Post by: bowhunterty on November 13, 2012, 07:42:22 PM
Post by: sirmissalot on November 13, 2012, 07:43:16 PM
Post by: bowhunterty on November 13, 2012, 07:51:32 PM
Post by: swwaoutdoorsman on November 13, 2012, 07:57:01 PM
Post by: Huntbear on November 13, 2012, 07:59:04 PM
Post by: Ghost Hunter on November 17, 2012, 08:44:53 AM
Me and my son drew as a group with 11 combined points. From July on I had made several scouting runs up the hunters trail and Norway Pass routes. We pulled into camp late Friday evening and hit the sack after midnight. For those familiar with the trail, we crossed the creek at daylight. It was running strong enough, we wouldn't have done it in the dark. The first 3 days we spent fighting the fog on top, with visibilty under 25 yards at times. The 4th day we decided to wait for daylight and see if the weather would clear. It did, and we were behind our timeline to climb the mountain. We decided to go a different direction that I hadn't been and climb higher. We were seeing a lot of elk but no branched bulls. Late in the afternoon we spotted 2 bulls below. My son made a good shot on a 4x4. It was late in the afternoon and we were running short on daylight. We decided to go ahead and load packs and head down. Somehow I had lost my headlamp on Sunday (if someone finds one near Independance Pass) and my son had misplaced his. We hit timber at dark and made our way down 800' of steep timbered slope in the dark with one flashlight :yike:. That left 3/4 of a mile to Green River horse camp, which we stumbled into at 9:30. A welcome sight was a light in one camp. These folks were awesome, watered us and gave us the 2 1/2 mile ride to our camp. The following day we geared up for the climb and 2nd pack trip. As we were stratagizing the route, another group of hunters stopped (they had seen our light coming off the mountain the night before). Apparently they thought this old man was being overly ambitious :dunno: :chuckle: and volunteered to help with packing out. These two young men spent their day helping my son pack the remainder of his bull, while I scouted for another. My son had to leave on Friday, so we had one day left to hunt together. We knew snow was coming, and some folks think it's a bad idea to hunt alone :dunno: Thursday morning we spotted a herd with 2 bulls. I decided to make the 3 mile run from Norway Pass. With little to no cover, and wind in my face I got above and within 60 yards of most of the cows. An 85 yard shot in the back of the neck of a napping 4x5 finished our hunt. During the stalk I tried a long range shot and discovered my gun wouldn't shoot :o. The firing pin was stck :yike: I decided to continue and when the time was right it worked. The same hunters who had helped the day before had seen me start the stalk, and were watching with a spotting scope. By the time the sound of the shot reached them, these same 2 young men were putting their packs on and heading my way. :tup: I can't thank these two young men from Mossyrock enough. I packed a hindquarter and the rack the 3 miles out, just to show them I could :chuckle: I'm trying to get photo's from my son so I can post a couple. Call it what you want, this was my world class quality hunt.
Post by: gotcha on November 17, 2012, 10:33:38 AM
Post by: gotcha on November 17, 2012, 10:35:01 AM
Post by: Ghost Hunter on November 17, 2012, 10:50:36 AM
Due you live in Rourke or Yale. Have a kid with toutle cow tag.Yale. Hitting Toutle off the 6600 shouldn't be undoable.
Post by: Huntbear on November 17, 2012, 11:03:35 AM
OK, I will tell out story. My name is GH and I did not kill a 'trophy' Margaret bull........however I did the have the most successful elk season ever :tup:. Me and my son each killed out 1st WA bulls and have meat for the freezer. Our success is measured in the quality of time together, help and information from folks on this site, time spent in the field scouting 'Thanks, Chesapeake), and unsolicited help of hunters we met in the field getting our game out. Bar none, hands down this was a 'Quality Hunt'.
