Shrek's big adventure

[Shrek]

Since this is car camping I decided to cure my cold sleeping problem. A 10.5 lb -20º thermofil bag for $70. Between the three I should be warm. Got a lamp for the tent and a replacement gun case for the one that disappeared from the bed of my truck also. Washed all my clothes and made a new plan. Turning cold and windy so I'll camp low. After busting my ass several times in the dark trying to get down through the rock slide I have decided I'm not heading out before daylight unless someone from my friends crew comes up. Alone , no signal , and nobody knowing your missing is a risky proposition. Adding in wandering around in the dark in unfamiliar territory is just crazy I decided. I will have an inreach next season. Way too easy to get hurt. If I was older with brittle bones I would have a broken hip and shoulder now.
Some more throughts. I have hunted in clubs for my whole life so hunting alone is really new to me. I really miss the daily recap around the camp and the back and forth of ideas. It really helps focus my thoughts and with nobody to talk to it is much harder to organize my thoughts. If I had sat around with friends and discussed my stupid opening day plan I would have recognized how ludicrous it was. Today I got on the maps and roughed out some plans that made sense. Start low and work up until the wind dies , take lunch , work through some areas , and then hunt down. Judging by my pace on the first day I should be able to cover about a single mountain drainage basin a day. I don't want to try to speed hunt through anyway so a 3 or 4 mile looop with 1500 to 2000 foot elevation gain and loss with a buch of side hilling is plenty. Listen and glass if there is anything to glass at dawn and then head out . This is really steep and thick country and staggering around in the dark with the grizzlies is not really sounding attractive so I'll be back to the road by dark unless I'm on one. Slipping down a game trail in thick brush and running into a grizzly sounds crappy enough , make it dark and it sounds just terrible. Lots of ways to go and being ripped apart and left to die on a cold , damp trail with nobody coming to look for you sounds like one of the ways I don't want to go. Just some of my thoughts and reasons.

 

[rhendrix]

Keep after it buddy, if there's one thing I learned from this year it's this: you make your own luck on the mountain, there are no handouts.

 

[sk1]

in my opinion the hardest challenge is a man alone with nothing else other than his own thoughts. apply this to anything, running on the treadmill, hiking hard hunting in the back country, whatever. no one to push you, it's all on you. whatever you want from this trip, make sure you do just that. the mornings that you sleep in because it's cold or dark outside---you'll regret it for the rest of the year, been there, done that.

so hunt hard while you're out there and be safe with the weather coming in but don't quit now you've worked too hard for this moment.


also, a temporary alternative to a delorme inreach if you're in a pinch and want some peace of mind--the SPOT tracker is cheaper, $100 for the unit and $100 subscription for the year, if you needed to run into town and purchase one for the peace of mind of having an SOS button. if bear spray makes you feel safer and more likely to stay active, id consider buying some.

just my thoughts, good luck!

 

[HellsCanyon]

You're a man with a high powered rifle... you're the baddest animal in the woods. Be wary of bears and realize you can only do so much to prevent an encounter but also realized that you still hold the upper hand, get that mentality and then put it out of your mind. If you're going to meet one, you're going to meet one, no use stressing about it until it happens!

Mike

 

[Matt Cashell]

Sounds like you are figuring it out, Dave.

Keep at it. When this storm breaks, be overlooking some feed in the early morning.

 

[bikerdavet]

in my opinion the hardest challenge is a man alone with nothing else other than his own thoughts. whatever you want from this trip, make sure you do just that.

My experience - Everything is tougher when you are in your own head - but there is excellent insight on this thread. Make this trip the thing you want - whatever that is. Could be the experience of learning about yourself and the ability to see what was created around you is your take away. Like Mike said - you are the deadliest animal in the woods. Filling the freezer is good but the experiential aspect of the hunt is better. Just my 2 cents. Wish I were in the woods with you.

 

[Rizzy]

The wolves are hunting the same Elk you are, so it might be better to try a different area. The Elk will go to areas the wolves can't effectively hunt or would not normally go. Start looking in places that you would bivy out if you were goat hunting if you stay in that same area

 

[Shrek]

First , the cold wind kicked my but ! There was 2" to 1/2" of fresh snow and I was stoked. I decided to ride all the roads and glass everything I could. I glassed up another moose ...and that was it. I found one small elk track , one moose trak , one very small deer trak , and five sets of wolf prints. I sat over the basin I had heard elk in on Friday for the last two hours glassing. I could see the whole basin and two other cuts. I glassed up the cow moose that I had seen the trak of earlier and that was all she wrote. I had not pitched camp and I decided to drop off the mountain and get a room. Mid teens and twenty plus mph wind was more than this florida boy was ready to roll with. Going to look around tomorrow and see some new territory. Talking to a local hunter who saw 30 head of elk today much closer to town just above private land. All day I was ready to bail out of the truck and strike out after some elk. No traks on the road or in the cuts as far as I could see. Lack of sign is a good indication of a lack of animal's.

