Cow Elk Hunt

This hunt ranks in the top 3 most satisfying of all the hunts I have been a part of. It was not about killing but was more about the satisfaction of setting a goal that was achieved in the face of adversity. There is not an ounce of quit in my mind or body. In the past ten years of hunting, never once have I ever contemplated or entertained the idea of quitting. A lot of people would say Mike and I are crazy for putting in the effort we did for just a "Cow" elk. Again I would reiterate that for me hunting is not about killing or antlers but it is all about the experience, camaraderie and enjoying God's country. The Littman’s test of this is the fact that I put in as much effort in hunting rabbits as I would a limited entry bull elk. I also really enjoyed being on this hunt with Mike.

Our first attempt at the Cow Elk was the morning of McCoy's third birthday party (12/15). The last words out of Kalley's mouth as I was leaving for the mountain at 5:45AM were "DO NOT MISS YOUR SON'S PARTY!" The party was at 2pm so I knew I had to be home by at least 1pm. So my plan was to hunt until 10:30am and would leave enough time to hike out and drive home.

The Forest Service had the lower gate closed so we started the hiking from the parking lot at 6:35am. At this point in the water season there was less than six inches of snow at the parking lot. It was first light by the time we reach the base of the second ridge, which is prime Elk terrain. We were now in knee deep snow.

I was off checking the east side of the ridge when I heard Mike whistle. I ran over to the west side and could see Mike seventy five yards below me signaling Elk across the ridge. It took me a minute or so to locate the Elk. An estimated 30+ Cows were headed up the mountain to a peak where both our ridge and the ridge they were on meet. Like a hound dog on the scent I took off up the mountain side. I had about 3/4 of a mile to cover uphill in two feet of snow. I paused to catch my breath after twenty minutes of a fast walking. I was now at a sharp point on the ridge to where I could see both sides. I did not realize how cold it was until I took off my hat to let some of the sweat evaporate when my sweat drench hair froze solid. I glassed the east ridge and spotted several Bull Elk eight hundred yards away. This got the adrenalin going and I began to sneak up the ridge to get in a shooting position where I hoped to find a Cow. By the time I got in to position the Elk had moved further away. I was almost to the summit when I looked back to see if I could spot Mike. I saw a flash of orange about 15-20 min behind me. We had forgotten to set up communication, so he yield to get my attention and then began waving his arms motioning to come back to him. I was torn. Should I continue after the Bulls hoping to find a Cow with them or walk back downhill to Mike? I could tell he really wanted me to hike back to him but I was not sure if he saw Elk down lower or that he simply did not want to continue hiking up the snowy mountain.

I decided it was safer to walk back to Mike rather than put more distance between us. I didn’t want to get separated to far without radio communication. When I finally reached Mike he was very animated about the fact that I was headed up the mountain when he had spotted a few Cows bedded on a hill side half way down the mountain. We had walk down a few hundred yards to find the Cows that Mike had seen earlier. We spotted them headed up the mountain three ridges directly east of us.

It was about 9:00am by now and we had just enough time to try and cut these Elk off by hiking up to the ridge we were on and then take a side hill route over to the ridge that these Elk were on.

We got close that day but could not close the distance. There is no way we could match the speed of Elk in mountainous terrain coved by two feet of snow, although we were very encouraged by the fact we saw Elk on nearly every ridge. It seemed like everywhere we looked we saw Elk. We knew that to improve our chances on the next go around we needed two things; snow shoes and an earlier start. All the Elk we say that day were headed up hill from the pressure down low (since the gate was closed), so we need to be at the top of the mountain before day break.
BTW...I made it back on time for McCoy's B-Day party.

