One of the greatest things about places like this here in Montana is encountering the unknown. Yesterday I went out in search of elk with a buddy of mine Mike for his and my freezer. Early on in the morning after arriving at a log deck area of an old landing, Mike was cow calling and a bull barked back, but no bugle from this guy. As a matter of fact we were wondering, why we were not hearing the bulls talking or bugling back and forth as we know the rut is on. We did stir up something from a bed area, possibly an elk or even a moose. We did not get to see this one, but heard the hoof beats as it trampled off into the thick of the timber.
After spending time in this bowl area, we decided that we would move to an area known to Mike as Hells Canyon Lake (not the actual name). But the only way in to the top of the area was to get there by 4 wheeler, and then hike the 3 miles in. We hiked up to the top of the trail, and then down, down, down into a bowl that I had refered to my wife as Hell's Canyon because of how bad it would be to debone and carry out even the meat from a downed elk.
My buddy Mike was not kidding when he said, that this is a tough one, and your toes will be cramed into the tips of your boots. Boy he was not kidding, as a result today my feet are very sore. If I get the pleasure of returning to this area with Mike, I will wear differant boots with better traction as well.
Well down into this bowl we went, and we did not encounter a grizzly bear, but did find awesome signs of what one did rooting for food. Grizzly prints in a mud bog indicated that when Mike had been here with his sister just two days before, the truth of his story to me, about the grizzly they ran into and was just yards from them, causing Mike great concern for the safety of his sister. They were able to get out of the area without any harm to themselves, but this could have turned out much differantly had there of been a dead carcuss of an animal of anykind laying around.
Now while Mike and I were down in this bowl, we heard that awesome sound of a bull moose, that can best be discribed as a UHA UHA UHA sound that is differant than other types of game we bowhunters go after. Neither Mike or myself had drawn moose tags so, I was trying to get a picture of our Bullwinkle friend if he decided to grace us with his presence, but he never gave us a good view of his magestic size.
Well Mike and I decided that because of storm clouds moving in, that we would head on back out. We covered that trip back out thru the steep trail, taking about an hour to cover the 3 miles up and out back to the 4 wheelers. Now, the ride back to the truck was great, accept I didn't keep myself far enough back and the term eating dust comes to mind. I was one dusty mess after we returned to the truck, but that is the price of a great day out in the woods of Montana in search of what we love to do, and that is hunt what we have tags for. Our hunting season comes, but once a year and hunting is an awesome activity.
Well, I can say that our venture in was really awesome. Was it successful as far as a hunting trip even though we did not tag an animal? You bet, as we saw things that we normally would not have seen staying at home sitting on the couch watching TV.
I just want to thank my friend Mike for such an awesome time yesterday.
Jon
