my 2015 idaho season....

[Zpd307]

I have been reluctant to write anything about so far..... the trip was awesome in so many ways! but I left with a pain in my stomach that has been slow to heal.... and hasn\'t totally yet.
I will have to write this in segments, as it will be long, if I can write it well enough, and to add the pics.
I would like to preface with, this was to be my year! I was able to get into elk last year, my first year in Idaho as it was a new spot for me. and I was able to arrow a real nice 6x6...... which I could not find.......
I upped my training and was able to lose an additional 10 pounds, compared to the last 2 seasons. I upped my shooting and was really confident there. I poured over my mistakes from last year and had a solid game plan, with plans b,c,d,e...... I made a point to learn more about calling. essentially I upped just about everything! and we were to hunt the rut. but my ace in the hole was my new partners!!!!
needless to say, my expectations were set very high.
ultimately, I think that was my downfall....

 

[iccyman001]

Cant wait to see the pictures.

I was lucky enough to get scenery pics throughout the trip and it looked beautiful!!!! :upthumb:

 

[iccyman001]

And I don\'t care what you say, there is no downfall!
You got to spend some time in beautiful country with great people and not be at work



I left Kansas without anything, but that was one of my favorite trips that I have had in a long time.
Good people and good experiences are what make this all about! You don\'t want to become a lonely sourpuss like me who doesn\'t want to hunt with anyone :lol: :yawn:




Celebrate the good times and learn from the bad! :dance2:

 

[cnelk]

Sometimes the best way to not get disappointed is to have low expectations...
Let it happen whatever happens...

Looking forward to your story!

 

[Zpd307]

before I go to bed, I will say this...... without terry and steve, this trip would have been worse..... they ultimately made this hunt fun! I was glad to be able to hunt and share camp with them!

 

[bnsafe]

hey gary, sorry to hear it things went south for ya. time takes the edge off of that.

 

[bowhunter]

We had a good time indeed. On the first night after setting up camp I followed Gary to the wallow where he stuck his bull last year. We arrived and saw a small bull covered in mud dancing around like some crazy calf playing. The first night and we saw elk! The best thing about that encounter was just being there and seeing Gary\'s excitement. We hunted hard and covered a lot of new ground. I even drug Gary to a nice looking bowl across a stream that had some fresh tracks and droppings just no elk. I hoped we would all tag an elk but do realize it is a difficult thing to do. We tried hard but had many negative effects to the local elk herd. A lost girl at a campsite a few weeks earlier that brought many people searching the mountains for her, People not obeying the non motorized trails, and lots of hunting pressure. The elk had gone silent and I believe more nocturnal. We saw some beautiful country and enjoyed the time in the mountains.

 

[Zpd307]

terry and I left on the 11th, after I got off from work. that 10 hour shift went slowwww. I was able to help terry load the truck while at work, so all I had to do was shower and change when I got home.
steve left a couple days earlier and secured my old campsite, sweet!!! everything was looking good
20 short hours later and a real close encounter with a mulie doe on I-94 in north Dakota by the teddy Roosevelt national park, I was meeting steve for the first time.
I am pretty sure there was a poop smear along the side of my truck, I was that close...... I wouldn\'t have been able to see it with all the bugs we had hit so far.... thank goodness my brakes were good and I was able to slow down enough to be able to swerve around her without hitting her. the tires were squealing! maybe it was all the years of evoc training I have had in squad cars! either way, I was sure that she was going to be hamburger on the side of the road... what a surprise it was that she wasn\'t!
back to Idaho, it was hot......
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heres camp, looking down from the edge. we were set in a little bowl.
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heres the view of the main drainage that we hunted. this is just a 180 from the spot that I took the above pic from. notice the snow, I took the pic halfway through the hunting trip.