It was three weeks later and three more feet of snow before we had another chance to chase after the Elk. This time we were armed with snow shoes and we hit the trail at 6:00am. We didn't get very far up the trail before I began to question whether or not the Elk have migrated to lower ground. The snow was four or more feet deep and I could not imagine Elk wintering in an area with that much snow. We paused for about twenty minutes weighing our options. We could go back to hunt a lower area with less snow or go back to gated paved road to spot and stalk while walking the road or continue blazing the back country. I made the decision to head back to hunt the lower area. We reached the parking lot at sun up and ran in to a few hunters heading out. We stopped and talk to some guys who were packing in empty sleds to haul out two Elk shot the evening before. They told us that after the killed the Cows, the rest of the herd headed up the mountain in the exact direction that we had just hiked from. They told us that there were still a ton of Elk up there, so Mike and I turned around again and began hiking back up the same trail. This indecision would later come back to bite us in the butt because we got a late start. We wanted to be up the mountain and in position to hunt Elk as the sun rose but now it was nearly 8:00am and we were still at the bottom of the mountain.

It was about 10:00am when we herd shots that were close. It took us nearly twenty minutes to go a hundred yards up a side hill with snow shoes on in 4 feet of snow and through a maze of impenetrable oak brush. It was during this climb that I lost my shooting sticks in the deep snow. When we reached a point high enough to see the action, we could see the Elk headed up the hill again nearly a mile and a half away. The hunters shooting at the Elk were on the same ridge that Mike and I were on three weeks earlier, however we were in a better position to chase down the Elk. The other hunters did not kill an Elk.

I don’t recall a conversion with Mike discussing if we should chase down the Elk or not. It was simply an unspoken assumption that we were going after the Elk even though we both knew it was crazy to kill an Elk this deep in the snow covered back country with it being as late as it was in the day. Also keep in mind that this area is part of the Salt Lake county water shed district which means absolutely no motorized vehicles or horses. We knew we would have to pack out every ounce of Elk on our backs. We could see the other hunters begin hiking out and calling it a day once they saw us headed up the ridge after the Elk.

An hour later 11:00am I found myself in a position to take a shot at the Elk. I did not have a range finder but I estimated the Elk to be about five hundred yards away. I had a strong tail wind of about 20-25 mph. We counted twelve Cows, a Spike and a Rag Horn. We took our time to get ready. I laid out my back pack for a shooting rest, took off the clumsy snow shoes and picked out a bedded Cow that had not moved in the last three minutes. I was lying prone with a perfectly steady rest position. I confirmed one last time with Mike that we both were looking at the same Elk. I held cross hairs about a foot over her back and then slowly applied pressure to trigger. BANG! I listen carefully for the shot to register a hit. Nothing. And to my astonishment none of the Elk had moved an inch. It was as if I have never taken the shot. The only environmental confirmation of the shot were my ringing ears. I remember thinking "sweet" I get another shot. I held a little higher this time and BANG. Same as result as before. Again it was as if the shot never happened. Mike and I began to realize that the Elk were very fatigued from all the hunting pressure in the past month and being chased earlier in the morning. I unloaded an entire magazine of five shots before the Cow stood up. Adding to my frustration was the fact that we could not see where the bullets were hitting because of the snow, so I didn’t know where to adjust my aim. After the seventh shot, Mike asked how many boxes of ammo were in my pack. The answer 0. I began the day with four shots in magazine and ten more a nylon butt stock bullet holder. After ten shots, I had not hit an Elk. I adjust high, higher, to the left, to the right, high left, high right…nothing. We did however manage to get the Elk to move 30 yards before bedding down again.

Looking back I would have to say those Elk were more in the seven to eight hundred yard range and not five hundred. When the snow melts, I am going to hike in with a range finder to get the exact distance and try to find my shooting sticks.

