Well after the bull hunt (story here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=631000) I had to work for 2 days and then I was headed back out to the woods. I had an antlerless elk hunt with my sister, Aunt, and two buddies I met in pharmacy school. We had 5 tags in camp total. It turned out to be a really tough hunt right from the get go. Here's a picture of the drive out of town, took us 4 hours to make a 1.5 hours drive. I know, snow? in Arizona???
It actually wasn't snowing when we got to camp but no sooner than we got my dad's wall tent set up and it dumped 2 inches of snow on us:
The forecast called for fresh snow every morning for the first 3 days of the hunt...perfect right? Well first morning had me and my buddy Mike (first big game hunt) and my buddy Ben (also a novice but had a deer seasoin under his belt and a GPS) hunting the same general area. We cut fresh elk tracks but due to circumstances couldn't get on any cows. We saw a bull and an elk we couldn't identify. Mike found a nice 6 point shed this day but we didn't see any cow elk.
Day 2: We hiked all day thru thick pinon pines with sparse cedars. Fresh snow made tracking possible, but the elk never seemed to slow down and pulled maneuvers that I swear they know they can be tracked in the snow. All we saw was 2 bulls all day, couldn't have shot either one of them. Here's a pic of Mike and I on day 2:
Day 3:
It was cold and we had a fog set in until 1030am or so. We had decided to hunt some more open country, but the fog took care of the view. Mike saw 3 cows ten minutes out of the truck but I never saw them. We didn't see beans the rest of the day, despite the great glassing area we found after the fog lifted:
Day 4: We sat and galssed the spot in the previous picture for the morning, then hiked during the day. Saw fresh tracks but no elk. We even gave Mike a GPS and split up so that we had 3 different hunters prowling...nothing. Didn't see an elk all day. Discouraging.
Day 5: Coldest day if the hunt, probably the coldest day we'll have all year. It was -2F when we left the truck:
It actually wasn't snowing when we got to camp but no sooner than we got my dad's wall tent set up and it dumped 2 inches of snow on us:
The forecast called for fresh snow every morning for the first 3 days of the hunt...perfect right? Well first morning had me and my buddy Mike (first big game hunt) and my buddy Ben (also a novice but had a deer seasoin under his belt and a GPS) hunting the same general area. We cut fresh elk tracks but due to circumstances couldn't get on any cows. We saw a bull and an elk we couldn't identify. Mike found a nice 6 point shed this day but we didn't see any cow elk.
Day 2: We hiked all day thru thick pinon pines with sparse cedars. Fresh snow made tracking possible, but the elk never seemed to slow down and pulled maneuvers that I swear they know they can be tracked in the snow. All we saw was 2 bulls all day, couldn't have shot either one of them. Here's a pic of Mike and I on day 2:
Day 3:
It was cold and we had a fog set in until 1030am or so. We had decided to hunt some more open country, but the fog took care of the view. Mike saw 3 cows ten minutes out of the truck but I never saw them. We didn't see beans the rest of the day, despite the great glassing area we found after the fog lifted:
Day 4: We sat and galssed the spot in the previous picture for the morning, then hiked during the day. Saw fresh tracks but no elk. We even gave Mike a GPS and split up so that we had 3 different hunters prowling...nothing. Didn't see an elk all day. Discouraging.
Day 5: Coldest day if the hunt, probably the coldest day we'll have all year. It was -2F when we left the truck: