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Author Topic: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!  (Read 15023 times)

Offline colockumelk

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5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« on: January 01, 2013, 09:56:11 PM »
Link to last years elk hunt: Remember This is Fun
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,84041.0.html

5 for 5 With the Smokepole
This year was a special year for me.  Not only was my camp blessed to fill all 5 of our tags.  But, it was the first time that me, my brother (BLRMan) and my Dad were able to hunt elk and share camp together.  It was truly a blessing for us all.  This summer was also much different than previous summers because for the first time since 2003 I drew a tag.  Its not like we drew some coveted "Any Bull" tag in the Blue Mountains, but it did afford me the opportunity to hunt with my brother Karl and my Dad.  Which with my upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, is something I'll take over a branch bull tag any day of the week.  So if you are hoping to hear tales of bugling bulls screaming every paragraph or pictures of me long arming a 300 inch bull trying to make him look like a 350 inch bull, this is not the story for you.  However, if you are looking to read a story about a family spending time together carrying on a family tradition than this is the story for you. 

Last Thanksgiving (2011) my Grandfather passed away.  And while my Grandfather had been physically unable to hunt elk for quite some years he was at least waiting in his recliner eagerly awaiting the phone to ring or the sound of tires crunching gravel in his driveway announcing the arrival of one of his sons or grandsons coming home to tell him stories about that years elk hunt.  This would be the first elk camp without him there to come home to, to share stories with.  So before the season had even started we had decided to make this elk camp "Grandpa's Elk Camp" and to do things in his memory.

Two days before the season started once again found me on a plane leaving out of Syracuse, NY bound for Yakima, WA.  And once again I eagerly awaited the sound of screeching tires meeting the pavement on Yakima's runway.  My Dad was there to meet me and away we went chatting like a couple of school kids with the excitement of their first elk hunt.  The next day after my brother got off work found us racing up the mountain  to set up our spartan  camp.  Well at least as fast as you can go up into the Cowiche in a 1 ton diesel truck.  If we thought we were excited my brother's buddy Phil and his son-in-law Tyler were ecstatic about the start of the muzzle loader elk season.  He had forgotten to get gas after work and barely made it to our camping spot because he was so excited.  He also spent that first night freezing his buns off because he had also forgotten his sleeping bag.  He wasn't the only one that didn't get much sleep that night.  All of us tossed and turned waiting in anticipation for our alarms to go off.   

The next morning greeted us with a frost and a clear bright sky full of stars.  Perfect for elk hunting.  Since my Dad was with us my brother Karl rolled out the red carpet and treated us to a royal feast for a breakfast.  Sausage gravy with elk burger, mixed with fried potatoes and hot coffee.  Shoot, the year before I was lucky if my brother boiled me some water for my mountain house meal.  After we had a huddle deciding who was going to go where off we went.  Tyler and my Dad would set up on a well traveled draw and I would cover another one with the hopes that once the shooting started something would come our way.  Well we made it about 1/4 mile from elk camp when I spotted movement on a far hillside.  A quick check with the binos confirmed what I already knew.  It was a lone elk on the bare hillside across from us.  So I throw out a few lost cow calls and I hear a spike bugle and here he comes.  I start trying to get the attention of my Dad and Tyler all the while thinking man this is gonna be way too easy.  Plus we're still on the skid road.  Well Tyler and my Dad kept walking even though I was throwing rocks and trying to get their attention.  We were on a bare ridge line and I needed a shooter if I hoped to drag this spike (no matter how dumb he might be) out into the open and in position for a shot.  Well Tyler and my Dad just keep going so I decide I have to do something fast because this spike is literally running full steam towards me and I know he's gonna be here sooner than later.  By this time this spike is bugling and squealing his way down the draw and up through the thicket below me.  I decide that I better find a place to hide behind if I'm gonna make this happen.  The only thing I have though is some cheat grass and a small bush, so I go with the bush.  Before I know it and before I'm set up, out he pops and immediately zeroes in on me.  And we start to play the stare down game.  Well you can guess who won that game.  At 40 yards he whirled and I pulled up clicked off the safety, blew out a cow call.  He stopped turned broadside at about 60yds, I thought "oh man 10 minutes into shooting light this is to easy" pull the trigger with the authority and confidence of a sniper.  My shoulder feels the full recoil of 100 grains of 777 powder while at the same time my ears are met with a loud KABOOM!  Since there was a slight breeze it didn't take long for the smoke to clear.  But instead of seeing a dead spike laying on the ground I instead saw a very much alive spike running down the hill and through the trees.  I guess that will teach me to be so cocky. 

