sra61
Member
So, I spent 10 days total from just after I found out I drew the tag in June to the weekend before the season opened Mon. 9/15. I talked to the head biologist for region 1. And she seemed to think the moose keyed mostly on recent clearcuts. I found a lot of old sign, probably winter type sign on those roads, but no fresh sign at all. I walked a lot, and drove a lot. I saw a wolf at about 10 yds. that I didn't shoot because it wasn't open yet. I had seen fresh tracks in two places a couple of months ago. One was in a swampy spot by a road and I heard there has been a bull sighted there. The second was a track I saw right in a creek bottom in July. I went back to look on Sun., and sure enough I found another, so continued searching and found a fresh bed and the first fresh droppings I have seen since looking! As I continued up the drainage I found a place where it looked like for sure more than one moose, and as I looked where they had gone into the darker timber and thought that would be a good place to bed, all hell broke loose. One or two snorted and went left and the one that went right sounded like he had an oak 2x12 strapped to the top of his head as he crashed through the brush. I never got to see him, but he had to be big to make that much noise with his rack. This country is jungle boys! They were no more than maybe 30 yards away and I never saw hide nor hair! I backed out and hunted elsewhere Mon. evening and Tues. morning just to hopefully let them settle down. Tues. morning I came across a big bull track with a cow and calf track too, in a completely different drainage, also right down by the creek. This bull leaves dewclaw marks every track. He's got size and weight. It has been hot, upper 70's in there, so movement during daylight has been minimal. I went back to hunt the bull I jumped Mon. on Tues. evening. I waited for the evening thermals to change to down drainage and then headed the 1.5 miles through jungle to where he had been bedding. I had about 2 hrs. to sit. About 45 minutes from last light I heard a lot of crashing behind me in the creek, and stood up to see a couple of teenage kids with backpacks. They saw me and waved and hollered, "Hunting?". I told them yes and they turned around and went back the way they had come. I watched and they were throwing big rocks into the creek to try to cross on, which only worked to make a lot of noise. I waited the last minutes until dark and then walked out in the dark. I climbed on the ATV and headed up the road towards my truck and about a mile up the road here are the two teenage boys in the pitch black dark starting a fire in the middle of the road! They didn't have a flashlight, and had heard something big in the road ahead of them and scared the crap out of them, so they decided a fire might spook it off. They didn't have a vehicle. They had 80 lb. packs full of rocks that they had picked up in the creek, apparently looking for gold. There are a lot of old mines in the area. Their Dad had dropped them off and was supposed to pick them up at dark which had long ago come and gone. We put the fire out and I loaded them up on the ATV, and we headed up the hill. No Dad there, so I loaded the ATV up and drove them into town, and took them home, which was 5 miles W. of Troy. I told them I only wanted one thing for the ride: that was a phone call to the number on my card if they saw a big bull moose in their travels in those creek bottoms. They were eager to agree to that. I was a little disgusted with the evening's events and decided to head home for a few days, and return next week for an extended time, just a little closer to the rut. I was actually pretty happy to have located two different bulls even though I didn't get to see one, I know they are there. I may take three weeks. It just depends how long it takes to find one that I can actually see. It seems like calling will be the best shot, since it's so thick in there. It's actually pretty much like the B.C. and Alberta country I hunted in the past. I kind of thought it was interesting that both bulls are with cows and calves already. I have to say, I am totally enjoying being able to walk around the woods with a moose tag and a rifle in my hands and have ten whole weeks to be able to do it! I truly hope to come home with a big bull, but even if I don't, I'm gonna love every minute of it! And it won't be because I didn't give 'er hell. I lost 50 lbs. and went from a 42" to 34" jeans, and I'm doing this thing all by my lonesome.
