Mountain Man
Well-known member
I’m a day late in posting about yesterday. To sum it up, it sucked with the exception of one thing.
I decided to circle back to where I did to start the hunt and tackle the long drive in hopes I would only need to do it once and be done. What I didn’t take into account was that this was a Sunday on a three day weekend and the last good weather camping opportunity for the year. EVERY place where I had planned to stop and call had a campsite. It was quite discouraging to drive by place that I figured could have held moose. This location is definitely being loved to death, even with a horrendous road.
Once I got up top, all I ran into was other moose hunters. There were three hunters with bull tags and three with cow tags. In an attempt to get away from the pressure we hiked a bit to get to a lake that “had a huge moose last year”. I can see why with this isolation and lily pads
There was sign there but it was old.
I was trying to figure out a plan for the evening when we came across one of the other bull hunter’s camp. I stopped by to have a conversation so we didn’t step over each other. He and his hunting partner had a quad and a QuietKat. It’s hard to compete with that type of mobility so I took a nap near one of the cow hunter’s camps to contemplate life.
After passing out for 2 hours, I awoke to look out the windshield and see a cow and a calf right by this hunter’s camp! The hunter was nowhere to be found. After driving around a bit we saw them walking back and drove over to chat with them. I told them the story of the nap and seeing the cow right behind their camp and they laughed since they were on a long hike when they should have just sat at camp.
While we were there chatting, the cow stepped back out. The hunter began scrambling to get his boots back on and his gear. He couldn’t just shoot from camp because there was a fly fisherman in between him and the moose. He ended up still hunting through the dark timber and got her. I count this as an assist on my part and hoped the good karma would help me with the hunting gods.
Even though they shot nearby, I figured the best chance to get something was to hike further back behind their camp. We sat for quite a while in this great spot to no avail.
Here is a picture of me taking one last look back as light was waning in hopes of a last minute miracle.
Alas, there was no miracle and it was a 2 hour drive home. On the drive we saw a blood moon as it was rising. We took that as a sign the next day would draw blood.
The only good thing that happened yesterday was that I officially submitted my retirement request to the Navy! 364 days to go!
I decided to circle back to where I did to start the hunt and tackle the long drive in hopes I would only need to do it once and be done. What I didn’t take into account was that this was a Sunday on a three day weekend and the last good weather camping opportunity for the year. EVERY place where I had planned to stop and call had a campsite. It was quite discouraging to drive by place that I figured could have held moose. This location is definitely being loved to death, even with a horrendous road.
Once I got up top, all I ran into was other moose hunters. There were three hunters with bull tags and three with cow tags. In an attempt to get away from the pressure we hiked a bit to get to a lake that “had a huge moose last year”. I can see why with this isolation and lily pads
There was sign there but it was old.
I was trying to figure out a plan for the evening when we came across one of the other bull hunter’s camp. I stopped by to have a conversation so we didn’t step over each other. He and his hunting partner had a quad and a QuietKat. It’s hard to compete with that type of mobility so I took a nap near one of the cow hunter’s camps to contemplate life.
After passing out for 2 hours, I awoke to look out the windshield and see a cow and a calf right by this hunter’s camp! The hunter was nowhere to be found. After driving around a bit we saw them walking back and drove over to chat with them. I told them the story of the nap and seeing the cow right behind their camp and they laughed since they were on a long hike when they should have just sat at camp.
While we were there chatting, the cow stepped back out. The hunter began scrambling to get his boots back on and his gear. He couldn’t just shoot from camp because there was a fly fisherman in between him and the moose. He ended up still hunting through the dark timber and got her. I count this as an assist on my part and hoped the good karma would help me with the hunting gods.
Even though they shot nearby, I figured the best chance to get something was to hike further back behind their camp. We sat for quite a while in this great spot to no avail.
Here is a picture of me taking one last look back as light was waning in hopes of a last minute miracle.
Alas, there was no miracle and it was a 2 hour drive home. On the drive we saw a blood moon as it was rising. We took that as a sign the next day would draw blood.
The only good thing that happened yesterday was that I officially submitted my retirement request to the Navy! 364 days to go!