Reevaluating the situation, we had two options. Shoot the remaining four bullets or get closer. I was 100% confident that shooting the remaining four bullets would have resulted in the previous ten. Then we would have had no choice but to call it a day and hiking out empty after climbing half way up the mountain. We were so close we could taste it, so we decide to get closer. The best route was to continue up to the top and then around the rim of a bowl. This was easier than going down a step hill and then up and even steeper hill side. Plus going up would give us a better downward shooting angle. We estimated it would take an hour to make the hike. Wrong!
We both were wearing Levis that by this time had become soaking wet. We were cold and it was almost noon, so we got off the ridge into a stand of trees to shield us from the wind. I had a small butane stove that we were going to use to heat up our lunch. In the set up process I broke off the threads of the hose that screws on to the burner and sliced my left index finger to the point of steady stream of blood. I did not have a first aid kit or tape, so I put my glove back on and put pressure on the cut. While I tried to get my finger to stop bleeding, Mike had gathered enough wood to start a fire. We had dry timber because the temperature had been so cold that the water froze on the outside of the wood preventing it from soaking in. We used the broken hose of the propane stove like an oxy-acetelyne torch the light the fire. After five minutes we had a fire hot enough to heat up our lunch and make our pants steam. While standing around the fire, we could see the Elk still bedded down in the same location.
At 1:00pm we decided it was time to begin the trek up the top of the rim. We grossly miscalculated the degree of difficulty in hiking up a steep hill side in four feet of snow. It was impossible to go straight up because the steep angle of the ground made the snow level chest deep and we could not step high enough to get the snow shoes on the top of the snow. So we had to zig-zag up the steepest parts. By this time we both were so exhausted we took turns trail blazing in fifty yard increments.

An hour later we finally made it to the rim where it was easy going. The ground was level and the wind had been constantly blowing so hard that it drifted the snow to the east side and we were walking on solid dirt and rocks. The funny thing is I was actually warmer in the high wind because it froze my pants solid, which then created a gap of air insulation between the cold pants and my long underwear.

By 2:30pm we were about to crest the ridge to where we had spotted an Elk on the other side about two hundred yards away. We were taking our time to get ready for a steady shot but this time the Elk was rested and spooked at our presence. The snow was too deep for her to run but she was making her get away as fast as she could. So I hurriedly set up for an off hand shot and BANG. This time we heard the feedback of a confirmed a hit and she fell down but she was up instantly. I chambered another round and steadied just enough for a one last parting shot as she crested the opposite hill. We could not tell if that second shot found its mark.
Twenty minutes later we made our way around to the location of where we last saw the Elk. Mike found the tracks and we knew instantly the Elk was not mortally wounded. It was not hard to track a severely wounded Elk in the deep snow. The good sign was the fact that the Elk was headed down hill, which meant she was hit pretty hard. Experience has proven that if you are tracking a wounded Elk that walks up hill, you know it has not been hit very hard and it will be traveling a long distance.

With only two shots left I knew the next shot had to be true. I did not want to have to use my knife to complete the job. We finally caught up to the Elk in the bottom of the ravine and I instantly finished her off with a clean shot. With one bullet left it was 3:45pm and we had an hour or so of day light left to field dress the Elk and hike out. As it turns out the second shot did hit the Elk.

With in the hour we quartered out the Elk and had our packs ready to go. My pack was so heavy Mike had to help me get it on. I knew I was in trouble when I almost collapsed under the weight of the pack. We had a mile and a half hike back to the truck. It took us thirty minutes to travel a miserable quarter mile and it was dark by then. I am having a hard time finding the words to describe how difficult it was to have hiked for twelve hours in that depth of snow with snow shoes on and then add 100+ lbs of dead weight in my pack. That extra weight made me sink an addition twelve inches with each step in the snow making it tougher to take anther step. About every tenth step one of us fell down in the snow and the amount of energy required to get back on your feet was double what it took to stay up for the next ten steps. It was taking us longer and longer to get back on our feet after each fall and I was getting cold, real cold. It was the first time in my hunting career where I felt a little nervous about our situation. We were extremely tired, wet, cold, and hungry. The one ace on the hole was the fact that I had a cell phone with service, so if needed I could have called somebody for help. I knew we would not make it out with our packs but didn’t really want to hike back in to get them. I told Mike I needed to stop so I could rest my legs and that I was going to take off my pack. I am sure Mike had the same thought as I did because his reply was “if I take this pack off it ‘aint getting back on!”
So we strung our packs up in a tree to keep them out of reach from the coyotes. I left everything behind except for my rifle, flash light and extra batteries. We finally made it to the truck at 8:00pm cold and exhausted. I striped off all my wet clothes and cranked up the heater in my truck.

