...and now, a word from our Sponsor...

One more thing....I almost forgot to thank our Sponsor for this trip. As you can imagine, elk hunting in Montana's mountains is grueling. Hiking up steep hillsides, elevation climbs to over 8500 feet, hiking down those same mountains...it makes a man work up a hunger.

The secret energy source that enabled Dad and I to successfully conquer these mountains was provided to us by the good folks at LaraBar. LÄRABAR's are a delicious blend of unsweetened fruits, nuts and spices - energy in its purest form. Made from 100% whole food, each flavor contains no more than six ingredients. Pure and simple, just as nature intended.

I want to thank LaraBar for their sponsorship of this trip, and for the fuel they provided that allowed us to accomplish our goals. Of particular note, I want to thank Jeff Nordyke, our LaraBar representative, for recommending this fine product to us....if not for his recommendation, we might not have succeeded.

Jerry's Hunt Recap - Final Post

Dad summarized the hunt quite well, thus, instead of summarizing, I thought I would share a brief “feel-good” story that I will remember from the trip….

One of the fascinating things to me about the trip was the little bit I learned about the ranches of the area. They are beef cattle ranches in this part of the world. The two main ranches in Grasshopper Valley are the Tash and Harrison. Each family has been ranching in this area for over 100 years, and the area land features reflect their heritage. Tash Mountain and Tash Scenic Overlook, Harrison Creek and Harrison Lake are just a few examples.

These ranches are BIG! Both the Tash and Harrison families run their cattle on over 10,000 acres, and have access to nearly 15,000. Conversely, in Wisconsin, a 400 acre farm is considered big. Finally, if one gal I met is any indication, their family businesses will continue for years to come. I shot my elk on a part of the Harrison Ranch, where Russ Kipp has permission to hunt. Shortly after I shot the elk, PJ (guide) and I saw a couple people heading up the hill toward my elk. We decided we better get down there. As we approached, PJ noted that one of the two was Melissa Harrison, daughter of the owner the ranch.

After sharing the story of our hunt with them, we learned that Melissa and her boyfriend had just parked their truck 500 yards down the hill. They offered to drive up to haul my elk out. I rode out with them, and on the way thanked Melissa for allowing us to hunt on their family ranch. She thanked me, and went on to explain how she had gone to college, knew she could go out into the world and get a better paying job…but she had seen enough and knew that she wanted to stay on the ranch the rest of her life. Her older brother, who we had met earlier in the week, was also going to carry on the tradition. And Tyler Tash (Dad's guide on Monday during the week) is also taking over his Dad's ranch.

Property values of ranch land in Montana and other western mountain states continues to demand higher and higher prices, even during these times of depressed real estate prices. I am sure that the temptation for many ranch owners is to take the money and run. But these three 20-something kids have decided they ain’t sellin’, and they are staying on to run the Ranch. I was glad to hear that the Tash and Harrison ranches of southwest Montana's Grasshopper Valley will carry-on for at least another generation.

Thanks for all your well-wishes and comments….and Happy Hunting!

Lee's Hunt Recap

In the interest of brevity (that means I’ll try to keep it short) I will recap the hunt with some miscellaneous thoughts –

• The weather was great – 20’s in the morning – mid 50’s in the afternoon. Good weather however does not make for good elk hunting – better to have snow or cold weather, preferably both.
• The guides were terrific – good hunters – good sense of humor – in shape (except for Russ Kipp, the owner, who mostly liked to hunt from his truck).
• The food was good, sometimes great, and definitely plentiful.
• The hunting itself was different than I anticipated – primarily I think because we hunted mostly on cattle grazing land that abutted National Forest land. This meant we did more binocular “glassing” for elk from roads in the area. I imagined the hunt would be in more of a wilderness area, and, some of it was, especially when we were hunting mule deer.
• Would I do it again?? – IN A HEARTBEAT!!
• The guides complemented both Jerry and I for being good hunters and for our physical conditioning – and, they seemed to be serious - but, if I do this again, I would work even harder at getting physically prepared.
• Walking in and out to hunting areas in the dark was always a challenge – no flashlights were allowed for fear of spooking the elk. In the darkness, on uneven ground we had to learn to dodge cow “pies” and numerous badger holes – we did this by dodging all “dark spots” we could see.

There, I have a lot more to say but I’m as sick of writing as you all are sick of reading – so, I’ll see you all at home for an elk dinner - I’m sure Becky is already planning the rest of the menu – Right? Ya, right!

Road Trip Home

The ride back home was mostly uneventful. We loaded up the truck, had another great breakfast at the lodge, said our goodbyes, and headed out. First stop was the butcher shop where we picked up the elk meat. The good cuts were cut into steaks, tenderloins, backstraps, and roasts. The balance was made into ground burger and breakfast sausage. When combined with the mule deer, we now had about 350 pounds of meat packed in 5 coolers. I guess the families won't starve this winter!