 

[Zpd307]

once we set up our gear, I was itching to head up the mtn!
steve had just taken a shower and was smelling all pretty, but agreed to come along.
we had enough time, so the plan was to head up to the satellite bulls bedding area that I found last year. we would set in a little ways and hopefully hear then get up and stretch and do some raking, just like last year. maybe do some of brads triangle of death calling sequences.
did I say yet that I was pumped up!!!!
after a practice shot into the block, off we go......
man was it hot.... poor steve was dripping sweat on the way up. so much for the shower!
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this was day break while heading through Montana, somewhere near Rosebud. terry was snoring

 

[Zpd307]

so we are heading up the mtn on the first afternoon that we arrived. like I said and will say many times again, it was hot... not only was it hot, it was windy. which turned out to be the predominant theme for the hunt.... terry and I broke off on our own and ended up just sitting in an aspen patch, hoping for the wind to get straight, close to sundown. I showed him my google earth maps that I printed off of the area, they make more sense when you are actually there....
finally just before sun down, the wind went good, and we only had enough time to check out the wallow that I arrowed the bull last year from.
we were about 90 yards out, walking through some sage, and I turned to terry and told him that I had a funny feeling that something was going to happen.
a couple of steps later I heard something and a raghorn 5x pops out into the clearing, coming from the area of the wallow. he stopped and looked at us for a second and then started hopping around and prancing. he was absolutely covered in mud, terry thought he was a moose.
terry didn\'t have his glasses on
we were out in the open, so there was nothing we could do.... he eventually went back into the timber and we quickly went down to the edge of the timber just below the wallow. we waited there to see if another bull might come in to it.
terry and I made a great team, I could see them and terry could hear them :lol:
my hearing isn\'t the greatest and terry was always hearing something that I couldn\'t.
a little while later, terry hears something, eventually I hear it too. its coming from the wallow. I sneak up closer to the wallow and I thought that I saw antlers! I was convinced that I saw a really nice 5x5! I could just see his antlers through the pine that I was looking through. as of right now, I am not as convinced anymore... anyways, I snuck up closer and couldn\'t see it anymore. terry went back and tried calling. nothing...
on the way back to camp I spotted a pair of cows and a bull several hundred yards out, below us feeding in the sage on the edge of the timber. i/we watched them until it was too dark to see them.
what a way to start the hunt!!! everything was coming together....
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here is a random pic. terry helps give the pic some depth

 

[Zpd307]

oh, and terry was right on..... i forewarned him to help me calm down, as i get pretty excited when i get into elk.... i didn\'t disappoint him on that little 5x raghorn :lol: a whole year of anticipation left me wound up pretty tight!
i have to work on this even more for next year....

 

[bowhunter]

You are doing a great job Gary keep the story going..................

 

[Zpd307]

here are some more random pics
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notice the fresh atv tracks in the foreground.... the atv was tucked into some pines. this area is supposed to be in a motorized vehicle restriction and NOT supposed to be there!
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we saw plenty of sign. the elk seemed to have mastered the art of hiding their fresh poop though.....
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it is beautiful country! terry and i stopped lots of times, just to take in the sights and pictures

 

[Zpd307]

