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

[gwhunter]

Awsome.  I am glad you got to experience that.  God bless.

[Tom Leemans]

Cool. Sorry you didn't kill an elk but it sounds fun anyway.

[BryanB]

Congrats on a wonderful trip.
It's hard to beat hunting in god's country with friends.
Bryan

[John Scifres]

Forgive me for dragging this out a day at a time but I am limited to lunchtime for typing this up.  I'll add the pictures tonight.

Idaho Elk Hunt Journal

Day 1 – September 15, 2006
Today started early with a 4:30 alarm clock to catch the 7:00 flight to Denver and then to Boise.  My kids made me promise to wake them for a goodbye and I did.  They gave me a groggy send-off and I kissed and hugged the wife goodbye for 9 days.  My Dad picked me up for the ride over to the airport.  I had high hopes.

The flight departed as planned and the sun rose as the plane did.  It was a little cloudy but as we got over the clouds a pink morning arrived.  The westward trip helped to prolong the beauty of this sunrise.

 

As we descended into Denver, we skirted a couple thunderstorms where lightning was visible now and again.  The forecast for a small town in a valley near our hunting location was lows in the 30’s and highs in the 50s and 60s; partly cloudy for the weekend and midweek.  No major precipitation anticipated.  However we came to find that partly cloudy down low means mostly snowy up high.

 

The flight to Boise from Denver was uneventful and I landed to cooler temps than I expected.  Somewhere in the low 40s would be a good guess.  No matter though, Steve was there to greet me and we rapidly recovered my backup bow and headed east to the hunting grounds.

As we got closer to the mountains, my spirits soared.  It had been 4 years since my last elk hunt and I missed it desperately.  

 

The 4 hour ride allowed Steve and I to catch up a bit.  
 

As we passed through the small town we stopped for a last “civilized” meal and a couple things at the grocery and were on our way.

We had a particularly harrowing pass through snowy roads through a river valley.  One false move on that road and you’d be getting picked up in pieces all the way down into the river.  Steve didn’t seem concerned so I should have just closed my eyes and trusted in the Lord.

 

Our plan for tonight was to hunt the canyons leading into the river valley we drove up.  On Sunday, our other hunting companion, Jeremiah would join us for the hike over the mountain into an adjacent valley for the real hunt.  When we got to the area though, we found at least one RV or tent at each spot.  Sometimes up to 5 or even 6 crowded the pull offs.  We had to drive way up to the head of the valley before finding a spot that seemed less pressured.  As we did, the snow began to fall in earnest.  

 

By the time we made our decision on where to go, it was 5:00 and it was about 6:00 before we got the packs on and headed up a ways to a flat area we had located on topo maps to camp and hunt.  The snow was falling all the way up and we set up in it.  

 

Still, we were serenaded by a few elk bugles before falling asleep.  We were stoked for the morning’s hunt.

This is how we awoke.

 

[cjones]

Nice story and pics so far John! Can't wait to read the rest.

[Madpigslayer]

Hey John, been thinking about ya. Hard leaving the kids, aint it? Looks like fun!

[Wannabe1]

Sigh!!!!

[John Scifres]

Idaho Elk Hunt Journal

Day 2 – September 16, 2006

As you saw from the day one entry, it snowed.  Not a whole lot but still...

 

And it pretty much never let up all day.  Squalls would blow in and dump a few quarters of an inch.  Just enough to keep slightly ahead of whatever solar melting occurred.  And of course, continue to test the water proof linings of our boots    

 

 

We started by slowly moving through the bench we camped on.  It terminated in a  sweet saddle that just had to be a passageway from where we heard the bugling to some north slope bedding areas on the other side.  
 

We indeed found evidence of elk movement but the fresh snow told us it wasn't in the past few hours.  Rubs were all over the place and elk droppings were commom.  

 

Only a few fresh tracks all day though.  We never did find a concentration of elk sign in the area we heard the bugling.  A hiking trail to a nearby alpine lake even had a group of 4 hikers and a dog pass through.  We found abundant fresh deer sign and lots of bunny tracks.  The animals themselves were not seen though.  

After a morning of hunting the bench and saddle, we packed camp onto our backs and tried up higher.  

