John, I realize my experiences represent a microcosm of elk habitat. And I can only report what happened in this area. But I am intimately familiar with this microcosm.
Hunting pressure has not changed significantly over the last ten years. The private property onto which the herd moved this year has been owned by JR Simplot for over forty years and been locked off from the public for that time. And I find it interesting that the elk herd moved onto the valley floor this year long before rifle season opened.
Fifteen hundred feet in elevation below us the terrain is laced with old logging roads, all open to ATV and vehicular traffic. Usually the high hunting pressure in that area pushes elk up the mountain, not down.
I have not seen archery hunters, or the few hunters with early rifle/cow tags move the herds in years past.
We hunt an area of about six sq miles, a four hour horse back ride from the nearest road. The only way in is by foot or horse. Very few foot hunters will work hard enough to climb this high. In five days at camp we only saw three other hunters as they passed through, making a day ride; and one man on foot.
We had fresh mud the first day in which to observe tracks and new snow on two subsequent days. In an area which has been home to more than thirty head of elk in years past, this year we saw tracks of four individuals widely separated and brushed up.
But for the first time ever, in this area, we encountered wolf tracks. And wolf tracks were omnipresent throughout the six sq miles.
I wish I had taken my Foxpro FX-3 in the horse pack, we might have been able to reduce the predator population. My buddy called for a while with a rabbit call. And judging from the squawking of magpies in the canyon below us, a wolf did respond. He circled down wind of us and then the magpies squawked all the way back up the canyon as (apparently) the wolf returned back the way he had come.
