HEY!!! That's me!!!
My first post here. Thank you to my son for all of his help. My hunting buddy for life! I couldn't have taken my first elk without him. And I may not have taken my first elk without the help of the members of this forum. THANK YOU ALL!
I drew the tag with 6 points. Not bad. I had mostly been putting in for ghost points and let the odds try to play out for my son and a hunting buddy. My hunting buddy Todd got a nice cow last year on his special permit. This was my year for actually trying for the tag. Lo and behold, I GOT THE TAG!
I planned to put the maximum effort into the hunt, I owed it to myself. Todd had planned to be there the whole hunt, but some unforseen issues at work came up before the hunt so he would have to miss the first week. And then, the worst news yet came up for both of us during the hunt, the murder of a colleague, Officer Tim Brenton of the Seattle PD (May God Rest His Soul, and may the puke who did it burn in $*^%). Todd would have to miss most of the second week too.
Camp was set up and the hunt was on. We usually camp off Hutchins Road in the LT Murray area. We also usually stay close to camp and hunt on foot right out of camp. I saw plenty of deer and more cows than I had in previous years in our immediate hunting area, but no bulls. Tracked a few bulls for sure in the snow (knew they were bulls from the tracks and pee patterns in the snow) but never caught up to them.
To tell you the truth, I would have taken any bull with that tag, you see in 7 different years of elk hunting I had never shot one. I would always see plenty of elk, but I either didn't have a cow permit or never saw a spike in this spike only area.
So my son gets on this forum and asks if anyone had been seeing bulls in the Manastash and LT Murray area and asked for help and suggestions on where to look. Many folks spoke up and gave some pointers (Again, thank you). We looked at maps and decided to try a spot that looked and sounded good. It just so happened that a guy I ran into at the gate off Watt Canyon had also suggested this area.
The rest of the story has already been told by my son's first post. 12th day of the hunt and an elk was down. Five hours of packing and an hour drive back to camp. The meat was hanging and we were admiring the rack. Oops! Forgot a backpack!
Made the trip back to the area and recovered the pack and then back to camp for a great dinner (dinners are always better when you have an animal hanging in camp).
Todd made it up to help down some adult beverages around the campfire and then to help pack up camp. Brent made it up there just to look at the rack and to help pack up camp. Thanks to both of you for your help! (and Rick too!)
And now that I've got my first post here on this site, I think you'll be hearing more of my two cents about some of the issues. I also hope to repay the favors by giving others some advice about where to hunt in the future!
