Joe (Whip) Lash - TATONKA! Story pg 9

[Whip]

Still working on some caping and fleshing, but will get this tale started from the beginning.

Back in late October I walked out to pick up the mail and in sorting through the usual junk I noticed an envelope from the State of Utah. Probably some survey or something I supposed. Imagine my suprise when the letter inside said that I had been chosen for a cow bison tag! Apparently population surveys this year indicated a higher than desired number of bison on the Henry's, so some additional cow permits were approved.

I received the letter on a Monday, and it gave me only until Friday of that week to decide whether or not I wanted to accept the permit. Utah bison tags are "Once In A Lifetime" tags. If I accepted the tag, I would never even be able to apply for this hunt again. I could refuse the tag, and hope to someday draw it again in the normal draw process with more chance to do my research ahead of time. Or I could take this one and scramble to try to make the best of it.

The odds of actually drawing this permit are very low, so I really hadn't done any real research into the hunt. I guess I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it, and assumed I would have plenty of time to figure it out if it ever happened. Not true!

Phone calls, emails, and internet searches started immediately, and initial reports were not very encouraging. It seems that the Henry Mountains can be one of the most physically demanding hunts in the west. In addition, there would be about 25 other hunters with tags, most of whom would be using rifles. Since most of the tags go to Utah residents, and buffalo tags are highly prized, most hunters line up as many friends and relatives as they can find and bring them along to help locate the herds. I was told to expect to see 10 times as many people as there were available tags.

It quickly became apparent that this was not a trip I could just load up my truck and go camp in the mountains on my own. Competing with so many people, most carrying high powered rifles, and all with lots of help running around on atv's and in trucks. Finding a bison in an reasonably accessible area would probably result in many others who had found the same thing.

The vast majority of my hunting is done on my own, without the help of a guide or outfitter, and I normally much prefer it that way. In this case however, I decided that the only way that I could make this happen would be to find an outfitter that could hunt with horses to help me get away from the crowds.

I received a great tip from my friend Nathan Kanous. It turns out that his wife's cousin is an outfitter in Utah and had a lot of experience hunting Henry Mountain bison. He runs a string of mules, and after talking to him on the phone I was convinced that he would be able to do what I was hoping for.

Arrangements were made, and my hunt was scheduled to begin on December 17th. Depending on how things went there was a very good possibility that I wouldn't make it home for Christmas, so in addition to burning up my Utah bison preference points, I had to cash in every "good husband and father" point I owned at home.

[Benjy]

Congrats Joe! Can't wait for the rest of the story and pictures!

Benjy

[Whip]

With such short notice before the hunt, time went by quickly. I wasn't prepared physically for a mountain hunt, let alone in one of the most rugged places in the west. I quickly joined a local gym in an attempt to do what I could. Too little too late, but better than nothing.

I also started shooting as much as I possibly could, extending my normal range to 30 or more yards. I didn't really want to have to shoot that far, but figured practicing at the longer distances might help me push it to a 25 yard shot if needed. I built a special batch of arrows with penetration in mind. I had some older Carbonwood 5000's, added a 100 grain brass insert and topped them with 250 grain VPA 2 blade broadheads. Total arrow weight was 715 grains, and they flew well from my 57@29 RER LX.

Before I knew it, my truck was packed and headed west. I took my time, and stopped for visits with Shaun Webb in Iowa, the Clum family at Rocky Mountain Specialty Gear in Denver, and my nephew Ross in Vail CO.

The outfitter that I was hunting with was Tom Dowland. He hunts not only buffalo, but elk, deer, and bear. His real passion is chasing mountain lions, and although our focus for this trip would be buffalo, he did bring some dogs along "just in case." Tom was headed to the mountain to set up camp on Saturday, and although my tag wasn't valid until Monday he welcomed me to join them early. A couple of days to acclimate are always a good idea on a mountain hunt, so I jumped at the chance.

The Henry's had received a fresh blanket of the first snow of the season just the night before, and as we headed higher the scenery was just more and more spectacular.

[Shinken]

     

Simply *awesome*....

Keep it comin' Joe!

