Halloween has always been a great day to be in the woods, and this one started out as gloomy and ghostly as any.
My plan was to cover as much ground as possible, do some scouting, and figure out what was happening in the new area I picked out. I awoke to find the ground covered a thin layer of snow and a thick cloud of fog concealing the new terrain I was hoping to look over. At least the snow would help me figure out if anything had been there recently.
I covered about 3 miles before the snow changed to a misty rain and melted most of the snow away.
After noon, my hopes of the fog clearing began to diminish. It wasn't looking good. I was thinking the only benefit is get from that day would be to learn how steep and terrible the terrain was in this spot. According to the map I was walking through great elk habitat, but I just couldn't see any of it. So I kept drudging my way through the rain and fog. I thought the day was going to be essentially a waste. The chances of an elk appearing out of the fog at less than 100 yards were very slim, and it didn't look like the fog was going anywhere anytime soon.
As I got to the top of a steep ridgeline, I stopped and said, "damn, this would probably be a good spot to sit and glass some elk up if it wasn't so damn foggy. I wonder how many elk I walked passed so far today?" I looked at my watched and consulted my map. I could either turn around and walk back to the truck the way I came, or press on up and over the mountain. Either way would get me back to camp after sunset. I decided to continue up and over the mountain, and just embrace the suck of gaining all of that elevation.
It was at that exact moment the wind picked up and moved the fog off the mountain just enough. And boom, they're they were!
There was a large herd of elk about 1400 yards away, and I could clearly see a big bull through my binos. I didn't count how many elk there were, since I really didn't care, but there was a big bull, a couple decent bulls, a few raghorns and a boat load of cows and calves. This was perfect!
The only problem.... they were on the wrong side of a STEEP scree and talus covered slope. I figured it would take me at least 45 minutes to safely get to where the elk were, and who knows if they'd still be there by that time. It was also just after 3 o'clock. I was already short on time to make it back to camp, and this little detour would only make that worse. I knew that if I killed one, I'd end up spending the night on the mountain...
I looked at the forecast, 70% chance of rain and a low of 38... I decided, "the heck with it. I'm killing an elk right now. I'll sort it out later."
When I finally got there...
The fog rolled in and I could barely see 200 yards. But the elk were still there, and there were a lot more of them than I originally thought. They were everywhere, but most had moved back into the trees.
This spike almost ate a bullet. I was so close to shooting him that I actually had a round in the chamber, the crosshair on his shoulder, and the safety off.
But having seen the really big bull and 2-3 other bulls I'd gladly shoot, I reluctantly placed the rifle on safe and continued watching.
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"Never follow your passion, but always bring it with you." ~Mike Rowe
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