times but every time I end up starting over.  This is more than a hunting story.  This is a chapter of my life I have to close.  There are things in life that you hang onto and half expect that you will never have to let it go.  The dream of filling a washington tag for Aaron was one of the ways that I have held onto him.  Now that I accomplished that dream I'm left grasping for something else.  Its hard.  I think I have a final copy here so I'll have the wife proof read it and I'll post tonight sometime

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

Cant wait!

[Timberstalker]

Wow - Awesome Karl.

[coachcw]

It's a chapter buddy . nothing wrong with turning the page and still holding onto memories and  the dreams .

[Rainier10]

Take all the time you need. None of us can understand your situation. Good luck as you work through the process. Looking forward to reading the story when you are ready.

[buddy01]

WOW!

[Coastal_native]

 I can't even imagine.  I'm not even sure what emotion is appropriate.

[Fish4Fun]

We talked a little about this chapter with you Friday evening, take all the time you need to tell it. You set a goal to do this and it came out as planned. I know Aaron, would be happy with your efforts. You are an awesome brother and it shows in the way you live your life and honor your brother.

[Karl Blanchard]

Its a bit long winded but there will be pictures to follow so stay tuned

[Karl Blanchard]

The plan was simple.  Pack in, camp high, and rain death from above!  I wanted to hunt bulls that I could see first.  By glassing feeding areas and transition corridors we were hoping to find a solid bull and then decide an approach from there.  The only thing that I wasn’t confident in going into this hunt was my ability to field judge a bull on the fly and especially when he is 10 yards breathing fire at me.  If I could see him first, then I felt I could identify him during that moment of truth.  I had to kill a man-sized bull.  There was no other acceptable outcome……

Work couldn’t end quick enough on Friday!  The truck was loaded and the guys were already setting base camp!  As we all converged on Friday you could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air!  We tossed our extra gear in the wall tent, loaded our bows and packs in the jeep and kicked up some major dust on the way up to the trail head!  We had about a 4 mile hike to get to where we wanted to camp that night and light was fading fast.  We weren’t done setting spike camp till after 10pm and with a full day of work and a solid hike under our belt that day, sleep came fast.  Up before the sun, we were glassing bulls right off the bat.  Nothing that looked worthy of a freedom arrow but it felt good to know there were bulls around.  A full day of hiking and calling produced little rut activity though. 

Day two was much more eventful however.  We went a different direction from camp and not too long into the morning struck a bugle.  With a bit of glass work we spotted a 320 class bull feeding by himself.  It was very tempting to make a play at this bull as we felt he was very killable but he just wasn’t quite what we were after.  By mid day we had struck several different bulls but opted not to make plays on them due to location and wind.  As we worked around a ridge we got a lone bull to sound off.  It was a very half hearted bugle but the follow up bugle was a lot more intense!  Before we really had a chance to get set Corey had him in my lap!  He called him on the wrong side of the tree though so there I was at full draw with a shooter bull 10 yards from me with a giant snag blocking his body.  It wasn’t long until the wind ended our stand off.  After that we decided that this was going to be our last night at camp and that we were going to pull out and come in from a different trailhead that would put us in a better position on some new country we wanted to look at.  That night it got wild on top of that mountain!  Our windbreak didn’t work too well when the wind decided to come out of the east with a vengeance!  With it came pounding rain as well!  The next day we did a huge hike through a drainage we wanted to hit before we left.  It soon went from hike to rock climbing in a hurry and I think I can speak for Corey as well when I say I won’t be hiking the east end of that drainage anytime soon!

Back at base camp, a hot shower and a belly full of Chris’s gourmet cooking had us feeling soft.  I didn’t want to pull off the mountain.  Even though it was the right call to move locations, I felt like I had quit.  Camp is always a fun time with good friends but my mind and my focus was on the mountain.  Aaron’s favorite quote kept echoing in my head. “Fortune favors the bold”.  We needed to be back out there.

Early wake up and we were off!  We hit the trailhead perfectly right at shooting hours so we could hunt our way in.  Almost immediately we got a bull to fire off!  Soon after another fires off!  As we close the gap, the other bulls shut up and then there is only one bugle commanding the mountain!  We knew the elk were moving down into the bottoms every morning so we knew we had to close the gap fast, stay ahead of them, and make sure we were below them so the thermals would work in our favor.  As we closed in, Corey spotted cows towards the top of the ridge, but as we got closer, they got closer!  Finally we had to make a stand.  As Corey began to call, the bull got more and more impatient.  This was not the right spot though and Corey signaled to me to move again.  This time we were where he wanted us and he sounded his approval with a bugle that made the hair on my neck stand at attention!  He was coming!

I knew I had to draw early as he would be able to see me by the time I could see him, so when I heard his glunking right out of sight I pulled the string on Aaron’s Hoyt and anchored it to my face just like I had done thousands of times before.  Before I know it I am staring at a bull elk at 20 yards………through a big vine maple!  No shot again!  All I can see are his huge tops and big mass!  I don’t know how long I held my bow but with a 55 pound pack on my back, it felt like hours.  I knew I couldn’t let down though or this encounter would be over.  FINALLY he backed out and I was able to let down.  He wanted to see this cow though and soon I caught his antlers below me trying to circle us and get our wind!  Again I came to full draw but again he backed out.  A big log diverted his approach.  Around the log he goes and again his coming my way.  I draw as he passes a big fir but again hangs up.  I held and I held and I held until my arm was literally about to give out when he starts to move!  Lungs empty, halo up, anchor the pin……….

