PAarcher wrote:What an incredible trip. One day I will get out there.
Don't wait ! If you want to go, go you won't regret it.
I really thought, felt it, we were going to kill an elk. We headed down to a chain of meadows along a creek bottom the last full day. We had been there before together and Marc went himself one morning. It was being used and had fresh sign. We set up in the morning and did some calling. We had two elk go just above us 80 -90 yards on a small bench. We decided to back out and not push it we would come back that evening, no calling just set up and let them come down to the meadows. We waited in camp until the thermals started to fall and hunted our way in. We agreed, no calling just wait and let them come to us. I set up in a nice little spot and Marc moved down to the next meadow and set up. After 20 minutes or so I heard a bugel, it wasn't an elk and I started to wonder if Marc had shot an elk and was letting me know but that was not in the options we had discussed. Shortly thereafter I heard cow calling then more cow calling from another direction. I was thinking maybe the elk were moving down. A few minutes later I see Marc coming towards me, I'm thinking he shot an elk ! The look on his face was not one of a guy who just shot an elk though
Once Marc got to me he said, there is a guy squatting in the middle of a meadow bugeling

Marc cow called and waived to get his attention but he just kept on calling. We headed out moving along trying to get to another spot, water hole, with enough light to either put on a stalk or at least glass for elk. As we are walking out we see the guy following us and he waived

Instead of following us he dumped down in the creek bottom, we knew the elk bedded in there as Marc had found 8 beds in three different spots down there. So as Marc and I are moving along this "hunter" parallels us through the bedding and the next thing we know we have a cow elk blow out of the bottom below us and cross the trail just ahead of Marc, it sounded like a loose horse running on the rocks as the big blur ran by. We both stopped and just looked at each other, then we hear something else coming up from the bottom we nocked arrows, turned hats around and we are ready when the guy, and his dog, come up through. He had no Idea he blew out an elk, or how he killed the meadows with scent or a lot of other things. We had met the guy, a real estate agent from Florida, when we first got in camp he had been there week before season and scouting then hunting. He had a 5 point on video he tried to kill it on camera but screwed it up! He had left the week before and we had no idea he was back or that he was hunting in the area last we had heard he was going up north and then to Wyoming. The whole time we were out there I only saw two other hunters in the woods, Marc I don't believe had seen any then this guy... well it's public and anyone can hunt it. It was a sweet spot close to camp most other guys blew buy but it kept holding elk even if it was a group of cows I would have been thrilled to shoot one and bring home some meat. I am not disappointed though,we put on a lot of tough miles and hunted hard. Guys paying 6 or 7 thousand dollars a week with a guide weren't killing elk and we hunted the same ground. Over all it was a great time and I would do it all over again
When you take your kid hunting and he says thank you and tells you how much he loves being in the woods with you, your day just isn't going to get any better than that.