Next stop was the taxidermy shop to pick-up the elk, which was there getting primped for mounting. Should be an a great mount when it is done!

We hit the road for home by about 9:00am, departing Dillon, Montana. Destination for the evening was Fargo, ND area. We ended up staying in Moorhead, MN instead, as all hotels in Fargo seemed booked (they said it was the Canadians down from the border towns to shop).

We agreed we would try to be on road by 7:00am. So, I woke-up, and looking at the clock noticed it was a little after 6:00. I jumped up into the shower, and coming out a few minutes later, was reminded by Dad that it was daylight-savings time...so it was actually now 5:20am, not 6:20am. Oh well...Dad proceeded to get ready, and we hit the road by about 6:05.

Like I said...uneventful the rest of the way. We arrived home at about 3:00pm.

Trip summary, by both Dad and I, will be last posts....

Day Six - Our Final Day - Part Two

Let me start by saying that Dad's day was notably more exciting than mine. As Dad mentioned, I deer hunted with Dan (hunter) and PJ (guide) today. We started in the area where we had we had seen a nice mule deer buck on Wednesday evening. This is a portion of the Beaverhead National Forest, just to the east of the lodge and Grasshopper Valley. The terrain is rolling foothills, populated with a mix of juniper, spruce, sage brush, and willow shrubs in the low-lying areas.

We arrived in the area, and quickly saw 6 does, so were excited about our chances. However, the longer we stayed in the area, the more HUNTERS we saw instead of game. Thus, we headed out by 11:00 am.

We soon arrived on Polaris Road, and stopped at a spot where we had a view of the "valley herd" that Dad referred to in his blog today. As we peered through our binoculars, we saw that the elk had moved from the safe confines of the Circle S to huntable land. Continuing to pan the valley we noticed that not 300 yards below us, Dad and Cody (guide) were sitting in a ditch, and Dad has his rifle aimed at a herd of elk! "Okay, Dad, here's your chance!," I thought. But then noticed that he did not likely have a clear shot (as he confirmed in his blog). We also noticed that we were likely close enough to potentially spook the elk, so we pulled out and headed back to the lodge.

After hearing about Dad's adventures over a late lunch, we headed back out for our last afternoon of hunting. We hunted similar terrain as the morning hunt, except much higher elevation. We glassed hillsides and cuts, rocks and ridges, trees and stumps, for 90 minutes before seeing our first deer at about 5:30. A mule deer doe silhouetted at the top of the hill. Then another doe came over the hill, and another, and another. As we continued climbing the hill, we continued seeing more deer, but still no bucks. Finally, while cresting the top at about 7200 feet elevation, we saw a small fork buck. Both Dan and I decided to pass on the little guy. Our excellent hunting adventure ended on the top of that hill as we watched a fabulous sunset over the Pioneer Mountain Range (photo at right does not do it justice!).

Next post will be a summary of our road-trip home.

Day Six - Our Final Day

I believe I last blogged on Thursday evening after my successful (at last) shooting of a mule deer. It gets hard to remember exactly what happened on each day when all you do is eat, hunt, eat, hunt, eat again and then go to bed - then, do it all over again the next day. That said, Friday was a memorable day for me.

Before I go into the details understand that despite the sameness of the daily routine each day of hunting is unique, with great scenery, good food and fun times with the guides and the other hunters.

On Friday I hunted alone with Cody (guide) while Jerry was again paired with one of the other hunters to hunt mule deer. Friday’s hunt for me was one of the more fun and strenuous days of the trip. The “valley elk herd” of about 200+ elk had split into 2 approximately equally sized herds and moved off of the “no hunting” Circle S Ranch onto adjoining ranches. Before daybreak Cody and I hiked/ran about 3 miles to a vantage point on a hillside where we figured we could see where both of these herds were. Wrong – sunup was at approximately 8:10AM which meant we could commence shooting at 7:40AM – the problem was we could not find any of the elk. Thinking they had moved off even further from the Circle S (safe haven) than we thought we hiked back to the truck (3 miles back). Once there we talked to Tom Tash, the rancher, and he told us one group of elk was now on the hillside we had just left and that the other was now on the adjacent Harrison ranch. So, we headed back for the hillside, the difference being that now we didn’t have the cover of darkness and we had to follow gullies and creek beds – this seemed to make the distance about twice as far.

Now this particular stalk takes a twist. We are not quite to the base of our early morning hillside when the Harrison Ranch herd decides to cross in front of us and make a break for the safety of the infamous Circle S. We, at this point, are caught in the open and we have to “duck waddle” and crawl to the nearest drainage ditch about 50 yards ahead - then do the same to the next ditch about 75 yards further on. In this ditch we are partially protected by willow bushes and are in an excellent position at approximately 275 yards from the walking/milling/standing elk herd.