those pics were from day 2.
we woke up with the plan to head up through the sage and get to the timber before you can see without a headlamp.
steve got a chuckle out of my alarm ring tone on my phone.... hey, who doesnt like cage the elephant?
the spot is kind of a funnel as there is sage on both sides of the creek with a line of timber following the creek. once the big timber starts, it fans out like a V going up the mtn. there is also a small wallow here. surprisingly, the much bigger last years wallow wasn\'t touched this year and was filled in with new grass.
i sat there almost every morning and had a bull do his rub thing in the same spot last year. i was frustrated last year as i couldn\'t hatch a plan to capitalize on it. so i was hoping he would do the same thing this year, and i would have my crack partner with me and we would conjure up a master plan and become heros among the elk hunting world!
we saw and heard nothing....
so we still hunted up to \"my\" wallow. nothing....
we decided to check the wallow out, this was where it gets disheartening.....
terry spots a empty climber tree stand and a trail camera pointing at the wallow
on a side note, for a guy who cant see, he sure found a lot of stuff in the woods more on that later....
by now the wind is getting bad, again.... and we decided to cover some country and explore and check for some fresh sign. up we go! we went up going through the sage so as not to spook any elk.
once we got up to the top of the sage, i knew of an elk path into the timber from last year, but never followed it. i was sure it would lead to their bedding area. this would be where i heard a hunter last year bugle and get a bull fired up!
we followed the path up which led to a open grassy saddle. the elk were definitely using the path to get to their beds, but the wind was terrible and we couldn\'t go in after them.... lunch and a nap in that saddle.
the above pics show the view up into some other wont be named canyon and drainages from that saddle. gorgeous!!!!!
terry hatched a plan to go back to the wallow and check the sd card from the guys trail cam. i enthusiastically agreed we were hoping to see the pics of that rag 5x and the other bull that pushed him out.
we get to the wallow and are almost to the trail cam when terry stopped and told me that the hunter was in his stand..... ooopppss i cant help but wonder what he thought us two jack asses were doing :haha: i look up and hes waving at me from his stand
i am still bummed that i didn\'t get to see the pics. where was he last night.....?
we back out and stop to hatch a new plan. i look into the timber and thought i saw an elk facing me about 80 yards out. i looked away as terry said something. when i looked back, it was gone. i figured i was seeing things until i heard a branch snap as it ran away.
which reminds me of how excited i was that first night after seeing that raghorn..... we just got to the timber edge. i looked into the timber and swore i saw an elk looking at me 30 yards away. i saw the white ring around its eye, its nose.....in my mind that dumb 5x was staring at me.... i looked through the binos to confirm that it wasn\'t an elk, but to the naked eye it was so real!
terry refuses to believe me if i see an elk and he doesn\'t. i don\'t blame him :haha:
anyways, terry goes back to lower wallow/funnel and i stay up and sit at a wallow down below the bigger one. shortly after i heard an elk pass through in the timber, which was heavy with blow downs. i was thinking, this is early enough that terry is going to get some action! later i heard an elk come in, between me and the other hunter. the elk chose the other wallow.... as i heard him raking at the communal raking tree. the hunter never shot and i heard him cow call once to the bull. i was waiting for the twack and then the freight train as the bull thundered off. it never happened :dk:

 

[Zpd307]

day 3 finds us at the same funnel just before day break.
by now, Im glad that I am in my own tent. both steve and terry and very accomplished bear callers, as terry calls it that and our meal plan had made us all into a makeshift band of trumpets!
nothing heard or seen, so I show terry more of the area and we zig left instead of zagging right. again, the wind would show us early that it wasn\'t going to cooperate with us that day.....
we got to a sage ridge and enjoyed the view, atleast we cut some fresh tracks on the way up, but couldn\'t utilize them with the wind acting the way it was. notice, I said wind not breeze.
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here is a nice view into the lower part of the canyon. the wind was howling from here and cold. I cant say that it was hot today! my ears hurt from the cold wind blowing passed.....
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here is the view into the heart of the canyon. it goes back a good 7-8 miles. it gets hit hard with guys on dirt bikes and horses. including an outfitter.
speaking of outfitters, steve just had to have a picture of the outfitter, the next time they went by. so he did! she was weathered.... we spoke with the owner, you could see the tin in her pocket and the chew in her teeth she was the one who told us about the missing 2 year old little boy. as I had asked her about the wolves. so far I hadn\'t heard one yet, last year they were howling all day long...
back to the hunt.
we decided to get back to the other side of the ridge and check the wind where we would go into the satellite bedding area. after dropping down, the ridge blocked a huge portion of the wind. and it was fairly straight. we decided to go in and give it a shot. so like stealthy ninjas we cut through the dead falls. we stopped several times to see if we could hear and raking. terry wanted to hear that, bad! and I wanted to also, for him.....
this was my biggest game plan....
if the bulls would cooperate, between the two of us, we could make a fool proof game plan and get one on the ground.
nothing....
then the rain came
now, I didn\'t bring any rain gear in my pack. in my defense, we are hunting in a high mtn desert region, which gets an 0.78\" rain total in sept. and it rained on me a couple of times last year. I cant call it a rain, it was more of a mist.
not this year....
I was cold, wet, and miserable after a couple of hours of on and off again, actual, rain....
as terry sat there, being overly prepared, with his nice little umbrella
we tried to get something going as I beat up a poor defenseless pine tree. somebody next year or this years rifle hunter is going to find it and be very impressed at the size of the bull that mauled that tree. too bad he will never be able to find him :haha:
by this time the rain was getting serious and the wind was really picking up again. we couldn\'t have heard anything, if there was anything to hear. I checked my gps and we were within feet of where I made a way point last year! labeled..... elk raking no such luck this time...
we were closer to getting out of the timber by going out to the north, so we went that way and headed back down to my wallow. with no other plan of attack, due to the wind, we waited above it for a while. that is until the hunter came in and got into his stand....
oh well, we headed back to camp early.
and finally had a camp fire!
the rain started again as we headed to bed.....

