Football is over got to go out this morning for awhile, so I headed to the McCall property near the Palouse Divide. Right now, I can only shoot whitetail and I am holding out for a buck, but I wanted to go up here to check out the elk. This is one of the first places we hunt during regular rifle season. My elk tag this year is a ML tag which begins Dec. 2
Walking in, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of fresh sign in the road. It had rained almost a 1/2 inch yesterday so I knew any sign I saw would be fresh. I got to my point above the saddle (4400 ft.) on the main ridge and sat down for a vigil, wanted to see if anything might be moving. Well, I might have been there for 15/20 minutes and I started hearing popping in the brush below me. I was pretty sure it was elk so I just sat on the spot. I was wearing camo, blaze camo shirt with a green camo vest - so only the sleeves are blaze, and a blaze camo hat. I had also put on a turkey mask right after I sat down along with camo gloves. I was tucked in under a Mountain Maple tree ( more like a big bush than a tree). Well, anyway when it was all said and done at least 20 cows and calves and 3 spikes came up out of the brush and milled around in the saddle. I kept waiting for the BIG bull, but he never showed. Finally a big old cow figured out something might be wrong - she barked and trotted out of the saddle to the north... everyone followed. Still never saw the heard bull. But it was fun watching...
From the saddle I made my way back down to the main haul road - walked the haul road to the next haul road that goes down under a couple of cutting units that face southeast. These units are filled with a low growing brush called 'red stem' I call it 'elk candy.' Elk just can not leave it alone - they strip the leaves and buds from the stems. When I got around under the units - fresh elk sign started showing up in the road again. There is a live stream at the bottom of the draw below the road. You could really smell that they had been there not long ago. Did not see or hear any more elk but did run into a big old black bull Moose standing in the last unit just munching away...
Worked my way to the end of the road then up a ridge to the main road and back out to the truck.... should have just stayed at the truck.... that elk track in the picture was 20 yards from the truck and not there when i went in this morning... lots of elk no deer although I really did not care....
The pictures here are just for fun because I had a fun day out thought I would show you some Idaho brush...
The elk candy picture shows a clump of 'red stem' that has been browsed by elk - remember that elk are browsers not grazers, so they work on the leaves and buds on the plants... if you look closely you can see how the elk have stripped the ends of the brush - taking bark, leaves, and buds...
Then the Elder Berry picture shows what Elder Berry is and what it is suppose to look like as it grows and spreads... Tom T Hall wrote a great song about 'Elder Berry Wine' well this is what the bush looks like.
This is a couple of trashed Elder Berry bushes - the picture shows what a bull elk does to warm up before a fracus or after a fight when he may have lost... he pretty much just tears it up.
This is the elk track - probably a small sized cow or a spike - more than likely a young spike. Just 20 yards from where the truck is parked... Should have just stayed at the truck... I could have just got out of the cab and sat on the 4-wheeler in the back and waited for this to show... but then that would not have been fun - it would really not have been hunting...
It was a fun day - probably will head up again on Tuesday and go in another way.... Thursday it is suppose to snow a bit so I will probably head up again. Isn't helping my deer hunting but that is OK - got all of November for deer.
Today 10/24 was the last day of regular rifle elk season and the first time I have been able to get out in elk country this year...
Football season over - Finally got to go Hunting
