Another successful elk hunt - 11/21/16
Another year, another successful elk hunt.
Work issues kept Daughter #1 and me from driving out to Meeker together. Instead she followed a couple hours later in her own vehicle. That worked out well as she left before season’s end to get back to work keeping us safe. She is a petite lady and neither she nor I are capable of long, rough pack outs. Instead we planned to mostly hunt the migration where packs would be short and sweet. We did hunt two areas where if we got an elk down we would be able to get an outfitter to pack it/them out.
Opening morning we started out on the migration route, which we checked almost every morning, but shortly changed to head up to the top of Iles Mountain, a trek that took us from about 8300 feet to over 8900 feet. We heard a few distant shots, including one we know was a muley buck being taken and one on Three Points mountain where an elk was taken. We saw some less than fresh elk sign but no elk. Here is a photo of my daughter taken on the east side of Iles Mountain.
The next day saw us on the south side of Black Mountain, north of Craig, in an area where we have seen many elk in years past. Once again we saw some less than fresh sign but nothing to get excited about and no elk. Daughter didn’t know I took this picture and posted it on her Facebook page with the comment
“God's Country. This pic brings me to tears; I didn't even know my dad took it. I love you so much <my_name_deleted>”.
Seeing her post brought tears to my eyes, too. On the way back to Meeker we did see a few elk – about 200 – just east of Highway 13 and south of the sawmill about 10-13 miles north of Craig. The elk were ready to cross the highway but I don’t know if they did that evening or if they headed back up to higher country due to the warm weather.\
The next evening we saw these elk by the White River, half-way between Buford and Meeker. Private land, of course.
The weather simply wasn’t cooperating. By now we knew a few elk were being taken up high and Jeanne of Bar-H said they were finding some in the Salt park area (a 3 hour horse ride and impossible for us on foot). We also knew there were elk holding up on private land south of the White River and Oak Ridge SWA. We decided to go high and headed to the edge of the White River wilderness. Here is Daughter at a hair over 11,000 feet:
Daughter was really enjoying the day but commented there wasn’’t any air up there:
[To be continued…]
Work issues kept Daughter #1 and me from driving out to Meeker together. Instead she followed a couple hours later in her own vehicle. That worked out well as she left before season’s end to get back to work keeping us safe. She is a petite lady and neither she nor I are capable of long, rough pack outs. Instead we planned to mostly hunt the migration where packs would be short and sweet. We did hunt two areas where if we got an elk down we would be able to get an outfitter to pack it/them out.
Opening morning we started out on the migration route, which we checked almost every morning, but shortly changed to head up to the top of Iles Mountain, a trek that took us from about 8300 feet to over 8900 feet. We heard a few distant shots, including one we know was a muley buck being taken and one on Three Points mountain where an elk was taken. We saw some less than fresh elk sign but no elk. Here is a photo of my daughter taken on the east side of Iles Mountain.
The next day saw us on the south side of Black Mountain, north of Craig, in an area where we have seen many elk in years past. Once again we saw some less than fresh sign but nothing to get excited about and no elk. Daughter didn’t know I took this picture and posted it on her Facebook page with the comment
“God's Country. This pic brings me to tears; I didn't even know my dad took it. I love you so much <my_name_deleted>”.
Seeing her post brought tears to my eyes, too. On the way back to Meeker we did see a few elk – about 200 – just east of Highway 13 and south of the sawmill about 10-13 miles north of Craig. The elk were ready to cross the highway but I don’t know if they did that evening or if they headed back up to higher country due to the warm weather.\
The next evening we saw these elk by the White River, half-way between Buford and Meeker. Private land, of course.
The weather simply wasn’t cooperating. By now we knew a few elk were being taken up high and Jeanne of Bar-H said they were finding some in the Salt park area (a 3 hour horse ride and impossible for us on foot). We also knew there were elk holding up on private land south of the White River and Oak Ridge SWA. We decided to go high and headed to the edge of the White River wilderness. Here is Daughter at a hair over 11,000 feet:
Daughter was really enjoying the day but commented there wasn’’t any air up there:
[To be continued…]