Wayne in BC
New member
The ride down the mountain to the valley should have taken an hour or so but turned into 3 hours because we stopped to watch a herd of Sheep that were on the first grassy bench below us. Mostly Ewes and Lambs they were only 30 yards away and unconcerned by our presence as there was no hunting of them in this area. After a couple minutes two lambs who had been play fighting and cavorting decided to come look us and the horses over. As they approached to within maybe 30 ft we both chuckled at their curiousity and were about to continue on when the two Lambs decided to pull off some more goofiness and began to run a circle around us, bounding from rock to rock then skidding to a halt to stare.
They must have been her twins because one old Ewe got upset at their antics and suddenly rushed up with a coarse bleat to put herself between us and the twins, in her way warning them not to be too trusting. Problem was that when she did that she passed only a few feet on front of Cloudy my dozy old packhorse! The idiot went from standing hipshot with eyes mostly closed to "omygoditsgonna EATME!!! and lunged off, pulling the lead rope from my hand he took off downhill in a rush, then when the sheep scattered, he freaked out some more and swapped ends turning uphill, this put the dummy way off balance and down he went in a patch of football sized rocks and scrub brush then flipped over to land with all four legs in the air, wedged tight, and the packboxes munched under him! The sheep all lit out for the horizon during this mess and unable now to do more than wave his legs in the air the fool horse lay there snorting while Cliff and i hurried down to him......
We took stock of the wreck and my lariat around his neck was the obvious solution. My good horse Duster dug in and pulled that bonehead to his feet. We settled him down and began looking for trouble. He was scraped up some on a hind leg, not serious (i was hoping it hurt like heck:veryangry
and the packboxes would need some work in the future but we figured we were good to go and would do some fixin later.
We set off again and only a few steps later, Cliff who was behind, said, Whoa up! Cloudy had a hind shoe nearly off and it took over an hour to dig out the hammer and spare nails to pull the shoe and reset it.
I reminded that nag that he was getting close to being first on the list for Frenchman food at the next meat auction, but heck i had told him that at least once a day for years
By noonish we arrived at a little grassy bench beside the creek and the rough camp that i had built there years before. It was a fine place with good wind protection and ample grass for horses. I doubt anyone else had ever used this camp. The rare times that hunters or hikers came this way they came from below and the trail did not come near this part of the very narrow, rough, and fast flowing creek.
We quickly set up camp and both of us lay down for an hour or so rest. The toughest part of the trip was coming, the hike up the mountain took 90 minutes or so, was a bit tough, and we needed to time it to be hidden in position by an hour before dark to wait for the Elk to come out to feed. The real tough part was coming back down in the dark.......
By 4:00 pm we were only a few hundred yards from the top. The plan was to be above the meadow and looking down, the Elk seldom look for danger from above and tend to mostly buttonhook before they bed down and position themselves where they can see anything following their backtrail below them. The route we took avoided possible bedding areas and took advantage of the prevailing wind.
The final few hundred feet were covered at a snails pace, both us a were a bit winded, having gained 3000 ft of altitude over a mile or so of distance, we were now at about 7600 ft elevation and the air was thin so we stopped for a smoke before climbing the final ridge
I sat on a rock outcrop and opened my flannel shirt while Cliff stretched out on a moss patch. It was then that the rutting Bull bugled from only yards away in a thicket and we both froze!
He had heard some slight sound from us and assumed we were other Elk i reckoned, being the herd Bull he had challenged immediately and we were trapped! Unable to see him or even move without risking being seen, we sat and rolled our eyes at each other, wondering what to do but remaining silent and hoping for a break. The break came with a series of deep grunts and another shrill bugle from close below us and the Bull squealed in angry response then crashed out of the thicket to stand 50 feet away! At that same moment an air current brought me his rank billygoat scent and the blast of Cliff's rifle at the same instant folded him up with a broken neck. What a rush!
The other Bull who had challenged was so startled by this turn of events that he ran right out in front of us, stopping to stare. My rifle scope found his neck and in an instant i slid the safety back on then watched him do a double take and crash off....
