John John John! That was a fantastic write-up of classic Pacific NW rain forest hunting! You get it my friend! Great preparation, hunt, and followup. Outstanding.
I really appreciated your description of the conditions. People that hunt in desert country for elk can never understand the level of difficulty the weather combined with soaking wet reprod introduces into a hunt in the PNW. Add in steep terrain, warm temperatures (which make raingear HOT to hike in) and short seasons and you have one challenging hunt. it's hard on mind, body, and rifle isn't it?!
I salute you sir! Very well done.
Thanks for the kind words.
The Pacific Northwest is definitely a weird little part of the world with its own species and conditions, but you don’t hear much about it unless you live here. I grew up hunting whitetails and I thought I could hunt blacktails the same way when I got here. It took me about five years of getting skunked to realize how wrong I was.
99% of the information available on elk and deer hunting is about Rocky Mountain elk and whitetail deer because that’s what most people hunt. Same if you go to big-box stores like Cabelas and Bass Pro—they have tons of gear for those species, but you just get blank stares when you ask about Roosevelt elk and blacktails.
The PNW is a little tougher than most places, but it’s great if you don’t like being up to your ass in snow during hunting season.
Okie John
