Sunday October 29th, 2010 Colton Lindsay and I left for our hunting adventure. Our plan: Backpack in about 2 miles, set up camp without a tent or something to sleep under, try to live off the land, filter our water, and TRY to kill an elk.
We started the long hike over deadfall and rivers with 50-70 pound packs on our backs. The sun was hot and we didn't make it very far before we needed to have a break. Those breaks became more numerous as the backpacks would somehow make a muscle in the bottom of your neck tense up.
We got to camp around 1pm and colton started looking for deadfall to make our shelter. I was busy looking for a perfect spot. We found an old tree that already had some trees around it so we started packing on the deadfall and leaves to keep the rain that was comming the next day off us. The shelter actually turned out to be pretty big and very good at keeping us dry.
The hunting adventure started that night. We hiked to a spot that I had previously found where the elk came through to bed and waller. After sitting there a while we started to hike back down the hill to another side ridge where we could see some country. As we hiked along we stumbled upon a meadow with 3 different wallers where the elk had been comming to regularly. We soon decided this was the best place to sit and wait for the animals.
The next day started off early and cold we hurried and got ready to try out our new hunting spot. We approached the area with great care not wanting to disturb any animals that might be there already. We set up just before it got light and started to do some bugling and cow calls to see if we could arouse any interest. It is still too hot for the elk to be talking, but it seemed to work for us. In about 30 minutes we heard a reply but it didn't seem to want to get very close. So back to camp to see what we can catch.
We started with a spear that colton had made and went looking for fish. Those fish were the smartest fastest things i have ever been around. We soon gave up on this and went back to camp. We found some fresh raspberries and strawberries that were growing really close to camp. By this time a fresh elk steak was sounding good. We decided to go back to the good spot and try for the night hunt. Nothing happened and we went back to camp a little down.
New day lets try splitting up. This was my suggestion because we weren't seeing any elk staying together. I went on a long round about hike that took me most of the morning and into the afternoon. I saw lots of sign, but no elk. I was getting frustrated because when we set up camp we had fresh elk poop that was only a day ahead of us. Where i was now was above our camp one half a mile where a whole herd had gone through only 4-5 days earlier. After finding colton back at camp all washed up i decided to take a very cold sponge bath in the stream just down from camp. Not wanting to expend energy much more we decided to forego the night hunt and wake up refreshed in the morning.
Catching any sort of wild animal was eluding us now. We couldn't get close to a sage hen if we wanted to, and those fish didn't slow down. colton put out a snare to just get his bait taken away. That steak was sounding really good now. We were living off sharing some freeze dried food and only taking in 600 calories a day.
The next day we got to our spot and started the same routine, but today it was different. We got an elk to answer us early and frequent. He would bugle, we would cow call, this went on for a good 20-30 minutes. Everytime he was getting closer. The hair on the back of our necks was standing up as he came in within 20 yards. The video above shows what happened. Colton didnt' have his bow in his hands. I kept looking at him going, "pick up your bow". When it finally got to 40 yards he picked up his bow from further encouragement from me. He took the shot at 50 yards and hit it high in the back thigh. We searched for a while and found a little blood and a few tracks, but couldn't ever find the elk. We stayed and hunted for a couple of more days but never could get another bull to come in for me. I would be back in a couple of weeks to try and find these elusive elk once again. Stay tuned to hear what happened the rest of the elk hunt. Gentry