Day 4 - Second Day of Hunting

After a great night sleep in the tent (it was 4° warmer than previous night😉) Josh and I woke up Sunday morning at 4:30 AM. We spent some time sharing stories of day 1and prepping our gear for the day, then met Dad and Tom in the lodge by 5:15 for coffee and breakfast. As we took our last bites, Hayden informed Dad and I that we would be hunting near the lodge today…no truck ride. 

Early AM walk to Oak Knoll

We hiked south from the lodge about a mile to a small oak knoll overlooking several meadows. Each meadow had a ridge of aspen spilling into it, some with scattered stands of gamble oak as well. Great spot!…this would be dads stand for the day.

Hayden and I continued further south, then west up into a saddle between two aspen ridges. We crossed a lot of elk sign, including a recent bedding area, many tracks, and scat piles…all seemingly a day or less old. Encouraging sign! We were heading to the western slopes of an 8200 foot ridge top for the day.

As we entered a stand of aspen on the east slope, we heard our first gunshots of our hunt. Hoping it was Dad, we soon learned that it was Justin, a hunter with the other group at our lodge. Our lodge had its first bull of the hunt, a nice 5 x 4! 

Hayden and I found a spot to sit and glass for a while. Then he went back to check on Dad, and have lunch. When he returned, we headed southeast along the western slope to a new spot. Wow! An elk hunting postcard spot! See photo…it doesn’t do it justice! 

Elk Country Postcard 1

The sun disappeared behind the mountain and within 10 minutes the action started. First a cow elk and her calf came out of the oak to our right just 100 yards away. They saw us but decided we were not a threat, so calmly grazed while we watched them. They continued to move toward us, at one point the cow came within 10 yards of us. She was so close that you could see her nostrils working to pick up our scent, but the wind was not in her favor. Still she sensed enough of something wrong that they calmly left the area, and headed down the steep embankment we were sitting on to the open meadow below. Very cool experience.

With 10 minutes of shooting light left, we were discussing whether we should leave or wait, when Hayden told me to not move. He whispered that a bull had come out of the oaks at the same spot the cow and calf had. After initially identifying it as a spike (illegal) he then quickly said scratch that “shooter bull”!! I was still facing Hayden to my left, and the bull was 180° the opposite direction to my right. For those of you that don't know shooting, a right handed shooter has a hard time swinging to the right with a rifle and taking a shot. At least that’s my excuse. Anyway, I spun to my right, put the crosshairs on the bull’s chest (it was facing me straight-on), pulled the trigger, and missed. I flat out missed! Probably my worst miss in 45 years of hunting. That elk shot back up into the oak and we never saw it again.

Elk Country Postcard 2

We spent the next 40 minutes confirming that I had missed. We could not find a single sign of blood or hair that would have indicated that I hit it. It was a very somber one hour and fifty minute hike through the dark woods and meadows back to the lodge. Dad had made his own way back to the lodge, and informed us that he had seen a number of cows throughout the day, but no bulls. Josh and Tom hunted Bull Mountain with their guide Moose. They played cat and mouse with a herd of 20 cows almost the entire day but never saw horns. Maybe better luck tomorrow. 

Note…our intent on this trip was to have each of us post something each day. We didn’t anticipate the long days, which has made this difficult. We are up each morning at 4:30, hunting all day, returning to the lodge around 8:30, having dinner, and going to bed. But stay tuned. I’m sure all of us will post something before we get home.