Way to Go Idaho! **Final Day Story and Pics Added**

[highpockets]

now I have to get back to work and that hurts a little!  i was born in the wrong era.

Great story, great pics, thanks from a guy who can't be there!

[John Scifres]

Day Seven: Thursday

Today my plan is to hunt the areas above camp and see what tracks in the snow tell me.  We have had a bull bugling late at night a couple times above and our original sighting of the bull was up there somewhere.  In the end, I want to work hard and cover lots of ground to see if there is anything we are missing.

It doesn't take long to cut a couple elk tracks not more than 500 yards above camp.  A cow and calf looks like.  A few hundred feet further and I find where a bull crossed their tracks.  The cow and calf split off uphill and the bull was sidehilling.  We suspected that some of the satellite bulls around were cruising for lone cows.  Our only herd was the one from last night and the 2 bulls definitely split off from there.  Hopefully this guy was one of them and I could figure out what he was doing.
   

I trailed him for a long time.  
 

In general I learned that elk are amazing.  They have no concept of up or down or far and near.  Obstacles for us are not for them.  I tracked him right between several branches of a tree trunk when he very easily could have gone around.  I guess he just wanted to keep going straight.  

He seemed to be hitting every bench and meadow along the mountain.  Generally, he was staying at the same elevation, somehere between 8500 and 9000 feet.  He stopped at every meadow and apparently stood for a while.  
 

Maybe that's when he bugled???  He never hooked up with anyone.  I thought about going back up at darkish and trying to see if he followed the same route.  But all the bugles we heard were late and I bet he was doing this after dark.

Today was an extremely informative day.  Tracking snow sure makes patterns of movement easy to read.  Lots of deer and smaller animals were around too.  I crossed the cow and calf tracks on the other side of the mountain.  It looked like they just went over the saddle near where we glassed the first day up in this area.  As I got around the other side of the mountain, I found where Steve had seen a lot of sign after looking for his muley doe the first night we headed down this way.  The little canyon is full of wallows and rubs.  It is very marshy and a couple wallows were hit in the past couple days.  
 
Probably by the bull I was tracking???  The only negative about this journey was a brutal downhill hike through blowdowns, steep mud banks, and marsh.  I was wet, cold, tired, and my knee really hurt!  It was a blast and I'm glad I put in the effort.  It was right up there with a couple of really hard hunting days this week.  

I know one thing, the way I have hunted elk in the past was not the way to do it.  I kept thinking like a whitetail hunter.  If you want to hunt elk, get all those thoughts out of your head right now.  It's not the same.  Not at all.  Cover ground.  Find fresh sign and hunt from there.  Anything else is fruitless for the most part    

I did have some neat encounters today.  Along the route was this giant old spruce that had obviously burned a while back.  Back home I love encountering old tress, usually oaks.  I call them Sentinal or Heritage Oaks.  My family once had a place in Brown County Indiana with the most amazing old oak tree on it.  Almost every old homestead has/had one too.  They are beautiful and I'd love to have one on a place I owned someday.  This spruce reminded me of the same.  Although burned, it still looked over it's little slice of heaven.

 

Several ground demon squirrels were encountered.  Most barking loudly at me as I invaded their turf.  The snow showed their peculiar travel patterns from one tree back the other and over and over.  It seems they live in one and gather pine nuts from another.  Their home range must be miniscule.  Maybe that's why they are "protected".  Their demon eyes are obvious in the photos.

 http://residents.bowhunting.net/sticknstring/06elkhunt57.jpg

 

Pics tonight.

[Steven Russell]

This was a very interesting day for me also and I learned alot by using the snow to read about the lives lived daily in the woods.  I also had my closest encounter with elk this day.

As John mentioned, I got an early start and headed off towards the top of the hills.  The world was soft and quiet with the new snow.  So quiet in fact, that my own movement seemed almost out of place.  I seemed to be all alone in an emphemeral world.  However, as I moved further up the trail, I came upon a single set of elk tracks that gave lie to that notion.

