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DAY 7

Friday Morning

Thank goodness for those stupid spikes. We saw elk from the top of the mountain but they were way south of our position and we couldn't tell what they were. So we drove down there and identified them as the same group of preschoolers we had bumped last night. So why was that good? Since we were already on the deck we drove around the front side of the mountain and Wes spotted a bull, then another and before long he found six bulls with four trophy bulls. The largest is guessed at 305, then 290, 285 and 275. The other two are probably 240-250. These were the same bulls we saw on day one and they were back in the exact same spot as they were a week ago.

Fresh elk pee is a wonderful smell. My son did not agree.

We had a great wind so we took off for them right away. Within 50 minutes we started our stalk halfway up the mountain. Wes was in the lead followed by me and then my 12 year old son Matt. We moved as quiet as death, moving through the timber, crossing meadows and canyons. We found a fresh bed with wet pee in it and I took a pinch of that moist soil and introduced Matt to the most wonderful smell in the world. He hadn't developed a taste for it yet but give him time.

I set up in the shadows and Wes began calling.

We moved quietly until we were within 100 yards of where we were sure the bulls were. I set up with Matt 80 yards in front of Wes and he started cow calling. After 30 minutes of no action we decided to back out, go down to the deck again to glass and see if we may have bumped them. We did that, and the good news is we found all six bulls. They were about 600 yards NE from where we last saw them and they are in the absolute best possible place for us to kill them. We are very confident we can make that happen and are heading out now. This is our very last chance, but Wes knows exactly where they are which is next to a meadow they will get up to feed in. When they do that we will be there with an arrow nocked. Can we pull out a last minute miracle on the last day of the hunt? For the first time all week, we think so. It's all up to the wind.

We thought we might have bumped them but we were wrong. They are bedded
and we now know exactly where they are.

Friday Afternoon

It took us all of 10 minutes to find the bulls again through the spotting scope. They moved all of ten yards from where we spotted them this AM. Wes knew just how to get to them and forty minutes later we were within 150 yards of the bulls. Wes, Matt and I put on a world class stalk and closed the distance to just 50 yards from the biggest bull. We got right into their world and even watched them joust a bit, but there was no way we could get closer. They were working their way into the trees and the wind had faded down to nothing. To make matters worse, we felt a direction change - we were on borrowed time. Any moment they were going to wind us. Seeing that we only needed to call him out 10 yards from the trees, Wes and I decided to try calling. Matt and I setup 50 yards from the biggest bull in the trees and Wes stayed back and started calling. He hadn't tried five cow calls when the bull turned his head and then very gently walked away through the trees never to be seen again. We never saw another bull in that group for the rest of the day. They were just not interested in any cow calls.

We couldn't believe it. They just aren't ready yet. We headed down the hill hoping to bump into them and instead we bumped into three more bulls. They were not as big but they were big enough for me. Unfortunately, they saw us before we saw them. Wes dropped down low and began to call the bulls but they would not get any closer than 80 yards. They were semi-interested but they would not come all the way in. The lead bull was a heavy 5-point and he went high to catch our wind. Matt and I dropped behind the bank and raced up the hill to get above them. It worked. Wes stayed low calling while Matt and I snuck in above them. We were hoping they would come in our direction but instead they pushed up high above us. I tried stalking them and got 50 yards from the 5pt but my max distance is 40 so I didn't shoot. I tried to move closer but I bumped into a bedded bull at fifteen yards. He took the other two up the hill and out of our lives.

I was pretty much done, Wes was close. Matt convinced us to try for them since they were simply walking up the mountain a few hundred yards away. So we listened to our little cameraman and raced up the hill to try and cut them off. When we got to the top I heard a strange sound? It was cow calls. Wes looked at me since he knew what that meant. We pulled out our glasses in time to see an incredible sight of 400 elk racing toward us through the valley. The big herd was back - on the last evening of the last day. It wasn't just cows, there were big bulls pouring out of the hillsides and they were screaming their heads off!

Wes said - let's go, and raced up the mountain to try and make it to the funnel they were headed for. It was a longshot, the herd was running through the meadows toward our mountain and we had at least 1 mile to go before making it to the funnel. This is where all that marathon training comes in. Unfortunately, I didn't and was sucking wind -bad. We tried our best but we just couldn't get there in time. I watched the last bunch of cows walk through a 15 yard funnel. One of them was a 350" herd bull. Ouch.

Wes saw one last group of bulls coming into the funnel so we raced down and set up at the very last moments of legal shooting light. There were 15 bulls heading our way - many of them over 300. But legal shooting light clicked off and my hunt was over. We backed out slowly so as not to spook the bulls that were now bugling everywhere. The hills came alive the very last hour of my last day.

I am cursed.

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