We got a good night’s rest and slept in the next day. We enlisted the help of Adam to help Mike and I hike back in to get our meat and gear. We started at 10:00am and had job done by 2:00pm. The hike was actually quite pleasant in the winter scenery with warm dry clothes on. This time I wore snow pants and not Levis.

At the time if you had asked me if it was worth it and would I do it again, I would have said “No”. But now that the pain is a distant memory, I would do it again in a heart beat and will probably be putting for the same antlerless tag this year. Only this time I think both Mile and Adam will be putting in with me as a group.

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM

McCoy received a little fourwheeler for Christmas. Because there was snow and ice on the ground for so long, he hasn't been able to ride it until now. I have to say that I am very impressed with this little piece of machine. It's a Kawasaki XFX Ninja battery powered fourwheeler and it's the perfect size for McCoy. It goes just the right speed and McCoy can maneuver it well. If anyone is looking for a little battery powered vehicle for your child, I recommend this.

Finally Spring!

I LOVE SPRING! I can't tell you how happy I am for it to finally be spring. Although, the weather varies from day to day, I feel invigorated by the the warmer weather. It's so nice to finally be able to let my children play outside. All winter long they struggled with cabin feaver from being cooped up in the house and not to mention driving me nuts. Both McCoy and Landon love the outdoors and if it were up to them would play outside all day long. A couple of days ago, Katelynn, their cousin came over to play in the sand box with them and they all had a great time. Oh, and McCoy decided to bring out his tool box and fill it with sand. Looks like we have a new "outside" toy.

Let's Eat

My sister and I decided to post a family recipe page. http://hopesrecipes.blogspot.com. The plan is try to post one recipe a week. Something that our family enjoys eating or goes great with the season. Please contribute as you wish. If you post a recipe in the comments, we will copy it and make it an actual post.

Spike Elk Hunt

From the get go, things we not falling in place to set us up for success. First of all, I had to work until 5pm on the Friday before the opener. Mike also had to work that Friday so we planned to meet in Orangeville Friday evening and then drive together up the mountain to Elk Camp. I didn't leave Salt Lake as early as I had hopped and traffic was horrible, which meant I did not get to Orangeville until 10:30pm. After a short visit with Brian and getting the 4 wheelers loaded up for the ride up the mountain, we left Orangeville at 11:45pm.

It had been raining off and on for the past few days and with it being as late as it was. we decided to take the short route to Elk camp going around the South side of Big Mountain. We knew it was going to be sloppy through the clay slide off but we needed to get to camp ASAP. It was nearly 1:00am by the time we reached the bottom of the slide hill. We had tire chains but opted to try the hill first to see if we could make it. I learned an imported lesson that night. It makes life a 1,000 percent easier if you put chains on before you actually need them. If you put the chains on after you are stuck, you have just increased the degree of difficulty 10 fold. Needless to say, we didn't make it up the hill very far and rather than mess with chains, we parked the 4 wheeler trailer at the bottom of the hill and drove off to camp.

Morning came quickly and it was so cold that night that all the mud was frozen solid. This was both good and bad news. Good in that we could easily get the 4 wheeler trailer up the clay side hill but bad news in that fetching the 4 wheelers meant we were going to miss the opening morning hunt. If you miss that opening morning, your chances of success are cut in half. The choice was a simple one when put in perspective. Risk losing $15,000 in 4 wheelers to potential thieves/vandals and not being able to get them out after sun thawed the mud or hunt Elk. After rescuing the 4 wheelers, we hunted Elk but did not see anything. The rest of the opener was uneventfully.

