'Twas the Night Before Christmas....

[JoseCuervo]

Well.... actually it was the night before Elk Season opened up...

And all through the house was strung huntin' crap.

With a panic and scramble from room to room,
I searched high and low for my knife and map.

The day pack was stuffed, all loaded with gear,
including the mag light for my right ear.

IN the main pocket there was Gore Tex if needed for rain,
and in the shell carrier was H-4831 sitting under 160 grain.

The alarm is going off in 4 hours, and I am not even sleepy yet.....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

 

[Oak]

Good luck...

Oak

 

[Moosie]

Mike, Opening Morning is Over rated... Don't waste yer time

But good luck to you guys Anyways !!! find the Big ones and IU'll hop over Units ta hunt with ya

Or show you what a "REAL" elk looks like (I.E. my Spike I got picked out !!!

)

 

[Mini Moose]

Good Luck wacking a big one EG

Happy Hunting

 

[1_pointer]

Good luck! I'll be coming up with a list of essentials to get packed away for this weekend! I just love this time of year.

 

[Ovis]

Best of luck to you EG...look forward to pics of YOU w/ your critter and a story when you return.

 

[Nut]

Best of luck and safe hunting!!!

 

[JoseCuervo]

Not sure if we got lumps of Coal, or an unexpected present...

The area we hunt, is a one-way hunt, as it is a vertical 4 mile hike down. We drop off one road, and pick up on a lower road, with no ability to go back uphill, due to the terrain.

Well....we left the rig this morning, and a buddy's father-in-law agreeed to move it down to the lower road, so we could get a ride out at the end of the day. And, we have been hunting this place since 92, and killed many Elk, so we don't even bother scouting. Just one of those places you know, and you have confidence in.

Well, our goal was to be at the lower road at 3pm (one guy had to get back to the valley by 6pm), and we agreed to only shoot "mature" six points, no raghorn Sixes. This country is just too much work to meat hunt, and today was a "trial run", just to see if we could catch an easy one.

It turns out, that the Forest Circus has decided to Gate the lower road, 6 miles from where we were planning to be picked up, so after 4 miles of down hill, and about a 4000 foot loss, we hit the road, and just started walking, and walking, and walking... Luckily, we did not have any game, so we were just carrying empty packframes, so it was ok, but not planned.

The good news is that our area used to be about 12 square miles of roadless area, with no access. And now, with the gate, the area is about 80 square miles of no access.

The Elk were definitely distributed in places we don't usually find them, so it will take a bit of different tactics to get them, but all things considered, we now have a better spot.

And the increased area and difficulty really thinned out the competition from other hunters.

And now, like Christmas night, I have a mess in the living room, of gear for getting ready, and gear for bringing back, and a rifle needing cleaned, as we got about 30 minutes of solid rain, on the trek out to the rig.