It had been raining off and on for the past few days and with it being as late as it was we decided to take the short route to Elk camp going around the South side of Big Mountain. We knew it was going to be sloppy through the clay slide off but we need to get to camp ASAP. It was nearly 1:00am by the time we reach the bottom of the slide hill. We had tire chains but opted to try the hill first to see if we could make it. I learned an imported lesson that night. It makes life a 1,000 percent easier if you put chains on before you actually need them. If you have to put chains on after you are stuck, you have just increased the degree of difficulty 10 fold. Needless to say we didn't make it up the hill very far and rather than mess with chains, we parked the 4 wheeler trailer at the bottom of the hill and drove off to camp.
Morning came quickly and it was so cold that night that all the mud was frozen solid. This was both good and bad news. Good in that we could easily get the 4 wheeler trailer up the clay side hill but bad news in that fetching the 4 wheelers meant we were going to miss the opening morning hunt. If you miss that opening morning, your chances of success are cut in half. The choice was a simple one when put in perspective. Risk losing $15,000 in 4 wheelers to potential thieves/vandals and not being able to get them out after sun thawed the mud or hunt Elk. After rescuing the 4 wheelers, we hunted Elk but did not see anything. The rest of the opener was uneventfully.
Sunday morning just before sun rise, Mike and I were first out of camp and driving down below camp towards the quaky draws. We were half way there when Mike spotted a lone Elk 1/2 mile a way running down hill toward our direction. We jump out of the white Ford and hurried down the hill side to cut it off. Mike knew it wasn't a Bull but could not tell if it was a Spike or Cow. We radioed back to camp that the dogs were on Elk and before we knew it all of Elk Camp was headed down to the quaky draws to get in the action. Mike and I got in to position and within a few minutes the Elk that we saw came out of the trees. It was a Cow. On our way back to the truck we heard more radio chatter on from the others who thought they saw Elk.
The details over the next 2 hours are a little fuzzy but by the end of the Sunday morning hunt, Cicso Kid (Josh Jewkes' 12 yr old bro) got lost when sent into the trees without a radio, Mike and Kurt got into a heated verbal argument that nearly boiled over into fist fight over radio communication misunderstandings, and we were all hungry ready for breakfast.
After breakfast most of the guys in camp fired up the heater in the poker palace and began the marathon. As Mike and I chatted around the camp fire we knew with 100% surety that we would not kill an Elk from inside the porker palace. So we began rounding up the dogs to organize a drive through the trees. By 11:30am we had 6 or so guys loaded up ready to move out. We had planned to walk down through Horse Creek. When we got there we found another hunting party had arrived just seconds before us and was planning to hunt the same area as us. Mike took the lead to politely try and trick these guys in to allowing us hunt the area. About the same time Kurt felt like he could do a better job than Mike. Again the exact details are a little fuzzy but in the end Kurt and Mike proved again that Manti La Sal national forest is not big enough for the 2 of them and but Mike had some how convicted the other hunting party to let us hunt the area we wanted.
I was not really optimistic that we would see anything so I thought I would enjoy the exercise and being outdoors. I reminded myself once or twice that the alternative was being couped up in a canvas tent only to be fleeced repeatedly. It was about 1:00pm by the time I had walked from the road all the way down to the next ridge past the willow patch.
My day dreaming was suddenly interrupted by a gun shot that was very close in the direction of the place I saw Mike. Then another shot and I knew it was Mike. I got on the radio with Mike as I ran to higher ground to see which direction the Elk were moving. Just as I heard Mike call out on the radio that there are 2 Spikes in the herd, I saw them running through a stand of quakies about 700 yards away. I dialed my scope all the way up to 14X and saw the that one of the Spikes was trotting out in front. They were moving in a direction that was away quartering away from me, so I fired 2 quick rounds at the Spike. To my surprise this stopped the herd dead in there tracks. The Spike stood out in the open circling not knowing which direction to run. He stood there long enough for me to cycle through a magazine and a half of ammo. All my shooting caused the Elk to turn and run directly towards me. I moved down the hill side 50 yards to get myself in a slightly better ambush position. While waiting for them to get closure I had seen both Spikes in the herd. I had a 100 yard shooting lane to where the Elk were filing up a ravine. One by one they passed through my scope. I told myself to keep breathing, remain steady, be sure of your shot and wait for the Spike. The 6th Elk up ravine was a Spike. When I saw Spiked antlers I could feel the fever coming on. I fought myself to remain patient waiting for a Cow to get out of the shooting lane. Then the window opened with 5 feet of space between 2 Cows. I put my cross hairs on the upper shoulder blade and let the 30.06 do its thing. I immediately saw the Spike go down without taking another step. I hit the Elk in the exact same spot as the Deer I killed a week earlier.
I got on the radio to let Mike know I had one of the Spikes down. After 5 mins of hard running Mike and I finally caught up with each other. We paused for a 2nd to decided if we should try and chase down the herd. Mike was exhausted from his run up the muddy hill side. The easy route would have been to stop chasing the Elk and field dress the downed Spike. I told Mike we needed to keep going. If he wanted easy he could go back to camp and play cards. If we didn't keep the pressure on the Elk they would get away and it would be back to square one. So the choice was simple; to keep going after the Elk. The ground was still moist and it was easy tracking this herd of Elk. As we reached the top of the hill, I saw a rag horn cresting the hill top directly in front of us. I told Mike to keep going and take an angle to cut some the distance they put on us.
I left Mike to go back and field dress the Spike. I was almost to the Spike when I heard Mike shooting. He emptied his 7mm twice, and then he called on the radio "Another Elk Down".
Five hours later we had both our Spikes back to camp and between the two of us we had 4 bullets left.
Five hours later we had both our Spikes back to camp and between the two of us we had 4 bullets left.
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