Opportunity of a lifetime...The story (complete)

[Mello-Yello]

Sorry for the late report...busy, busy, busy.

Chapter One.

The trip started at Corn Creek. This is as far as the road goes before entering the Frank Church Wilderness Area (from the East). We hopped a jetboat and travelled about 15 miles downriver where we met up with the outfitter and his stock. While the picture at the river looks like summertime, it's actually about 20 deg. Brrrr....


We walked about 2.5 miles off the river to camp while the outfitter loaded up our gear. As is typically the case, once in camp we immediately went stir crazy and headed off in different directions for an evening hunt. Everyone saw game, but nothing worthy enough for the first day. The next morning we saddled up the stock and headed up the hill. After about 35 switch-backs, we were on the ridge. One mile north of camp and we had climbed about 4,000 ft. Did I mention these hill were steep? After going through a burn, we dismounted and decided to spread out and sidehill back through lower end of the burn. I held up near the top to give the other guys a chance to get down the hill. It hadn't been more than 3 minutes when I heard a BOOM! maybe 100 yds below me. One of our guys had pegged what turned out to be a pretty big 2x3. He'd just seen some huge tracks prior to this buck jumping up, and all he saw was a buck with what looked like a good set of antlers running away from him. He was pretty dissappointed once all was said and done.
As you can see, it really was a pretty nice buck.

I picked up and moved on while they took care of the buck. I saw a lot of deer that day, including a pretty nice 4x4, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. At least not yet. I made it in to camp a couple hours after dark, tired and hungry.

That night we got some much needed snow. After breakfast, we were being "issued" our stock. I was put on a really stumpy horse called Bonney. As I haven't spent much time riding, I decided to 'gently' ride her around the camp. She and I were doing fine. Then, having never pulled a rifle from a scabbard before (while mounted), I decided I should at least do it once. No problem. Felt just like John Wayne. Then I went to put the rifle back in the scabbard. It wouldn't go all the way in. I pushed harder, still nothing. Well, as it turns out, the tip of the scabbard was slightly bent due to the transition from her stomach and her hind leg...The third time I tried, Bonney decided she didn't want me to try a fourth. She spun a 180 and took off hell-bent for leather. I managed to stay on her just long enough to clear a rock outcropping, then bailed off. Somehow during this ordeal, I managed to pull the rifle from the scabbard. I landed flat on my back (and backpack). Ever see a tuna sandwich after being run through a 235# press? The outfitter mumbled "Hmmm, I thought she'd quit doing that."...huh? Well, nothing's broken, all is well. I was then put on a Mule named Lacy, and had no more 'issues' with the stock. We saddled up and headed to the same general area as the day before. The week before we arrived, it had rained for about a day and a half, then cleared up and gotten very cold. The hillsides were frozen solid, so it was next to impossible to dig one's heels into the turf. If there wasn't a flat place to stand, you simply didn't stand. I headed off the backside of the ridge, and after dropping off maybe 300 yds, I saw elk! I watched about a dozen cows and calfs starting to bed down below me. After about 45 minutes, I finally spotted a bull. He appeared to be either a 4x5, or a 5x6. He wasn't real big, though he wasn't all that small either. Because it was snowing so hard, I could tell for sure what he had for brow tines, hence the uncertainty on just what he was. I watched them for about 2.5 hours, hoping a larger bull would materialize. It didn't. Since I already have a 4pt. Roosy in the freezer from archery season, and I didn't come all this way for a raghorn, I let the smallish bull walk.

At this point I decided I'd better get moving as I had a lot of ground to cover that day. Because the hill was so slick, I considered going back up and just hunting the ridgetop, then back down the pack trail, but because the outfitter had assured me there was another pack trail down my side, the decision was made to continue down. This decision would haunt me the rest of the day. I spent the majority of the day on my butt. Sometimes I'd sit on my butt and slide, sometimes I'd fall on my butt and slide. Regardless, it was probably the most frustrating and exhausting day of hunting I'd ever had in my life. Since turning back uphill was soon no longer an option, and going downhill was unpreventable, I tried sidehilling back towards the main trail. Nope! Even sidehilling turned into going downhill with almost every step. I finally discovered after sliding into a steep, brushy ravine, that climbing downhill in a brushy ravine was actually a pretty good means of travel as one could somewhat control the speed of decent. I spent the entire day doing this. Because of the snow and fog, I never really had much of chance to get a bearing for how far down the hill I was, or even where I was. I would use my eTrex Summit GPS to check the elevation from time to time. The first time I looked at it I was just under 8k feet. By mid-afternoon I was still over 6k feet. Camp was a little above 3k feet. ugh. :depressed:

