Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Thanks Montana (solo backpack elk) and 2013 season

Right at the end of October I found out that I would have most of November off, which meant that something out west needed to hold a tag for me. It had been a couple of years since I had hunted out there but knew that I didn't want to go to Colorado, so I checked the Wildlife departments of the states that held both Elk and Mule deer and found that while expensive, Montana still had some leftover combo tags. Sounded good to me so I bought my tag and then headed up to work for the next few days knowing that I basically would plan on the way there.

5 days later on the fourth of Nov. I started the nearly forty hour drive with a stop about 10 hours in to get my gear. I hadn't had time to pack before I left for work, so I stopped by my place quickly threw the gear I thought I would need in the truck, picked up a rifle that was getting a new stock inletted for it, remounted the scope, zeroed, put a couple of rounds on the 475 yard plate to make sure the data was still good, ate lunch with a buddy, picked up my tags and got back on the road. I did most of the planning in my head while driving and generally it was unaventful until I reached South Dakota and it started snowing pretty heavy-




Made a stop at Cabela's for some Mountain House meals and other small items that I was lacking-



Drove most of the night until I started to dose off and pulled over at an exit and caught a couple hours of sleep. Woke up to this-



Stopped in Rapid City, SD-



at a place called Tally's, had a fantastic breakfast-



And continued on. Just a wee bit cold....



Thirty something hours later I crossed into Mt...
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I really had no idea where to go as I had never stepped foot into Montana, but searching online pointed to some general areas. So I kind of just threw a dart at the map and said I'll start there. My plan was to hit up a couple of the Game & Fish departments and see if I was on the right track. I passed one of the National Forest Service offices and turned around. They were pleasant, however not that much help. I'm sure they get tired of all the "where's the deer/elk" questions. I stopped into the Billings office and met a gentleman there that was a huge help. Really above and beyond. When I speak to people I try to have places already in mind and questions written down, never "where's the ______" questions, however, this gentleman put X's on the map and spent almost an hour pouring over the maps with me. Oddly enough his #1 suggestion was in the same drainage that I had placed that "dart". Sweet! Was good to know that a bit of research and planning paid off. If you're reading this Sir, thank you.

Back on the road for a bit until my stomach started growwling, so a quick stop at a great brewery in Bozeman-
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A Bison, bacon, blue cheese burger did the trick-
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And I finished up most of the drive that night, and just a bit the next morning. Stopped to get some gas and started talking with the store owner, and when he found out that I was solo backpacking he pulled out a map and asked where I was headed. I told him and he said that's where I was going to suggest. He also circled a couple of other areas if the first didn't pan out. Class act all the way. This would become the standard everywhere I went in Mt.

Finally reached the trailhead on the fourth day of traveling. Quickly wrote down a packing list-
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to be continued......

Cool schit.



Travis

Pretty solid A zone there!

Very good start..

Loaded the pack up and started off. My thought was to go where no one would be, get as high as possible and glass until my eyes bled for three days or so and switch valleys if it was an empty hole. I passed a couple on horses right at the trailhead coming out at around 1 or 2pm but saw no other hunters. There was a front moving in and I guess they didn't want to be caught in it... After a couple or miles the mountains on either side were still straight up and looking at the map I knew horses couldn't make it on that side at all, and doubted that any hunter was dumb enough to try climbing it.... so I did. grin...

Here's a shot of where I climbed up from later on when the snow melted-


From the bottom it was around 2k feet up...


At that time everything was covered in 6-8 inches of snow. The photo does not do the steepness justice. It was pure hands and feet climbing for over two hours at a very solid pace. About halfway up I took a break and glassed what I could see of the valley and opposing ridge. Right up near the top of the opposite ridge, I spotted elk feeding out of the timber-


Eventually twelve cows fed out.


And then the weather came in...



I knew that I was close to where I wanted to be and that it was supposed to be a rough night, so climbed a bit further until I found a decent place to camp. Gathered some wood, bundled up and made a fire-


That night was not fun. The wind howled. I was using a bivy and bag and I had thought it had turned to rain in the middle of the night as it pelted my face the whole time. Turns out it wasn't rain-



But it did clear up-


So with frozen boots on, I packed up, made sure the fire was out, and trudged up the ridge in fresh foot deep snow. At the top, along the spine of the ridge I noticed a couple of Muley's staring at me above a steep rockslide. Two does and a decent 4x4... The ridge offered an excellent view for several miles. Out the glass came. For 40 minutes or so I scanned every ridge, meadow, and snow-slide in view. First binos then the spotter. I came off the spotter to give my eyes a break and immediately noticed something on a snow covered ridge nearly two miles away. A quick peek with the bino and quickly put the spotter on them-
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It was a bunch of elk with three legal bulls that I could tell. They were also in a place that would be awful to get to. Suppose that's why they were there. Looking them over and deciding what to do as I figured that it would take the entire day to reach them, I noticed that the bull just right of center chasing the others off and then get assert his dominance on one of the cows..... grin
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Game on....

