Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Roughest and Easiest Elk Country

My hunting pard and I started heading up the mountain at 4:45AM to where I’d spotted a herd with bulls days earlier. It was a dry hike, which was nice after 3 days of non-stop rain and wind. I couldn’t have asked for a better morning to catch elk out eating after the weather broke for opening day.

We started glassing right before shooting light into the clear cuts and surrounding edges of timber. I didn’t see anything that looked like a log in the distance move ~ needing a little more light that 15 minutes would bring. I waited while thinking about my dad and the missing chain I’ve worn around my neck since he passed away 9 years ago that held a small stainless capsule with some of his ash.

In a freak situation where friends from out of town had stopped by for dinner, when they left, I noticed hours later that my chain was missing from the coat rack hook I would hang the chain on at night. Wifey and I searched the house for dad, but he didn’t turn up...A call was made to our friends to see if by accident they had grabbed the chain when they took their coats. No answer, as they had a 3 hour drive home with spotty cell service.

Feeling more than a smidge bummed that I’d lost dad the night before elk season. I finally had to come to terms that it was bound to happen at some point ~ maybe now was the time to let the old guy go; keeping only a memory of him and our years together hunting and fishing might be the path forward.

While waiting for better light, my hunting partner split off from me to check a different area. As the light crept into my binoculars, I spotted a round shape that disappeared in my glass. There’s one ! A focused Beav started tearing apart the small area with my bins looking for another large shape to move ~ saw another one move. Cool, I’m on them. I hit the range button on my Zeiss bins and got a 630 yard reading to their general area...

I took off down the Cat road, looking get to a higher position. Since the elk were feeding on the side of a dense clear cut, I figured I could easily close some of the gap by climbing up a small knob hill to look for a place to set up and launch a 180 grain Accubond. I found a spot to climb up, only hoping that at the top I would find an unobstructed opening, free of small trees and saplings that would interfere with my shooting path.

At the top I found a great spot, flat, with a wide opening and a log that gave some ground elevation for using my pack as a shooting bag. I got elk in my bins, that I ranged at 400 ish yards, dope on my scope is dialed, rifle set and ready, I’m looking for elk heads to lift, giving me some headgear to shoot...Then this happens. A strong wind kicks up and rolls the mountain side in fog. 22 minutes of 15 MPH wind and socked in, thick fog, covering all the elk ~ Come on Man !




Continued....