The day started out in the minus temps, cold and windy
I had been driving around looking high for good areas to hike into for about two days down around the Idaho border
There was one area in particular that looked like a promising place to hold elk
The day before you could see every thing, but today, it was really fogged in towards the top with an inversion
Parking the truck, I swung my day bag onto my back and headed up the mountainside
About ¾’s the way up, I decided to sit down for a nice lunch; I was just starting to get into the foggy part of the hill and the fire felt pretty good
Since I had come to this area and looked around, I had only found one set of elk tracks on the other side of the valley from my location and it showed it was moving along at a good clip
The fog was freezing on every thing and looked very cool as if the world had been flocked
When I got to the top of the hill, there were elk tracks every where
I got onto a small herd of about 6-7 and started dogging along staying on the uphill side of the highest set of tracks
After about an hour and a half, I spied a small bull down the hill from me at about 50 yards in a stand of lodge pole pines lying in the snow looking down the hill
I stalked to within 20 yards, took aim and hit him in the back of the neck right below the base of the skull
He just laid his head down as if going to sleep, at the same moment, I heard a number of others heading down the hill from me into the darker timber
Getting a glimpse of a couple fleeing elk, I notice I must have been following a small band of bulls and one looked to be a decent boy, but I'm not greedy and was plenty happy with what I already had
Now the work started
After cleaning my elk, I headed the four miles back to the truck for my sled
By the time I got back to the top of the hill, it was almost dark, so set up a small natural shelter and stayed the night
First thing in the morning, I set out for my prize
I rolled the whole carcass on the sled and was going to head back up the hill to the trail out and found it was a little heavy for one guy
I cut him in half, removed the head, and took three trips to where I needed to head back out
After getting the pieces to the trail, I loaded every thing up and huffed him out of the hills, taking all day before getting to the truck
I would have had more pics, but the cold took its toll on the battery in the camera
All well, I had a heck of a time getting the two halves in the truck because of the weight, but eventually made it....
I had been driving around looking high for good areas to hike into for about two days down around the Idaho border
There was one area in particular that looked like a promising place to hold elk
The day before you could see every thing, but today, it was really fogged in towards the top with an inversion
Parking the truck, I swung my day bag onto my back and headed up the mountainside
About ¾’s the way up, I decided to sit down for a nice lunch; I was just starting to get into the foggy part of the hill and the fire felt pretty good
Since I had come to this area and looked around, I had only found one set of elk tracks on the other side of the valley from my location and it showed it was moving along at a good clip
The fog was freezing on every thing and looked very cool as if the world had been flocked
When I got to the top of the hill, there were elk tracks every where
I got onto a small herd of about 6-7 and started dogging along staying on the uphill side of the highest set of tracks
After about an hour and a half, I spied a small bull down the hill from me at about 50 yards in a stand of lodge pole pines lying in the snow looking down the hill
I stalked to within 20 yards, took aim and hit him in the back of the neck right below the base of the skull
He just laid his head down as if going to sleep, at the same moment, I heard a number of others heading down the hill from me into the darker timber
Getting a glimpse of a couple fleeing elk, I notice I must have been following a small band of bulls and one looked to be a decent boy, but I'm not greedy and was plenty happy with what I already had
Now the work started
After cleaning my elk, I headed the four miles back to the truck for my sled
By the time I got back to the top of the hill, it was almost dark, so set up a small natural shelter and stayed the night
First thing in the morning, I set out for my prize
I rolled the whole carcass on the sled and was going to head back up the hill to the trail out and found it was a little heavy for one guy
I cut him in half, removed the head, and took three trips to where I needed to head back out
After getting the pieces to the trail, I loaded every thing up and huffed him out of the hills, taking all day before getting to the truck
I would have had more pics, but the cold took its toll on the battery in the camera
All well, I had a heck of a time getting the two halves in the truck because of the weight, but eventually made it....