It took 30 minutes or so of pushing hard to reach the bluff I had climbed the day before. I never know why I don't think about coming down, while climbing up, but I don't. With over a foot of snow now, it was not good. I started off trying to go forward using the shooting sticks to find rocks, but after 4 or 5 slips and ensuing slides until catching a tree or boulder I switched it up and just climbed down facing it. Already the rifle had taken two or three hard smacks on the rocks seeing how it was in a Kifaru Gun Bearer. I knew that if I didn't take it out and hold it, I would break the stock. I held onto the sling and forend for the next 20-30 minutes. About 10-15 yards above the sheer drop off, the rocks gave way and I flipped on my back tossing the rifle, knowing that I was about to go off and hoping that if I went feet first I would just break my legs... It was around a 60 foot drop and I watched rifle flip end over end until it dropped over the ledge. I was on my back sliding fast trying to grab anything to stop. The first two bushes just tore away doing nothing to slow me down. I was able to snatch the last small tree right above the drop off and it held. When it stopped me my right foot was dangling over the edge. I was still only holding on by my left hand and used my right to hit the quick releases on the pack. It broke away and shot off the cliff, taking what seemed like forever to hit.

I pulled myself up into the bush and scooted over to a bigger boulder and just sat there for a while. While not one to get bothered by trials and tribulations, I needed a break. After while I was able to see a route down that looked doable, and made it only going down one or twice along the way. Once at the bottom I went straight to the rifle, sure that the stock was toast. To a bit of surprise I could find nothing but chips and deep scratches. The pack of course was fine, though I wanted to check the zero on the rifle. Truly wasn't worried about the scope, but still figured the stock was gone. So I loaded up, and gave one last look back at what had just happened. [bleep] that.

Two hours later I was back at the trailhead. Drove for a while until I found a safe place to shoot and found a rock at 587 yards. Pulled the rifle out, put glasses on... grin, dialed and held 1.4 mils for wind. Shot two rounds and wouldn't you know it was still zeroed-
[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/image_zps6989949e.jpg[/img]

If you look two mils right and 1.75 mils down or so you'll see a small black spot and two white dots just above and on either side of it. The black spot was the aimpoint and is approximately 4 inches in diameter. Good gear sells itself, and glass "clarity and brightness" are not at the top of the list of importance.

to be cont.....

That afternoon I drove back to the trailhead, hustled the few miles in and started up. I climbed and climbed and climbed. The tracks from other hunters petered out around an hour into it. At two hours they just stopped. Two more hours and I reached the first saddle, moving along to the east for another 45 minutes and spotted a couple of cows moving out of the timber slightly below me-


Further past them another 1k yards or so 6 or 7 more were in a small meadow. None of the elk that I had seen were visible at all until you got above them. And they were waaay up there...

I continued on trying to reach the spot where the herd from this morning had been. The snow was pretty deep-




And the mountain was very steep at times. It took two right at two more hours to reach the spot where the elk had been-


Unfortunately there were no elk. So I sat down, fired up the JetBoil, popped open a can of Venom that I carried for just that moment-



And even though the cold combined with the altitude tried to hamper my efforts of happiness...... They lost.



The sunset was spectacular, the Raspberry crumble was spot on, and the drink burned just right...




to be cont.....

Wow, I hope you get one!

Fantastic!

Don't leave us hanging like you on that cliff

I'm diggin it.....

I don't think there is a "truer" way to do it and I commend you.

In reading through from your getting into your truck to the top of the hill you fast-forwarded through three months (?-four?) of life and travel in the, say, 1830s.

Quite a trip. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

Wow, that sounds pretty much like what I do just to get home every night...

Very good stuff! I've had one of those unintentional, looking over a cliff moments. Puckered me right up. Spooky...

You're spinning one heck of a yarn, please keep it going.

Awesome! Keep it coming!

Moar please

Thanks for sharing a great adventure. You've made your hunt elk or no elk. Good going!

Desire?
Death wish?
I'm lovin' it.

[bleep], I need a nap after just reading about the drive....

That's hardcore!!

Great read so far.