Idaho elk hunt 2011

[John Havard]

David, you're so right!  This DIY camp is plush and comfy almost beyond description.

However, don't let the camp comforts fool you.  These Westvang boys hunt just as hard as they camp.

[wingnut]

If memory serves me I prepared Jambalaya for dinner and John got his first lesson in the fine art of "dump cake".  We eat dinner so early we are often hungry when returning to camp that evening.  Fresh cookies or warm dump cake hit the spot perfectly.

The evening hunt saw us leave camp and have a truck right behind us head up the hill.  I reconized it as the local Outfitter with clients.  He pulled off at "grouse ridge" and we continued the climb up the mountain.  We headed down the middle of the ridge to get just above where we were working the elk in the morning.  The thermals were blowing up hill and in our face.. . .perfect.  We slipped in quiet and sat to listen as the sun lowered in the sky.  Temps were in the 60s so the elk will be active early this evening.  At least that's what experience tells me.

We were right and had a bull bugle down the canyon almost at once.  We headed down hill to places we hadn't been before.  This end of the ridge goes down in stages.  Starts steep and goes really steep and then OMG it's steep.  Just above the OMG level we set up and started racking a tree again.  Yep fired right back at us.  He was below and to our right.  Located in the draw or just on the other side.  His answers were stationary.  So I think "bedded".

We hunker down a bit and call now and then.  After about 1/2 an hour.  He's getting closer and we are in a bugle battle.  By the sounds of the cows this is the herd bull or one of the satellite bulls from this morning has got some girl friends now.

We keep at it and close the distance while he brings the herd our way.  All is going real well until the sun goes down and the thermal switches down hill.  It's getting dicy with the wind now and instead of bumping him that close we head out over the ridge . . . bugling all the way.  I figure they will be in the draw int he morning and we can move in downwind and have our way with them.  LOL

When we got to the truck and headed out, we found two trucks parked up the road just above where we were working the bull.  Might be problems in the morning but we will see.

Mike

[wingnut]

AFter dark we were sitting in the tent and having a beer waiting for the dump cake to warm a little when a truck pulled in.  Hmmm visitors.  Turned out that one of the clients of the outfitter was a TG'r and saw our truck.  Three nice fellows from Boston. I'm sorry I don't remember names very well but maybe they will chime in.

Mike

[wingnut]

Up early the next morning with a plan.  Coffee, muffins and some fruit bars and water in the pack.  Gotta go deep off the end and circle under the elk before the thermal changes.

We got to the spot in the dark and headed out the left side of the ridge so we didn't scent the area the elk were in the night before.  Down we went until we were on the OMG slope and then over on an elk trail that looked like a hiway.  At first shooting light we were set up on the side hill.  Jason was down hill in the block position just ahead of our wind.  John was off to my right towards where we expected the elk too be.  Soon we heard a bugle from down below.  Dang he's real deep in the canyon maybe all the way to the river.  We listened for a bit and called too him.  Not really sure if we wanted to drop another 1000 ft and have to bring one out.  I signaled John to stay put and called Jason back up the hill.  We talked about it for a minute and bam a bull bugles about 100yds below us.  He bugles again and there are cow calls.  It's a herd bull coming strong but not the same voice as yesterday.  As soon as I reconize the herd scenerio, we move towards the bull aggressively.  John and me in the lead cow calling and Jason doing a very good squeely bull in the back.  The bull bit on the bait and was headed right to John in the thick stuff.  We could hear the brush breaking and his antlers hitting the trees as he came.  If he broke through, it would be a 10 yds shot.

Just then I hear cow calls (hunter) up wind of the elk.  Lots of cow calls and the bull swings away, gathers the cows and heads into the thick part of the draw for bedding.

The hunters above heard the bugling and thought it was a couple of bulls going at it.  Unfortunately they didn't play the wind very well and the morning was over as fast as it started.

That's public land hunting when elk are vocal and not many.  The hunters will home in on the calls.

Mike

[wingnut]

We were on the largest ridge over the edge to the right.  The elk were in the draw between the first ridge and the largest.  The hunters came down from where the pic is taken.

[John Havard]

Yep, I was elk small when that bull was right below me - hunkered down underneath and surrounded by a bunch of evergreens (looked like spruce to me but probably are something different).  I had that bull dead to rights if he had come another few yards.  What a rush!

[coaster500]

Man!!! That was a pumper for sure!! Nothing like an herd bull looking to kick some arse coming in!!! Great stuff, I'm staying tuned for sure  


 

[M. J. Brundage]

Great camp pictures and scenery.   Great story too!  MORE!

