The Long and the Short of it!

It happened just over 7 months ago and I am finally coming around to documenting the magic of it all.  That's right I speak of that glorious day the 6th of October 2012.  What was special about this particular day you may ask, well may I take the liberty of forever emblazoning it upon your mind.  It was a pleasant fall day particularly considering that we woke up at 4:00 am and set out on horse back to an elevation of roughly 10,000 feet in an undisclosed location in northern Utah.  What were we thinking?  We were thinking ELK!  You got it, opening day of the general elk season, Do It Yourself, Over The Counter tags.  For four years I, with several stalwart others have set out on this quest to find a legal bull to bring home.  in the previous three years we have only seen two bulls between all of us and roughly 30 elk total.  We did not succeed in bringing either of the two previously seen bulls home for cooking.  2012 was different.  We had done a bit more preseason scouting and due to rigorous study and learning over the past years I was feeling fairly confident.  We split up from camp, my group headed to higher ground and the others headed for some open wilderness territory where we have seen elk before.  On top we were nearing our preselected destination around 6:00 and we heard a bull cut loose to our left.  We decided quickly to send one of the party to try to intercept, this left two of us to duke it out for the favored sitting spot.  I lost and as a result had almost two miles to cover in about 30 minutes.  I took the horses and made like the wind.  At this point I was somewhat disappointed because I was sure that the elk would be using the draw that I had just relinquished, however I had a foot race with the sun to worry about so that's what I concentrated on.  Nearly to my perch I tethered the horse flesh in a secluded nook and raced to my destiny.  It may be the fisherman in me (eternal optimist that the next cast will land a fish regardless of hours of nothing) but I just knew that the first shot I heard in the distance would drive a herd of elk right into my lap.  Well daylight came with several shots ringing in the distance and nothing came.  after about 30 minutes I was feeling like I was going to be chalking up another year to the elk when a distant rattling of rocks caught my attention.  I looked up and roughly 700 yards off, on a crazy rock face, I could see several cow elk moving up the hill.  Then to my wondering eye I saw a bull heading up the the rear of the procession, unfortunately my cheep rangefinder barely hits 400 yards so I was not confident with a shot at such an undetermined distance.  It took me about 30 seconds to give chase, as historically speaking these were probably the only elk I was going to see this year.  I started running to my left along the west rim of the draw that they were working the east side of.  I used as much cover as I could hoping to gain sight of them again before they crested the hill and disappeared.  It didn't work, I scanned the hill but they were gone.  The bull bugled and that motivated me to charge up the hill they had just disappeared over hoping to see them in open country on the other side.  No luck, it was dense timber without sight or sound of the small herd.  As I mentioned it was a mild day for October at 10,000 feet so there was no snow and my tracking skills can't even help me find chocolate at the Hershey factory without snow.  I sat there for several minutes hoping to hear something and was only rewarded with the report of a high powered rifle over the hill I had just climbed.  Incredulous I raced to an opening to see what was happening.

The view from up top!

To my utter astonishment there was a herd of elk running right toward my pack that I had abandoned at my perch to make better time in my pursuit.  Taking up the rear of this new group was yet another bull, smaller but still a bull.  I quickly attempted to calculate the distance to my pack using the GPS I had on hand as my rangefinder was still of no use.  As I pulled up my rifle and found the bull in the scope another shot went off and the bull rolled over a mere 20 yards from my backpack.  I can not even express how disgusted I was knowing that I could have been right there.  Then to  my surprise another group of elk came cruising down the same path and nearly ran over the hunter that was approaching his bull.  This time I couldn't even try to shoot as there was a person in the general vicinity.  Now I am really bugged!

So I happen to glance to my right down the draw and there are several elk moving through the bottom heading east.  So I start that direction for a better look just hoping to see antlers.  While in motion the glorious sound of a bull cutting loose assails my ears and I can tell that they are just across the draw from me through the timber.  I sit an wait and I can hear them moving to the right so I shift that direction only to hear them come cruising back to my left, it is at this point that I see legs through the timber milling around.  The bull bugles again and the herd starts down their side of the draw angling from my left to my right but predominantly toward me.  Several cows emerge from the timber then a spike or two followed by more cows and another spike and then I see him with his head thrown back ducking through the timber.  I pull up and find him in my scope and tag him as he is trotting down the hill.  It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to think hard enough to screw it up.   When I refocused from the recoil I can't see him which would be concerning but in the true fashion of the day elk are charging up the hill directly toward me.  I literally jumped up threw my arms in the air and started yelling at them to halt their progress, which fortunately worked as they were less than 10 yards from me at this point.  I'm not sure who was more alarmed at this point me or the elk.  They adjusted their rout and quickly moved on.  Now it was time to see what happened to my bull.  I climbed the other side of the draw talking to myself like a man possessed, stunned that this had finally come together after a lifetime of dreaming and four years of hunting.  I actually smelled the bull before I caught sight of him tucked against some low lying shrubbery next to a tree, if you know it the musky smell of elk is quite distinct.  As I had had no time to assess the size of the bull as he was running down the hill I was delighted to find a nice 5 point bull resting before me.

Even the angels were pleased for me! :)

Well sticking to the new model of elk plenitude while retrieving my pack from my original perch I stopped to chat with the hunter who had taken the bull out of my scope and during our conversation we saw four more elk moving of through the trees. I then headed back to my bull to start the real work.  From there with help from my hunting pals (who had not been as lucky as I) we quartered the bull and loaded him up on one of the horses.  I threw the antlers on my back and mounting the other horse I rode the 5 miles back to camp in true Do It Yourself, old west, horseback, elk hunting fashion.  A dream come true.      

To top off the day once my bull was unloaded I had to return to the top to pick up my fellow hunters so I talked brother-in-law into joining me and once on top we set up for the evening hunt which if I chose to embellish would take a fair bit more space, but to sum it up after sitting for about 15 minutes I spotted an elk slipping out of the timber almost 800 yards away, using terrain we sprinted 500 plus yards to intercept a beauty of a non-typical bull just as the day ended.  Which resulted in finally getting back to camp at 12:30 AM.  It was awesome!  My best hunting day to date.  My rough calculation subject to some embellishment (I did try to be conservative) tallied to somewhere in the mid 40s for total elk seen, with 10 bulls including three larger bulls, 2 rag horns (2 1/2 year old bulls with small branched antlers) and 5 spikes.  Impressive when I figure that I have only seen 6 elk in the previous 3 years without a single shot fired.

The next day with our new head gear!

So now with the antlers on my office wall and roughly 1/2 of the elk remaining in the freezer this hunt and this bull are forever a part of me.  I know it may seem barbaric to some but hunting has been part of my life as long as I can remember and every time I see the antlers I am reminded of all that it took to make this happen. 

Also a do it yourself project.

I eat meat and my meat has a story.

I am already dreaming of this fall and the stories that it will bring. 

I would be amiss if I failed to thank my wife as she does not share my passion for hunting but supports me all the same.  I must confess that as crazy as I am about hunting sharing my passion would be a stretch for many. :)