Muley669

What a season it has been. I spent most of the last three months in the mountains. Started with a back pack hunt in the interior for a couple weeks, that base camp horse hunting for a few months. Now day hunting with my kid. I have hiked literally hundreds of miles through that back country, seen over 50 bulls, thousands of elk, bear, mule deer, whitetail, wolves, bobcat, coyote, pine martin, moose, sheep, goats, and hundreds of birds and waterfowl. Saw a coyote chasing a herd of antelope, then the herd stop and start chasing him. Got within a few feet of a 7x7 bull, had a wolf running at us on a ridge, cut cattle off a peak at 7K feet in the middle of the night on my pony. Been sweating, been frozen, been excited, been disappointed.
I can strap on the back pack and hunt areas I could barely walk to just three months ago. My legs are in great shape, my lungs used to the high mountain air, best shape I have achieved in years. I started at 226lbs, today I am 185lbs. Most importatly, I squeezed all i could out of the entire hunting seaason for the first time in my life. I have three days left to try to get my kid into an elk. He shot his first loper back in October. What I have learned through this excursion is there is a whole world out there in the wild, if you are just willing to put in the effort and do the work and explore. Walk. Leave the trailhead behind and climb the mountain, hike. I plan to squeeze every ounce out of these last three days. Sunday, it is over til next year.

GreatHunterWannabe

Wow, you really hit it hard this year! congrats on a fun season.

bullelk1

Great post. I spend a lot of time in the mountains, but nothing like that. I am spending the first weekend at home this coming Friday and Saturday since late April. Every other one, except one, was spent in the Idaho mountains. I also took 2 weeks straight to archery hunt, and several 3 or 4 day jaunts to hunt and fish. But, 3 months straight -- that is hard core!!!!

Colorado Cajun

Sounds like an awesome adventure...

Champlain Islander

I am proud for you Muley. Way to go.

turkeyward

Hey Muley:
I too am a guide. In fact my season is jut now getting over for the most part too. I am a whole lot different than you though. I am a fat guy. I want to be a skinny guy. Right now your post has inspired me. Now lets just see if I can loose about 150 pounds. I need to do something seeing as how I have a mountain goat hunt in BC next fall. I am hoping this will b e life changing event to get me off my big fat butt and do something besides just go out and kill critters. I really do very well at guiding but it is all private land and lots of critters well trained to come to the vehicle. So I can really get through a whole season of guiding with probably less than 10 miles of walking. I know its not fair but I'm just lucky I guess.
I do hope to change my ways though. Let's just hope your inspirational post will rock my world enough to get me out there and getting into shape.

Bugleward

Muley669

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it. There is literally no ridge or cayon you cannot handle after a few months. You can spot a bull 3 miles away and get on him by dark, it's incredible. Holes I would never touch, I'll dump into in a heartbeat. I can wonder around where ever i want to and not worry about getting lost, I'll just build a shelter/fire and spend the night and go back to work getting out the next day. You own the freakin mountain. The critters, well, that is a different story. They live there, and they will beat you 9 out of 10 times. Today season closed, this morn I spotted 5 elk in a burn edge at about 900 yards. I was trying to get the boy and elk so we did a big U shaped turn to get proper position and wind on the elk, they, however, also did a big U, bigger then ours and right around us. When I got to the spot they were at, they were at our spot, brilliant, they knew we were there the whole time. We started back but the wind was wrong at that point and off they went, season over. I bought snow shoes and i plan to continue my treks into the mountain, maybe after coyote or pictures. I know a lot of stuff other people don't, because I was there, not because of any skill. Failure is a wonderful teacher. I learned today that elk in snow and cold are much less inclined to take off running, and favor savy as an escape method this time of year, thats a valuable piece of information to know. Tracking animals also provides a wealth of information. It's to bad you don't guide more challenging hunts, because it really does make you a better hunter. Guiding interior elk hunts from a wilderness camp is damn hard work, psycologically and physically. I just wanted to finish what I started, and I'm a better man for it. Get off the couch TW, what better way to get in shape then running the ridges?

turkeyward

I can appreciate the difficulty of elk. I have been responsible for the death of hundreds. So I have not always been a fat old lazy man. I used to be just fat. Now the old and lazy have come into play. One of the most difficult hunts on the planet is an unlimited sheep in Montana. I accomplished that one on my own. Big bulls in the backcountry. Been there done that. Now just a few on my hit list. Starting with the goat in BC next fall. One of the toughest hunts I have done lately is the Alaska bou and brown bear thing. Hiking the muskeg tundra is quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. I used to hunt mule deer at 12,000 to 13,000 feet in Colorado. I did a Wyoming moose hunt that tested my endurance. Twenty three miles in. That's a long walk out for a fat man. So you see, I'm not your regular couch potato fat man. Just getting frustrated at how my girth has restricted my life lately. I also admire guys who have the energy to dive into a big black hole like you spoke of. You would do it just to take a look and because it's there. I would have to know there was something in there to go in. I would also have to have a plan to get the critter out that hopefully did not mean all of it on my back.

Muley669

Awsome post TW. I admit I am often curious about what may lie just over the ridge, or down in that hole, and that is what drives me. Its like discovering worlds nobody else has been. I dropped into a hole nobody had hunted for many years. Found an old outfitter campsite that the current outfitter never knew existed. I also found the head of a major back country stream. This stream started about 3" across and got bigger as it went. I was weird seeing a tiny little trickle running for hundereds of yards, and it was lush and quiet in there. Usually, the search for that magical elk heaven is a fruitless endeavor, but three years ago I found what we call the "magic ridge". It is a haven for big bulls in the rut. We have back pack hunted it the last two years, with 2 bulls down, 1 wounded, and three missed, and several called up, all but one was 6x6 or larger. It is very thick on that ridge, and largely unhuntable with a rifle.
You are right, sheep hunts are the real deal, I am thinking of an unlimited hunt myself, but I am waiting for the oldest to get out of the Army so he can go with. I don't think I will guide next year, but I am considering purchasing a couple horses and setting up a back country camp. I can hardly stand day hunts and love being back in the interior. I understand your energy comment, admittingly there were days I was just burned out, and right now I am glad season is over. I slept til 7:30 this morn, what a luxury.

Phil from Maine

Congrats to you Muley!! It makes me jealous!! No it is not you that is for sure.. I just like to show my respect for you for doing what you are doing.. I just can not do a trip like that right now with the condition I let my knees get .. But I know I sure wouldn't mind it none at all other than that.. Getting way back into the mountains or woods in my case always was the way to go.. Seeing all those streams and brooks starting out with just a trickle and all. I used to go up to this trickle where a brook started and you would see baby brook trout up in those trickles. They will move back down the stream as they grew larger.. It was all very enjoyable and you always saw plenty of wildlife up in those places.. If it was to far for the average Joe to walk to they wouldn't bother.. Now most of them are lucky to even get out of thier trucks or walk off an ATV path.. It is hard to believe all the lazy hunters we have now.. But to each thier own as it leaves a few more places untouched..
Thanks for the reading..