We left camp at 5:40 to begin the hour ride into the first light spot. At 6:25, we spotted two cows close and dismounted, but they ended up being alone. We continued on and found three more cows about 10 minutes later, but again they were alone. We heard a bugle off in the distance, and continued on to the same meadow as the previous morning and evening.
At the meadow we spotted the same 5x5 from the evening before, but no other elk. After talking to Matt, we decided to continue on to the southernmost portion of his area to hunt along the way. We reached the area without coming across any other elk being spotted only hearing a couple of distant bugles. After glassing, napping, and eating lunch, we decided to head to the northernmost portion of the guides territory so we could get an inventory of the whole area.
Along the way, we went by the kill site of the day prior, and just as expected, a grizzly was on the kill. He watched us for a moment, before lumbering off into the trees out of site. Just a friendly reminder that we were not the apex predator in this area.
As we were riding down from mountain towards the meadow, we heard a bugle across the basin. We tied the horses and heard a second bugle. With the horses tied we started glassing to find the elk, only to glass up a horse across the basin. The other hunters eventually materialized and we saw three people with four horses. Thankfully when they left, they went in the direction opposite of where we were headed, so once they had left, we continued on.
This particular area has seen a wild increase in resident pressure over the last five years, and it has a handful of “scab” outfitters trying to hunt the same territories as the outfitter we were with. Of course it’s public ground and available to all of us, but seeing others take advantage of trails and areas maintained by the outfitter in the wilderness is frustrating for them and for the hunters.
While we were sitting, the weather we had been watching march across the sky all day finally caught up to us, so we donned our rain gear as a low pressure system moved in and shrouded the peaks all around us. After riding for thirty minutes headed north, we began to smell elk off and on with the breeze. We stopped for another break to see what the weather was going to do and stop short of the storm that was producing lightening further north. After an hour break and off and on rain, we continued on north riding through rain and fog/clouds. We reached the far north end of the territory and the guide told us to split up and glass after we tied up the horses.
I had been sitting for thirty seconds when Matt ran over and told me he had cows on his side. I grabbed my rifle and moved over towards the copse of trees he was in and immediately saw the cows. After seeing two separate groups of cows earlier in the day with no bulls, I thought there had to be a bull with this group. Suddenly, another elk materialized out of the trees and we could immediately tell he was a mature bull. I asked for a range, dialed my scope, and found as solid a rest as I could on a small curved branch on the side of a pine that my foreend fit perfectly in. I found the bull in my scope, confirmed he was a shooter and settled the crosshairs on his vitals before beginning the slow squeeze. The trigger broke and the bull dropped at the shot, which was 414 yards tbr and 465 los distance. Thinking it was over I stood up and let out a “Holy S*it” before hearing the guide and my buddy tell me he was getting back up and to put another one in him. I looked down to see the bull pulling wildly with his front legs but no use of his back before he disappeared back into the trees.
We watched the area for a bit and after not seeing any further movement figured he was dead, but we decided to leave my buddy at the shot site while we rode down to confirm. The adrenaline dump and shakes were as bad as I can ever recall experiencing, and my feet were shaking in my stirrups as we began the decent. The path down from the shot site was steep and slick, and the horses were braking the whole way down. At roughly 200 yards I got a visual of the bull, and could see he was on his side dead.
Matt and I continued down to him and took a couple pictures before he left to get Chad for them to ride down together. Once Chad arrived, we took pictures together as quick as we could with light fading and more weather moving in. We spent the next two hours gutting and prepping the carcass for an overnight stay in what I can best describe as zero visibility, in grizzly country. When you’d glance up with your headlamp, you couldn’t see 5 yards due to the dense cloud of fog.
I removed the heart and tenderloins and placed them in a game bag and we placed them well up a tree where we also tied the head. We drug the gut pile as far away as possible and then placed a branch in the chest cavity to ensure it was open and allowing airflow through the whole cavity. With the carcass prepared and head secured we remounted and this was where the real adventure began.
Chad’s horse decided it wanted to turn quickly on him and almost threw him off. He managed to get off before anything bad happened and we all got on and started the ride back up to where we had shot from. The way up was even slicker than before after two hours of rain, and we were making slow progress up a 45 degree slope. I looked up ahead to see Chad’s saddle sliding backwards towards his horses flank and he again slid off as his saddle followed to the side of the horse. Matt was off in a flash grabbing Chad’s mount before she was able blow up. Once settled, Chad walked up to the top while the guide resaddled and we decided to lead the horses up the slope. With Chad’s horse saddled and his rifle back in its scabbard, we continued up on foot and reached the top after slipping and skidding all over, two steps forward, on slip back.
We remounted at the top and I immediately noticed Chad’s rifle wasn’t in his scabbard, it had fallen out on the way up, but we agreed to just leave it for the night and to get it in the morning as it was already 10pm. Matt was having a tough time navigating in the conditions as his phone screen and hands were wet. He eventually got off and got a ziplock out of my saddle bags to cover the phone with in hopes of keeping it dry.
We slowly made our way down the mountain repeatedly turning around as we got cliffed out over and over again. At one point I looked slightly left of Matt and Chad and noticed an orange glow at roughly 40 yards. Likely a grizzly that was thankfully downwind of where the horses couldn’t smell it. About half way down, we came to a small ditch not any different from many we had been over already, but Chad’s horse again decided to be an issue and fell into the ditch causing Chad to fall off her back and drill his butt on a rock.
Thankfully he escaped unscathed but he refused to get back on his horse the rest of the way down to the main trail. After about another mile we all decided to lead our horses over the plethora of downfall and steep grades and we finally made it to the trail at 11:45. We begged Chad to remount and he quickly asked why he couldn’t ride my horse instead of his and I immediately agreed and told him to take my horse.
Once all settled into our new mounts, we began the ride back arriving in camp at 12:30. The wrangles had waited up for us and had warm food and a hot tent ready to go for us and we were all thankful to get dry and hit the cots.