 My Dad and Tyler both sat on one draw while I covered another draw.  Since my brother Karl and his buddy Phil lack the capability to sit for long periods of time they went on about an 8 mile hike.  Naturally since Phil didn't have a cow tag he saw about 50 cows that day.  Meanwhile that same spike that I had given an education to was creeping along a path that Tyler and my Dad had set up on.  This was Tyler's first day ever hunting elk.  And about an hour and a half into the hunt this spike made the fatal mistake of walking within 30yds of Tyler and my Dad.  Since Tyler didn't have a cow tag and my Dad did it was Tyler's shot.  Tyler made a great broadside shot and dropped the spike in his tracks.  To make things even better the spike died about 20yds above an old logging road.  So we would be able to get to it using our game cart.  And for once our backs would get a break.  And hour and a half into opening day elk number 1 was down.



After taking care of elk number 1.  Me, my Dad and my brother moved into a large bedding area with a cool creek and lots of deep dark timber.  My Dad stays high, I go in the middle and my mountain goat brother hikes all the way to the bottom.  I get almost all the way through this bedding area when I see a set of antlers.  Time stands still as well as my heart as we play the game once again.  This bull however, knows something just isn't right and takes off running along with about 15 of his cows.  So I did what any sane elk hunter would do.  I ran straight at them as fast as I could and started doing regathering sounds.  Sure enough about a minute later a cow and calf come wandering in.  In fact they get about 70 yards away and start feeding again.  The brush is much too thick though and all I get is a half way decent head shot.  Which I don't take.  Eventually the wind shifts and I'm busted.  This time the crazy mountain man charge followed up by the regathering sounds technique doesn't work.  Just as I'm thinking "well its time to go back and get a sandwhich" I hear a KABOOM just down the drainage.  It was 2 o'clock on opening day and my brother Karl had just shot a cow, elk number 2.

While I was playing the stare down game with the elk in the bedding area my brother was farther down the drainage doing a lost cow call scenario.  He had gotten the attention of a bull and a group of cows on the other side of the drainage who had become quite vocal.  He was hoping to get a look at the bull and maybe even get a chance for a long range shot at a cow.  It was during this time, and midway through a calling sequence that he heard rocks being kicked and branches being broken and saw two cows running right towards him.  At 15 yards his Knight Bighorn barked and the 300 grain Speer Deep Curl did its job dropping the cow in her tracks.  The only distance she traveled was when she slide down the hill.  I got over to him a short time later and we started going to work.  This was the first time I had seen the gutless method and let me tell you I was impressed.  It was a life changing event.  So after some pictures and getting the elk broken down our journey straight up the drainage began. 





By the time we got BLRMan's cow back to camp we had hauled 2 elk out in 1 day and we were a little pooped.  Also Phil's wife had arrived with a couple gas can's full of gas and his sleeping bag.  She also had come up because Tyler had to work the next day and could only hunt opening day.  Which luckily for him he only needed about an hour or so to fill his tag. 

The next day found the four of us in pretty much the same area.  My Dad was hunting the same spot he had been in when Tyler shot the spike the day before.  My brother Karl, after making another gourmet meal consisting of breakfast burritos decided to act as an official range finder operator and pack mule for my Dad.  Meanwhile I decided to follow Phil farther down the same drainage that we had been in the day before. 

My Dad and brother had only sat at that spot for maybe an hour and a half when a group of cows and a spike came moving through the timber.  My Dad made an excellent shot on the lead cow and down she went.  She got back up and made it maybe another 15 yards before she rolled down the hill and ended up on the skid road.  Which meant we wouldn't have to pack her out on our backs.  We could use the game cart to bring her out. It was 9 o'clock and my Dad had shot a cow and ellk number 3 was down.  (Regretfully neither him or my brother took any pictures.)