Well, I finally found that trail...right at dark. Another hour or so and I was back in camp. Wool is a fantastic insulator, but when totally soaked, it sure is heavy. I would guess my aging knees were lugging around 300 lbs of tired hunter.
The following picture is the ridge I slid, stumbled, rolled and plowed down. The ridge point where I started down is on the upper left side. Our camp is out of view at the lower left of the photo, directly below where I'm standing.

The picture doesn't do it justice.

To be continued...

[ 11-18-2003, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Mello-Yello ]

[The Overfishin Condition]

Good story so far... Thanks for the suspense.

[Mr. Fisherman]

Oh the memories.....
This is shaping up to be one of those stories you will never forget and likely be forced to tell the grandchildren...
[img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

[id. painter]

Home sweet home,, Im glad you had a good trip. Keep it comming ... id. painter

[OneLastCast]

Great narrative mello, keep it coming.

[Bait O' Eggs]

That looks an awful lot like where I was, only in your pic the hills look smaller I agree the pics dont do it justice.

I wish I had Bonney to ride, even if she did buck a little. :shocked: The day I killed my buck I climbed the ridge 3700 feet above base camp. It was a lot better getting back to camp than going up, even with a pack.

Anyhoo, lets get on with this story, You have had a boat ride, you got a day or so of hunting in, it was cold and frozen, you have seen some animals you let go, your buddy shot the first animal he saw..... Lets see some more antlers and hear the rest of the story!!!! :grin: I am not a patient person, type man type

[skein]

Hey, M-Y,

That first picture of the canyon and the boat is almost more than I can bear. What a rugged, beautiful place, the kind where discovery waits around every bend. Oh man...

So .... you're going to take cramp-ons next time, eh? We can laugh with you, but that's the kind of stuff that can get a hunter hurt and helpless. Glad you made it back.

More, more! I'm with BOE. Type, man, type!

Skein

[periwinkle]

Wahoo,, love these hunting stories...You guys provide my evening entertainment... Please keep 'em' coming. :smile:

[Mr. Fisherman]

Then I went to put the rifle back in the scabbard. It wouldn't go all the way in. ...The third time I tried, Bonney decided she didn't want me to try a fourth. She spun a 180 and took off hell-bent for leather...

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Mellow, That ain't the scabbard son... [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Come on an finish this story before we get bored and turn this into a word association thread...

[ 11-17-2003, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Mr. Fisherman ]

[The Overfishin Condition]

needle

[The Overfishin Condition]

Good idea Mr. Fishermen

Lets see....thread...

NEEDLE!

[salmurai]

Mello-Yello Great so far. Now get back on that keyboard. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img]

[TAILOUT]

Great story, tell us more!!! What is that a picture of hanging in the background of the pic of the horns, from the pick it doesnt look like a deer of an elk, not really even a bear, Im real curious as to what it is.

[Mello-Yello]

Ok, sorry about the delay.
Chapter 2
As you'll remember, Day 2 was spent trying to get down a frozen hillside. It's not that it was hard to go down, it was just hard to go down at a rate of speed that would allow me to keep all my appendages attached...

Day 3. The clouds moved out and it got cold. I mean really cold...i.e. 2 deg! Guess that's better than -2 huh?
:shocked:

I unwillingly unzipped my sleeping bag and rolled out of bed. Uh oh! I can't bend my knees!


My left knee had swollen to twice it's size (a knee I'd broken years ago), and my right knee was starting to swell. Hmmmm, it appears I may have overdone it yesterday (like I had a choice).

I hobbled into the cook tent for some breakfast. The gang was planning another hunt which would include about 3 hrs of riding, followed by a pretty decent hike, but ending with a long hike downhill with the mules. For those that aren't familiar with mules, when a group of folks are walking mules down a trail, it's important that you keep up with the string. If you don't, your mule tends to push, at it wants to stay with the pack. Based upon this information, and my knees hatred of going down hill at any pace, I chose to hunt around camp so I could back out if I needed to. As the others saddled up and headed off, I hobbled up the hill. As you can imagine, I was getting very frustrated with my new set of circumstances. Having only 2 wks to prepare for this hunt, I knew I'd have to take it easy the first few days to acclimate to the altitude and steepness of the country. Unfortunately, the day before (to be known forever as "the day from hell") forced me to push myself harder than I'd wanted.

