So.........my regular hunting partner came out from Maine and he (elkhunter777 on the slide) and my brother and his son in law all went to a rugged, remote wilderness east of the Mississippi for a backcountry elk hunt.
Son in law is 32, brother and elkhunter777 are 62 and I'm 66.
Long story short, my brother and his son in law called it quits after 5 days as its tough mountainous terrain.
Mark and I continued to hunt as we were slated to hunt for 2 weeks. We hiked over 60 miles in a 10 day period and never saw an elk......quite depressing but the country was awesome. We are backpack hunters and tried numerous drainages but NOTHING.
After 12 days, we finally found them. But it was 7 miles and 3000 feet up from our base camp but we were spiked out and knew what the consequences were if we connected.
We were due to be picked up on Friday morning and we knew that realistically Wednesday morning was gonna be our last chance as it was gonna be a 2 day pack out.
We hiked into our overlook from our high camp right at dawn and we were both secretly hoping we wouldn't see a bull as we knew the pain coming.
At 0800 hours, Mark spots an elk at the bottom of the drainage, 331 yards. I look and I say to myself, shit, it's a bull. He thinks the same thing. We lose sight of him and a couple minutes later, I see him on the opposite side of the canyon headed up the slope. I range him at 601 yards, get into an appropriate spotter position behind Mark and one heart shot later from a tikka 6.5 prc, I watch the trace from a 147 eldm find it's target.
We look at each other and both said, "....." We are so "......."
We get to him by 0900, have him all boned and processed by 1300 and the slog is on. We each take a rear quarter and half our camp and head the 3000 feet down and 7 miles to our base......make it right before dark, absolutely spent and dehydrated as hell being we ran out of water for about 4 hours.
We eat our freeze dried meal, have a celebratory pendleton and head to the chilkoot for rest trying not to think about the next day.
Dawn breaks and off we go with empty packs to head up the mountain. We know it's gonna be a brutal and painful day and it indeed was. We spilt the rest of the meat up, Mark had the elk head, packed up the rest of our backpack camp and headed out. It was a 15.5 mile day with 6000 feet of elevation gain/loss.
Back at base right at dark......we did it. Several days later, we are still sore.
Unbelievable epic trip......especially for a couple old guys.
Randy
Son in law is 32, brother and elkhunter777 are 62 and I'm 66.
Long story short, my brother and his son in law called it quits after 5 days as its tough mountainous terrain.
Mark and I continued to hunt as we were slated to hunt for 2 weeks. We hiked over 60 miles in a 10 day period and never saw an elk......quite depressing but the country was awesome. We are backpack hunters and tried numerous drainages but NOTHING.
After 12 days, we finally found them. But it was 7 miles and 3000 feet up from our base camp but we were spiked out and knew what the consequences were if we connected.
We were due to be picked up on Friday morning and we knew that realistically Wednesday morning was gonna be our last chance as it was gonna be a 2 day pack out.
We hiked into our overlook from our high camp right at dawn and we were both secretly hoping we wouldn't see a bull as we knew the pain coming.
At 0800 hours, Mark spots an elk at the bottom of the drainage, 331 yards. I look and I say to myself, shit, it's a bull. He thinks the same thing. We lose sight of him and a couple minutes later, I see him on the opposite side of the canyon headed up the slope. I range him at 601 yards, get into an appropriate spotter position behind Mark and one heart shot later from a tikka 6.5 prc, I watch the trace from a 147 eldm find it's target.
We look at each other and both said, "....." We are so "......."
We get to him by 0900, have him all boned and processed by 1300 and the slog is on. We each take a rear quarter and half our camp and head the 3000 feet down and 7 miles to our base......make it right before dark, absolutely spent and dehydrated as hell being we ran out of water for about 4 hours.
We eat our freeze dried meal, have a celebratory pendleton and head to the chilkoot for rest trying not to think about the next day.
Dawn breaks and off we go with empty packs to head up the mountain. We know it's gonna be a brutal and painful day and it indeed was. We spilt the rest of the meat up, Mark had the elk head, packed up the rest of our backpack camp and headed out. It was a 15.5 mile day with 6000 feet of elevation gain/loss.
Back at base right at dark......we did it. Several days later, we are still sore.
Unbelievable epic trip......especially for a couple old guys.
Randy
