The rut starts about Labor Day. If it's hot, you won't see or hear much of anything, but they're there. The activity will be mainly at night. Early in the rut, the bulls start gathering cows. The way I've seen them do it is the lead cow will take off on a cross country run with the other cows strung out behind her and the herd bull trying to keep up. She'll put on a lot of miles at a fast trot which enables the bull to find more cows. One time I watched a lead cow take the whole herd straight down a steep 2000' mountain. As soon as the bull caught up, she took off and went straight back up it the same way she'd just come down.