[elk ninja]

Glamping...

[wingnut]

Glamping?

Well after a day in camp with "grouse alfredo with mushrooms" on the menu we headed back up the hill and low and behold a quad was parked in the spot we'd been using.  So we went down to the next drainage and hiked uphill to the basin.  Dang elk had been there but not in a month or so.  We did a little stumping and decided we had time to work another spot so headed down to the truck.  As we came down the hill we heard a quad come down the road and stop at our truck.  The tracks showed he'd stopped and looked in our windows.  Made me a bit nervous leaving anything in it from then on.

We headed back up the road and it was the guy in the spot we'd been hunting.  So with an hour left of light we hauled butt down the ridge again.  When we got to the spot.  Jason bugled down into the bottom and got three answers.  Good the hunter didn't go deep enough to push them.  We'd be back in the morning.

We got up earlier that day and headed out hoping to find the bulls before daylight and make a move on them to get them early.  We had a feeling we would have other hunters coming in the top.

Again we got our spot and headed down the hill.  The one bull we'd been into the previous day was in almost the same spot.  Only this time he didn't come up our side.  He went up the other in heavy cover to the bedding area.  We decided to see if we could find others in this draw and slipped in quiet and set up.

This time Jason was in the bottom and John and I were up wind with our wind going behind him or so we thought.  Soon after we made our first calls, we heard brush snapping and heavy foot steps coming from the other side.  15 minutes of slow going and a cow pops out below Jason and comes up the trail he's sitting just off of.  On it comes and ends up five yds on the other side of a four trunk tree.

At the same time, I see a raghorn bull coming down the hill from the other side that is headed right at Jason from the other way.  He is going to pass about 25 yds below me and is about 10 ft from a clear openning.  As I start to draw all heck breaks loose as the bull spins and the cow heads down hill.  What happened?  Did Jason shoot?  Come to find out the wind had shifted and was sending my scent right in front of Jason.  As the cow was moving forward she smelled me and BAM it was over.

John and I started cow calling like a large group and the cow came out about 60 yds up and looked around for a few minutes.  Then she went back to her boyfriend and headed back up the hill.

Mike

[John Havard]

Mike's grouse alfredo with mushrooms doesn't suck, let me say that right up front.  To be polite I ate three helpings of it just so he wouldn't think I didn't like it.  He says we were hunting for elk when we went out that afternoon.  Maybe he was but I was looking for more grouse.  YUMMM!

[coaster500]

[Jason Kendall]

[wingnut]

That evening we found the quad back in the area we wanted to hunt, so we backed out and headed up on top for a look at how the burn had affected the area.  Wow it was huge.  We looked for edges where the trees were green and there was cover.  The elk we'd found to this point were in the green on the edges of the burn.  I believe the feed in the burn is great but the open area puts them in too much of the wolves sights so they were hanging in the cover.  In fact during this hunt we never found an elk in the giant burn.  Although we spent the last days looking hard.

Anyway as we topped the pass we found burn as far as the eye could see.  Also found a sign that the feds were trapping wolves.  COOL!!!

A few miles later as we headed up to a trail head into BC creek we ran into the feds.  Seems a yearling bear had tangled in one of there traps and they were waiting for the enforcement agent to arrive and help free it.  After talking a bit we found that they weren't killing the wolves but just collaring them for tracking.  Bummer!!!

And they hadn't caught any yet.

We ran into another ethical grouse a little while later and after some fouling shots with our bows we put him in the bag.  Why is it that when shooting at grouse the first 5 or so shots are just not on target?  LOL  This was an adult male and a very nice bird.  

WE have come to the conclusion that our camera skills suck.  We forget to take a pic when we all had cameras in our packs.

WE spent the evening checking in on spots that Jason and I had hunted and found elk in before.  We didn't cross one fresh elk track.  We saw a couple of mule deer headed for the next county and that was it.

We planned for an attack on our secret spot in the morning "CR2".  We'd have to get up early to get to the trailhead and make it into the basin at daylight.  So when we got back to camp, we made some cookies and had a beer before hitting the rack.

Mike

 

 

 

[wingnut]

Up we go on the next morning and coffee, muffins and load the packs with candy bars, granola bars and water.  This could be an all day trip if we find elk in the basin of CR2.