Sunday morning just before sun rise, Mike and I were first out of camp and driving down below camp towards the quaky draws. We were half way there when Mike spotted a lone Elk 1/2 mile a way running down hill toward our direction. We jump out of the white Ford and hurried down the hill side to cut it off. Mike knew it wasn't a Bull but could not tell if it was a Spike or Cow. We radioed back to camp that the dogs were on Elk and before we knew it all of Elk Camp was headed down to the quaky draws to get in the action. Mike and I got in to position and within a few minutes the Elk that we saw came out of the trees. It was a Cow. On our way back to the truck we heard more radio chatter on from the others who thought they saw Elk.

The details over the next 2 hours are a little fuzzy but by the end of the Sunday morning hunt, Cisco Kid (Josh Jewkes' 12 yr old bro) got lost when sent into the trees without a radio, Mike and Kurt got into a heated verbal argument that nearly boiled over into fist fight over radio communication misunderstandings, and we were all hungry ready for breakfast.

After breakfast most of the guys in camp fired up the heater in the poker palace and began the marathon. As Mike and I chatted around the camp fire we knew with 100% surety that we would not kill an Elk from inside the porker palace. So we began rounding up the dogs to organize a drive through the trees. By 11:30am we had 6 or so guys loaded up ready to move out. We had planned to walk down through Horse Creek. When we got there, we found another hunting party had arrived just seconds before us and was planning to hunt the same area as us. Mike took the lead to politely try and trick these guys in to allowing us hunt the area. About the same time Kurt felt like he could do a better job than Mike. Again the exact details are a little fuzzy but in the end, Kurt and Mike proved again that Manti La Sal national forest is not big enough for the 2 of them and Mike had some how convinced the other hunting party to let us hunt the area we wanted.

I was not really optimistic that we would see anything so I thought I would enjoy the exercise and being outdoors. I reminded myself once or twice that the alternative was being couped up in a canvas tent only to be fleeced repeatedly. It was about 1:00pm by the time I had walked from the road all the way down to the next ridge past the willow patch.

My day dreaming was suddenly interrupted by a gun shot that was very close in the direction of the place I saw Mike. Then another shot and I knew it was Mike. I got on the radio with Mike as I ran to higher ground to see which direction the Elk were moving. Just as I heard Mike call out on the radio that there are 2 Spikes in the herd, I saw them running through a stand of quakies about 700 yards away. I dialed my scope all the way up to 14X and saw the that one of the Spikes was trotting out in front. They were moving in a direction that was quartering away from me, so I fired 2 quick rounds at the Spike. To my surprise this stopped the herd dead in there tracks. The Spike stood out in the open circling not knowing which direction to run. He stood there long enough for me to cycle through a magazine and a half of ammo. All my shooting caused the Elk to turn and run directly towards me. I moved down the hill side 50 yards to get myself in a slightly better ambush position. While waiting for them to get closure I had seen both Spikes in the herd. I had a 100 yard shooting lane to where the Elk were filing up a ravine. One by one they passed through my scope. I told myself to keep breathing, remain steady, be sure of your shot and wait for the Spike. The 6th Elk up ravine was a Spike. When I saw Spiked antlers I could feel the fever coming on. I fought myself to remain patient waiting for a Cow to get out of the shooting lane. Then the window opened with 5 feet of space between 2 Cows. I put my cross hairs on the upper shoulder blade and let the 30.06 do its thing. I immediately saw the Spike go down without taking another step. I hit the Elk in the exact same spot as the Deer I killed a week earlier.

I got on the radio to let Mike know I had one of the Spikes down. After 5 mins of hard running Mike and I finally caught up with each other. We paused for a 2nd to decided if we should try and chase down the herd. Mike was exhausted from his run up the muddy hill side. The easy route would have been to stop chasing the Elk and field dress the downed Spike. I told Mike we needed to keep going. If he wanted easy he could go back to camp and play cards. If we didn't keep the pressure on the Elk they would get away and it would be back to square one. So the choice was simple; to keep going after the Elk. The ground was still moist and it was easy tracking this herd of Elk. As we reached the top of the hill, I saw a rag horn cresting the hill top directly in front of us. I told Mike to keep going and take an angle to cut some the distance they put on us.