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

[Whip]

After setting up camp on Saturday we had all day Sunday to play before the season opened. With the fresh snow conditions were perfect for lion hunting, so the dogs got loaded in the boxes on the back of the utv's and we watched for fresh tracks as we scouted a bit for buffalo as well.




I'm not positive, but I think the top of this mountain is something around 11,000 feet.



Mountain top at 10X Zoom.



My first buffalo sighting!! But man, they were in a tough spot! I sure hoped we'd be able to find some that were just a little bit lower....

We continued on, and eventually did find one fresh lion track. But it was a fairly small one, and headed into a really rugged canyon. Although it would have been cool to see one up close in a tree, we chose not to chase it. I needed to save my strength for the morning! Later on I did spot one more group of buffalo, but again they were WAYYYYYYY up on top!   :eek:   This was looking even tougher than I had feared!!  

[Hopewell Tom]

Really neat pic of Bison on the hoof.
What a place!
Thanks for taking the time to tell the tale, but posting that hero shot sealed your fate, I guess.
Much appreciated, regardless.

[awbowman]

Oh, this is going to be good.

[tracker1]

Keep it coming
         

[pdk25]

Looking forward to the rest of the story.  Congrats in advance on a great hunt.

[jcar315]

[Homebru]

Joe,
Was this area the subject of a wildfire in the fairly recent past (2003)?  That would explain some of the "sticks dressed in snow" passing as trees.  

I seem to recall some burned trees in Kim's great-uncle's and cousin's pictures.
homebru

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Joe, This is Great already.    

 

[rastaman]

Awesome looking country Joe!

[Whip]

Nathan, yes, this was the area that was burned off, and I think you are right that it was 2003.  While the burnt timber looks like it must have been devastating, in reality it opened up the cover and allowed browse to flourish, creating fantastic wildlife habitat.  The bison and mule deer have been the primary beneficiaries.

[Whip]

Opening morning of the buffalo season brought a new perspective of the mountains. We couldn't see a thing! Clouds had rolled in during the night, and we were in the middle of them. We puttered anxiously around camp hoping and praying that rising thermals might lift the ceiling. The mules were saddled and ready to go, but it didn't do much good to ride around blindly, not to mention it could be dangerous to not be able to pick the best route through some of that terrain. By noon it became apparent that this was about it for the day. The cloud ceiling hung no more than 100 feet above our heads. We could see down the valleys fairly well, but had hoped to hunt uphill, and it was nothing but soup as soon as you looked up.



Sometime during the night what appeared from tracks to have been a buffalo bull had wandered through only 30 yards from our tent. Following those tracks downhill we found more tracks. We took a ride on the mules to follow as best we could, but it wasn't long before they disappeared into the clouds. We were afraid that even if we did push them and come upon the herd, all we would accomplish would be to bump them out of the area.
We took a circular ride a bit lower on the mountain, but other than a few old tracks and beds, didn't see anything else that day.

 
 

[elkken]

   

[Whip]

Day number two dawned with more of the same. Only this time the ceiling was even lower. We took a ride down the mountain in the truck and couldn't drop out of the clouds. With very low temperatures in the forecast we decided to spend the day cutting firewood for the wood stove. It was looking like we would want a good supply.

Man I hate it when the weatherman is right! Day three brought heavy snows and high winds. We were trapped in the tent once again, but happy to have a good stash of wood. Other than the short exploratory mule ride on the first day I really hadn't even hunted yet. It was hard to crack a smile. I was glad that I had stopped on my way out and bought a couple of paperback books.

Overnight lows were in the double digit NEGATIVE side of zero!! It actually sounds worse than it was though. A wall tent with a wood stove makes for a very comfortable camp in just about any conditions, and we were fine. The biggest challenge was handling nature calls.

At least the forecast for the next day called for clearing skies. We would wait until the sun had a chance to warm things a bit, but at least it looked like we would get to hunt!!

[John Havard]

Joe,
Thanks for sharing your story.  I can't wait to hear the rest of it!

John

[slim_grim]

Oh man! Anxiously waiting for the rest! You're killing me here Sir!!!

[steadman]

Told you they were rugged    wished I could have made it up there with you. Thanks for taking the time for the story.