The tracks were fairly fresh and so I decided to follow them to see what I could find.  It was interesting to watch this animal's movement through the woods.  The size and shape of the track made me think it was a cow and that was confirmed when I found places she was able to pass underneath branches without disturbing them of their snow.  A bull would never have been able to do it with antlers on his head.  I was also able see where she fed and how she regularly stopped to check on her surroundings.  Finally, the tracks led me to an open area of hillside and at this point they stopped meandering and became more straight line focused.  Upon reaching the opening, the tracks first lead straight across on an uphill diagonal.  They then turned around and recrossed the open area, again on an uphill diagonal.  Upon reaching the original side, the tracks turned around once more and headed into the trees on the uphill side of the opening.  It was here that I found a bed with absolutely no snow in it.  By doing all this, the cow was able bed and easily watch her backtrail.  I'm sure she picked me off the second I came to the open area.  From the bed, her tracks headed steadily off uphill towards a saddle where she crossed over and simply kept going.

Now to backtrack my narrative for a moment.  As I was crossing the opening for the second time, the clouds broke for a moment and I noticed a cow on the opposite hillside headed my direction.  From her speed and direction of travel, it looked like she would pass not far from me and so I hurried into the trees and found a good place to set up.  After about a minute, I gave a few cow mews to hopefully draw her my direction.  Less than 30 seconds thereafter, I saw brown movement through the trees and here she came at a trot.   Based on her line of travel, It looked like she would end about 25-30 yards from me where I had a couple of good shooting lanes.  In essence, that's exactly what happened.  The only problem was, she never stopped.  I tried mewing some more but she continued trotting in a straight line course until she reached the first cow's trail.  From there she continued on without a pause and up and away she went.   Oh well, I really thought I was going to get a shot.  So close but yet so far.

[John Scifres]

Day Seven cont.

I spent some time pontificating on man and nature and where we are apart and where we are together.  A lot of time I hear folks whining about one thing or another when game is scarce or other hunters are prevalent.  Or maybe wolves are scarce and elk are not.  The whine depends on who you are.  Seems complaining is more common than rejoicing.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the reintroduction of wolves or the management of forests.  

 

Seems man likes to fool around with stuff too much to me.  We always want to "manage" things.  I suspect it's an offshoot of our fear of the natural world, more specifically of the unknown.  That and our preoccupation with control and arrogance.  From generation to generation, this "management" takes different tacks.  I suppose I'd prefer to just let it be.  Accept what God gave us and quit meddling.  We made mistakes in the past.  No sense compounding them with more mistakes now.  I hope I'm part of that middle ground of folks who are reasonable and not polarized to the "wise-users" or the "tree-huggers".
Here's the valley from way down.  It is a series of beaver ponds.  Very lush and lots of moose sign in here.  

Here's one of the dams.  Those white dots in the water are moose turds.
 

Anyways, this day was a great one for learning.  Not an elk was spotted but I think I'm a better elk hunter becouse of the experience.  I'm taking tonight off.  I'm tired and sore and wonderfully content.

 

A wierd find in the most peculiar place was a tree bow saw down deep in the valley.  No trails or camps anywhere.  Steep as heck and really no apparent reason someone would be carrying a saw here.  It wasn't too old and still cut fine so I carried it back to camp to cut firewood for the evening fire.

[Tom Leemans]

Discovery is half then fun, eh John?

[John Scifres]

In the last picture, see that peak in the background?  Follow that down to the right, behind the rock outcropping, and you will see the saddle the elk herd jumped the night before when Jeremiah and I were chasing them.  Just below the saddle is a darlk line of trees.  Thats the bowl area we set up and thought they saw us from  :(   To the left of the rock outcropping is around where Steve shot his grouse.  It's about 4 miles away inthis pic.  Doesn't look quite so big from here     Our camp is about halfway in between.

[Bucket]

I am green with envy....sounds like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.

[BryanB]

Thanks for sharing.
What a wonderful journey.

