For the past several months, Sammi and I have watched Elmos above timberline on the side of this mountain from the lake below. 
She’d always wanted to go after them, so before Halloween she asked if I wanted to go along.She knew I wouldn’t say ‘no’.
We glassed early in the morning and located 5 Elmos on top of the hill.
The first sign that this might be a bad idea was that there was a herd of dall sheep below the Elmos…I didn’t think anything lived higher than sheep.
Anyhow, being the very ‘directed’ chicks that we are, we set out after the Elmos at 9 AM.
I realized it was steep, but didn’t notice that it took us 3 hours to reach the same elevation as the Elmos…Sammi did.
The first sign that this might be a bad idea was that there was a herd of dall sheep below the Elmos…I didn’t think anything lived higher than sheep.
Anyhow, being the very ‘directed’ chicks that we are, we set out after the Elmos at 9 AM.
I realized it was steep, but didn’t notice that it took us 3 hours to reach the same elevation as the Elmos…Sammi did.
Upon arriving near the top, all that we could see were 2 Elmos.
Our first stalk was blown…apparently by the wind…so we set out after the only other one in sight.
Just by chance, this was the farthest Elmo from the boat.
Still very directed, we started ‘side-hilling’ towards the Elmo.
We got within 330 yards and readied to shoot. We had to use guns since Sammi doesn’t have enough arm strength yet for bow-hunting. Soon, though. But I don’t even know if we could have snuck up on the Elmos close enough to get them with bows.
Sammi hit the Elmo as it stood with her first shot and it started running.
I hammered the Elmo as it ran and dropped it; but it got back up and continued to run. Those Elmos are elusive creatures!
Several shots later and the Elmo was dead…even though it continued to roll down the extremely steep hillside for another 100 yards or so.
It finally came to rest in an alder thicket.
Roughly 3 ½ hours after leaving the boat, we had our Elmo. It was one of the largest bodied Red Elmos we’d ever seen!
Our first stalk was blown…apparently by the wind…so we set out after the only other one in sight.
Just by chance, this was the farthest Elmo from the boat.
Still very directed, we started ‘side-hilling’ towards the Elmo.
We got within 330 yards and readied to shoot. We had to use guns since Sammi doesn’t have enough arm strength yet for bow-hunting. Soon, though. But I don’t even know if we could have snuck up on the Elmos close enough to get them with bows.
Sammi hit the Elmo as it stood with her first shot and it started running.
I hammered the Elmo as it ran and dropped it; but it got back up and continued to run. Those Elmos are elusive creatures!
Several shots later and the Elmo was dead…even though it continued to roll down the extremely steep hillside for another 100 yards or so.
It finally came to rest in an alder thicket.
Roughly 3 ½ hours after leaving the boat, we had our Elmo. It was one of the largest bodied Red Elmos we’d ever seen!
We got the Elmo skinned and headed down at about 2:30 PM.
Noted on the picture below, you can see where the boat was on the edge of the mud flats.
Sammi guessed we’d be back no sooner than 6PM.
I guessed we’d be back by 5:30PM.
Problem was, we didn’t keep track of our route up the mountain and ended up taking the wrong route down.
We traversed the most miserable terrain I’ve ever seen…cross-grown alder thickets, devils club patches 7’ tall, crossing downfalls, hidden sinkholes, etc.
The closest terrain we could think of to compare our descent to was Vietnam .
We had to stop and rest every 20-30 yards; all the while fighting off the biting insects Alaska is famous for.
We ended up running out of water around 3:30 PM and didn’t arrive at the lake until 8 PM.
It was the most dehydrating and exhausting experience either of us can ever remember.
We chugged some water from the lake as soon as we hit the shoreline.
The leg cramps were unbelievable and we were totally chilled crossing the lake to the boat ramp.
The sun set before we could even load the boat…12+ hours after we had launched it at sunrise.
There are only 2 words that can accurately describe that day…”Never Again”, but at least Sammmi got her Elmo pelt in time for Halloween!
Noted on the picture below, you can see where the boat was on the edge of the mud flats.
Sammi guessed we’d be back no sooner than 6PM.I guessed we’d be back by 5:30PM.
Problem was, we didn’t keep track of our route up the mountain and ended up taking the wrong route down.
We traversed the most miserable terrain I’ve ever seen…cross-grown alder thickets, devils club patches 7’ tall, crossing downfalls, hidden sinkholes, etc.
The closest terrain we could think of to compare our descent to was Vietnam .
We had to stop and rest every 20-30 yards; all the while fighting off the biting insects Alaska is famous for.
We ended up running out of water around 3:30 PM and didn’t arrive at the lake until 8 PM.
It was the most dehydrating and exhausting experience either of us can ever remember.
We chugged some water from the lake as soon as we hit the shoreline.
The leg cramps were unbelievable and we were totally chilled crossing the lake to the boat ramp.
The sun set before we could even load the boat…12+ hours after we had launched it at sunrise.
There are only 2 words that can accurately describe that day…”Never Again”, but at least Sammmi got her Elmo pelt in time for Halloween!
(Story shamelessly stolen from the real-life bear hunting account of Brian & Jason in Alaska. Thank you!)
No comments:
Post a Comment