 

[HellsCanyon]

At this point, I'd bust out the maps, find a big isolated drainage or basins that require some serious climbing to get to and get gone. I know you think you can see a lot of ground from the road, and you can, but you'll be getting into more n more animals. They aren't dumb they know where the roads are and what areas can be hunted from roads. With this fresh snow you'll be hard pressed to find a better opportunity to find animals, or a good area via tracks... think like an elk that knows there are wolves and humans out there trying to kill you. Good luck.

Mike

 

[Shrek]

Just finished talking to a hunter here in the restaurant and he just bird dogged me on some places that are currently holding elk. Nothing like some current local knowledge.

 

[Shrek]

Talking to the local guy. He said drop off the top half to the bottom half of the Mountain. Says the elk have totally changed behavior in the last 3 years and no longer run on the top third of the Mountain. Also said that if I'm seeing wolf traks then leave the area because the elk have or are on lock down. Funny thing is that the places he pointed out are almost in town. Much lower and less steep.

 

[Olydog09]

I have noticed that as wolves move into areas with outlying towns that the elk when pressured by the wolves will move closer to the towns to keep away from the wolves. I think he is giving you honest advice and worth a look. I think that also works with the hunters as well who do not expect to see elk there. Look for areas in that third of the mountain with excellent cover in drainages that are tough to accesss and hunt slow. Good luck.

 

[Shrek]

I'm hunting a new area now. Moved down to Trout Creek Montana and the cold chased me out of the tent. I got a room in trout creek and drive out to hunt . Glassed up a bear and would have sold my first born to have a tag. A chocolate colored black about 250lbs I guess. Sat there with the cross hairs steady on him for a few but I'm not the outlaw I used to be. There was a lot of sign in the woods. Elk and deer but no wolf. Go figure. I may deck the next wolf lover I meet , man or woman.
After my experience I would recommend way more bag than you think if you have never done this before. If the bag comes up short on warmth then you will not last long. I have an around the mountain push planned today if my dawn glassing is a bust. There was a bull on this mountain that some missed at 1000yards yesterday so I'm going to slip through the back side and see what is there.

 

[Jon Boy]

Go get em Shrek! The best piece of elk hunting advice I ever got was keep moving till you find em, then hunt em. Take it for what its worth.

 

[Birddog]

x2. I'm no elk expert, but the worst I ever got was to hunt them like whitetails. Sit, sit, sit...they had left the area, but I didn't know it till it was too late.

 

[Shrek]

Getting warmer. I saw eleven whitetail does and one buck. I also located a bull of the quality I'm looking for... dead for a while.

 

[lintond]

That's too bad! That's a nice bull to go to waste.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Getting warmer. I saw eleven whitetail does and one buck. I also located a bull of the quality I'm looking for... dead for a while.

Was cause of death obvious?? Been shot? Wolves?

 

[Shrek]

Coldwater see the wound but I'm sure it was shot. I went back this morning and someone got there 10 minutes before me and got the head. I had gone back to get it for the lodge owner who wanted to put it on the wall in the lodge. He had a tag he was willing to burn.
My Hanwag Yukons are coming apart already. After all the wet grass and snow and then rain all day yesterday they finally soaked through after about six hours of rain. I set them in front of the heater vent and smeared them with snoseal. Today both heals and the toe on one rand are starting to separate. They also started rubbing my heal . I had set them on their heels to dry and the soaked leather got re formed and the right boot rubs. Be careful with wet boots and how you set them to dry. Lucky me I'm now breaking in some new boots.
Saw more does but not any elk. I'm just a little frustrated.

 

[Shrek]

So far I am snake bit whenit comes to elk. I've found moose , bear , and whitetail but no mule deer or elk. I'm frustrated and don't know what to do. This place is thick and the elk don't talk at all due to wolves. The elk are all down on the valley floor and on private land. I have been hunting state lands and I've found plenty of sign but nothing alive. As I'm understanding things it is all run and gun. You have to move miles with the elk. This is very hard if you don't even know the roads. I'm not the super hiker that some here are coming from Florida so hiking up to the top of a mountain to hunt back is really more than I can do so I do shorter hunts and try to side hill. If I were to come back here I would bring an atv. Leave the truck at the bottom and ride the atv to the top and hunt all day back to the truck. There are a bunch of places I'm just not ready to take on. There is no way to get in mountain shape other than hike mountains.