 

Again, no fresh sign was found and we decided that we weren't in the right place for a productive evening hunt.  We covered a few miles and a bunch of elevation but never found what looked good enough to stay on.

Lots of sweet looking meadows certainly hold elk at times but not right now.

   

In the end, we succumbed to the warmer looking valley and returned to the truck for a spot closer to where we were to meet Jeremiah the next day.  ]

This turned out to be at the base of a beautiful canyon that would be a nice sojourn in the morning.  We weren't completely committed to the morning hunt though and the wolves howling in the canyon just past bedtime sealed our decision to spend the morning drying out and conserving energy for our hike to the top the next day for the best part of the week.

[John Nail]

John, tell Steve we miss him at the ITBA, and we wish he'd write or something..8^(

[dosbow56]

       

[Brian Halbleib]

Now THAT is camping   :D   Keep it coming...

-Brian
 www.bowyersjournal.com

[tim-flood]

great memories forming already!!

[John Scifres]

Idaho Elk Hunt Journal: Day 3

As I mentioned in the last post, we decided to sleep in and let stuff dry out a bit today.  

 

 
The morning dawned bright with bluebird skies and warm temps.  I woke up to find Steve on the nearby ridge.
 

Today is Sunday and I will miss church so I am going to spend some extra time in prayer.  Being at 7500 feet in elevation gets me closer to God by default though, right?  It truly is God's country up here.

After eating some breakfast, I laid out my wet gear and boots to dry in the bright sun.  Steve had done the same.  I then took a little hike to the same ridge Steve was on earlier.  It is a beautiful view.
 

The morning passed quickly and soon it was time to meet Jeremiah and head up to the top.  We planned to stay high and glass for elk tonight.  I could tell quickly after meeting Jeremiah that we were going to get a long just fine.  


A mention here about great women that sacrifice a lot to let us go on these trips.  Betweeen myself, Steve, and Jeremiah, there were 11 children and 3 wives left at home while we hunted.  The oldest child is 13 and the youngest 4 months.  My wife had 4 swimming practices, 2 soccer practices, and 2 soccer games along with all the laundry, food preparation, and household duties plus a 40 hour work week.  She even cut the grass a couple times.  Thanks babe!  I return every time a better man so I think it is worth it.  But she sure looked tired when she picked me up from the airport on Sunday.

We headed up the trail that climbed to the top and over into the adjacent valley.  It was relatively easy but the 40 pound pack quickly wore me out.  Slow and easy is my motto.  No sense killing yourself.  My knee was definitely feeling it but we made it to a beautiful pass that would eventually take us down to the fertile hunting grounds.  
 

 

[John Scifres]

Day 3 Continued:

Tonight though, we were on top to glass and see what there was to see.

After getting our bearings and setting camp, we headed to a spot that Jeremiah knew overlooked his favorite areas.  We could glass several side canyons and benches as well as the creek bottom meadows.  We were a little over 9000 feet and the creek bottom was around 7500.
 

Steve headed out a little farther to see if he could find a vantage point to the other side of the finger of peaks we were on.  That left Jeremiah and I to get a little better acquainted.  It wasn't long until I spotted 3 muley does on a bench about 500 feet and 1/2 mile below us.  
 

Steve had the only deer tag so we went off to find him to see if he wanted to give it a go.  A quick discussion and he decided it was worth a try.  There was about 1 hour of light left.  Jeremiah went down a ways with him to show him the way as I continued to watch the deer.  Soon however, they disappeared around a group of trees.  
 

I watched the little meadow for a while and soon spotted more movement at the far end.  
 

As I watched the movement turned into an elk and a bull at that.  It looked like a smallish 4 point but still plenty big.  I had no way to warn Steve of the new game so decided to just let it play out.  Jeremiah returned to the glassing spot soon after.  The bull dissappeared behind some trees but was clearly working towards the place Steve was going to come down.  They were definitely on a collision course!  As we watched, Jeremiah spotted the bull run off and we wondered if it was with an arrow in it's chest      A couple minutes later, Steve showed up in the meadow, not tracking so we figured he spooked the bull.  The deer were gone too.  Steve worked down towards where the bull ran and we heard some cow mews and a warning bark from the bull not long after.

