This hunt story starts at home with my amazing wife supporting my ambitions and my attempts to become a better hunter. As I prepared to leave Sunday right after church I could not believe the words I heard, "Come home with your all time biggest bull." As I drove off and headed in the direction of my hunt unit I could not get over how lucky I was to embark on a week long attempt to harvest a bull elk.
On the drive in I could not help but notice all the wild game crossing the road back and forth in the dark. Glowing eye after glowing eye, elk after elk, the hunt was off to a good start. I pulled into a local grocery store parking lot and waited for the store to open so I could purchase enough blocks of ice to keep in my cooler just in case I were to kill an animal.
As soon as I loaded up the ice blocks, light began to peek over the mountain tops. My hunt had opened 8 days ago, I wondered about all of the pressure on the unit. As I pushed down the road I noticed a cow elk out in an opening. Her head swung to her right and gave away the location of the rest of the herd. I identified a dozen other cows and calves tended by a herd bull. It was fantastic to observe the herd bull bugling and chasing the cows. Unfortunately, this rutting action occurred outside of my hunt area so I was merely an observer here. Historically this happens every year as I am driving to the hunt area and is a very familiar scene.
I pulled into my spot and prepared my backpack for a 3 night hunt. I packed exceptionally light by my standards and utilized a Badlands 2200 as a overnight pack with the ability to pack out elk quarters. The familiar hike begins at 2,936 ft in elevation and the hunting usually doesn't tend to get good until you get to 6,000 ft. I had driven past this drainage for several years but last year was the first time that I actually ascended it. There are several locations where body length vertical rock climbs are necessary along the trail. About 2.5 miles in I found an old elk bed that provided barely enough room for my 1 man tent. It was too tempting to pass up as base camp so I set up my tent, dropped off all of my supplies, and began to search for water.
Finding water was going to be a trick. I would have to descend a thousand feet just to get down to a creek bottom, and I wasn't even sure that it held water. If I was unable to find water, I would have just enough water to last me until morning and my only option would be to head back to the vehicle to replenish my supply. Luckily, the creek bottom had a very light trickle and I was able to obtain 96 ounces of fresh water.
With water in my pack I decided to climb up a ridge that would enable me to hunt a ridge that sat between me and my camp. The ascent up the ridge was laborious, I huffed and puffed and perspired all the way to the top. As I approached the top I looked over on the ridge that would lead down to my camp and spotted brown bodies feeding along the ridge! As if my pulse was not racing fast enough, I immediately confirmed with my optics that it was elk! My mind began to race, was I going to get an elk tonight? Is it go time?
I had to remind myself to keep calm, these elk were still a long ways away. After I gained enough composure, I opened up the side pocket to my pack and pulled out my range finder. I dialed it in on the biggest brown body and the report was 515 yards. After making a conscious effort to put the rangefinder away and carefully zip the pocket closed (I didn't want to lose my 3rd rangefinder from over-excitement), I began to close the distance.
I continued up the ridgeline headed towards where the ridges would eventually intersect. I would walk a few yards and lift up my glass to see if a bull could be identified. As I reached the saddle where I would cross over to the ridge where the elk were grazing I caught movement just below the elk. About a hundred yards below the elk a belly dragging, pumpkin headed, jet black bear presented itself! This bear was big! With the bear in such close proximity to the elk I was able to gauge the size of his body in comparison to the lead cow and he was definitely a shooter! At this point I had so much sitting on the table and the stimulation had me in overdrive. I was still waiting for a bull to pop out behind those cows, but I have a thug of a black bear below the herd of elk. I range the black bear at 365 yards and the old adage of "a bird in the hand" came to mind. Last year I harvested the largest bear to come out of the unit in many years according to the Fish and Game during the check. I decided get a good steady rest with the rifle, and the bear was in my crosshairs several times but there was too much bouncing for me to feel comfortable with the shot.
he bear starts climbing uphill towards the elk. Simultaneously the elk start in the direction of the bear. I am wondering what is going to happen as they collide. The bear is starting up the same path that the elk are headed down. He approaches the lead cow within a few feet and they lock eyes. Then as if nothing ever happened the bear continued to feed up the hill as the cows continued to feed down the hill. Relative in size the bear seemed to be just as big of a target as the lead cow and I want him dead now more than ever. For some reason he hustles over the projected saddle as I follow him with my scope. My crosshairs were never firmly seated on him with the steadiness sufficient to break my trigger and he disappeared over the saddle never to be seen again. Instantly I was filled with regret, so many "what ifs" went through my head.
As light began to fade and I was disgusted at losing a bear that could potentially have been bigger than the bear that I had gotten last year. As a consolation I watched the elk feed across the hillside. I tried as hard to pick out a bull. I counted over and over again from 1 to 9 until the light was gone and hiked back to camp in the dark.
As I hiked back to camp I began to dwindle in negativity. I could have been that guy that had 2 giant bear rugs, one that was dark brown and one that was jet black! I wondered if the two bruins were related or if the scars on the face of the bear that I harvested last year were from his jet black opponent. I failed to capitalize on an amazing opportunity and I started to come down on myself for being greedy. I was distraught with the knowledge that such an opportunity comes very rarely. I was both physically and emotionally exhausted. As soon as I reached basecamp I barely had energy to make a quick meal and fall into bed. In my mind I was tired enough to wake up tomorrow and pack up and call it a hunt.
As I laid in my sleeping bag I envisioned that bear and replayed his escape. I silently wished for him to come snooping around my camp that night and I began to drift off
as I imagined the bear lurking about my camp. As I began to drifted off to sleep I remember thought if I couldn't find him in the morning maybe I would just pack up and leave this place.
I am not sure how long I had been asleep, but I was woken in the middle of the night by branches breaking outside my tent. Just as I was about to reach out of my sleeping bag for my rifle to defend myself a bugle ripped in the night sky loud and close! This bull had to be within 30 yards of camp! I fell back to sleep to the love struck chuckles and chirping in the night.
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