Day 3 - First Day of Hunting

Even when you are excited, there is something awful about a 4:45AM alarm. That’s when Josh‘s alarm went off as it signaled the start of our first day of hunting. After breakfast, Dad and I met our guide for the next five days… Hayden. He informed us that we were headed to an area called Creek Bottoms to overlook a couple of commonly used meadows that are used by the elk for both feeding, and as a pass-through from one ridgeline to the next. We would be stand hunting today…instead of spot and stalk hunting.

We jumped in Hayden’s truck a little after 6 AM after doing a final gathering of necessary items for a day in the field, and followed the two-track trails for the next 30 minutes to a gate in the corner of a sheep pasture . On the other side of the gate was a trail that led to our sitting spots for the day. Each of us had spectacular views over small meadows leading to the creek with Gamble Oak and Aspen stands surrounding the meadows. Beautiful country, but after a full day of waiting and watching, shooting hours ended with no elk sightings.

Hayden, who had hiked to the ridge top above me, and I started walking back to meet Dad and head back to the truck. We quickly learned that we were in for an adventurous trip back to the lodge. A large herd of sheep had been in these meadows and on the trail the previous day, and let’s just say they left their mark. When combined with the days snow melt, it created a 2-4 inch deep mud and sheep-shit paste. We stepped in said paste nearly every step of the way back to the truck. It was sticky! Often times it added 3 to 4 inches of its sticky nastiness to the sides and bottom of each boot. Dad believes the technical term for this thing I call paste is “Siberian snake shit.” It was like skating in mud, and we each did our best to not fall face-first into the slop. We all made it back to the truck without incident. It had taken slightly over an hour to walk a mile.

Now phase two of the adventure home began. The snow melt had also made the trail we drove in on extremely greasy! Even with the truck in four-wheel-drive, on level surface, all four wheels were spinning. The gate out of the pasture was at the top of a hill. There was not chance of making it up if we had to stop at the gate first. So we parked the truck at the bottom, I walked up to the gate and held it wide open while Hayden and Dad made a run for it up the hill. With tires spinning wildly, and mud flying in all directions, the truck somehow bobbed and weaved up he hill. First hurdle successfully navigated! After three more similar seemingly impossible impasses (around a sharp turn on the edge of a cliff, through a deep rut that we feared would suck the truck off the cliff, we finally got to the main road successfully. Big kudos to Hayden!

We returned to the lodge to share stories of the day with Tom and Josh, and the other hunters. No success by any parties today, and everyone was in bed pretty early.