 

[Zpd307]

noooooo, i lost a whole post!

 

[Zpd307]

day 4 started with rain..... so I went back to bed. to terry\'s credit, he got out of his tent and came over to ask if we should hunt!
i got up when i didn\'t hear the rain anymore, it was definitely daylight out by then. it had rained enough that it was damp and cool. but the sun was out!
to salvage the day i decided to use the bikes we had brought along and go to a different drainage. one that was steep thick and nasty, surely that should cut down on the hunters and definitely the guys on atvs who didn\'t care about the restrictions. i even conned terry into coming with, lucky for him! more on that to come.....
the bike ride was around 4 miles..... with the rain, they were greasy! i turned on the go pro, that reminds me that i should download that to youtube. i bet terry was wondering what he got himself into
the drainage proved to be steep and loaded with elk sign. that dang fresh poop still evaded us....
as we stopped to do our first calling setup, terry motions me over...... guess what he found, the lucky sob
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i have been hoping to find something like this for the last 4 years! the entire skeleton was scattered around the spot.
then the rain started, again.....
we decided to follow a well used trail up up up. no bench was found but we had to stop and take some pics of this
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terry should tell everybody his story about the bees!!!! :lol:
we found and followed up a grassy meadow ridge that led to a super elky bench. the dang wind foiled us again...... :x we had hiked up some super steep stuff to get there.... so we left it to go get the skull terry found. gotta love gps! we came across this high up meadow
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it screamed elk, so i bugled um, er, cough cough, attempted a locater bugle but to my surprise!!!!! a bull bugled lazily back! that\'s a first for me the only problem was that he was above us about 200 yards away, on the other side of the meadow in the timber.... the thermals were going up. we moved up on our side and i tried another bugle, not much better than the first, but still better. no response. we decided to go to the top of the meadow and try calling, crickets..... dang, it was still cool though!
so we went and got terry\'s skull. we headed down some billy goat country! by the time we got to the skull, it was pitch black. both of us had tripped over dead falls numerous times! packing out an elk in the dark in the timber would be brutal.....
also, its so easy to get disorientated...

 

[bowhunter]

I\'m reliving it all over..........Keep it going.

 

[Zpd307]

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the pic sucks, it was getting dark..... the pic doesn\'t do any justice as to how steep it actually was, we are talking starting a rock avalanche when you kicked one loose. terry\'s leg took a rock that i had kicked loose... oops
it was really dark and starting to mist again by the time we got back to the bikes....
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terry had to ride back to camp like this :lol: with cold wet hands and greasy roads..... he mentioned that to hold the skull right, it left him with minimal braking control
we met a hunter on the road, he was heading back to town on his dirt bike. he confirmed what we already knew. the bulls were silent so far, even way back in the canyon that he was hunting..... he commented about our bikes, he saw a bike tracks in the mud earlier was like, wtf!?!?
that drainage was rough, i told myself that i wouldn\'t do that again....

 

[bowhunter]

that drainage was rough, i told myself that i wouldn\'t do that again....

As was the drainage across the stream.