Elk Hunting Chronicles - Part 4

October 10, 2022

Today we headed west through the coolest fucking mountains I've ever seen! I can't explain them. I couldn't stop staring at them, seriously.. they were so beautiful!

So many caves!

Must be limestone...? I need to take a geology course.

Super windy and warm today though.. felt like I was back in Pincher Creek!! Also the full moon was bright as ever again last night, SO we didn't see jack shit for elk. Just lots of tracks from them being up all night feeding… eye freaking roll…

Luke took us up this crazy steep mountain. (Poor horses) we saw 2 ewes. As he was trying to find the trail, he spotted ANOTHER moose antler! Though this one was super old and chewed up we left it where it had been for many years. We got to where Luke thought was a good place to tie the horses. We then got off and proceeded to hike to a vantage point.

It was so STEEP.

My anxiety kicked in and I just couldn't do it. I was so scared. Between huffing it up the mountain and my heavy breathing from my anxiety attack, I was tasting blood.

Maybe I could have done it if I was in better shape?

Not my best moment that’s for sure.

We made it up to a safe, level-ish trail, sat and glassed for a while but no luck. We made our way back to the horses and cut across to a trail that goes straight to base camp.

Luke showed me this super old ranger station cabin! But surprisingly, it was full of garbage. People are disgusting. It belongs to the bears now!

As we were riding down the flat back towards camp, Lucas stopped just ahead of me on the trail. I thought he was stopping to glass for elk but he quietly whispered my name and motioned me forward.

Was there a monster bull elk around the corner?!

Omg yes!!! Please! Please! Please! I thought…

No.

Sure fucking wasn’t.

Around the corner under where someone had a cook stove cached, there was a silver tip sow Grizzly Bear and her cub.

20 yards away.

Oh for fucks sakes.

This has literally been a nightmare of mine as long as I can remember, bumping into a Grizz, let alone a sow and a cub on a trail.

She had just laid down on her back to feed her cub, which was really a sweet moment to witness so briefly.

We prepared ourselves the best that we could, as our horses hadn’t noticed them yet. Me, secretly shitting my pants, we walked out into an opening so they could see us.

Her cub instantly took off, she stood up immediately. Instant sick feeling in my gut.

I noticed the hair around her mouth was stained red and orange, which afterwards we made the connection that they were the 2 Ben said were eating on Lindsey's elk carcass by their camp.

Luke said afterwards, it was likely the big ole boy in the valley "Brutus" that chased her and the brat off and claimed the elk carcass. Hence why we bumped into them where we did.

We could hear her snapping her jaws in the tall willows and we could see her cub was hanging out in a clearing on a small hill behind her. It was making odd noises as well.

The horses handled it well! I'm really surprised she didn't wind us and thankfully didn't charge us.

We lived to see another day!!

In circumstances like that, I might invest in a go pro because that footage would have been crazy to play back!

I am super thankful for my husband, who’s had his fair share of grizzly bear encounters and from those experiences, his knowledge to keep us safe.

After a while I was finally able to BREATHE!

After that we were going to stop at this super old rockslide but there was a rainstorm following us so we decided to keep heading back towards base camp.

Earlier in the morning on the way up, I had spotted a little waterfall coming out between 2 huge mountains. We stopped and had a look. It was so cool the way the water has carved out the rock over the millions of years and the volume of water that would come down during spring melt off.

I'd love to see this valley during spring run off. I'm sure there'd be tons of waterfalls everywhere!

We found some cool rocks and buggered out because the rain had caught up to us. It rained pretty heavily until we reached the last river crossing before base camp, then it peter'd out.

We had coffee and a visit with Tony and went for a stroll to the south side of the river from the another, newer rangers cabin to see if any elk were on the flat.

No dice but it started raining heavily again and snowing up high. Praying that brings the elk out tomorrow so we have a chance at a bull.

2 more days then we have to leave.