Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2018 Backpack Hunting Trip

After about 30 minutes the snow slowed a bit and we rucked up, and started picking out way down the ridge across from the bull. It was quite steep, and some of it was done sliding on out butts, and some reverse climbing.


The least steep portion








Once at the bottom we paused to refill water in a small stream and find a place to climb up.













It was a virtual cliff up the other side for several hundred feet. After filling up water, they waited while I moved up and down the gorge trying to see if there was a way up. I finally found what I though would be a route up it, but it would be climbing... not hiking. Everyone got their packs on and up we started. There was enough snow on the rock face that you could kick in foot holds and climb up. It was hands and feet the whole way, with several questionable spots even by our standards.






No one said a word until we got out of the cliff 30-40 minutes later. At the top only OC said “that was sporty.... let’s not do it agin”. I asked Yo how he was and he only replied with “fugg that”. TJ said his ankle was holding up ok.


The general consensus-





Once we got above the rocks, we got the trees and above that the snow started again, though not super heavy this time. We initially came up with TJ and Yo saying they thought the bull was to the right, and OC and myself thinking it’s to the left. So TJ and Yo went to the right, OC to the left, and I went up the middle. From left to right we were only 100-150 yards apart in the open, but the hill curved around so tight and it was so steep that we could see each other without someone in the middle. After 3-4 minutes of climbing and looking I spotted the bull above OC and called the others over.

Walking up to him you could see two exit holes in the chest, one being the aforementioned first shot through the off leg. The second being the broadside second shot.




This was the first elk TJ and Yo had even seen up close, let alone killed. Both were pretty darn excited but it didn’t taken long for Yo to notice that elk are big suckers. After a minute of checking him out he goes- “bro, this things coming out on our backs....”. Haha. Yes, yes it is.




To be cont.....