On the opening day of elk season there were five of us hunting together in our favorite area (our sixth gentleman was stove up from a little horse action the night before the season). We all hunted the same ridge where I placed each hunter an hour and a half prior to sunrise. The idea was we would all stick reasonably close together at least to where we knew where each other was. Through the course of the day we got three elk and at different times. While the rest continued to stay on stand and hunt, two of us would work together to get the elk quartered and hung into a tree for cooling and then went back to hunting.
One of our members, a new fellow from out of state -- but a cowboy and a hardened individual -- was less group oriented and wandered about a bit, but he was on the "far East end", the terrain was gentle, and it seemed harmless enough. However, he would come and go and the times in between the coming and the going got longer and longer. After we got the last elk of the first day (6x6 bull) quartered and in a tree the day was getting "long in the tooth." "Where is he at?" No one knew. So as the sun went down, I was a hunter short and he had not communicated his plans and I had not put any restrictions (directions) upon him " my fault. Great, now what?
After waiting in spike camp 30 minutes after dusk, I couldn"t stand it any longer and left the group and went back to the ridge and climbed to the east end of it as last I had seen him he was hunting off to the east. The ridge ended on the east end with a vertical rock formation that stuck up about 50 feet and just a bit above the adjacent aspens. I worked my way out onto the end of the blocky rock "tight rope" with my Petzel headlamp on and took up a vigil. Using my headlamp as a beacon I faced east and slowly turned my head from north to east to south to east to north, etc. hoping to give him something to navigate towards.
After about only 15 minutes, I heard a "Hey!" from down in the trees and darkness below probably about 150 yards away. "That you?" "Yeah!" "You know where camp is?" "Yeah!" "I"ll see you there!" "Yeah!" He had found a spot he liked and had decided to hunt until the end of legal hours and then walk back in the dark (mentally tough). He had missed the contour of the ridge that would take him to the spike camp and dropped down too low to where he couldn"t see it or find it so he had reversed his path to give it another shot coming up closer to the ridge top (smart) and that is when he saw my "light house beacon." He wasn"t " lost;" however, he said that light was a comforting sight and affirmation that he was on the right track. I was glad to have the "last one of my flock back into the fold." Now we could all eat, drink, and get some sleep in a spike camp that now had people hanging from the rafters (another story).
The moral of the story for me was: if you are responsible for a group (which I was) its one thing to take care of the morning logistics, the shooting, the quartering, and the re-positioning BUT make sure everyone knows (to the person) and agrees to what the "sundown plan" is going to be. If it is legal to use radios in your state, then require that everyone carry one, even if it is turned off and buried in the bottom of their pack. That way if anything has gone wrong then easy communication can put an fix to it " way better than sitting on a rock wall pretending to be a lighthouse and hoping your ship will come in!
Never Go Undergunned, Always Check The Sight In, Perform At Showtime,
EKM
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Never Go Undergunned, Always Check The Sight In, Perform At Showtime!
Good judgment comes from bad experience! Learn from the mistakes of others; you' ll never live long enough to make them all yourself!
Boy EKM, you are the guy to go hunting with. Not only do you do way more than you fair share of all of the work, you do part-time duty as a lighthouse.
I wish I had more hunting buddies like you
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Caution - Some posts may contain sarcasim
Lighthouse!
