Elk Day 3 - Monday 10/22/12
The alarm went off way too early this morning. We were all sleeping very well.
Up at 4:45. Left hotel at 5:33. Kinda windy today.
Parked the truck at 7:01. Promptly took a wrong turn. Headed out and down. Got to see a beautiful sunrise.
At 8:30 we heard a bull bugle. We could tell it was E and in front of us, but not how far. We stopped for an hour to see if any elk moved up toward us. Nothing. We cut across a S face on an elk trail that switched back. We hung out in an Aspen grove until 2:30. Told stories, ate lunch, and even broke out some iTunes, which I think goes against all hunting rules.
We came back out on point and sat both sides, hoping to get a shot as the elk headed down to feed. Geordie saw a roosting hawk and called us over to see. Then he came over to ask if we heard another bugle. We did not. Next thing you know, Geordie is hollering. We ran over. He had spotted an elk.
He talked us through landmarks until we could see it. We glassed for an hour and saw a total of 30 elk - 29 cows and 1 massive bull. Too bad they were two ridge lines away - close to a mile on foot. We watched them feed toward the valley - another 1,000 feet below us. We can go down there to hunt, but then we'd have to haul them and ourselves back up.
We've only been at this elk thing 2.5 days and we've seen 30 elk. We're happy with that.
The elk are on the far ridge over there about 1/4 the way down. We can see them with binoculars, but really doubt if you can in this picture.
Plan is to track them down and kill them tomorrow. We may need to come in from the SE instead of NW, but hey, we're willing to try.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Up at 4:45. Left hotel at 5:33. Kinda windy today.
Parked the truck at 7:01. Promptly took a wrong turn. Headed out and down. Got to see a beautiful sunrise.
At 8:30 we heard a bull bugle. We could tell it was E and in front of us, but not how far. We stopped for an hour to see if any elk moved up toward us. Nothing. We cut across a S face on an elk trail that switched back. We hung out in an Aspen grove until 2:30. Told stories, ate lunch, and even broke out some iTunes, which I think goes against all hunting rules.
We came back out on point and sat both sides, hoping to get a shot as the elk headed down to feed. Geordie saw a roosting hawk and called us over to see. Then he came over to ask if we heard another bugle. We did not. Next thing you know, Geordie is hollering. We ran over. He had spotted an elk.
He talked us through landmarks until we could see it. We glassed for an hour and saw a total of 30 elk - 29 cows and 1 massive bull. Too bad they were two ridge lines away - close to a mile on foot. We watched them feed toward the valley - another 1,000 feet below us. We can go down there to hunt, but then we'd have to haul them and ourselves back up.
We've only been at this elk thing 2.5 days and we've seen 30 elk. We're happy with that.
The elk are on the far ridge over there about 1/4 the way down. We can see them with binoculars, but really doubt if you can in this picture.
Plan is to track them down and kill them tomorrow. We may need to come in from the SE instead of NW, but hey, we're willing to try.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Looks like some very beautiful scenery out there - like it could be worth the trip even if you don't bring back any meat for the tribe.
ReplyDeleteYou know how fishermen say "tight lines" to wish one another good luck before they go out fishing? ... Well what's the hunting equivalent? Whatever it is, I wish you that when you go out tomorrow.