My Cow Elk Hunt

Sorry for my absences over the past few months. I have been working on making Christmas presents like crazy and still have two more to complete even though Christmas has come and gone. If you all can recall, I was not able to fill my antelope tag that first weekend in September. I was pretty bummed about that because I know that I needed more practice and really wanted for us to try to go again the next weekend before that one closed. But we could not and were now fully focused on filling Mike's bull Elk tag. From my last blog, I explained Mike's successful hunt and I could have not been more proud of him.

During archery season, the whole month of September, I was only able to go out about six times. My cow Elk tag was a little farther south from Mike's in hunt area 31 along the East side of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir down to the Utah boarder and West of highway 191. My first few times out at the beginning of the month, I was able to get my compact SUV out there and the temperatures were in the upper 40s by the time 11 am came around. That first weekend, Mike's father was still here so he came out and helped me hunt. We heard a bull Elk call at the first place that we stopped at right before coming to the top of Little Mountain. Once we figured out which way the wind was blowing just before sunrise at 5 am, we had to hike down and then up the other side of the canyon. We walked along the top of the aspen stand and stopped right on the trail to see if we could see/hear anything moving down below. Mike's father let out a cow call and the next thing we know was a massive bull Elk came thrashing out of the aspen trees looking for that cow. He got within 80 yards from use and if I would have had an any Elk tag, I would have had a bull larger then a 350!! He did not even know we were sitting there and it would have been perfect! Mike's dad joked to me about seeing if we could call him in closer but I did not want it to freak out once he finally saw or smelled us so we let him wonder off.

I failed two days in a row at this spot because of how dense the aspen trees were and the constant changes in the breeze kept spooking off the whole herd. After that bull left us we moved down a little in elevation and spotted one cow about 40 yards away but there was no way that I was going to be able to get a shoot off without my arrow possibly hitting a small tree branch. Then once she spotted us the whole game was off because the next thing we heard was the whole canyon coming alive with the sound of hooves running over dead fall and rocks. This herd of over 60 came up along the bottom of the other side of the canyon running in the opposite side away from us! I won't lie but it was one of the coolest things that I have seen let along heard. All of the cows and bulls were talking and the calves were crying trying to figure out what was going on. That right there is the main reason that I like hunting is just seeing wildlife in their element up close and personal. The sound that Elk make just send shivers up my spine especially the dominant bull Elk in this herd.

After week had passed, I was able to have Mike and his father come out and help me in the same spot. Our first attempt that morning did not go well since they were out in the open and one spike bull saw us and ran them all away up into a large pine tree stand up away from the aspen trees. It was still early so we decided to give it another try. Mike's dad stayed back along the pine tree stand while Mike and I went into the thick of it and it was thick. Oh my gosh, I could not get a break from how close these trees were from each other. But it was really beautiful in there and the only sound you could hear was the lead bull Elk making his calls chasing away the smaller ones from his cows. He sounded like a gorilla before going back into the normal sound that everyone is use to hearing.
But we were unable to get close enough to any cows because once they heard us and I was able to draw back, they were gone. It was also crazy walking around in there from how well they were able to hide and blend in. Mike would point out an Elk and most of the time I could not see them right away.

The next weekend, Mike and I tried on a Sunday evening glossing over new territory. We were looking out over Current Creek Drainage when all of a sudden Mike was telling me to grab my stuff and go! The next thing I know, we were down at the bottom sneaking up on a herd of five cows and one bull Elk when the wind shifted. It completely blow our cover and I realized which portion of the drainage we were in. It was the exact same spot that Kee and I sampled a little while back. LOL! This was going to be a bitch to hike out and I was excited for the challenge. Mike looked up the canyon before we started hiking up and realized what a bad idea that was. We made it up but Mike was dead from being worn out from his hunting.
After that evening I did not have another opportunity to go after my cow Elk with my bow because riffle opened up the first of October and we were full on for Mike's bull Elk. Once he was successful at filling his tag, Mike and I went out on the seventh. I did not have to switch over to using a riffle but felt the need since all of them were going to be spooked to any sound made and I did not want to be hunting in the snow. Mike's father went back to New Mexico that morning so it was just back to us. We had to try a new spot because all the Elk in my other spot were no longer there so we headed much closer to the Utah boarder.
The morning of October 7th was a little rough, Mike and I got a little late start getting out there before the sun came up and we kept running into other hunters so our plans changed a lot. As we were driving along, we spotted a cub Black Bear running along a ridge. It was so cute and fluffy and that was the only thing that we saw. That evening we finally picked a spot to park and hiked into the wilderness. I was starting to get worried that we were not going to find anything at all but after awhile Mike saw some a far ways away which gave us a game plan for the next day. On our way back to the truck, we ended up spooking a few leaving us empty handed again. But we took off in the direction that they went and I got the bipods ready while jogging quietly to keep up with Mike. My foot had been hurting since that morning feeling like it was bruised really bad on top meaning I was having a hard time even walking but somehow at that moment all the pain went away. Mike was able to spot a cow standing over 250 meters away between some juniper trees so I sat on the ground and tried to get myself ready to pull the trigger. I was having trouble finding her through the scope and even though I was not breathing hard, I could not get the damn riffle to stop moving side to side on her body. So I ended up missing my chance to get her as she slowing walking into the thick of the trees again. This lead Mike and I off on a run again to the top of the hill to see if we could see where they went.
Mike and I found ourselves looking over his truck just down below and over Flaming Gorge dirt road when I spotted a herd of ten starting to walk out of the juniper trees about a quarter of a mile away. And you can only guess what happened next...yes we were off and running again. As we approached the spot that I had seen them, they were no where to be seen. You had got to be kidding me and to top it off it was too dark to hunt.