I left Mike to go back and field dress the Spike. I was almost to the Spike when I heard Mike shooting. He emptied his 7mm twice, and then he called on the radio "Another Elk Down".

Five hours later we had both our Spikes back to camp and between the two of us we had 4 bullets left.

2007 Hunting Season in Review

2007 was a banner year for me in that I filled all three of my big game tags. It all started in June when I found out that I drew out for a late season Cow Elk hunt near Little Dell reservoir. By the end of July, I had 3 tags in my possession; a Dedicate South Eastern Deer tag, a Spike Elk tag and a late season Cow Elk tag. Honestly, I was hoping to full just one tag and never would have thought of filling all three.
I had a hunters dream of having enough tags to hunt continuously from the Deer Archery opener Aug 23rd to the end of the Cow hunt on Jan 12th. There was a stretch of about 2 1/2 months where I could have killed a Buck, Doe, Cow or Bull with my bow.
Michael Jewkes (my brother-in-law) and I hunted the state wide Archery Deer season hard during every weekend of the hunt. During Labour Day weekend, below Elk Camp in the quaky draws, we chased a big 25in 4X4 all three days without success.

Then came the Deer muzzle loader hunt. This was my first taste of success. The year before we had chased a big group of bachelor bucks (see video below) in the foothills above Orangeville, UT. So I convinced my wife to let me hunt yet another weekend by closing the deal when I told her we could go to her Dad's house in Orangeville for the weekend and that I would happily take on the task of getting our 2 boys bathed and ready for church Sunday morning.



Saturday morning before sunrise we got up and drove 20 min to the parking lot and then walk 3/4 of mile to our spot. The spot is a out cropping with barely enough room for 2, so I carefully set my muzzle loader a couple of feet from where we were glassing. 10 minutes went by and then out of no where Mike spotted 2 Bucks on a dead running directly at us. One was a 4 point shooter. They were 200 yards away when I realized I still needed to get my gun. As a stood up to grab my run, I was spotted by the deer. They stopped dead in their tracks, did a 180 degree turn and ran back from the same direction in which they came. I was frustrated with my self to see them running off into the horizon when all of the sudden they stopped about 1/2 mile away. Mike and I then realized that the Bucks had only 2 choices; go back to the valley where they were already spooked from or come back to the foothills in a different route. We knew they were coming back, so we dropped all our gear except for Mike's cam cord and the gun. We ran a 1/2 mile back to where the canyons funneled to a plateau that is no more the 30 yards wide. We planned for an ambush by sitting crossed legged Indian style under a juniper. Again like clock work, within 3 minutes of getting set up, I see the legs of a deer coming through the bushes. I whispered to Mike "Deer". Then the buck steps out into the open at no more than 20 yards. Looking through my 1X power scope I count 4 points on each side, then without hesitation I move the cross hairs the top of the should blade and "BANG"! The gun goes off and all I can see is white smoke. When it clears I can see the Deer's legs flailing and then I know he is down. Dropped dead in his track. My excitement was abruptly interrupted by Mike. You see we had only one gun between the 2 of us. Mike also signed up for the dedicated hunter and he had a muzzle loader tag, but no gun. He ordered me to re-load it ASAP so he could go try for a shot at the other Buck. I re-loaded and Mike ran out to find the other Deer. We found him running up the hill side across the canyon at 250 - 300 yards. Mike had time to take 3 pot shots and came close once but no dice. After the dust settle and the excitement wore off, Mike was glad to not have taken that deer as his was a smaller 3 point.
Unfortunately, I left my camera behind and the only picture I have was taken by my cell phone with the buck in the back of Brian's truck. I had the antler mounted European style.

My son McCoy holding the mount...

It is 12:30AM and I need to get to bed, so in the next day or 2 I will finish the Spike and Cow Elk stories. Also I am still waiting for Mike to get me the muzzle loader footage. Once that happens I will post it.

BTW...I don't know why my wife choose pink as the back ground color. I guess if she wants me to post more she will have to change it.