I line up the nicest bull elk in the herd in my scope and keep my scope on him for at least 30 minutes plus – but, he never was entirely in the clear so that I could pull the trigger. Complicating the situation was a herd of cattle that had been spooked by someone or something and were now intermingled with the elk herd. To shorten the story, this particular bull, a nice bull with a large “drop horn” tine in front of one eye, jumped the fence into the Circle S and ended this stalk.

Cody and I, once again, headed back (3 miles) to the truck as the herd that had moved to “our hillside” was nowhere to be found. We got almost back to the truck when we ran into Russ Kipp, the owner of our Lodge, and one of the other hunters coming out of a creek bed. They had been the ones that spooked the cattle herd and then had spotted us approaching the elk herd - whereupon they stopped and just watched us. Whilst talking with them we spotted the “hillside herd” moving toward the Circle S – Yes, we once again raced some 3 plus miles to try to intercept them before they got to the Circle S. Just as we got within range of the last of’ the herd, the best bull, a very nice 6 X 6 (we are very good at these insider elk hunter terms) was clearing the fence into the safety of the Circle S. We hiked back to the truck a third time and needless to say I was out of “gas” – the good news is that Cody was also out of gas, so I did not feel too bad.

The Friday afternoon hunt was somewhat anticlimactic – a tough hike up the side of a mountain to an open meadow area where we waited for elk to emerge out of the “black timber” into the meadow. Eleven elk showed up about 40 minutes before the end of shooting hours (6:42PM) but none was considered a “shooter”.

There, that’s the last of my hunting action blog – I’ll try to do a recap of the overall hunt later. (So, is this day’s recap longer than anything Jerry has done so far??? Or, do I have to try again????)

More blogging than hunting?

Sounds like you're having fun! Next time maybe you can go somewhere just to BLOG. Without the hunting, you could write some really interesting stoeies.
ROWEFARMS

Day Five - Part Two

Having already shot an elk, Thursday's objective was deer...primarily mule deer. Another hunter here this week, Dan, also had shot an elk. Thus, the two of us were paired up for the day with Russ Kipp as our guide (Russ owns the lodge). Russ drove us around to the east slopes of the Pioneer Range for our day long hunt.

The morning started a little slow, as we only saw four deer including a small spike buck. By about 9:30, Russ had Dan and I walk down a series of ridges, flanking a deep draw to a meeting point about a mile and a half away. We had spotted a few doe 700-800 yards down into the draw, and were hoping to jump a buck.

Sure enough, I first saw 8 deer, including a couple small spikes. Then, as I crested a ridge top and started my descent, I saw 15 deer bolt from my right to left about 500 yards down the ridge. Without the aid of optics, I could clearly see a good, tall, many pointed muley in the bunch. I quickly picked a line to my left along a ridge that hid me from the deer, and sprinted about 200 yards hoping to get a shot. As I approached the ridge, I slowed my pace, and inched toward the edge to peer over, fully expecting to see "my" mule deer buck. Instead, nothing!...Where had they gone?

Russ had been watching the scene unfold from high atop an opposite ridge, and he thought he saw them run beyond the ridge I had stopped on. We decided to leave them alone for awhile. After enjoying our lunch on a plateau overlooking several deep cuts and draws, we decided to drive a road around the area we thought they went. The plan was to get some elevation and see if we could spot them below us.

We traveled some extremely rugged and steep roads to get high up on the mountain. At the higher altitude, the wind blew harder and air was notably colder. We glassed the ridges, cuts, and valleys below us, and only spotted a small group of antelope. After getting my bearings, I volunteered to hike down the mountain to get a closer look at each cut in hopes of spotting that buck again. We planned to meet back at the area we had lunch in about 2-3 hours.

Hiking alone in country like this always gives me bit of the willies. Black bear and mountain lion roam these hills. The numerous rock outcroppings and ledges that I stalked around seemed perfect perches from which a cat could attack. The howling wind settled more and more as I descended, until it was completely calm when I reached a point halfway down. The certain imminent danger of a lion attack, now coupled with the silence from the lack of wind, intensified my uneasiness.

As I neared the peak of each ridge, I cautiously peered over the edge to see if mule deer might be on the other side. I reached a ridge that was now only two ridge tops from our meeting spot. As with the others, I peered over its top. My eyes fixed on what I initially thought was a round, brown rock. Then I thought to myself that rocks in this country are not round. I looked more closely, and sure enough, a mule deer. I backed away to calm my nerves which had instantly gone on high alert. I looked again, and this time saw several brown rocks.