We arrive at the trailhead and start the climb.  The first 3/4 mile is a gentle climb but if we find the elk here we may end up chasing over the north or south slope.  Both are nearly 1300 ft above the basin and are OMG steep.  But first lets see whats around.

Jason and I have had many good hunts in here and the fire did not reach this far.  So far so good.  We slip off the trail and drop into the canyon.  There is a big rock we usually sit and listen from and we quickly find it.  After 20 minutes of silence Jason cow calls a couple of times to see if anything is close.   Nothing.

So we head up the basin to set up the first time.  The basin is like a big ampitheater.  In that you can call in the bottom and everything hears you in the basin.  So we start of slow and non threatening in case we have a herd bull with cows close.  No response.  Over the next couple of hours we move further up the basin and build in aggression with the calls until we do what Rusty calls an elk hissy fit.  We have called bulls over the top with this one in the past.  But nothing.

We get back together and Jason spots a couple of grouse feeding 50 ft up in a pine tree and he and John move around for a shot.  I stay down hill to spot the arrows in case they miss .. . . LOL

Well after nearly and hour of shooting and laughing and finding arrows the grouse still happily feed on needles.  We were looking for one of Johns flu flus an jump another grouse off of the ground.  He proves to be pretty hard to kill until finally I got a lucky shot in the brush and hit him in the head.  Well it was fun and we now had two grouse in the bag.

The rule is when we have one grouse per each person in camp grouse is for dinner.

We only saw one set of tracks in the whole basin and there are trails in there that look like cattle trails.  We also noted that the feed up here was dried up.  Hmmm, maybe the summer range was burned out by the sun.

We took a circle route down the mountain on the north slope to see if there was any activity.  We only found some old wolf sign.  Hmmmmm again.

So we decide not to go higher but to head back down and look over our topo maps for another spot.

We got back to camp and Jason made his famous bisquits and gravy for breakfast.  The only thing you can do after eating that is take a nap. LOL

Here is pics of around camp.

Salmon river
 

Again:
 

Another:
 

[Roughcountry]

Good stuff Mike, all I need is a can of pine needles and I'd be sitting in camp with you.

[coaster500]

Beautiful pictures....  the river looks ripe to give up a few Cutthroat  

[wingnut]

I forgot too mention that Jason made more bread for the grouse alfredo dinner but we didn't get any pics of the twisted french loaf.  The dang kid sure can make bread.

Dinner tonight was Jason's Chili Mac from his Marine Corp recipe.  It's always a meal I look forward too.  Very special and it goes great with a cold home brew.

With days ticking by we decided to give another of our hidden holes a try.  CR4 was our plan as last time we were in there we killed two elk in one night.

We hiked up the steep creekside slope to the top of the basin.  Not one elk track in the whole place.  Or any other kinda track for that matter.

Didn't spend a lot of time foolin around as elk are where you find them and they were not here.

So back down we go and we head over to the three creeks again.

We did get into a couple of ruffed grouse that out smarted us and saw 5 deer that evening before darkness closed us down for the night.  Back to camp and trying to figure out where to go in the morning.

Mike

[wingnut]

The next morning we decided to give the elk on the ridge another try.  Heck it was the only place we had found elk on the whole trip.  I'm used to finding 5-6 herds of elk in the spots I mentioned above during a two week hunt.  The elk and deer population really has dropped since the last time I was here 5 years ago.  Probably my last trip to Idaho with the rising fuel costs and diminishing elk population.

Anyway in the morning we found the spot available and went over the top of the ridge and dropped all the way to OMG slope.  We set up and called hoping that the elk were still around.  We got an answer from way down the canyon by the river and that was it.  We worked back up the side draw where the two were hanging and didn't hear or see them.  After four hours we gave it up and headed for the truck.  Dang I was unlocking the truck and Jason and John got "grouse small" on the other side.  A dang grouse was under the truck and was now headed out through the pucker brush with us in heavy pursuit.  Arrows flew high, arrows flew low.  Heck a couple went right and a few too the left.  At one point Jason put down his bow and drew the sling shot.  I watched him drill it with a  .40 cal ball and it limped off.  John moved in and finished it off.  That was fun except the looking for Jason's bow part and we now have three in the pot.  On the way down the hill I asked John how he wanted the grouse perpared and he said bring on the Alfredo one more time.  So that was on for dinner.

Mike

[John Havard]

Deciding to humor Mike and pretend to enjoy the Grouse Alfredo was a tough choice.   I bucked up and decided that I would, once again,  pretend to like it for another two or three huge helpings.  Just to make Mike feel good of course.