Meanwhile me and Phil had no clue that my Dad had just shot an elk.  Which was a good thing because we would have gone over to help them.  Instead we sat, and sat, and sat, and sat some more.  Finally it was 11 o'clock and I was itching to go.  But Phil urged me to give it one more hour.  Luckily I agreed.  Because at 11:55 we heard the sound that only meant one thing.  A group of elk was heading our way.  It seemed like it took forever for those elk to get through the bedding area and to come by us.  They followed a well beaten path that we had set up on and the first elk stopped to look at an open area before proceeding.  This put the first two cows behind some cover that did not offer me a shot.  They started moving again and I cow called to stop them.  When I did this they stopped and right in an opening in the tree branches stood a beautiful spike elk.  And since Phil didn't have a cow tag it was his shot.  Phil made a beautiful 50 yard shot and dropped the spike in its tracks.  The 300 grain Speer Deep Curl did its job well.  After the KABOOM of his muzzle loader the elk ran every which way.  I desperately blew on a lost cow call and immediately got some results.  All the cows ran for the hills but the small 6x5 that was running the cows ran within 15 yards of us before hitting the breaks and doing his best to catch up to his cows. It was noon on the second day of the season and Phil had just shot a spike which meant that elk number 4 was down.  I did not notice the text message from my Dad saying "Cow down, Need help." until I pulled my phone out to take an "as he lay picture"  Since Phil is wanted in all 50 states for being really ugly this is the only picture I could post. 



After a short exchange of texts we decided to take care of my Dad's Cow first since it was in the sunlight and Phil's spike was in the dark timber. 
After the game cart got another workout Karl and I proceeded with our packs to get Phil's spike out.  His Nimrod pack and my Mystery Ranch Longbow were both about to get a good test run as far as how much weight they could handle.  I'm sure if our packs had known the abuse they were about to be put through the would have intentionally internally combusted.  Hauling half of an elk is not the most pleasurable experience.  Due to how steep the incline of the terrain where Phil's Spike died, BLRMan and myself elected to just quarter him, (the spike not Phil) haul it down the hill 100yds to a bench and then bone out the quarters there and then continue the trek up to our camp. 





If we thought we were pooped the night before, after doing two more elk that day we were way more sore and tired.  After we got Phil's spike to camp he loaded his truck up and departed.  Phil was only able to hunt the weekend and had to go back to work the next day.  So it was awesome that he was able to fill his tag on his last day on the mountain.  My brother Karl and I decided to check a different drainage out since it had pretty much been pushed out and we wanted to leave it alone for a bit in the hopes that the elk would filter back in.  We could hear a few faint bugles but other than that it wasn't really productive. 

The next morning we struck out again looking to fill the fifth and final tag, mine.  We walked a really long ways and saw nothing but rocks, trees and dirt.  So when we got back to camp we did what any red blooded hard core elk hunter would do.  We took a 3 hour nap.  And that nap was AWESOME.  Man did it feel good.  Talk about a full on recharge of our batteries.  We were still a little sore but we decided to head out to that other drainage where we had heard the faint bugles and set up and do some calling scenarios.  A look on the topo map confirmed that there were not any roads nearby and down we went.  We had just gotten to the bottom where there was a nice bench and we heard a few cow calls and some sticks lightly breaking like elk were feeding.  My brother immediately without discussion dropped back about 50 yards to get in position to hopefully drag an elk past me for a good shot.  We both started doing a lost cow call scenario and it wasn't but about 30 seconds into our first set up when I hear the sound of hooves stampeding towards me.  Now mind you we hadn't left our camp but 15 minutes before this and hadn't been calling for maybe 30 seconds.  And now I hear the sounds of hoof beats running towards me from behind.  From the opposite direction where I'm expecting elk to come.  So imagine my surprise when I see a cow elk pop out of the brush 15 yards away from me.  In my defense the cow was equally surprised to see a human like form instead of an elk 15 yards away staring back at her.  So she bolted and I threw my gun up, clicked the safety off and cow called to her.  She stopped turned broadside at 30 yards (which is close enough for even me to hit her) and I pulled the trigger.  I heard the Kaboom of my T/C Black Diamond, barely felt the recoil in my shoulder and herd the distinctive thwack of my 300 grain Speer Deep Curl taking out her lungs.  She took two steps and died.  The amount of blood was insane.  This was the first year we used the Deep Curl's made by Speer and their performance was impressive.  None of our elk went farther than 15 or 20 yards and 3 died where they stood. 