My reaction had been part instinct and part "spook your buddy", after the second Elk got gone, Cliff said, you had me worried for a sec there you tird! We both knew the job that lay ahead getting that Meat out and neither of us wanted to do it with two of them
I proceeded to slap my buddy on the back, saying...gotcha! He was a happy hunter though......
continued cause the best part is yet to come.......
They must have been her twins because one old Ewe got upset at their antics and suddenly rushed up with a coarse bleat to put herself between us and the twins, in her way warning them not to be too trusting. Problem was that when she did that she passed only a few feet on front of Cloudy my dozy old packhorse! The idiot went from standing hipshot with eyes mostly closed to "omygoditsgonna EATME!!! and lunged off, pulling the lead rope from my hand he took off downhill in a rush, then when the sheep scattered, he freaked out some more and swapped ends turning uphill, this put the dummy way off balance and down he went in a patch of football sized rocks and scrub brush then flipped over to land with all four legs in the air, wedged tight, and the packboxes munched under him! The sheep all lit out for the horizon during this mess and unable now to do more than wave his legs in the air the fool horse lay there snorting while Cliff and i hurried down to him......
We took stock of the wreck and my lariat around his neck was the obvious solution. My good horse Duster dug in and pulled that bonehead to his feet. We settled him down and began looking for trouble. He was scraped up some on a hind leg, not serious (i was hoping it hurt like heck:veryangry
and the packboxes would need some work in the future but we figured we were good to go and would do some fixin later.We set off again and only a few steps later, Cliff who was behind, said, Whoa up! Cloudy had a hind shoe nearly off and it took over an hour to dig out the hammer and spare nails to pull the shoe and reset it.
I reminded that nag that he was getting close to being first on the list for Frenchman food at the next meat auction, but heck i had told him that at least once a day for years
By noonish we arrived at a little grassy bench beside the creek and the rough camp that i had built there years before. It was a fine place with good wind protection and ample grass for horses. I doubt anyone else had ever used this camp. The rare times that hunters or hikers came this way they came from below and the trail did not come near this part of the very narrow, rough, and fast flowing creek.
We quickly set up camp and both of us lay down for an hour or so rest. The toughest part of the trip was coming, the hike up the mountain took 90 minutes or so, was a bit tough, and we needed to time it to be hidden in position by an hour before dark to wait for the Elk to come out to feed. The real tough part was coming back down in the dark.......
By 4:00 pm we were only a few hundred yards from the top. The plan was to be above the meadow and looking down, the Elk seldom look for danger from above and tend to mostly buttonhook before they bed down and position themselves where they can see anything following their backtrail below them. The route we took avoided possible bedding areas and took advantage of the prevailing wind.
The final few hundred feet were covered at a snails pace, both us a were a bit winded, having gained 3000 ft of altitude over a mile or so of distance, we were now at about 7600 ft elevation and the air was thin so we stopped for a smoke before climbing the final ridge
I sat on a rock outcrop and opened my flannel shirt while Cliff stretched out on a moss patch. It was then that the rutting Bull bugled from only yards away in a thicket and we both froze!
He had heard some slight sound from us and assumed we were other Elk i reckoned, being the herd Bull he had challenged immediately and we were trapped! Unable to see him or even move without risking being seen, we sat and rolled our eyes at each other, wondering what to do but remaining silent and hoping for a break. The break came with a series of deep grunts and another shrill bugle from close below us and the Bull squealed in angry response then crashed out of the thicket to stand 50 feet away! At that same moment an air current brought me his rank billygoat scent and the blast of Cliff's rifle at the same instant folded him up with a broken neck. What a rush!
The other Bull who had challenged was so startled by this turn of events that he ran right out in front of us, stopping to stare. My rifle scope found his neck and in an instant i slid the safety back on then watched him do a double take and crash off....
My reaction had been part instinct and part "spook your buddy", after the second Elk got gone, Cliff said, you had me worried for a sec there you tird! We both knew the job that lay ahead getting that Meat out and neither of us wanted to do it with two of them
I proceeded to slap my buddy on the back, saying...gotcha! He was a happy hunter though......
continued cause the best part is yet to come.......
Now to have had your buddy kill a big elk already, did you have to field dress it, cut it up and put it where? In coolers? Sorry to appear stupid, but I just don't have a clue on how you could keep the meat from spoiling during a day time temp that was 75 degrees.