Elk Hunting Chronicles
Part 1
October 7, 2022
Left staging area a few hours after daylight and trailed to base camp, which took around 3.5hrs. Saw 3 spruce grouse. Elk, Sheep, Bear & wolf tracks.
The “gorge” as Luke and the other guides call it, is not a pleasant go for the poor horses. Super rocky and slow going.
There’s a little creek along the trail called “Canary Creek” that disappears under ground for quite a ways before resurfacing near the valley bottom!
We got to camp around 2:30/3pm. Unpacked and unsaddled our trio and got settled into the wall tent. Met Tony the base camp cook. We packed in some fresh produce and bread for him.
About an hour after we got there, Ben, another guide and his hunter Lindsey showed up to base camp and we helped them unpack her bull elk that she had got the day earlier. Super nice gal!
As light was fading, Luke wanted to go check out a natural mineral lick not far from camp to see if there were any elk hanging around. Luke had to fix the perimeter electric horse fence. Which the elk likely tore down, so I glassed the mountain sides and caught a glimpse of a bull, couldn't tell what he was but he was hightailing it somewhere over the mountain.
Got to the lick and it stunk of sulphur and natural gas.
We hung around for a little over an hour and there wasn’t much going on, so we decided to head back to camp. On the way back we bumped into a little 5x5 bull, a few cows and a 6x6 Luke figured was maybe, maybe 300in. The 6x6 was quite annoyed with the little 5x5 being around his cows and he bugled a couple of times! Pretty cool!
What a beautiful night! The moon is out in full force tonight and super bright and you can see the whole mountain valley! Not good for hunting though….
