Having grown up on the coast of washington hunting elk most of my life I was bound and determined to help my buddy harvest his first elk during MF. With a little bit of luck and hard work we were able to make that happen Friday morning. We hunted hard for most of the day Thursday trying to find elk that we knew were in the area, but had yet to leave any fresh sign for us. We stayed behind close gates going cross country through the timber and using old abandoned logging roads to cover as much ground as possible, finally we found fresh sign and got a general idea of what direction the elk were heading. We started to head back to the truck to take a different angle on another gated road system...about two hundred yards from getting to the truck we were discouraged to hear a gun shot just down the road from where we were parked. We drove a couple hundred yards down the road to find a man and his wife had just shot a bull out of a heard standing in the middle of a fresh clearcut just off the mainline (no doubt the elk who left the sign we were seeing, keep in mind this is one of only a few small fresh clearcuts in most of the GMU). The wife was standing on the side of the road talking to a park ranger who happened to be driving by...we didn't want to stop and chat because we didn't want our frustration to take away from the special moment of the man who'd just harvested an elk. We noticed that another guy had just took off down a gated road that the elk were inevitably headed toward, so we kept driving aimlessly...venting our frustration to each other.
After driving around for another 30 minutes we decided to turn around and try to come in at a different angle in hopes that someone would send the elk our way. On our way we ran into the park ranger and he waved us down to tell us that there were more legal bulls in the heard according to the guy who shot the bull...he also gave us advice as to which way to go after them. We hurried back in the direction of where we were parked when we heard the gun shot origanally...passing by the guy and his wife who were still dressing out the bull. About a quarter mile further down the road we came around the corner to see the elk standing in the middle of the road...they took off in a hurry and we eased in behind them. It was getting close to dark so we chose to investigate which way they were going, but back off until the next morning. Amazingly enough these elk had doubled back and tricked all the other hunters and didn't even leave a trace of sign where they crossed the road...I knew we'd have them all to ourselves the following morning.
The next morning we snuck about a half mile down a gated road knowing that the elk would probably be in this brushy stand of reprod sourounded by old growth (thank you google earth). We were right! as we started to hear the sound of elk slowly moving through the reprod. We were trying to strategize about how to get in close when we heard about 10 gun shots a mile or two away...surprisingly the elk started to move off at a decent pace, so we slowly worked our way around in front of them as they moved in to a patch of leave trees. We knew we had to make a move so I sent my buddy around to the front of the heard where I knew they would be heading through a good opening. I got behind them and started to head up the rear making them nervous, but not spooking them altogether...they started to pick up the pace. I could tell they were about to the point where they were in sight of my buddy so I blew my cow call...the heard stopped...no shots...they started moving again...I hit my cow call again...the heard stopped...ka boom!...ka boom! When I got to my buddy he had a huge smile on his face...success!
We had a pretty long pack for two guys...but most of it was old road. One of the funnest hunting experiences of my life...not a trophy bull by trophy standards, but a trophy nonetheless.
I'll post field pics on this thread when I get them from by bud, but for now here it is in my garage.
Colockumelk...you should have never doubted me!
