I am sorry for the delay on getting this post started. I have been trying to get unpacked today while also trying to help prep our rental house for sale so I haven't had a chance to post much. I will start the write up now and add more as I can.
My hunt started leaving my house in Cashmere around 8:00 pm on September 29th with the goal to get over to the unit, sleep a couple hours and be ready to start scouting on the 30th at daybreak. I arrived at a place I dropped a pin to pull in and crash out around 1:30 am and tried to sleep a little but not much sleep happened. About 45 minutes before daylight I headed off to a pin that we wanted to check out and got there just as it was cracking first light. It was drizzling rain and foggy so I threw on my jacket and headed out into the clearing to do some glassing and calling. I didn't end up seeing any moose but did see one fresh set of tracks which was a good sign. Back to the truck I went and headed farther up the mtn to do some more glassing and exploring. Not much farther up the road I stopped to glass across the valley and spotted the rump and legs of a moose. It was in the corner of a clearcut and I couldn't see the front half so I waited a few minutes then tried to pull forward but never could lay eyes on it again. Off I went up the road and that is where I ran into a gate that I didn't know was there which was a bit of a predicament because I was pulling a trailer with my side by side on it. I ended up having to unload the side by side, take the trailer off the pickup to spin it around, hook it back up then reload the side by side which wasn't what I was hoping for but made for a good memory. Heading back down the road I stopped at the same spot to see if I could turn that moose up again and it wasn't there so I rolled down the road. About 100 yards down the road I looked over the edge and there was a cow standing there just staring at me about 150 yards below. I sat there for a while to see if she had a bull with her but she finally meandered off and no bull was following. During the time I was watching her, I glassed across the valley and saw a cow bedded directly on top of the a ridge. I was pretty stoked to be seeing multiple cows along with seeing fresh tracks all within a half mile of each other. I spent a few more hours driving around before heading to another part of the unit where I had planned to camp and got camp all set. From there, I headed out exploring more but no moose were seen or heard for the day. Just as I pulled into camp, 92XJ rolled in and we came up with a plan for opening morning.