Taking one short step at a time, and doing my best to get solid footing, I slowly made my way up the hill to a small saddle about half way up. Once on the saddle, I fluffed up some pine needles beneath a lodgepole pine and planted my butt. This I could do...

I had a good view of a lot of country, so figured I'd just sit and glass in hopes of seeing game. I watched a pretty nice 3 pt. sparring w/a smallish forked horn over a dozen or so does. Also watched a band of about 8 elk (all cows) a few ridges over.

After about an hour, I spot a pretty nice looking buck coming over the ridgetop across from me with half a dozen does. I could tell he was a decent buck, certainly not a monster, but not that bad either. I contemplated my situation over and over. "Will I feel better tomorrow? Should I take this guy or hold out for a bigger one?" Argh!!!
I finally decided I'd hobble around a few small ridges and see if I could get in a little closer for a better look. In the back of my mind, I think I was hoping he'd spook and I wouldn't have to make the ultimate decision.

I made it within about 125yds of him (the bowhunter in me) before a doe way down the ridge spotted me and started huffing. The whole herd grouped up and headed down the hill. There were at least 30 deer, perhaps more. The 3pt and 2pt hung together, but the big buck stayed right with the does. At about 200 yds they held up and tried to figure out just what was going on. I got a solid rest and held the crosshairs on him for the longest time. What to do...

Finally, realizing this may be the best opportunity I'd get (and an uncontrollable desire to fire off this 300 win mag), I made the call. Slowly pulling at the trigger, the crosshairs nestled solidly just in front of his shoulder (he was quartering towards me and maybe 200' below)the rifle fired. I raised my head to see the outcome. The buck had slightly lowered his head, but stood motionless. Then ever so slowly, he started to teeter. He was stiff as a board, almost looking like a decoy. He slowly fell over to the downhill side and started sliding down the hill. All the does (and myself) just stood in amazement as the buck slid down the hill, and slid, and slid. Down into the nearest ravine, then up the other side, then back into the ravine and on down to the next ravine. It was quite a site to behold. All said, he slid probably 500 yds.

Welp, I guess that's that! It took me nearly an hour to get down to him (I didn't want to go the way he did). The buck suffered some ground shrinkage, and he was weak on the rear on one side, but all in all, he was a pretty decent buck.

I took some pics, gutted him out and slowly hobbled back to camp. I spent the rest of the day second guessing my decision.

The rest of the gang got back a little after dark. Turns out one guy got a real nice 4x5 and another missed a big buck. They'd seen a lot of smaller bucks, some elk a loooong ways off with a big 5x5, and a bunch of sheep. Here are a couple pics of his buck.


More to come...

PS, Tailout, that's the body of the 2x3, minus the head and lower legs...

[id. painter]

Those are good bucks Mello. You have nothing to feel bad about with that one . I have hunted here all my life and you can only be so picky and then you end up without. Finding a real good buck is not easy and your is a fine one . Really . good story. id. p.

[Miss B Haven]

MY- I'm with Tailout- what is that thing hanging above the horns in the first picture. It looks like a cross between a Teddy Bear and a dog with tiny little red horns? :whazzup:

edit- OK - I see the comment now about it being a 2x3 carked out. That thing looks like it has a 4 inch thick coat though. Man- that's one hairy deer. I think I dated his sister once! :shocked: :grin:

Nice story by the way! :grin:

[ 11-18-2003, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: Miss B Haven ]

[Bait O' Eggs]

I am still with ya, kind of strung along, but still with ya :tongue: and those bucks are nothing to sneeze at, dang nice bucks.

sneaking into 125 yards is not required with a 300 mag, if it is to far, just stretch the barrel a little more adding heat with repeated shots helps the stretching process :tongue:

I hear typing is good for knee recovery, get to day 3 man, day 3, type, type, you got a knee to rehab.

[Mello-Yello]

Chapter 3

Ok, we've got 3 bucks down, two to go. The consensus is, the elk are real high. Real, real high. On day 4, everyone sorta hunted on their own as the outfitter was going to be spending the day retreiving my deer and taking care of some "stock" issues.

