Tuesday 4:30am, day 5.
Copious amounts of cheap coffee and a warm fire is not the best morning motivator to go climb a mountain, but it's definitely nice!
We go to the mountain I had glassed the elk up Saturday morning.
OldFussnFeathers had mention a nice place to park and go in that looked good to him. Since someone was already parked on the bottom (approximately 3miles down) and we had seen someone coming down the top, we decided that his idea was the best.
We head out with the sun breaking the horizon. We get .25 miles in and hear some dogs barking and a guy yell "shut the he!! up" really, someone is camping in the middle of elk country. We continue on.
Maybe .5 mile into the hike we get to a good ridge to listen. We hear a bull screaming!!!! We make a plan and move quick. We get to where we wanna be and wait, he screams again. This time we are directly below him and he sounds close. He is screaming, grunting and chuckling. He would start a bugle out with a grunt/chuckle then go into a deep gnarly scream and finish it with a two note grunt. I gave him some soft cow n calf calls at first. We knew where he was so I didn't want to bugle right off the bat.
We sorta played this game for a few minutes but it didn't sound like he was moving. So I said "next time he bugles in his own I'm throwing back a challenge bugle". Soon after I said that he bugled and I did my best to cut him off with a challenge, it must have worked because his next bugle was much closer and headed our way.
I throw out a few more cow/calf calls then we look up on the edge of the meadow and see elk! Then he bugles again, even closer. They are coming our way!!!!
Then we hear a pickup coming. I'm thinking, no freaking way. Yep, up on the ridge within a 100 yards of us, at 7am, someone comes driving down the two track. Elk are gone, we hear them crashing through the timber. Look up the ridge and see them crossing, those suckers can cover some ground.
It's frustrating but it's public land hunting. You can beat yourself up or move on. So, we crapped talked the moron and moved on.
We get a little more in and hear another bugle where we assumed the elk went. Then another one below him. By this point we are in the middle of two bulls screaming at each other. The wind was not great for the lower bull so we played it as safe as possible. We cow callled a little and had them fired up. Then the lower bull went silent. The upper bull was vocal for a while but slowed down a bit, so I decided to bugle at him. He responded but wasn't moving, so we decided to move a little more because the lower bull was either gone or had gone silent.
We get to the edge of the draw and hear a branch break, we look at each other. "Must have been nothing" then we take a few more steps and hear it again…I look the direction and immediately I say "bull, bull".
He was a beautiful dark antler animal with slightly white ivory tips. I guess he couldn't wait anymore for me to call so he decided to circle my last location down wind.
I couldn't get a solid range on him. The best range I could get was a tree at 50 yards, he was at least another 20 past that. I had about 10 more yards before he caught my cross wind. OldFussnFeathers watched it all and seen him start throwing that nose up and flaring his nostrils. He hit that wind, turned and slowly moved down hill.
No shot opportunity but that was another awesome encounter. The whole time this was happening the other bull was still being vocal. Unfortunately, the wind and rain was starting to pick up. We waffled back n forth on what to do. We ended up trying to move in on him but the hole he was in aspen thick with rock bluffs on the side. It was 9am and his screams were slowing, just like every other morning they all seem to go to bed at 9am.
We decided to back out and try to get on him this afternoon.
Of course we get 1/2 way back and the skies part. Of course it slows down, we just left elk to go back to camp.
We turn around and see this beautiful rainbow but we are quickly reminded what storm is behind it.
So, now we sit at camp. Fire is about dead and midday coffee almost finished. Wind is whipping, national weather service says to expect 60mph winds, we have already hammered the tent stakes back in, so that prediction was accurate. Guess we will hop in the pickup and drive to the spot, even through the rain is picking back up as I type.
It's either hunt or drink bourbon, the bourbon will be here when we get back.