Day 1

Day 1 – Saturday Sept. 5, 2009

This morning started off great! We drove to a trailhead about 3 miles from camp with a plan to hike in 2-3 miles, hoping to intercept some bugling bulls as they made their way up the ridge from feed and water to their bedding areas. As is many times the case when elk hunting, our plan lasted all of 3-4 minutes. As soon as we got out and started walking, a bull bugled up the hillside 600 yards away…and he sounded big! The wind was perfect so we slipped around the hillside under him, then started up a finger ridge in his direction. We stopped about halfway to pinpoint his location with a bugle, but got no response. He must have went over the backside of the ridge.

 Then, just 70 yards up the ridge from us, a branch broke. I crawled up 4-5 yards to where I had some good shooting lanes and Dave and Donnie took cover about 20 yards behind. After 2-3 minutes of cow calling, I spotted movement above us. A smaller satellite bull had slipped in quietly to investigate and was now moving to our right. I turned to get ready for a shot, but he never appeared. I looked back to where he had been originally and he was once again standing there, staring intently in our direction. I turned my head and gave a soft, muffled cow call and that was all it took. He started down the hill towards us and when he walked in front of a tree I had just ranged at 50 yards, I drew my bow and cow called to stop him. He stopped broadside at 45 yards, and I released. The shot felt good and the unmistakable “thump” verified a solid body hit. Donnie had been just behind the ridge with the video camera and moved up the hill 4-5 steps to follow the bull as he crashed off. The bull stopped at 80 yards and began looking somewhat sick. We could also see the arrow hole right behind the shoulder, about 1/3 the way up the body. It was about 7:10AM, our first morning out!

 We decided to back off a little and let the bull bed down there, knowing he wouldn’t go anywhere. We waited about an hour, then slipped back over the ridge to find him. He was no longer in the same place he had been standing, so we dropped down the hillside and picked up his blood trail. There was very little blood, which surprised me due to the placement of the arrow, but we were able to follow him across the draw and onto the adjacent hillside.

As I was following his trail I glanced down below me and saw him about 40 yards down the hill below us. He looked sick and wasn’t going anywhere, so I knocked another arrow and shot him again. He stood there for 5-10 seconds, then started wheezing and coughing and crashed to the ground. Elk #1 was on the ground! We walked up to him and took a few pictures, then got started with the skinning and quartering. Being a short, 15 minute hike from the truck made the pack a piece of cake, and we were on our way to the butcher by 11:30AM.

 Here is the video of the call-in, shot, and recovery. It all happened so quickly Donnie wasn’t able to move up the ridge to get into position to video the shot. Videoing the hunt, however, is always secondary to the hunt itself!

Here are a couple pictures of my small 4X4 bull elk.

The Team from Elk101.com with Corey's bull from the first morning

Another picture of Corey's 4X4 bull elk

We dropped the meat off at the butcher, then went into town for our customary “shooter-buys-the-packers-dinner”. I got a bacon cheeseburger with some greasy fries and a big, thick Mountain Berry Milkshake! We got our food to go and ate it on the way back to camp. Not the nice sit-down type of a meal we usually have when we kill an elk, but we still had plenty of time to get back and get out for an evening hunt. Before leaving town, I also stopped in at the local sporting goods store and purchased a left-over non-resident elk tag…with 2 weeks left to hunt, I felt confident we’d be able to get Donnie and Dave a bull, and hopefully have time to try for a second bull for me.

However, we got about 5 miles from camp (40 miles from town) and my heart started pounding uncontrollably. Donnie was driving, so I calmly asked him to pull over for a second. I got out and walked around for a minute and felt like all of my strength had been sucked out of me. It was the weirdest feeling, and it left me feeling very fatigued and nauseous. We went back to camp and did a few chores, then slipped in for a short nap. I woke up very groggy after about an hour and went out to sit in the chair outside the trailer. Immediately, I got nauseous and my heart started pounding again, so I jumped up and ran to the creek and started splashing water on my face to keep myself from passing out.

While training for triathlons this summer, I often had my heart-rate up over 160. But sitting there doing nothing and having it beat that fast, I knew something wasn’t right. I was getting shortness of breath and dizzy, and my arms were tingling. Not being one to complain, I told Dave I wasn’t feeling well and thought I might need to go to the ER.

 My wife and 3 children were coming to camp that evening to stay the night, and we happened to pass them just 2 miles after we left camp. Dave told Jennifer I wasn’t feeling well and we were heading into town, and Donnie jumped in to ride along with her. I can honestly say it was probably the most scary situation I have ever been in. And Dave’s driving wasn’t the concern. My face was numb and felt extremely hot. I couldn’t get a full breath of air. Both my arms were tingling and numb. My heart-rate wouldn’t slow down. I had extreme cotton-mouth and drank 2 bottles of water on the way in to the hospital. I just kept praying that I’d make it to the hospital. When we got to a place where we could get cell reception, Dave called in and told the hospital we were coming…and we were coming fast. We passed a police officer doing around 60 in a 35 and he followed us to the hospital.

 The staff there was awesome and had me hooked up to all sorts of monitors and IV’s immediately. When I got there my heart-rate was 142 and my blood pressure was 148/120 (typical for me is 55 and 115/70). While skinning my elk that morning, I had gotten bit by several small gnats and had several bright red bite marks on my head. The doctor in the ER diagnosed me with dehydration and also gave me a Benadryl shot in case it was an allergic reaction to the bug bites. I got 2 Liters of fluids and had 3 more minor episodes of rapid heartbeat while I was there, but the EKG showed a regular heart rhytme so they send me home after 3 hours. They told me to come back in 48 hours if it hadn’t gone away and they would do a rapid flu test to check for the H1N1 flu (swine flu).

With tomorrow being Sunday, we were planning on taking the day off from hunting anyway, so it’ll be good to get some rest and get my strength back. We have 14 more days of elk hunting to get in! We drove to my father-in-laws cabin and will be staying there tonight.