I sucked at taking pictures this year! I have pretty much no camp picts!
Chris, K and I headed up to camp Friday after work. We took our trailer and met Mom and Dad, Dawni and Wayne and Phil who were already there. Todd and Jana came up later that night and joined us for the weekend. They stayed in the camper with us. It was so awesome to be the 'big kids' who had enough room for the parents to stay with us and we took care of everything.
That night my dads brother Terry and our cousin Daniel and their friend came over for the traditional pre-hunt dinner.
Bright and early that next morning we all headed out for the opening day of the deer and elk hunt. Its a buck deer unit and a limited entry elk.. which means if you dont have the big bull tag you can only shoot a spike or cow.
We walked a lot. Nothing was shot opening weekend.
There were SO MANY FREAKING PEOPLE up there. We have never ever seen other hunters in our 'special' spots we go. This year guys had tree stands set up in there, we were running into people like crazy hiking through. The camping spot was packed. Trucks were constantly coming in and hiking into where we hunt. It was insane. We have never ever seen it like that before.
We kind of have an opening weekend routine of where we go and hunt. We had to change it around because we were seeing ten times more people than deer.
Todd was joking with me that the reason we haven't shot anything is because we didnt take our yearly deer hunt selfie.
So we took our pic
and about 10 min later he flung an arrow at a deer. The deer ducked pretty fast and his arrow went right over its back.
Next to camp is an awesome kids fort. Kennedy loved it.
We tried the selfie luck Sunday morning and it didnt work
Todd & Jana, Dawni & Wayne and Mom all left Sunday afternoon.
We were kind of frustrated at the lack of animals and excess of people we were seeing so we went for a drive.
On the way back we found out there was a massive wildfire about 20 miles from where we were staying. We talked to Dusty who was on his way up to learn it was on the opposite side of the road from us and we were safe (thats Bear Lake on the right side of the pic)
Chris of course had his radio so we turned it to the channel to listen and make sure we didnt need to pack camp fast!
Miss K did awesome hiking with me. She rocked it! She hiked several miles a day and didnt complain. The one time we went back to camp she wanted to keep going so we could find a deer. She still hasnt mastered walking quietly but one day she will get it!
After a large group of hikers walked out of where we were headed to go hunting at, we also ran into mom and had her take a family picture of us.
The next night we went with Mom into a spot she wanted to go. Dad had left camp on Monday and Mom came back Sunday night. So now its just us 3 and mom.
Kennedy was right on Grandmas heels the whole hike.
I was sitting in the bushes a few feet off a trail waiting for this deer mom had seen. A guy came walking about 5 feet from me and had no clue I was there.
Tuesday we ran down to Bear Lake for some shakes for fun.
and we stopped to watch the fire. If you look close on the left hand side in the smoke you can see a Huey dropping water on the fire
That night Kennedy Chris and I hiked the 2.5 miles into our 'bog' We had a guy and his kid walking in front of us the entire way in and they sat just a few hundred yards from us.
Kennedy brought a book to keep entertained. Shes sitting behind a tree so the animals cant see her where theyre coming in at.
This is how we hang out lol
and then she crashed. We stayed in there for about 4 hours and then hiked out. It was getting close to dark and we were kind of frustrated about how this hunt had been going.
We were getting close to camp and just walking not paying attention when I came around a tree and kicked up something. I told Kennedy and Chris to stop. She hikes in the middle of us. I was a few yards ahead of them and saw antlers. I pulled up my binos and was shocked to see an elk in the middle of a meadow. I couldnt believe it. Its not really elk area and here it was standing out in the open meadow!
I pulled out my rangefinder and it said 88 yards. I didnt have much of a clear shot. I could see it was a spike (what I had a tag for) and it had its back to me. I snuck around some trees and was about 80 yards. I figured what the hell. Might as well try. So I rolled my sight to 80 yards, pulled up my bow and connected! I saw the elk run off with my arrow in it.
We walked over to where it was standing when I shot to find the spot and we found blood. Kennedy sat under a pine tree eating granola bars (it was pretty much dark by this time) and reading her book by flashlight. We followed the blood trail to the edge of the trees and flagged it to come back the next morning. With archery if you let the animal rest they die fast. If you push them and make them run it takes longer and gets them all worked up. Leaving that night was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
I hardly slept a wink. I was up all night praying my shot was good, it was really a spike, that we would find it dead.. I knew it was a spike when I shot and I knew my shot was good but thinking about it all night you start doubting everything you saw and did. Morning FINALLY came. I was so stressed we wouldnt find it. Elk are very very hearty animals and to take out an elk with a bow is hard.
All 4 of us hiked in. We found the blood trail and left Mom and Kennedy. We hiked about 100 yards in following a great blood trail when we kicked up the elk. He took of running (stumbling)
We knew by the amount of blood we were following he was fatally hit and couldnt believe he was still alive. We could tell by his tracks he was stumbling and struggling. We followed the blood trail for a while and heard some thrashing. So we walked out of the trees to the road and waited. After a little bit so we didnt push him we went back in on the trail. We knew we were close, we could smell him and the blood trail was thinning up (he didnt have much left ) The area we were tracking him through was FULL of dead trees that had fallen and a ton of overgrowth. It made walking through rough. Chris had a tree (a little aspen) in his way and pushed it aside and there was my elk! I couldnt believe it. He was 20 yards from us. We were so ecstatic. We had been getting frustrated and were tired and hungry!
This is the first elk I have ever killed with a bow. It has been a goal of mine for 3 years. Ever since I didnt fill my big bull tag. Finally after a lot of dedication, constant shooting, hiking my butt off and lots of missed sleep I got my elk with a bow! I dont think I could smile any bigger!
Thankfully the elk had ran through some thick areas and back towards camp and an old road. We had to drag him (Chris and I dragging a full size elk...) about 100 yards down the hill and over some fallen logs. He left me to gut him and he went to get the deer cart to take him out on. Mom and K came back in with them. Id gotten most of it gutted but its really hard by yourself. You need an extra set of hands so Chris helped me finish up the last parts.
We drug him down to the 'road' and loaded him on the little deer cart. Where he was at it was easier to take him out this way than in quarters. We had to cross a barbed wire fence. Chris stopped and gave me a congratulations kiss.. and my mom made us do it again for a picture ha. I know it may seem weird kissing over a dead animal but it meant so much. We put in so much hard work, so many miles, so much of our time. We hunted together. We found it together. We got meat for our freezer to feed our family through the year. A lot of heart went into it!
My arrow was still in the elk. I couldn't believe it!
Chris and I got it out the road to the side by side, took it to his truck and headed for Willard to hang it in the cooler. Todd was at work and wasnt able to come help us search for it that morning and Dad had to be at the County Fair (that was the opening day) They both were so bummed they couldnt be there. Dad met us at the shop and helped us skin and quarter it.
We showered (which felt amazing. We have a shower in our trailer and had been showering every day but the water pressure is pale in comparison to a house shower) and headed back to camp for the night hunt!
We didnt see hardly anything the rest of the trip. We were averaging about 10 miles a day of hiking
I love when he cooks us breakfast!
Kennedy made a bow and arrow for the weekend to play with. She was shooting deer out of her blind
We headed home Friday morning
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