Off we headed down “The Narrows” following the creek until one fork met with another. The creek was crossed and we began gaining elevation. The hillside was steep and the brush was thick but eventually we reached a small saddle where the terrain opened up and the mountain displayed itself before us in grand panoramic fashion. We stood in this saddle and speculated as to where bucks and bulls could potentially be located in the fall. A couple feet ahead of me on the ground lay a spent .270 Winchester casing, brown and tarnished from exposure to the elements. I picked it up and put it in my pocket, hoping that the owner of that spent round tasted success that day.
After a brief break at the saddle we began our assault on “The Claw.” This is a large, rocky south facing slope with three timbered fingers that stretch upwards from the bottom which resemble the shape of a claw on the satellite imagery.
Hiking was difficult, more like slow and painful, as we worked through the rock chutes and the thick brush. I was about one third of the way up one of the rock chutes when a small herd of elk wandered across the top of the chute above me. I couldn’t ask for a better vantage point to watch them. There were eleven elk total. One appeared to be a larger bull, he was noticeably larger than the others… several inches taller at the rump than all the other elk in the herd… and cream colored as bulls typically are. There was also a spike bull that had yet to shed his antlers. Then across the radio Jared said that he had found a small brown spike elk shed. I realized I wasn’t far from him so I worked my way down to him. On my way I found an old, crusty, white elk shed from a respectable bull that was broken and cracked. A close encounter was had with another spike elk who still retained his antlers.
Little horned lizards scattered in the rocks in front of me as I continued to negotiate the rock chutes to a small shelf where we met up for lunch. After lunch we split up again and I continued my ascent to the top of “The Claw” which would be approximately 1200 vertical feet in elevation in about ½ mile. A small series of springs was found in a small grassy meadow at the top of the chutes. It was an interesting location because it was open with very little cover around it and the hillside was still quite steep. I determined that this was where the herd of elk had slowly fed across.
I continued to the summit and began to descend down the north slope to a large bowl that contains one of my favorite little spots on the mountain. There are five ponds in this bowl, four of which will be bone dry by late summer but the fifth will contain cold clear water through the fall hunting seasons. It was over this pond that I sat on the muzzleloader deer hunt and watched a large herd of elk for several hours. There was still several feet of snow, but I was able to walk across the top of it most of the way. After negotiating the rock chutes being able to take full strides across the snow was refreshing and I covered ground very quickly. I slipped through the bottom of the bowl and up the north side following that ridge to the east. On every scouting trip last summer I was able to spot a small group of really nice bucks that would work their way under a large rock face and through a couple clumps of chaparral brush (buck brush, I’m not sure what it’s proper name is). All of my previous observations of this area had been through the spotting scope at a considerable distance. As I looked over the area in detail I was able to see the primary trail used by the deer. I took some time to find a spot that would give me a reasonable shot at anything working through those chaparrals on that specific trail.
I turned and headed north again, working into an area that we call “The Short Ridges.” The main canyon in this area runs south to north with a series of small ridges that come off that main canyon which run east to west. The ridges ultimately merge into a large bowl at the top of the canyon that forms the western side of the main canyon. I worked my way into a little spot that looked like a fantastic little spot to spend an evening or a morning on my muzzleloader deer hunt this fall. The area was heavily timbered with pines but as I reached the bottom of the small draw it opened up almost miraculously. I found a small clearing maybe 100 yards in diameter with a perfect vantage point on the opposite side of the draw to hide myself and lie in wait. It’s also in a reasonable location to place a trail camera, although it would still be a healthy hike from my access points to the north.
After working down the Short Ridge I crossed the stream and worked up the east side of the main canyon to an area that we call “The Dam.” It quite literally looks like an earthen dam… it appears perfectly flat across the top and when viewed from a distance you could mistake it for one easily and expect to see water on the other side. I sat down to take a break once I crested the Dam. From my vantage point I could glass the large south facing bowl that has become one of my favorite places to sit and glass during scouting trips and opening mornings of hunts. I glassed two different herds of deer working through the bowl, one a herd of 10 and the other a group of 13. I waited to meet up with Doug here and we worked down along an area we call “The Boobs” to meet up with Jared. The Boobs are two knolls that rise up at the south end of the dam with a small saddle between… so use your imagination to guess what they look like from a distance!
We met up with Jared and began to work back down towards the creek along the west face. It was steep and rocky descent of another 1200 vertical feet. My feet were absolutely on fire by the time I reached about the halfway point and I knew that the only relief in sight would be to make it to the bottom and some relatively flat ground as quickly as possible. I should have been smarter and carried a change or two of socks so that I could put on fresh dry socks a time or two. I was using my trekking poles more like canes or crutches at this point trying to reduce the amount of weight I was applying directly to my feet and by the time I made it to the bottom my hands and arms were also on fire.
Once at the creek bottom we slowly negotiated the trail along the creek back to the truck.
At the truck we unloaded and took a couple of “hero shots” with each of us holding the sheds that were found.
I neglected to pick up my camera and left it on a rock near the road. With the snowstorm that has pounded the Wasatch Front over the last 24 hours I’m certain that the camera will be ruined, however I’m hopeful that when my grandparents make it up there this weekend that they will at least be able to find the camera (or somebody will return it to me) and I can salvage the pictures off the memory card.
