This was my second year hunting elk and bar far my favorite hunting season yet! The 2011 season I just did a general hunt which was only 4 days long and didn't have much luck, only spotted a herd opening morning but was never able to catch up to them. For the 2012 season I put in for a controlled hunt along with my grandfather, uncle, and cousin. We all successfully drew our tags for the same unit and season! The upside to this hunt was it was a 9 day long season which meant I had a better chance at bagging one this year than I did in the 4 days last year, the downside we were entering storm season with it being mid November.
I spent 8 of the 9 days including Thanksgiving* out in the woods from well before sun up until it was completely dark most nights! The very first morning of the season we bagged my cousins bull, my uncle had bedded him down the night before and hadn't wondered very far when the sun came up over the horizon. We weren't out for more than 30 minutes before it was bull down! The guys went over the hillside to get him and i stayed up on top of the landing so that i could drive down and around the other side of the unit to pick them up. Opening morning was our shortest trip of the season, we were back in town and had him hanging by 1:00. The next 2 days of the season, we spotted lots of elk but were all either spikes or cows and our tags were for 3 point or better. Then came the 4th day, we had been glassing over a unit for about a half and hour and decided to move on down the road a bit to check out another unit, it wasn't but 5 minutes after we left that some of the guys we were with radioed to us to get back up there, there was GIANT bull that had just come out of the reprod unit. We booked it back up to the spot, they had the range finder on him, it would be a 638 yard shot, long but our guns were all capable of making the shot, just as we get ourselves positioned and line the cross hairs on him, he disappeared back into the timber. We sure as heck weren't going to give up and head on down the road, so my uncle bailed of down one side of the unit into the thick reprod and I and one of his buddies, (i was the only female hunter of the group) took of down the road to get on the other side of the unit and we bailed of down the other side, the plan was for my uncle to spook him out of the timber and out in front of me, our plan didn't calculate for the fact this bull was a smart one, hence why he was so big and had survived season after season, he ran circles around my uncle in the timber and refused to come out... After a few hours we called it quits and moved on down the road. We continued to glass the unit over time after time for the next few days but we never did catch sight of him again. I will be after him again next year!
We spent the next couple of days hiking in and out of units with no luck. The 8th day of the season we checked out our normal units we had been watching and hiking and then half way through the day decided to go somewhere new, we headed for an area on the other side of the mountain, we got to the access road for the unit we wanted and it was apparent no one had hunted it that season because there were trees down all across the road, the guys (who I learned are prepared for everything) pulled out the chainsaws and cut our way in. We stopped about a mile from where we wanted to be and walked the rest of the way in. Success! There were about 5 elk on the ride, all we could see were their ass ends as they were feeding up hill. We sat in the brush on the opposite ridge and watched them for about an hour, they all turned out to be cows. As we were turning around to come out of the brush we glanced over on another ridge and there he was! A 4x5! At this particular time it was just my uncle and I, my grandfather had stayed behind at the rigs. He was feeding in and out of the timber, so we sat an waited. It wasn't but 10 minutes before he came out enough to give us a clear shot at him. We fired! We hit him but only wounded him, it was getting close to dark so the hunt for him was really on. We took off up hill so we could get over to the ridge we had seen him on and then bailed down after him! By the time we located him and the kill shot was made was only about 45 minutes from the time we had first hit him but it was now almost dark. We decided the best option was to gut him, leave him over night and hope for the best! My uncle sent me back up out of the unit so i could let my grandfather know what was going on. This is where it got really interesting.
Keep in mind, this is the Oregon coast, we have some pretty good mountain ranges, it was November, raining, storming off and on all week and pitch black. Normally we all have our own radios but after 8 days of rain and abuse from hiking in and out of units or getting sat or stepped on we were down to 2 radios, and guess who didn't have one, ME! I had a headlamp so I was good, or so I thought. Oh did I mention that this was the worst unit yet, it was at times almost completely vertical and slick as snot from all the mud. The first 10 minutes of my climb back up out of this thing was fine, I could see where I was going, I could see the make shift trail we made on our way down and then it happened. The light in my headlamp quit working. I froze, I was about to completely loose my shit and have a panic attack, and then i remembered my cell phone was in my pocket. I pulled it out and turned on my flashlight app, thank god for technology! Oh i might add I was packing the winch, gas can and rope bag back out with me, but once I lost my head lamp there was no way i could hold my phone and all of that other crap so I made an executive decision, ditch it all and hope to god we could find it tomorrow when we came back. I start my journey back up the hill side and not five minutes later it starts down pouring so my phone is getting soaked, I'm soaked (time for new rain gear) and the flashlight app starts to malfunction because water is getting into my phone. I proceed to try and find my way out with my brief moments of light and soon loose the trail we had created, so i just keep heading up. I knew at some point it was going to crest and then i needed to head left on the top of the ridge, and then there was total blackness. My phone was toast. So hear I am, soaked, no flashlight, no phone, no radio and completely lost and seriously loosing it at this point. I have no idea exactly where I am. I can't just sit here because A. I'm not about to spend the night alone on the hill side, unarmed and B. I'm terrified of the dark and C. its cold and raining. So i started yelling to see if my uncle or grandpa could hear me, no such luck. This is the moment I cam completely unglued and lost it. After a few minutes of a full blown panic attack I pulled myself together and kept climbing out of the unit praying to god he help me find my way out. Soon I came to the top of the ridge, or so I thought and started heading left, a few minutes later I stopped, the moon had come out of the clouds so I could see the general shapes of the things around me and then it hit me, holy hell how did I end up on the other side of the ridge and down into the timber again. Another freak out ensues but this time i pull my shit together much quicker and realize I'm only getting out of here one way and that's if i keep it together and just keep going, so i turned around and headed back up hoping to find the top of the ridge again, no luck. Finally I could hear something, my grandfather had started the truck up, so i start heading in the direction I can hear it coming from, as I got closer I could faintly see headlights, at this point I am beyond relieved! I start fighting my way through the brush and the timber and the closer the lights got the happier I got, then bam it happens. I dropped about 4 feet and on to the road! My grandfather could clearly see I was no where near as happy as I was three hours before when we took off after the bull, i told him about my whole ordeal and he was happy i was safe and found my way back, we talked about next year and how EVERYONE needs a radio whether were in a group or not. I'm glad to say I wasn't the only one who got lost that night, so did my uncle, it was another hour before he found his way out and he wasn't a happy camper either. I look back now and even right after it all happened and laugh, it's scary but kind of funny too!
We headed back to town and at this point it was well after 9 p.m and we all knew my grandmother was probably about to loose it because we had never been out this late. Sure enough she was pacing back in forth in front of the window when we pulled up. I told her all about it and that's when she about cried (I'm her baby), she had a feeling I was lost and was worried sick. I assured her i was fine and that I learned alot from that whole experience for next year. We went back out Sunday morning to retrieve him and thankfully found the winch and everything I dumped the night before. It took quit awhile to get him out because of how steep the unit was but we had lots of great help from my uncles friend and his wife! Once we got him out, we did the whole picture thing, loaded him up and headed home to hang and skin him.
I am so thankful I had a great group of guys (up to 6 of them on some of the days) to hunt with, I learned alot I didn't know since I'm still pretty new to all of this, and I made some awesome memories and that's what really matters to me. I can't wait til next year!
Till next time!
*side not* I did make an apperance to Thanksgiving table, where I proceeded to fall asleep, at the table. My daughter hasn't let me live that one down yet!
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