Bucket List

[Elkfever]

As we arrived in Dubois, we raced against the impending rain storm to fire a couple shots from the rifles on some BLM ground, just on the outside of town.  It absolutely poured that night but we enjoyed our dinner at Noon Pizza and did some last second organizing of gear into dry bags in our motel room.  We actually got to meet our guides from Lost Creek Outfitters at Noon Pizza as were sitting at the next table over when they overheard us talking about our impending elk hunt. 

[Rainier10]

 

[Elkfever]

Friday morning was full of jitters as we met up with our outfitter at a local breakfast diner and met the other two gentlemen that we would be sharing a camp with.  Dwight and Lee were from Georgia, both in their mid 70’s and on their first elk hunt.  What a joy to share elk camp with such good guys, we would soon learn. 

On our way to the trailhead, we stopped by the local NAPA as they opened to purchase a plug in heater for the truck, hoping to be an effective substitute for a defroster.  Shout out to Jessica at NAPA who had made the last second overnight order for us the night prior.

[Elkfever]

An hour drive on a gravel road from town had us at one of the most scenic trailheads I’ve ever been to.

[Elkfever]

Loading to go.

[Sundance]

Tag

[Elkfever]

After quite a process of loading, 31 mules and mare carried us and our gear into the wilderness. 

[Elkfever]

2 1/2 hours later, we rode into camp and were greeted warmly by the camp cook, Mary.  We ate a fabulous Dutch oven dinner and fell asleep to the sound of rain on the wall tent and the occasional bells from the herd of mules orbiting around camp. 

[Elkfever]

Living the dream.

[packmule]

Well this is gonna be fun 

[Elkfever]

Opening morning of our hunt found us riding the mules up a game trail in the snow and gaining elevation to a ridge where we would eventually spot a large herd of 30+ elk across the drainage.  A large herd bull, a 330” type bull had his right side matched his left, he had about a 2 1/2’ spike on his right side.  Nevertheless, a unique and beautiful bull.  We tied up the mules and the five of us did our best to sneak through the burn into a position for dad to take a shot.  We got picked off by a few cows and the herd began to file out.  Dad ended the chess match with a clean miss as we all watched the bull not react and then follow his cows up the basin where they eventually mellowed out and began feeding again.  Dejected but still full of optimism for the day, we set up on a major vantage point and made a fire to stay warm next to. 

[Elkfever]

We watched that same herd for a couple hours until they became increasingly nervous and blew out over the top of a 11,000’ ridge.  In the haze of blanketing snow, we watched another herd of about 70 that included 6 other massive 6 pt bulls, emerge out of a hidden basin high up in the drainage.  It was one of the most majestic scenes I have ever witnessed, watching three of those giant bulls break off from the herd and skyline together as they traipsed along the snowy ridge line on their own path to sanctuary.  Wondering what had bumped all of those elk out of our canyon, we soon glassed up a sow grizzly bear with a young cub pick their way out of the same hidden basin that all of those elk had erupted from.  What a cool sight to glass my first griz.  She was so hard to spot in the rocks until she began to move through.  Her and her cub went into a patch of trees and never came back out while we sat there.  The rest of the afternoon was uneventful and we walked our mules down the mountain with some daylight to spare. 

[jstone]

Tag

[Elkfever]

Snow flurries turned to sunshine in the afternoon.

[Elkfever]

The next morning we went after another herd that we had spotted from across the canyon the morning prior.  The herd consisted of one big bull, a couple satellite bulls that had been sparring and about 10 cows that we had seen.