Me and my son drew as a group with 11 combined points. From July on I had made several scouting runs up the hunters trail and Norway Pass routes. We pulled into camp late Friday evening and hit the sack after midnight. For those familiar with the trail, we crossed the creek at daylight. It was running strong enough, we wouldn't have done it in the dark. The first 3 days we spent fighting the fog on top, with visibilty under 25 yards at times. The 4th day we decided to wait for daylight and see if the weather would clear. It did, and we were behind our timeline to climb the mountain. We decided to go a different direction that I hadn't been and climb higher. We were seeing a lot of elk but no branched bulls. Late in the afternoon we spotted 2 bulls below. My son made a good shot on a 4x4. It was late in the afternoon and we were running short on daylight. We decided to go ahead and load packs and head down. Somehow I had lost my headlamp on Sunday (if someone finds one near Independance Pass) and my son had misplaced his. We hit timber at dark and made our way down 800' of steep timbered slope in the dark with one flashlight :yike:. That left 3/4 of a mile to Green River horse camp, which we stumbled into at 9:30. A welcome sight was a light in one camp. These folks were awesome, watered us and gave us the 2 1/2 mile ride to our camp. The following day we geared up for the climb and 2nd pack trip. As we were stratagizing the route, another group of hunters stopped (they had seen our light coming off the mountain the night before). Apparently they thought this old man was being overly ambitious :dunno: :chuckle: and volunteered to help with packing out. These two young men spent their day helping my son pack the remainder of his bull, while I scouted for another. My son had to leave on Friday, so we had one day left to hunt together. We knew snow was coming, and some folks think it's a bad idea to hunt alone :dunno: Thursday morning we spotted a herd with 2 bulls. I decided to make the 3 mile run from Norway Pass. With little to no cover, and wind in my face I got above and within 60 yards of most of the cows. An 85 yard shot in the back of the neck of a napping 4x5 finished our hunt. During the stalk I tried a long range shot and discovered my gun wouldn't shoot :o. The firing pin was stck :yike: I decided to continue and when the time was right it worked. The same hunters who had helped the day before had seen me start the stalk, and were watching with a spotting scope. By the time the sound of the shot reached them, these same 2 young men were putting their packs on and heading my way. :tup: I can't thank these two young men from Mossyrock enough. I packed a hindquarter and the rack the 3 miles out, just to show them I could :chuckle: I'm trying to get photo's from my son so I can post a couple. Call it what you want, this was my world class quality hunt.
Man, sorry I missed meeting you. I was at about the same elevation spending the night shivering, soaking wet, with no fire to speak of, just the other side of the valley. Congrats on your hunt. Not the size of the bull, but the quality of the hunt, and sounds like your quality of hunt was off the charts... :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:
Post by: Ghost Hunter on November 17, 2012, 01:22:40 PM
That is why we made the decision to come off the mountain in the dark. It had been raining hard every night. Was a tough call, and a tough hike. We weren't looking forward to spending a night in the rain. Didn't envy you.
GH
Post by: Jasmin on November 18, 2012, 02:22:30 PM
Post by: Huntbear on November 18, 2012, 09:23:27 PM
Our camp was right at the crossroads where you turned left to head across the bridge...
Post by: Jasmin on November 19, 2012, 06:36:37 AM
Post by: Chesapeake on November 21, 2012, 04:01:57 PM
Post by: Turner89 on November 21, 2012, 04:26:12 PM
Post by: Huntbear on November 21, 2012, 04:46:12 PM
The white ford with a lumber rack on it. We only went down by the bridge twice. Once before season and once during season. I did see the camp their and talked to someone briefly. One of the days we were down that way their was a rig between your camp and the bridge with New York plates. After he was shooting from the point were all the rigs pull off we were their cooking hot dogs visiting with a few other hunter that were watching the Packwood unit. My knees were pretty well done for after coming off from Bear Pass.
A little short sawed off runt?? or a big ole chubby feller??? :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Post by: Jasmin on November 22, 2012, 05:58:34 AM