An Outdoorsman's Journal

Elk Country Getaway

Hello friends,

      I have been writing this column for 37 years. I thrive on adventure and for the most part public land escapes where I challenge myself in every way possible from the drive to the camp to the hunt or fishing. I live on a budget that is lower than the average food stocker at a grocery store. I have no regrets!
     This week and next I will be writing to you about a trip that I took with a very good friend to southwest Montana where I would hunt elk with a rifle. My friend wishes to stay anonymous, so I will just call her The Greenhorn as she has never taken part in an adventure of this magnitude. Just to add some spice to the meal we have my golden retriever Red along and The Greenhorn’s border terrier, Keichee, as well.
     Also, there is a ton to write about, and I’ll have to be vague.

     Wednesday, October 21st
     High 67, low 38

      We arrived at our Rocky Mountain getaway in what is called The Bowl after a 1,400-mile drive pulling a heavily loaded trailer and our mood was excellent. Back in August I scouted this area for 4 days with my daughter Selina who now lives in Calgary, Alberta. I was told about this section of the Rockies by a very wise reader of this column and also a local biologist.
      We would built a 2-structure campsite at a US Forest Service campsite for our base camp and also a two structure campsite "spike camp" up the mountains 5 miles from our base camp. I could have hunted lower, but more than anything, I did not want to be around other people.
     The reason that we use two structures for our base and spike camp is because we are in grizzly country and have mandatory bear safety rules. In short, you do not sleep in the tent that you cook in, the cook tent should be a distance from the sleeping tent and all food at the spike camp had to be hung from a pole that we put between two trees that was a good 10-feet off the ground.

    Thursday, October 22nd
    High 64, low 39

    Our mood for the most part is giddy. The weather is very comfortable, our base camp is built, as of yet I do not have to get up at 4:00 am and we have found elk, right where Selina and I found them in August which is a park, "grassy area on the mountain where elk feed." Generally, 98 percent of the terrain here is dense pine, the grass in the park is elk food.
   Observations, the pine squirrels are everywhere and working from daylight to dark, for the most part they are almost black here in comparison to Wisconsin's quite red, pine squirrels. You can’t go over 30 paces, and you will come across a cache of pinecones that are generally stashed at the base of a pine tree. It kind of goes like this, squirrel climbs a pine tree, gets a pinecone, climbs down from the tree and delivers this February's dinner to its stash.
   The Greenhorn is loving this adventure and declared that she is the cook. We laugh at night and work during the day, I have two deer carts that we use to haul gear for the spike camp and have both tents rigged up with sleeping pads and two sleeping bags a person. I am using a screen tent for the cook shack and covered it with tarps. Both of our sleeping tents are covered with tarps and heated with a propane lantern that we keep on 24/7 at a low temperature and ventilate well. I bought five-20-pound lp cylinders and four, 1 pounders for this trip, we would be here for 13 days and never go to town.

   Friday, October 23rd
   High 38, low 29

   A bit of a challenge has begun as today it started raining and we would move from base camp, take my 570 Polaris atv 4 miles up the mountain and then hike the rest of the way to spike camp. First tough news, The Greenhorn has not slept either of the 2 nights since we arrived, I am confident that will end.
   About the time we made it to spike camp, the rain changed to snow and by midnight there was 2 inches covering our section of the mountain. When I went to my sleeping bag with the elk opener the next morning I told my camp partner something very important and that was, If I do not see an elk over the next 10-days, don't feel bad for me, I am just happy to be here.
This type of trip is one where you find out if you have true grit!

Sunset

PS. The next 9 nights The Greenhorn would sleep on the ground like a baby!