Bryan

[John Scifres]

Day 8: Friday

For all intents and purposes, today is the last day of hunting.  Jeremiah has to leave this afternoon.  If we get an elk down in the valley, we need horses or more time to get them out than we have tomorrow.  I fly out of Boise early Sunday morning so we are staying at Steve's Dad's on Saturday night.  That's about 5 hours away.  After this morning's hunt, Steve and I are going to pack up top and then head down to the truck after tomorrow morning's hunt.

My plan was to give the elk at the head of Wallow Canyon a try.  We have seen them there every morning and even though realistically, it's a long shot to get to them, it can be done.  After that, I am going pass over a saddle into the adjacent canyon and head back down to the valley floor.  It's a few miles and a couple thousand feet elevation change.

2 bad things right off, I forgot my camera and my binoculars  :(   So no pics of the morning hunt and my spotting is going to be via naked eye.

I worked up the trail pretty early and got about halfway up before light.  There a couple spots along the way that elk were encountered this week but I saw none.  Few fresh tracks in the snow either.  In keeping with the pattern established, the elk are up high.  As soon as it is light, I can see a couple way up high in the meadows.  In this picture from our glassing earlier in the week, you can see Wallow canyon on the left.  The open areas up top are where the elk are when I start up towrds them.  There's a small grove of trees above them and to the right.  
 

There was a small finger of trees I hoped I could get up to those trees before they did.  It was pretty steep and the snow made quiet walking impossible.  But it was windy and steadily blowing from the elk to me.  I lost sight of them as soon as I hit the trees though.  It took maybe 10 minutes of tough walking but I got to the end of the finger.  

There was a gap of about 50 yards between me and those trees.  The elk were originally in the small meadow area to the left of where it says "I was right here".  They weren't there anymore.  I stood for minute trying to decide what to do.  My options seemed to be wait it out, call, or move up to the trees and see what happened.  

My decision was made for me as the first of 2 4x4 bulls moved out of the trees to where it says "Elk were up here".  They weren't spooked but were moving across the open area and were 80 yards away.  I knew I had nothing to lose so I started cow calling.  That tripped them out.  The lead bull kept moving and was soon out of sight but the trailer just stood there trying to find the "cow".  I was in a fairly open area behind a tiny spruce.  Behind me was nothing but snow covered meadow.  He wasn't buying it at all.  Soon he let out a bark and I kept calling.  I knew I had no chance but it was fun anyway.  He started moving off and I bugled.  That made him bark several more times.  Overall it was cool.  So close but yet so far.  Made me wish it was rifle season for a second  

The bulls moved cross hill and eventually passed through the saddle marked on the photo.  I continued on my hunt.  It was brutally cold up on top.  Wind was brisk and the only way I could keep warm was to keep moving.  It was great though.  Top of the world!

After doing a little exploring up top, I moved into the saddle into what is marked as "My favorite little canyon".  I found a couple wallows and then crossed a big bear track.  Very fresh, no snow in it and going back and forth.  I didn't have a bear tag and didn't feel like messing with one so I moved along.  The canyon is beautiful.  I plan to spend more time in here on future hunts.  I followed a cow elk into the bottom of the valley.  It was nice.

I got back to camp around noon and Steve was already there.  With another grouse and tales of mountain lions.

 

 http://residents.bowhunting.net/sticknstring/06elkhuntsr06.JPG

We packed up camp and headed up around 2:00.  Here's a pic of a glassing spot up top.  

[James Young]

Looks like ya'll are having a great time.. Great pics too. Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.
Steve looks like he liked the grouse hunting as well as we did.  Keep the story coming and the pics.

James Young

[Steven Russell]

I surely did James.  And like with you, the grouse hunts had a tendency to break out at any time.  

On this morning, I headed straight up in to those draws located above camp.  I was originally following some deer tracks, but part way up, I came across the mountain lion tracks (which I'm pretty sure were less and half an hour old) and since I have a tag, a lion hunt broke out.  After following the tracks for a ways, four grouse flew up into trees on the hillside above me and so without much thought, a grouse hunt broke out.    

