The long story:
Saturday I arrive at the area I intend to hunt about 45 minutes before daylight to find the gate I locked. Well the gate I intended to walk in behind is only about 1 mile up the road, so I decide to just park and head off on foot. Well I saw a few does and a few deer that I only saw tails of as it was getting light. I worked my way up in the area I intended to go and saw a couple more does. I hoofed it all the way to the patch of timber I had hunted a bull a few weeks earlier during the archery season, but it was already like 12:30. So, I jump into the timber and make it about 300 yards and on to the top of the ridge and the whole hillside erupts. I had walked into their bedding area without knowing it. It was my first time to this part of the hill. Anyway elk going away from me on my right, on my left, and behind me. I didn't see a one. I picked one of the trails that was heading the way I intended to go and followed it up one side and down the other and up the next side where I lost the trail. I gave up as it was getting late and decided to exit the other side of the timber on the upper road. Well I reached the road and decided I better head back to the pickup. It was now 3 and I had 8 miles to cover before dark at 7. I glassed the clear cuts and thinned areas and kicked up a few whitetail. I came across a group of mule deer about 2/3 of the way down the hill and had 4 - 2 points in the mix, but nothing worth shooting. So I make it to the main road and here comes a truck bombing down the road, and they were nice enough to stop and I asked how they got in, because the lower gate was shut this morning. He said the upper gate was open. So, I continued on walking down the road since I was almost back to the truck just in time to see them coming back up, because, you guessed it lower gate still shut.
