My first elk after moving to Idaho, I had seen elk out on a far ridge previously, met another hunter at the top of the mountain and we were talking about how there always seemed to be elk on that ridge, but neither of us was excited to go after them, he headed off in another direction and I settled in waiting for the fog to clear, just as it starts to clear I hear a far off bugle from that distant ridge, I glass and spot a bull and cow on the skyline and then I hear a shot, I continue watching as elk begin pouring over the top, eventually there are about 300 elk spread out over a distance of about 1/2 mile along the ridge. At that point I couldn’t resist the temptation anymore I just went for it, dove off the ridge I was on into the creek bottom, up and over the end of the next 2 ridges and just as I started to climb THE ridge, I hear shots ring out again, then I hear cows talking and they start coming over the ridge right at me. First group has a spike and I let him walk, second group I see has a bull, I look at him through the scope and see branch antlers and let him have it. Now I have an elk down solo, 6 miles from my own vehicle and 3 miles from the nearest road. I boned him out and took 1/3 of the meat and the head just as it was starting to get dark, I decided I was heading in the most direct route to the road which was straight up a creek bottom, there was a trail but it was faint and I lost it several times in the dark as it seemed to zig zag back and forth across the creek. I think I crossed that creek 6 or 8 times before I stumbled into some guys camp and one of them gave me a ride to my truck. The next day I went back for the other 2 bags of meat and it was pouring rain and about 35 degrees and all I had at the time was cotton shirt and jacket and jeans and no waterproof boots. I learned a lot from that whole experience.
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