I left at daylight to watch the same canyon where I'd shot my buck (and make sure there weren't any varmints messing with him). The outfitter was to meet me up there in a bit to help load my deer on a mule.

It's a funny thing when you're hunting wilderness area, and you know there isn't another group for many, many miles. When you kill something, there's really no urgency to get it back to camp. If at all possible, you string it from a tree, or in my case, you pile a bunch of limbs and branches (is there a difference?) on it. Since the deer would be frozen overnight, there were no issues with spoilage.

I spotted some bedded elk a few ridges beneath me, cows and calves. Didn't see any horns, but you never know.


I met up with the outfitter and we loaded up my buck. As he headed back to camp w/my deer, I decided to limp down and make sure there wasn't a bull with the cows. They had moved and apparently dropped off the backside of the ridge they were bedded on. Within an hour, I was standing 50 yds from them wishing there were more than cows. There weren't...

I limped back to camp and spent the remainder of the day lounging around camp, taking some pictures, and drinking some Crown Royal I had brought along for medicinal purposes. The stuff works pretty well...
A few pics of our camp...

Our camp was setup in the only flat spot on this entire drainage. As you can see, it's not very wide. In the picture with the stock in the forefront, to the left you'll see the rock outcropping where I did my infamous dismount. :shocked:

The last pic shows a different view of the 2x3 deer, along with a black mule that appeared to be infatuated with the carcus. He stayed with it all day, and would often lick the hair on it. Hmmm, spose this is how Mule Deer came to be? Anyway, it shows a better view of the mysterious creature from my earlier post.


Coming up, another kill, continued cold, and some good camp fun...

[OneLastCast]

Wonderful story Mello and I always read better with pictures.

[Bait O' Eggs]

MY- you are doing a great job, I crave these hunting stories since I am fresh out of tags, unless I wanna try and punch my cougar tag, but I am afraid if I dont spend a little time at home the wife might try to punch me :shocked:

Is that an electric fence around camp? I wanna hear about the story where somebody found it in the dark with a small stream [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

[Miss B Haven]

Hey! No wonder that deer's hair looked so weird (long and curly). That Mules been lickin' it backwards. :grin: Hmmmm... a deer with a "mulelick". Talk about a bad hair day? A little dab 'll do ya?

As far as that Mule gettin' friendly with that buck. Ya know they can't reproduce but it ain't from lack of tryin'. :grin:

[Mello-Yello]

Chapter 4

Ok, this is when the days start blending together. Most of us have deer, and prospects of finding a large bull are wheening. One guy takes off on his own in search of his buck, another groups up with the other guy who hasn't gotten his deer. The last day or so of relative rest (and medicinal alcohol) leaves me feeling better. I decide to make the hike back up to the top of the ridge, where I'd seen the 4x5 bull days before. After 4 hours of traversing the dozens of switchbacks, I make it to the ridge top. Wow, what a beautiful site! The following photo shows a view looking down the other side (and helps further show the steepness of the country). The Salmon River is in that deepest ravine running from left to right.


I milled around the ridgetop for a few hours, but never cut any sizeable elk tracks. There were a lot of big buck tracks since the previous snow though. I worked my way back down the ridge towards camp, and encountered a very interesting buck. He was too far away to photograph, so I can only describe him. My first good look was a profile. He was a solid 4pt, tines probably 8" or better. His antler heighth was equal to or greater than the depth of his massive, rut swollen chest. Wow...what a pig! To try and get a head-on look, I let out a man-made grunt. Nothing...I did it louder. Nothing...finally I let out the most gawdawfull moan known by man. With this, he swung his head around. I sure wish I could have gotten a picture. His antler spread was well within his ears, and almost touching at the top. What a freek! I'd guess his greatest spread to be....15"?

As it turned out, my little hike up this ridge was about 9 miles when you add in all the switchbacks. Maybe a mile as the crow flies. So, yes, I'd spent myself again...

That evening I was pleased to find that the one guy that hunted by himself got a real nice 4x5. When he went to tag it....uh, oh...he'd lost his tags (and license). Well, that night we radio'd out to base camp. We were scheduled to boat out Saturday, and fish and wildlife wouldn't be open till monday. Hmmm, this could get interesting.

As luck would have it (or fate, I dunno), the continued cold was taking it's toll on the river. We received a report that all the boats had been pulled from the river. Both pictures were taken from the exact spot that the boat would typically pull up. One could actually walk on that sheet of ice stretching out. All the chunks you see average 3-4 inches thick, as this is actually the first day or so of thaw...



