First day was nice and overcast, raining with flurries of snow occassionally. We were way to low in elevation up on Babbit Ranch out in the cedars looking for elk. Not cold enough to push them out this far. We ended up on the powerline between 7East and 9, with a handful of tracks going into 9 and none coming out. The road was a mess and a few times I thought we might get stuck, miles from the road and nothing close enough to winch from.
Second day should have been the money maker. We hiked up a huge crater (yeah, I have no idea what the name is, just how to get there. Guess that is what I get for hunting there a lot and never having maps.) and saw some decent sign. After hiking for a few hours the shooting started down around the crater while we were up on top. We were pushing North spread out a mile or so, or at least I was a mile or so from Steve and my dad, who were probably only a quarter mile apart. My dad spotted a nice little 4 point and took him with a few shots from his new Browning semi-auto in 300wm. Nice kill except it was on top of the crater with no roads in sight. In the meantime I'm still hunting around the crater and pushing more elk off of the North side of the crater where several were taken, but it was a nice crisp morning so I shouldn't complain too much, yet.
After meeting back up with Steve and my dad we go around to load his elk. The hike was treacherous to get in and worse dragging the elk out. It was nice for a little bit until getting down some steep embankments as long as we could stay away from the antlers. Then we hit a ravine and couldn't reasonably get the elk back out of it, so we slogged along, step after tedious step dragging this huge elk over rocks and trees, occassionally under trees. Somewhere at this point my dad took off to go find his knife that fell out of his sheath so I get to do it myself :-D. Note, we have mules and horses back at my Grandpa's house. We're still trying to figure out what posessed us to drag this animal off of the crater instead of just loading it on the mule and riding a horse out.
Sunday we rested. Well, and talked hunting with the other people that got drawn. We needed it and were completely exhausted. This is also the day I started missing my family as I wasn't hunting and too tired to do anything but sit around. We did some church-house scouting by talking with Kevin Call and Lorin Peterson about places they had seen them. They suggested going up high on the Mountain so we figured we'd give that a shot the next day.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are kind of a blur. Wake up before dawn, be sitting in a decent looking clearing as the sun comes up. One morning way up on the mountain, one down in the flats, and I think one was in between. We spotted some elk on the in-between day, but just 3 cows and 2 calfs. Would have been an easy shot. I started to get pretty burned out these days, as we worked thickets all day then found another nice looking spot to watch for sun down. No bulls. Just lots of hunters. I was beginning to think I should be doing more road hunting, as that's what most successful people we talked to were doing, but with my big noisy diesel and desire to get out and stalk it wasn't successful.
Thursday I started feeling better. I had called off working thickets and decided to screw around instead. We picked up firewood and pulled trees out of the road (we had been doing that mid-day throughout the hunt). I shot a crow in the head at 140 yards, I'd like to think I was aiming for the head, but just forgot I had signed in at 300 when I squeezed it off. We went up high that evening and got a bit more firewood for my parents, I always like getting firewood. We left my chainsaw back at my grandparents so we just chopped and smashed with the maul and axe.
We did have a great time together, got in some great wheeling in the truck, but I think I'm done with 7 East. It was our third choice! I've never been drawn for a third choice. We were hoping for 6B or 7 West (which we had seen several bulls cross into while driving in in the morning, and talked with some hikers in my parents ward that saw some huge herds in the area). Hopefully next year!
Traveling from the cedars to the high country:
Me and my dad's elk, shouldn't it be mine?:
My dad and his elk, beautiful morning:
Nice shot of my and my beast:
Steve and I in front of my truck:
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