Oh boy...
What a trip it was!
Started off with a ‘brief’ delay due to me not paying attention. Got lucky. Switchback, high mountain road plus a soft shoulder and dummy behind the wheel. Animals were unscathed and about five hours later we were on our way thanks to an InReach and Tanya coordinating the rescue effort.
Ended up a half a day late getting in to where we were going, but we made it, got settled, animals contained, fed and watered and went hunting.
GIANT country. We split up and hunted different country for several days, found literally a handful of deer with no shooters.
This was a deer hunt, but I had a bull tag. Ryan found a lone bull late in an afternoon and we made a plan that night to try and locate him the next morning. We got up a couple hours before daylight and hit the trail and headed towards the area across a giant drainage the bull had been seen. We made it by daylight and started glassing. Nothing. We bumped over another ridgeline and found the elk. Couldn’t put together a shot when we first found him, but were able to hustle over to another ridge where we got set up and we were able to put things together.
I had my Tikka .223 with 77TMKs, but the situation dictated I needed more rifle. The 30 Nosler with 230 Atip was the appropriate choice and I didn’t hesitate trading rifles for a second!
We walked a lot of miles that day...seventeen per a step counter. The miles plus one horse wreck made for a L O N G day!
It was an epic adventure in grand country with great company!
