Lilhowie83
Well-known member
I have been trying to find a few minutes to start writing a summary of mine and my families 2021 elk hunts. Much like @Duck-Slayer, our house has deemed this year the year of the elk.
Background
I have been looking forward to this hunt for the last 20 + years. My mom died 32 years ago when I was 6 and the following fall, when my older brother was 12 I was 7 and my younger brother was 6, my dad started dragging us along on his hunting trips with his brothers, my uncles, and my older cousins. The first few years we mostly just hunted mule deer in the area that my dad an his brothers had been hunting for the last 30 years, and now I hunt with my sons another 30 years later.
Fast forward a few years and it seemed like either my dad, one of my uncles or one of my cousins drew an elk tag in a pretty desirable elk controlled hunt in Southeast Idaho. So the next few years my little brother and I would spend every fall following my dad, uncles and cousins walking around the elk woods. I remember falling in love with this part of the world and falling in love with hunting. All year long I would forward to returning to hunting camp and hearing the stories my dad and uncles shared from the last 30 years and then getting back to chasing deer and elk.
After about 5 years, so when I was 15 or 16 my dad quit hunting because of health reasons and just being to busy with work. I continued to hunt deer and elk in the units close to home but never made it back to this area that I fell in love with during the previous hunting seasons.
20 years ago when, I was 18, and started becoming more self sufficient, I started applying for elk every year in that same area that I had fallen in love with a few years earlier. Over the last 20 years I have applied to hunt elk in that same unit 16 times with no success. The only 4 years that I didn't apply were 4 years that we spent in North Dakota working in the oilfield. After 15 years of unsuccessful attempts, I wondered if I was ever going to get to hunt elk in this area. Throughout the years of applying, I constantly picked my dad's brain for information about the unit and areas that he liked to hunt. And sharing stories from his years of hunting. In 2009 my dad was diagnosed with Demintia and in May of this year he passed away from the effects of Demintia. So at that point I decided even if I didn't draw an elk tag, I was going to hunt the general deer season in that unit, to try and rekindle some of those memories from my childhood.
As application season approached I sent in my application for elk for the same unit and same hunt that I had 15 times previously. My oldest son was going to be busy with football, so I didn't have him apply for any elk hunts, I just bought him an otc tag for a late cow hunt that he would have time to do after football ended and before wrestling started. My oldest daughter doesn't love hunting as much but mostly wants to get out and spend time with dad, so I also bought her an otc late cow elk tag that we could do after we had wrapped up all of our other hunts for the year. This was going to be my 11 year old first year hunting elk, he shot a deer last year. So I decided to swing for the fences for him and put him in for the same unit as me, but for the hunt that started the day after mine ended, that way I would hopefully have a good handle on the area and the elk if I drew my tag.
I can still remember very vividly where I was and what I was doing on July 1st. As my coworkers and I were waiting on our boss to show up with some parts so we could finish replacing an old 2"galvanized water line, I decided to log on and check the Idaho draw results. Holy S@#$, I drew. That's has to be a mistake. Log out and check again, Holy S@#! Sure enough I drew. I log out and log into my 11 year Olds account. Holy S@#$, he drew too. My boss showed back up with parts and the first thing I said to him was, "I'll be off the entire month of October." He said "OK" and we were set to go.
Background
I have been looking forward to this hunt for the last 20 + years. My mom died 32 years ago when I was 6 and the following fall, when my older brother was 12 I was 7 and my younger brother was 6, my dad started dragging us along on his hunting trips with his brothers, my uncles, and my older cousins. The first few years we mostly just hunted mule deer in the area that my dad an his brothers had been hunting for the last 30 years, and now I hunt with my sons another 30 years later.
Fast forward a few years and it seemed like either my dad, one of my uncles or one of my cousins drew an elk tag in a pretty desirable elk controlled hunt in Southeast Idaho. So the next few years my little brother and I would spend every fall following my dad, uncles and cousins walking around the elk woods. I remember falling in love with this part of the world and falling in love with hunting. All year long I would forward to returning to hunting camp and hearing the stories my dad and uncles shared from the last 30 years and then getting back to chasing deer and elk.
After about 5 years, so when I was 15 or 16 my dad quit hunting because of health reasons and just being to busy with work. I continued to hunt deer and elk in the units close to home but never made it back to this area that I fell in love with during the previous hunting seasons.
20 years ago when, I was 18, and started becoming more self sufficient, I started applying for elk every year in that same area that I had fallen in love with a few years earlier. Over the last 20 years I have applied to hunt elk in that same unit 16 times with no success. The only 4 years that I didn't apply were 4 years that we spent in North Dakota working in the oilfield. After 15 years of unsuccessful attempts, I wondered if I was ever going to get to hunt elk in this area. Throughout the years of applying, I constantly picked my dad's brain for information about the unit and areas that he liked to hunt. And sharing stories from his years of hunting. In 2009 my dad was diagnosed with Demintia and in May of this year he passed away from the effects of Demintia. So at that point I decided even if I didn't draw an elk tag, I was going to hunt the general deer season in that unit, to try and rekindle some of those memories from my childhood.
As application season approached I sent in my application for elk for the same unit and same hunt that I had 15 times previously. My oldest son was going to be busy with football, so I didn't have him apply for any elk hunts, I just bought him an otc tag for a late cow hunt that he would have time to do after football ended and before wrestling started. My oldest daughter doesn't love hunting as much but mostly wants to get out and spend time with dad, so I also bought her an otc late cow elk tag that we could do after we had wrapped up all of our other hunts for the year. This was going to be my 11 year old first year hunting elk, he shot a deer last year. So I decided to swing for the fences for him and put him in for the same unit as me, but for the hunt that started the day after mine ended, that way I would hopefully have a good handle on the area and the elk if I drew my tag.
I can still remember very vividly where I was and what I was doing on July 1st. As my coworkers and I were waiting on our boss to show up with some parts so we could finish replacing an old 2"galvanized water line, I decided to log on and check the Idaho draw results. Holy S@#$, I drew. That's has to be a mistake. Log out and check again, Holy S@#! Sure enough I drew. I log out and log into my 11 year Olds account. Holy S@#$, he drew too. My boss showed back up with parts and the first thing I said to him was, "I'll be off the entire month of October." He said "OK" and we were set to go.