The next morning on October 8th, we went back out to the same spot and made sure that we stayed up high instead of getting impatience and moving down lower. It was almost a full moon the night before meaning that the wildlife had been out foraging before day break came. The only thing we saw that morning was a few much closer to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir over a half mile away. Mike and I had thought about hiking down and up to where we saw them but already know that it was too late to even try. My foot was still bothering me a little but I know that this had to be the weekend to fill this tag because I physically and mentally was starting to lose it. From my first Antelope hunt to helping Mike as much as I could by climbing up and down steep cliffs, to having that buildup that it was going to happen to being shut down. Let me tell you, it is not easy making it back to the truck after seeing an amazing Elk just in shooting range to missing and it being over for that day.
Before heading out that evening, Mike told me that we did not have to go out that we could give it a break. Um no I don't do well with calling it quits even if it was just for the evening.

You could see a storm building up in the distance coming our way but we were not too worried about it at the mean time and it was nice, calm, and warm out (43 degrees). Mike and I had been seeing other hunters using a two track off of the main dirt road that we have been on for the past couple days and it would take us over to where we saw the Elk from that morning. So we decided to give it a try since we had nothing else to loss. None of us had explored this area ever before leading us to be walking in blind. Mike parked the truck and we started to walk through a maze of small round cacti. I told him that I wanted to take some home and put them inside the house but he got angry and said they would died and look like shit, like the one that he was pointing to. HAHA So I did not take any with me. The hill that we started to walk along was not as high as the mountain a little farther away so we did not have too much of any good spotting spots. The area was covered with juniper trees, sage, and bare ground. We came to the edge of the ridge and Mike sat down to start looking around while I slowly made myself a spot on the ground. I was kind of in an open spot looking out and right as I sat down I saw a herd of cow Elk up along a cliff edge over 500 yards away. After hitting Mike on the chest to get his attention, he starts yelling at me in a whisper to "leave my pack, get down lower, I can't see where they are, are they looking at you, get behind this tree now." So I calmly showed him where they are and after about 30 seconds of thinking to himself, we were moving to get within shooting range which would be less than 300 yards.
The hike dropped us down nicely blocking their view as they continued to eat closing us in at 210 yards. Mike could see them just over the little ridge that we were on and was able to set up the riffle for me while I gathered my breath before coming up to sit next to him. As I sat down I reminded myself not to flinch as I placed my crosshairs behind her shoulder blade, put a bullet in the chamber, and pulled back on the trigger. I had hit her broadside and caused her to stubble as I put another bullet in the chamber. Mike told me to shoot her again when I was ready and I did. She went down and I could not believe what just happened. I remember Mike hugging me really tight and telling me how proud he was of me. I have never seen him more excited in my life then he was at the moment while I was stilling there crying and shaking from the whole experience.

We gathered up our gear and started in the direction that I put her down. As we got closer, Mike told me to be ready to put another one in the chamber. I did not want that to happen at all because if she was still alive I was not going to be able to shoot her at point blank range. That makes it even for real that I just took an animals life that I just did not want to think about it. Once we made it to her, she was still breath slow breaths as her life finally came to an end. I was thankful that I did not have to assist her anymore then my previous two shots.

After taking pictures with her came the hard part. I had killed her at 5:15 pm and the sky was now starting to get dark. I went to try to move the truck closer and get game bags on another two track that was showing up on my GPS while Mike quartered her out. It was a little confusing getting back to the truck and once I found that road, I realized that I should have just left the truck in the same spot. When I started following my GPS and the actual track, the track disappear into a steep canyon. It took me awhile to get back to Mike because everyway that I took came to an edge. When I finally reached him, he had just one hind quarter to remove. We ended up having to make two trips with the first me carrying out the front quarters and Mike with a hind and backstraps and tenderloin. I had shot her through the other tenderloin so that was no good and my second shot went through the neck so no neck meat. It was just as rough getting back to the truck again as it was coming in and it was pitch black. On our way back to get the other hind quarter and her head for proof of sex, it started to snow large fluffy snowflakes. Once again it was not easy finding our way in nor out and my headlamp was going shinning about five feet in front of my face. Exhausted and wet from the snow, Mike and I made it back to the truck by 8 pm. It was a slow drive back home because highway 191 was covered in snow and it was a blizzard out.

Looking back, it was a crazy experience: beautiful, painful, and calm. I would have not been able to do it without Mike being there the whole time and I would have never wanted it any other way. Every time that I held that riffle to my eye, I had him in my head taking me to be calm, breath, and to look beyond my target to find it. The one person that was missing from this whole experience was my father. I was lucky to have Mike's there all the other times but I would love him to be there the next season. Even though hunting in our family was never a thing, I just feel like I needed it. My father did help out in a huge way by letting us use his massive meat grinder to butcher all of our wild game. Being able to package your own meat completes the whole circle and would not have us do it any other way.

Thank you to all who have supported me from the beginning along with your lessons and stories that helped me learn. Next year I hope to harvest using my bow and arrow.