Now to tell the story from my brother Karl's perspective.  He is super focused on the sounds of elk answering back to him staring in the opposite direction that my cow had come from.  The direction that both of us had been facing.  So imagine his surprise when he hears a muzzle loader go BOOM not 50 yards to his right.  He looked up just in time to see her drop. The look on his face and the "What the F#$%" he yelled was priceless.   I must say this was hands down the shortest hunt I had been on.  From the time we left camp to my cow hitting the ground could not have been more than 20 minutes.  It was the end of the third day and elk number 5 was down.  We had done it.  Every single member of our hunting party had tagged out.  Now the work once again began.  This time we would be smart enough and deboned this elk. 







As we were cresting the last bit of the ridge up to camp, we took the time to take a rest.  During this time we snapped a few pictures of the sunset and took the time to reflect on just how awesome the last few days had been.  We talked about how Grandpa surely must have been smiling down on us that day full of pride knowing well that the Blanchard tradition of hunting would continue for generations to come.  And we even wondered if he had maybe somehow had a hand in pushing some of those elk to us.  As the sunset behind the Cascade Mountains,  we once again shouldered our packs, heavy with meat and began the last climb back to camp still amazed that we had gone 5 for 5 with the smoke pole. 


« Last Edit: January 02, 2013, 08:57:48 AM by colockumelk »
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Offline BOWHUNTER45

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2013, 10:04:07 PM »
Nice write up  :tup: Can beat that  :tup:

Offline _TONY_

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2013, 10:05:30 PM »
Good work!

Offline grundy53

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2013, 10:20:19 PM »
Very nice write up!  :tup:
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2013, 10:45:36 PM »
Great story and congrats.

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2013, 10:54:17 PM »
very cool  :tup: and very good story thanks.
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2013, 11:07:00 PM »
Nice write up and congratulations on a very successful season!   :tup: :tup:
RIP Colockumelk   :salute:

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2013, 12:40:38 AM »
Great write up. Congrats on the success.
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2013, 05:07:34 AM »
Congrats!

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2013, 06:05:24 AM »
great hunt and story...  :tup: :tup: :tup:
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2013, 06:07:47 AM »

Nice work!  :tup: :tup:

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #11 on: January 02, 2013, 06:39:49 AM »
That.....is what it is all about my friends!
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2013, 07:08:54 AM »
A-men to that!  You were  Blessed before the tags were even beginning to get notched.   That was all just sugar from then on out.   Nice job guys!  Thanks for the hunt and pics

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2013, 07:22:47 AM »
Congrats!  It will be tough to beat that season.
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #14 on: January 02, 2013, 07:25:53 AM »
Nice write up!  Congrats!
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #15 on: January 02, 2013, 08:32:48 AM »
Awesome!! Nice elk and great story and pics! Congrats :tup:

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #16 on: January 02, 2013, 08:43:03 AM »
Crazy awesome. Great job guys.
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #17 on: January 02, 2013, 08:46:04 AM »
Awesome write up!. Great job to all.