Now we'd be looking at a 14 miles pack back to Corn Creek, something no one wanted to do. The trail follows right along the river. It would be cold, slippery....and probably a day-long event. The weather report was calling for continued warming, so we held tight.

Pretty much everyone tried to help the last guy get his deer, but it just wasn't to be. He'd passed on some smaller bucks, and that's just the way things go...

Because we had to be ready to leave on short notice (when the first boat ran), we bagged elk hunting and hung around camp fiddling around.
No, chainsaws aren't allowed here. It was actually kinda fun to do use some of the muscles that aren't used to stand up.


We were able to pull out of camp on Monday morning, duplicate tags were delivered to us via the boat, so that all worked it's way out.

Reflecting back, those that said I'd get a workout were dead-on. I'm still healing. The first day of the trip, when we were headed down the river, everyone was amused at me. I had a smile from ear to ear that wouldn't go away. They assured me it would go away when I saw how steep it was. Well, there were moments where the smile narrowed, but it's still there. In all, I took 112 pictures, and for the first time ever, kept a journal. These memories will stay with me forever. I can only hope to again have the opportunity for something like, but if I don't...I have the story.

I hope I didn't drag this story out too much, but I wanted to share it. I'm sure to some, this is just another hunt. But to some others, those that like me could only dream of such a thing, perhaps my story will allow you to add some details to those dreams.

As I'm sure I've used about all the server space available, and then some, I'll close with one last picture...the antlers.

[tag-a-long]

Great story. Thanks for sticking it out and sharing with us. Nice bucks!

[Bait O' Eggs]

MY - nice job telling us about the hunt. Good quality photos really makes it come to life. I have only been lucky enough to go on 2 good hunts in my opinion and they are my 2 trips buck hunting in Idaho the last 2 years. And they are self guided and with no stock, we just jump out of the plane and stumble around in the dark for the most part hoping to cross paths with a biggun and get lucky. The harder you work at it, the better the results is our attitude and we just flat arent smart enough to go about it any other way.

Lots of us get to do the weekend local hunting trips, and maybe a week long trip during a decent local draw or maybe an elk hunt. There are not many of us who can afford to book a guide and spend some quality time hunting with friends while most of the work is taken care of. :grin:

Thanks for taking us on your trip. I had a great time, I hope somebody takes me on another vicarious one soon.

Hope you heal up, Crown Royal will fix most ailments I had a cheaper version from Canada, but it made a lot of the pain go away on our hunt It was a couple advil and a few medicinal shots when we got back to camp so we could cope with the aches. It is hard work hunting those big hills we arent use to around here. :tongue:

[Lured In]

Great story and thanks for sharing. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] Maybe someday I will finally break down and do the guided hunt thing. But, for now I will just continue to wallow in my self dillusional quest for hunting nirvana in my backyard. :grin:

[Beer Waggin]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Mojo]

And some of you guys asked me why I live in Idaho? Nice hunt and great story!

[Small Fry]

Graet story and pictures. Looks alot like some of the area over east around Look Out Mnt above the Snake river. We haven't hunted that area for a few years now, I kinda miss it. Alway saw alot of big bucks during elk season.
Thanks again for sharing you trip.

[Rauly]

Great story MY. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] It sounds like a hunt of a lifetime to me. Not many people get to go on a hunt like that and then get to sare it with so many.

Rauly

[FINZ]

That was a great story. Thank you for sharing your hunting trip in great detail.

[salmurai]

Let me say it again. Great story and THANKS for sharing it with us. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[tramp]

wow!

[jokester]

Great story Mello! And you got some awesome pics for memories too!

-jokester

[KingFisher85]

killer pictures and very good story! I wanna go :grin:

[D-Backer]

Congrats and thanks for sharing your experience. Great pics as well. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[Birdnest]

M-Y,

Great posts. Thanks for taking the time to share it.

Joe

[id. painter]

I cant leave this state , and you have reminded why. Thanks for the story , Im glad your trip turned out so well. We have the mountains ,,, I just wish we had an ocean . id, painter

[Snapset]

Thanks for a well-told, exciting story, MY. I flet I was hunting in Idaho personally.
Heres to next fall, when we'll all have the opportunity to do it all over again.