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

Oh ya Ted, lotsa variables for sure. Without sounding like the bitch azz Alaskans, I’d have to say western Washington and central to NW Oregon coast. The horrid thick [bleep] underbrush, non stop rain can’t be underestimated. 1/2 mile in that shiit is like 5 in most areas. Every area has its struggles for sure, but the coastal shiit is just that, shiit…

Cover a lot of that ground in Sept. 118 miles in 9 days. Dang fire screwed things up. The. The NF idiots who closed it reopened it the night before rifle opened. Word on the street is many many bulls were killed.

To a flat lander kid headed out West with bow, black powder and center fire smokeless rifle, i remember Purgatory/San Juan, Uncompagre? Ellison Mtn out of Sleepy Cat/Meeker, all good tough hunts, nothing on earth was harder for me than 31 miles mule backed in to The Thorofare, when you got there, the work had just began, primitive camp being that close to Yellowstone, i became quite handy with a big cross-cut saw on that hunt, easiest by far was with my old buddy EddyBo in NM across the road from White Sands missile grounds, when i figured out my heart was going to catch up and that 6'6" 28 year old young man Wayne wasn't going to kill me chasing that group of bulls up the mountain the rest was cake.

If we're talking about the same area (North Fork/Gibbonsville area), they allowed folks in well before the day before the rifle elk opener. I was there on Oct 13 without any entry restrictions and several camps were already there that had been there for a few days. The burn was fresh and I could still see flames in a few drainages but the elk were still in the pockets that hadn't burned.

Some bulls were killed no doubt but I am not sure I'd say "many many". I didn't see many in the back of pickups nor did I hear anymore shots than normal.

I hunted the Olympic Peninsula back in college with some friends from Forks. Those mountains are no joke. Pretty comparable steepness wise to a lot of what I hunt in the intermountain west, though the vegetation takes it to a new level. Where I saw the elk there didn't have the jagged rock faces and scree slopes that I deal with in Idaho and such. They were more in the steep clearcuts with insanely thick reproduction and blowdown, which had it's own challenges.

Where I hunt is tougher than anything…20 mile days with 10,000’ of elevation. (Famous last words.)

Like mentioned, I think most areas have their unique “toughness”.

That coastal [bleep] doesn’t look fun.

One of the reasons I stopped hunting the coast here....

Anywhere on the snake/salmon river breaks too

Last week I had 3 days involving over 2,000 foot vertical climbs (verified via GPS) before first light, over a deadfall nightmare. Just to see cows and (I believe) a single spike.

It sucked....

Sometimes I think I’d rather climb.

We had a descent yesterday that about killed me. I ate sh it at least 5 times, only to find it was the same sow with cubs. Sometimes patience is not my best virtue.

Sometimes a straight line is not best.

Well that same climb I did for those 3 days also involved an equal descent after dark...all for what I suspect is the same few elk spotted.
I didn't fall at all but had my spikes on. I had my spikes on because the week before it was raining and during a similar climb/descent I'll bet I slipped and fell 20 times due to wet rocks and logs, but only once really hard. It is a good way to take a snapped off branch/dagger through an artery. That one bad fall ripped my pants and slammed my rifle onto a log. Checked it and it was dead on.

Mountain hunting sometimes takes a lack of brains vs anything else...

Correct.
About half way down that climb and within view of the pickup parked on the side of the highway, there is the end of an old logging road. I knew it had to start on the highway somewhere, as the other direction is designated wilderness so that road couldn't head or come from that way. I decided to hit the logging road after dark and follow it out to see where it meets the highway, as it may be an easier way to get into the spot. Well 5 miles of logging road and multiple switchbacks later it hit the highway 3 miles south of my pickup. I finally made it back at 11 PM that night.

All to avoid another 1000 or so vertical feet descent through that deadfall after dark.

If somebody were to ask me the 'worst', without any hesitation, I would nominate a lodgepole pine burn after about 3 or 4 years. The snags fall like kids jackstraws. And guess where the elk like to bed when they are heavily pressured.

About the OR/WA Cascade range - a few years back I read about 3 guys in WA who went down in some hell hole and shot a big bull. While they were dressing it, one of them died of a heart attack. It took a rescue team 3 days to pack his body out of there. How long would it have taken to get the elk out? Granted, the rescue team probably didn't have the option of boning him out.

Ya, how many times has the little guy on your shoulder said “this is not a good idea” and you think “ all I have to do is XXXXXXX and I’ll be there”. 3 hours after you started, you’re right back where you started cause you didn’t listen.

My gut feeling is usually correct, and that was no exception.

My example was kind of contradictory to your point about straight lines, as in that case the straight line was "better", but it often isn't.
Ridge spines are often your friend even if they are the long way out.

A couple days ago I was out in the desert hunting deer. It's fairly flat and there are quite a few 'roads', if you can call them that. The map showed a 6 mile long road labeled 'Old Bruneau Highway' that would save me about 5 miles. I tried it. It took me a full hour to drive that 6 miles. Its was 1 rocky SOB. They weren't big rocks, none would high center a decent pickup, but it was so rough that the pickup bounced all over the road. I would love to strangle the idiot who named that a 'highway'.

Rock, Show 'em a picture of the Bruneau canyon...now that's a place nobody would shoot anything, even a Democrat.

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Cover a lot of that ground in Sept. 118 miles in 9 days. Dang fire screwed things up. The. The NF idiots who closed it reopened it the night before rifle opened. Word on the street is many many bulls were killed. [/quote]

If we're talking about the same area (North Fork/Gibbonsville area), they allowed folks in well before the day before the rifle elk opener. I was there on Oct 13 without any entry restrictions and several camps were already there that had been there for a few days. The burn was fresh and I could still see flames in a few drainages but the elk were still in the pockets that hadn't burned.

Some bulls were killed no doubt but I am not sure I'd say "many many". I didn't see many in the back of pickups nor did I hear anymore shots than normal.[/quote


Yes sir that is the place I’m talking about. Been tromping around there since 1983

My gut feeling is usually right, I just need to be a better listener and more patient.