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #18 on: January 02, 2013, 08:49:47 AM »
Great story and photos bring it all to together.  Congratulations on a memorable hunt.
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #19 on: January 02, 2013, 08:56:51 AM »
Congrats Colock! Sounds like a dream hunt! Glad you guys had a great time together!
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #20 on: January 02, 2013, 09:47:19 AM »
nice job Aaron! What a great story. I had that cow tag last year and I had a great time filling it. enjoy all that elk meat and be safe over there in Afganastan!
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #21 on: January 02, 2013, 07:44:43 PM »
You left out the part about you being the only one in camp with a muzzy deer tag and walking past the 3 legal bucks opening morning!  I tried everything to get his attention,  cow called, whistled, owl hooted, finally a turkey yelped as loud as I could on a rocky jacobsen double reed and all he did was yelp back and keep walking :bash: :bdid:
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #22 on: January 02, 2013, 08:14:27 PM »
Brother hosting your chops.  Good hunt guys and congrats :tup:
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Offline colockumelk

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2013, 11:38:47 AM »
Thanks for the ond words and support everyone.  Glad there's still people who are willing to read about traditions and families and are not soley focused on the size of antlers.  Although if you are those were a couple of Boone and Crockette spikes if I ever saw one.  :chuckle:
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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2013, 01:07:57 PM »
Great story and I envy your traditions.  My Dad's now gone and the best I can hope for is when my 7 and 2 year old are ready we'll restart the family elk camp.

Love the pictures and write-up.  Stay safe and thanks for your service!

Offline buck man

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #25 on: January 03, 2013, 04:46:09 PM »
Great write up ! Glad you could get it done with family and friends :tup:
If we were supposed to be vegetarian God would have made broccoli more fun to shoot!
"HOYT" why would you even consider shooting something else?

Offline gunnarnewt

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #26 on: January 03, 2013, 10:27:37 PM »
great story! congrats to all of you!  :tup:
My biggest fear is when I die, my wife will sell all my guns for what I said they cost me!     ;)

Offline kerrdog

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #27 on: January 04, 2013, 07:38:19 PM »
That's a lot of meat.

Offline hambone

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #28 on: January 04, 2013, 08:14:09 PM »
great story and hunt its always more fun with family

Offline colockumelk

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #29 on: January 04, 2013, 10:22:19 PM »
That's a lot of meat.

You aint kidding. We spent 3 full days cutting meat.   :yike:
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Offline 400out

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #30 on: January 07, 2013, 09:09:57 AM »
 :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: really awesome!! Congrats to you and your group  :tup:
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Offline wt

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #31 on: January 07, 2013, 10:43:26 AM »
Very, nice! Very enjoyable to read and imagine!  Thanks  :tup:

Offline Karl Blanchard

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #32 on: March 10, 2015, 08:12:06 PM »
Been pretty slow around here so I got reading back through some of Aaron's old posts.  Thought you guys might like a little light reading.   Aaron sure was a great story teller..........
It is foolish and wrong to mourn these men.  Rather, we should thank god that such men lived.  -General George S. Patton

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Offline Rainier10

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #33 on: March 10, 2015, 09:07:46 PM »
I was doing the same thing yesterday, this is one of my favorites from him.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,84041.0/topicseen.html

He was a great storyteller, he will be missed.  So sorry for your loss.
Pain is temporary, achieving the goal is worth it.

I didn't say it would be easy, I said it would be worth it.

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The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of HuntWa or the site owner.

Offline jstone

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #34 on: March 11, 2015, 08:03:19 AM »
LOVE IT

Offline Karl Blanchard

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #35 on: April 23, 2019, 09:14:07 PM »
6 years ago today we lost Aaron. So many new members who dont know who Colockumelk was. He was passionate, intelligent, fun loving, always positive, courageous, and silly. He was a loving father, dedicated friend and outdoorsman. He was a good friend and an even better brother. He was also a soldier. A soldier who loved the men he lead and believed in his mission down to his very core.  This was the last hunt we ever went on.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn these men.  Rather, we should thank god that such men lived.  -General George S. Patton

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Offline DOUBLELUNG

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #36 on: April 24, 2019, 09:41:48 AM »
Thank you for bringing this back up Karl.  Aaron was the best in every way.
As long as we have the habitat, we can argue forever about who gets to kill what and when.  No habitat = no game.

Offline CoryTDF

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Re: 5 for 5 with the Smokepole!
« Reply #37 on: April 24, 2019, 09:45:03 AM »
RIP :'( He sure was a great member of this site and and even better man. Wish I could have met him and shook his hand. You bring him honor by keeping his memory alive.   
CoryTDF

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