Two weekends ago Dad, Curt, Ryan and I all met up over south of Boulder, MT for opening weekend of elk season! The weather was supposed to be hot all weekend but we went into opening day filled with excitement as Dad and Ryan had watched about 80 elk feeding into the bottoms the night before so we knew we were going to have a pretty good chance of getting into them. Opening morning we devised a plan to hike into the timber line long before sunrise in anticipation of catching the elk coming back into the trees from feeding all night in a hay field on the bottom. Not being able to sleep with the visions of big bull elk dancing in my head, I got out of bed at about 3AM and slowly the rest of camp got up as well and we headed into the dark timber just before 5AM. Dad and Curt set up on one side of a big draw and Ryan and I went to the other. Unfortunately no elk came by us at first light but it wasn't long before Ryan spotted a nice bull with a few cows about half a mile up the mountain feeding in a meadow. We quickly closed the gap between us and the elk and I sent out a bugle, but with no response we had no choice but to try to sneak up on them in the trees. We finally found the bull but never got any closer than about a hundred yards and didn't get a good shot. We still hunted the timber all the way back to camp with no luck the rest of the day.
The following day we slept in a little since the elk clearly weren't bugling yet, and headed into a different spot to still hunt more timber. Just Ryan and I went in this time as Dad and Curt had a different plan of checking out another area on the four wheelers. We hiked straight up gaining 500' of elevation in about half a mile and immediately came upon a cow elk in her bed! Ryan got ready with an arrow and slowly crept closer to the cow as we were about 60 yards away and he needed to close the gap for a better shot. As he did this his eyes caught another cow who had gotten out of her bed and was onto us. Without hesitation Ryan ranged her at 40 yards, drew back his bow and let an arrow fly! His arrow was redirected form it's course just before reaching the elk by a tree branch and both cows busted down the mountain! Even though the tree branch ruined it for him we were both completely amped up after that! We kept working down the mountain running into elk over and over again and towards the end of the day we came across a spike bull in full velvet, Ryan had a clear shot at him form about 30 yards but unfortunately spikes are the only illegal elk in these mountains!
All in all we had a blast as we always do and it was the perfect way to kick start a busy fall for us! We plan on going back in this week with hopefully a few more talkative elk that are easier to get onto! And if not, we'll at least get a few more days soaking up what is in my opinion God's most magnificent accomplishment!
Remember, sometimes the best remedy for whatever it is that ails you is some peace and quiet in the woods!
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