Other than the drought, my biggest enemy it appeared was horrible outfitters, that in my opinion, are stealing money from clueless hunters. A buddy and I scouted a wilderness area, and found some great sign. We marked 3 spots, in 3 different drainages with red X's. Those were our prime spots. Day one I hit the trailhead into the wilderness area at about noon. I packed up and began the 6 hour hike to the first "X". I stopped about a mile short and made camp, and at dusk I heard a couple of bugles from the target area. I was too excited to get much sleep :-) Up about 2 hours before light, I made a hot breakfast in the Jetboil and packed up. With 55 pounds on my back, I headed for the X. About 200 yards from the edge of the meadow, I heard a bugle coming from the water hole that was exactly where we thought the elk would be! So I moved to a place where I could get a view and make a stalk. When I hit my glassing spot, I was floored to see not an elk, but 2 wall tents with horses tied up, and an "elk hunter" in blue jeans, drinking coffee, bugling from the door of the tent! Disgusted that an outfitter had packed a camp in on horseback and thrown it up in the best spot in the drainage, I bugled back at the hunter only to watch him scramble back into the tent for his camo and bow.......as if he really was calling an elk into the camp. But, I figured teh sliver lining was I would be able to hike into the next draining (meaning up and over the mountain) and find all of the elk they had run out of this drainage in the next one. After 6 hours of hiking through a blowdown that can only be described as on earth, I found a good spot above timberline to sit and glass this drainage, hopefully with time to make a stalk yet before dark. I fired up the cookstove, needing some good food after that hike and started glassing. I caught movement on the edge of a meadow, near a wallow that was our second "X'. Closer inspection revealed 1..2...3.....4......HORSES tied up next to a wall tent. It was like these guys had got ahold of my map and thought the red "X" must be campsites!!!!! I was pretty disheartend at this point. With a couple of hours of light left, I finished lunch and slung my pack. I followed the ridgeline for about 3 miles, with about 2 to go to the next draininge I made camp for a good nights rest. Suprise suprise I heard an elk bugling from the area of the camp
These guys had to be set up by the same outfitter! 5 am woke up and packed up headed for the next drainage. Found a good spot to glass, and set up for a while. Spotted a very nice bull who bugled once while chasing 4 cows, headed over the pass into parts unknown, leaving the drainage I was going to hunt. 3 hours later, I figured out why. You guessed it, a horespacker camp on the best water hole and meadow in the drainage. That was enough of that area for me. I looked at the map, found the "best" route to my truck and headed out. The "best" route was anything but. I made it to my truck at about 3 am, cursing blowdown or everything I was worth. If you have never been through a mountain blowdown, I cannot even begin to describe how bad some can get. At the truck, I made some food and pulled out my maps and initiated plan B. I hit the road for about 80 miles to an area I had only seen via map and Google earth. Dawn was breaking as I pulled in, but I was in no shape to hit the trail. I crawled into the camper, pulled the shades and hit the sack.# 1 lesson out of that part of the hunt: use caution when booking an outfitter!!!! I'm sure these guys are charging $3-5,000 a person to pack hunters into spike camps, and showing them what a great area it is because they are camped in a spot with Elk sign all over! Uggg.
more to follow as I get time!