Backing away again, I removed my binoculars, pack, and hat. I had to be careful to not silhouette myself too much as the sun and sky were at my back. Army crawling up to the ledge, I peered over with my range finder first. One-hundred eighteen yards...great, an easy shot. Then I rested my rifle on the rock ledge, and slowly pointed in the direction of the deer. As I peered through the scope, I went from animal to animal to see if one of them was my muley buck. One, no...two, no...and so on, until I counted thirteen deer. All does.

I settled down a bit, and watched them browse for nearly 15 minutes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a lone deer coming out of the bottom of the draw heading toward the group of does (by the way, that's pronounced "doze", not "duz"). Swinging my scope to the right, I quickly identified this late arriver as just another doe. Then, another loner came in from the left. My view to the left was not as good and did not offer a shot, but I did indeed see horns on this one. As these two deer entered the picture, the main group of does started to catch my wind. They milled around, ears on full alert, noses raised in the air, trying to identify what and where danger lurked.

The lead doe decided it was time to leave the area. She started trotting away from me, up a ridge on the opposite side. The others followed. I quickly repositioned for a shot on the opposite ridge. I found the buck in my scope, and as I did he stopped. Broadside. As I examined the horns, my first instinct was to let him go. He was a tall four point, two on each side. Not bad, but not the big one I had seen earlier. Then, within the next three seconds, my mind rapidly went through a series of random thoughts: it was Thursday, we only have one more day to hunt; I would only mount the horns of this animal, not the whole head, but a nice little mule deer horn mount would be a good memory of the trip; what if Dad does not get anything?...it would be better to go home with two animals than one (I did not know Dad had shot a deer already).

BANG! My mind was made up and I pulled the trigger. And much to my satisfaction, the deer did not take one step, dropping immediately. I waited five minutes or more, watching the deer the whole time. He had stopped moving several minutes prior. I called Russ on the radio and let him know I had one down. Russ said he was on his way.

I started gathering my things, and before I took my first step toward the deer, he jumped up and ran off. He was limping a bit, but had no trouble putting a couple hundred yards between us in a short amount of time. I marked the last spot I saw him, then waited about 10 minutes before giving chase. My hope was that he would bed down, and not get back up. When I arrived at the spot I last saw him, I fully expected to see blood, but could not find any. I tracked him for nearly 400 more yards, and lost his track. I never saw him again.

Russ and Dan saw him briefly as they parked at the meeting spot, so we combed that area for two hours trying to find him, or sign of him. Nothing. In the end, I must have hit him high on the shoulder, which only stunned him. Given how far he ran, it is likely that he will live. Nonetheless, a very sad and disappointing end to a great afternoon of hunting.

Friday is a new day, and we will hope for another good hunt.

Day Five

Jerry has writer's cramps after yesterday's long winded description of how he got his elk. Today they split us up - Jerry hunted with one of the other hunters (Dan) in camp that already had an elk and they went off with Russ Kipp (the owner of the lodge) to hunt mule deer. Another guy (Mike) and I went with one of the guides (Cody) to look for elk. Before sunup we were in front of the huge "valley herd" of approximately 200+ elk - unfortunately, 5 other hunters were in the same area and shot early at something we could not see. Obviously, the shot spooked the elk and they took off going right through a rancher's fence and knocking down a good 40 to 50 yards of pasture fence. The bottom line for us was that the elk were now on land that we could not hunt.

We spent the balance of the morning glassing for elk in all the likely places and could find nothing. We did, however, just before lunch, spy a decent mule deer buck that we decided to try for right after lunch. So, after lunch we went back to the spot and sure enough there he was. Cody and I began a stalk after a long (45 minute) drive on forest service roads like the worst ones we have ever seen in Arizona. But, the drive got us to about 500 yards to the draw where the mule deer buck was. We inched through a deep ravine and went up the side hill to look down into the ravine where he was - he was still there with what looked like 17 or 18 other deer.

Now comes the sad part - I shot, about 150 to 170 yards ..................and missed. We chased him to the next ridge but he was gone. The surprising thing was when I shot the entire hillside exploded with deer - prolly 30 or more.

Now, feeling down after my second miss we headed out of that area. On the way out we spotted another buck. Again, Cody and I leave the vehicle and trot to a ridge that afforded us nearly a broadside shot. Once again I shot (approx. 170 yards) using Cody's shooting sticks that he insisted I use. Guess what, I missed and then followed up with 3 more misses. I reloaded, threw away the shooting sticks and drilled the buck shooting freehand - he dropped dead in his tracks. SO NOW WE HAVE A MULE DEER TOO - Jerry tells me he can get a picture on the blog so look for it - it's not a big buck, but it is a buck.

Jerry has stories of his own for today, but he is not writing this blog today so his stories will have to wait.

We are now going to have another celebratory refreshment.

Ta Ta for now - Lee and Jerry