A fifteen yard shot netted me the first bird and then I passed low on a second one after a 30 yard, across canyon shot.  Then, as I was chasing the stragglers, I had a hawk join in on the fun and suddenly I found myself all alone as the grouse took off with the hawk hot on their tails.  Dang that was fun though!

[the Ferret]

John, you have no idea how good that second picture down in the day seven cont'd post looks as the wallpaper on my computer. Stunning!

Thanks

[John Scifres]

Mickey, that's the low res version for the web.  I can send you the high res.  It will look even better      

Day 8: cont

As depressing as it was, it was time to move out of our valley and up top to make our way home.  Before packing up camp, I ate every bit of food I had left, which wasn't much.  I was left with a couple granola bars and coffee for the morning.  Some GORP would round it all out for the final push down the mountain after tomorrow morning's hunt.  We decided to take the trail out even though it was longer.  I just didn't have it in me to bushwhack through blowdowns and such on the way up. We were camped at a little less than 8000 feet.  Our destination was at a bit over 9000 feet.  The trail was 3-4 miles with more than a couple switchbacks        .  We took it easy and made it in about 2 hours.  Frequest stops for sightseeing and some calling, accompanied by conversation made the hike up pleasant.  It still pretty much wore me out.  I did around 8 miles with a couple 1000 feet elevation gains and losses in there today.  

The wind up in the pass we were using was intolerable so we found a sheltered spot nearby in a group of trees.  Here's a little snow sculpture the wind made.
   

After setting up camp we decided to hunt for a while.  Hunting tonight would consist of glassing the area on the other side of the mountains.  One of the canyons is beautiful and has several meadows perched along it.  They are very elky but also accessible from the road.  In fact, the only other hunter encountered this week was about halfway up on Monday.  This was also the same canyon we heard the wolves in on Saturday night.  Still, we had a great view and a sheltered glassing spot to see if anything was there.  I started out looking into an adjacent canyon that contained our trail down.  Several deery looking spots proved empty and the wind soon wore me out.  I moved around to where Steve was overlooking the other canyon and found a wonderfully sheltered spot in the sun.  You can see me huddling there in my last post.  It may look like I'm sleeping but I think I'm actually studying the map and my GPS         Really.

Soon it was apparent that the elk and deer weren't around so Steve and I made our way back to camp.  It was still early but I was beat so I got in my tent and hit the bag around 8:00.

Here's camp:
 

Pics tonight.

[Cutty47]

Just an awesome thread, John.  Thanks for taking the time to post.

I live near the MT/ID border in terrain much like that and one thing John has captures is how arduous Trad elk hunting can be...when he says you need to cover some ground and find fresh sign, he's dead right...I was watching a little Cabela's piece on Elk Hunting (rifle) in the Bitterroot and was laughing because the hunter was wearing a mic and he could barely get a few words out he was breathing so heavily...

...sure are right about Elk and whitetails being a different ballgame too...I just don't have the patience yet to be a good whitetail hunter...

[AZStickman]

WOW..... Mickey is right..... That picture makes an  an awesome background on my desktop......Just like being there only you can breathe......   :D  Thanks John..... Terry

[John Scifres]

Day 9:  The Load Out

Well, it was inevitable.  Time to go.  I slept in this morning.  Like for 14 hours or so.  Must have been tired  

Steve went out this morning and looked around.  A couple muleys had passed right through camp.  Not much else I remember.  Maybe he'll chime in.  We got packed up and made our way down the trail tot he truck.  Here's the trailhead we came out of.

 

These guys look aweful happy for the end of the trip.

 

I'm not sure what he's thinking.
 

Him either.
 

Maybe something like, "We did it!"
   

We did everything we could to get an elk on this hunt.  We'll know more next time and the next.  We will be back.

The Load Out

 

[John Scifres]

A couple shots of the valley we parked in.

     

[vermonster13]

Nice pics, thanks for taking us along.