This was my moment of truth.  All the prep and all the focus came down to these few seconds.  Fifteen days of scouting.  Countless grind sessions with a weighted pack.  A thousand arrows shot from my bow.  A friend who would follow me to the pits of hell and who had sacrificed and prepared to support my mission.  A whole community of hunters who were supporting me, encouraged me, and keeping me honest.  Until this moment, none of that had put pressure on me, only focus.  Now the weight of it all bore down on me with the weight of the mountain I was standing on.  It was not enough to distract me from what needed to be done though. A soft “mew” from my diaphragm brought him to a halt with his leg forward.  As he put the breaks on I was already almost through my shot process.  “Pull…Pull…Pull” I recite as I pull against the back wall and squeeze pressure on my release. The shot broke as smooth as if I was flinging freedom arrows at foam in the back yard and the bright green light disappeared into his side!  Tight to the shoulder and mid body……

Collapsing under the weight of the world at the shot, I turned to Corey and gave him the thumbs up.  As he approached though, doubt crept into my mind.  Did I really see a perfect shot?  Or did I see my arrow deflect on a small limb I couldn’t see and fall short?  Corey was confident he heard the hit and that I really did see what I knew I saw.  But I was not convinced.  Seconds later though my questions were answered by the sound of a bull elk taking his last breathes!

All the emotions that had been suppressed by intense focus and drive came barreling at me like a freight train!  I simply wept into my hands.  I couldn’t control it.  I didn’t want to control it.  I was relieved!  I was happy!  I was grateful! I was angry and I was sad.  Not that I had taken a life, but that Aaron wasn’t there to see it.  Angry because if he was alive he surely would have been there with me.  Angry because I had to fulfill his dream for him. 

We decided to give him a bit of time even though we knew he was dead.  I grabbed phones and climbed out of the drainage to find some service and call in the cavalry.  After I sent out a group SOS with instructions, I made two very important phone calls.  First was to my little brother.  He desperately wanted to be there for this hunt but the life of an Army Infantry Officer doesn’t allow for random elk hunts.  I barely got the words “I got Aaron’s bull” out of my lips and I was a puddle of tears again.  My brief call with my dad resulted in the same. 

With my call for help sent out, I dove back down the ridge to find our bull.  Corey had attempted to find my arrow and find first blood but turned up nothing.  Once again my panic set in despite hearing his final bellows.  With elk tracks everywhere, we opted to each take a likely path.  I didn’t make it 30 yards down the hill when Corey yells to me, “hey you want to see a dead bull with huge mass!?!?!”  I went tearing through the brush and there he was!  He was everything I had came to find and more.  I was truly humbled by the beast that laid at my feet. 

After a quick picture session it was time to snap back to reality and tackle the task that lay in front of us.  We had a really big animal on the side of a steep hill that had a date with some coolers and some ice.  Since we had all our spike camp gear on us, Corey elected to load it all in his pack and hike it back out to the trailhead and then lead the pack mules (our friends) back in when they got there, while I broke the elk down.  This worked well except in our rush to get going we forgot a key maneuver.  Get the dang upside down elk turned around and off the dang tree!  I’ve never worked so hard to debone an animal in my life!  It took me twice as long as it should have and by the time I was done I was absolutely spent!

Chris and my buddy Jeremie were the first on scene.  Chris being the smart dude he is, grabbed Corey’s truck which had a dirt bike in the back!  So while I boned, Jeremie hauled loads up to the main ridge where Corey met him and rode the loads out the rest of the way.  Almost all the loads that is.  There was absolutely zero possibility that all my elk was going to get carted off the mountain by someone else’s power.  I trained all summer for a reason.  So in the Kifaru went a big sack of meat and on top of that the head and rack.  This load was getting walked out.  I’m embarrassed to say this climb took a bit longer than it should have but I was pretty spanked from breaking the elk down and also part of me didn’t want it to end so soon.  Every time I got to a vantage point I had to stop and just drink it all in.  The smell, the sounds, the sights.  I wanted to remember it all.

As I crest the second to last hill, there sat all the guys.  All these men who prepared for this in their own way and who were stead fast in their commitment to see me succeed.  I don’t know if it was their heckling or my own overwhelming desire to finish strong for them, for me, and for everyone following, but all of a sudden I heard the voice of my friend Scott Salmon echoing in my head from the NWMC.  “Lets run it in!  Finish strong!”  So that’s what I did!  I choked up on my trekking poles and dug deep!  I ran as fast as I could with a pack that weighed 2/3 my body weight!  When I crossed that imaginary finish line and Chris pealed me out of my pack, I collapsed on the ground!  We had done it!  We climbed the mountain to find a mature bull to honor the dream of a man who gave everything so we could live our own dreams and we did it! 

As I reflect back on the hunt, and everything leading up to it, I am reminded of how truly blessed I am.  I have good men that I am lucky enough to call my friends, who will walk through fire to see me succeed.  I have a loving family who push me to be a better man every day.  I live in a place where I am free to pursue the things that bring me happiness without the fear of evil taking it all away.  And lastly, I had the honor of calling Aaron Blanchard my big brother.  I was blessed with 30 years of memories with him, from childhood adventures, to hunting adventures, and life adventures.  Although he was taken from us far too soon, I am grateful for the time I was given.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his own life for his friends.”

[Karl Blanchard]

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