It was getting wicked cold so we got into a clump of trees to wait his return.  Around dark he showed up and we got the full story.  As he worked toward the bench, he spotted the bull at about 70 yards but not before the bull spotted him.  A short staring contest ended in the bull running off.  His attempt to follow was met by the calling we heard.  He also got the wits startled out of him during the followup by a grouse    

We half sprinted back to camp and on the way stopped to take a picture in the twilight.  As I was allowing my camera to take a nice slow exposure shot, an owl swooped into the frame not 10 feet away.  I barely missed catching his blurry apparition in the pic.  He lighted in a nearby tree allowing some close up viewing and poor attempts at pics.

 

We returned to camp and bemoaned the high winds and cold temps a bit.  Soon after though, the wind settled and the crisp night gave us a star show that defied anything you would ever see anywhere else.  The path of the Milky Way was clearly discrenible and it was easy to see why the stars held such a prominent place in the life of ancient peoples.  It was astonishing!  Phots could never do it justice.  I slep t soundly and hard and woke with renewed vigor for the morning glassing session adn then the hike into the valley.

[cjones]

I'm waiting for more John! Nice pics..

[John Scifres]

Idaho Elk Hunt - Day Four:

Today dawned beautiful and bright.  
 

Our plan was to do some early morning glassin gof the areas we were to hunt through the week and then move down into the valley for the rest of the week.  We all were going to take different routes and hunt our way down with the intention of braodening the scope of our recon.  

We went right back to the spot we were the night before.  
 
As we approached the spot, Steve noticed a muley doe just below the spot we saw the elk and deer from the night before.  He thought she was stalkable so wanted to give it a go.  I was going to head down on the other side of the finger and Jeremiah was going to go all the way out to the end of the finger.  I would drop almost exactly on the spot we planned to rendezvous later in the day.  Jeremiah advised Steve to go up to another higher spot where he often saw bucks and then go after the doe.  He was convinced she would bed in the area.  We spent a good amount of time glassing and Jeremiah found 10 elk way up high at the head of what he called "Wallow Canyon".  They were about 9500 feet and out in an almost unstalkable position.  In the pic, toward the left side is wallow canyon.  The meadows up top is wherre the elk were.  It doesn't look that far but it is a heck of a hike from where we were glassing.  Down 1500 feet, about 2 miles and up 1500 more.  We made that hike from the bottom a few times throughout the week.
 
We noted this and split up for the descent.  Steve worked high at first and Jeremiah and I hunted our way down into the canyon.  My route took me through the series of bench meadows where we saw the bull the night before.  It was fairly easy at first but the last 500 feet or so was fairly steep.  Blowdowns were heavy in places.  My knee was hurting since going downhill hurt a lot more than going uphill.  Still, the scenery was beautiful.  I didn't see much fresh sign.  As I got down into the valley, I noticed some pretty large beaver ponds.  

Here's where I dumped the pack after coming down.  I couldn't carry it any more for a while so I left it and hiked the 1/2 mile to the rendezvous without it.  I got it a little later.
 

Seems the creek had been dammed a little further downstream.  Jeremiah had told me this was a possibility but said we should be able to find a crossing spot upstream near the rendezvous.  We also had an outfitter's camp nearby but it wasn't occupied at the time.  I found a place to cross and met found I was the first one down.  I took about an hour to recover and then went to make camp.  Afterwards, I found that Jeremiah had placed his pack in the trail upstream and must have gone hunting.  I put one of my blunt arrows in his pack pointing to my camp and did the same.  I worked up to some of the benches just above camp and found a few fresh piles.  I hoped that the elk were bedded up high and would work down to the meadows in the creek bottom.  About an hour before dark, I hear Steve and Jeremiah in camp a half mile away and based on the scant sign, decide that a little socializing might be in order.  I head down to find their camps set and them discussing the day's events.  

Steve never got into any bucks up high and couldn't find the muley doe again.  Jeremiah had to do a lot of backtracking to finally get down to the valley floor and spent part of the evening getting reacquainted with his family hunting ground.  Spirits were high for the morning since he promised to take us up "Wallow Canyon" and show us how it got its name.  Here's one reason.

 

[Cutty47]

Thanks for the post and pics...great stuff...

[the Ferret]

Awesome John. Great pics and narration.  

[B.O.D.]

Good Story John, great pics. what stick are ya' totin'??? good looker.
BD

[Littlefeather]