Monday
Almost a full moon last night and some clouds at last, and finally found some elk! I was walking in the dark trying to get to a spot that looked good on the map. I rounded a corner, walking by moonlight, and ran into an elk when it was only light enough to see a grayish form in the woods. Although this area looked good I continued on to the spot on my map, for whatever reason I had a good feeling about it. I’d just topped a large hill and was hoping for a steep dark drainage but was greeted by a deep aspen bowl. Somewhat disappointed, I looked down and see and bull 300 yards below – game on! I descend the hillside and drop my pack when I hit the bottom, at about the same time I hear him bugle from further down the hill and take off sprinting. I ended up seeing 11 elk that morning with 3 bulls but couldn’t make it happen, still a great morning and finally feel like I’m getting close to where we need to be. At this point I’m about 6-miles from the original trailhead and getting closer to another trailhead from the south.
I climbed the nearest peak trying to get Drew on the radio with the good news. Luckily we were able to connect and if all goes well I should see him around noon.
Finally hooked up around 2 p.m., good to have some company again. As soon as we meet up we found two cows with a bull bugling. I watched one of the cows bed down at 72 yards, on a steep downhill slope and horrible wind. Decided to hang back and see what might happen.
After about the 10-minutes something scared them. Not sure if they finally caught our wind? That evening we bumped into anther elk and we both heard bugles while returning to camp after dark. So we have a couple options for the next morning.