Wednesday
The next morning we followed the herd up out of the basin, amazingly in the direction we needed to go to meet BR. I’d told Drew the night before he was only allowed to chase to the North or West, as he sometimes needs a gentle reminder to keep his elk-fever at bay. Drew did close the distance on a great bull to 25 yards but of course at exactly the right (or wrong) time the bull stopped, his vitals were obscured by brush. We spent the rest of the morning hiking to meet BR and saw two more bunches of elk. Met up with BR around noon and made our way back to the “elk valley”.
We set up a small spike camp that afternoon to call home for the remainder of the trip. We headed out for a quick evening hunt and were working the rim of “elk valley” using a locate/contact bugle periodically. The area looked deserted, not many tracks, droppings, etc. when all of a sudden a bull screamed from 50 yards. I immediately ran the opposite direction and screamed back, throwing in some chuckles and cows calls hoping he’d think I was a bull with cows, and maybe present Drew or BR with a shot. Drew was able to get to within 40 yards but had too much brush for an ethical shot.
It was a good thing we’d set up our spike camp because it started to pour on our way back. We sprinted the last quarter-mile in the dark trying to stay as dry as possible and dove back under the tarps. It rained throughout the night.