Elk Hunting Chronicles - Part 6
October 12, 2022
This morning was even CHILLIER!
We rode to a meadow not far from base camp and walked the rest of the way to the banks above the river and watched the flat along the rangers cabin.
Didn’t see a dang thing.
Are we surprised?!
We sat around there till 10:30/11 and then made our way up with the horses back to where we were chasing that bull in the burn on the 8th.
We rode and walked the horses up a steep, rocky hill (everything is so steep here lol) onto a large basin to do some glassing down below!
The natural springs in this country are unreal and are in the most unusual spots! There was a pool right at the top hidden by some small spruce trees!
We spent most of the day at an elevation of 7800-8000ft, didn't see much for wildlife because it's still hotter than hell! But lots of elk sign!
As we sat on the side hill, we had some lunch and snacks, then we had 2 ravens fly over us! One, who was really squawkin’ away, headed north-ish right away as the second flew around us in circles and eventually headed in the same direction as his mate. I knew immediately that was my dear friend that passed away, Tanner.
*Quick back story - after his tragic passing, Tanner’s widow, parents and sister knew immediately Tanner’s spirit came back as a raven. So anyone who was close to Tanner knows when they see a raven, it’s him.
So we followed him, rode across the basin and glassed the north side of the basin. Glassed around for a little bit and headed back the direction we came from.
On the way back across the basin, riding directly into the sun, I was catching flashes/glares off the rocks.
I hollered at Luke to stop for a sec, hopped off Tui, did some digging around and I couldn’t believe it…
They were fricken CRYSTALS!!
At first, we were finding more white quartz pieces but then I got looking more and found clear quartz!!!!
Oh my lanta, I was in literal HEAVEN!
Luke and I spent maybe an hour looking around and we found quite a few!! White and clear! I've always wanted to find Quartz in the mountains and now I finally have!!
Thanks Tanner 🤍
As much as Luke won’t admit to it, I’ve turned him into a rock/crystal finding nut just like me lol
Afterwards, we went back to the side we had been glassing and looked around a bit more. We are in fact looking for elk, not crystals lol
We rode our way around timberline, below the mountain to a side Luke thought would be easier to get down since the way up was so rocky.
The trees are super stunted up here… and funny shaped, they must get hit with a lot of wind and snow!!
On the way over, Luke spotted a nice little whitetail buck!
At 8000ft lol what the heck were you doing all the way up there little dude?!
Regardless, it was sure nice to finally see a critter other than Bighorn Sheep ewes and lambs and squirrels. LOL
After the buck, we stopped and glassed a bit more of the valley below. You can really see everything from up there! We could even see Tony glassing in the meadow near base camp!
We were loosing light and then made our way over to the spot to get down to the valley. We got our girls organized and started to lead them down…
HOLY FUUUUUUCK.
Mary mother of Joseph.
Steep.
Slippery grass.
Lots of loose rocks.
It honestly felt like the further we went down, the steeper it got.
I biffed it hard once and hurt my hand. Which later I learned that Tony saw the entire wipe out… shiiiit lol super embarrassing.
The decent was SO hard on my knees.
We made it down in one piece (praise Jesus) and rode through and navigated the burn back to the rangers cabin.
We made our way back to camp. Luke took us up a different trail than usual which did cut off a lot of time! Poor Tui had a hard time with that short cut though. Those darn little legs, but she made it up. She's been a trooper!
Got back around 8.
