Sorry it's taken so long

I got a chance to go elk hunting in Montana in The Bob Marshall Wilderness. Its roughly 1.5 million acres of open public land wilderness. I flew in to to Denver and was picked up by my father in law and we drove to Westerm Montana through yellow stone. Northern Colorado and Wyoming aren't much but Montana is awesome. We drove through Shishoni National Park and Grand Teton Nationsl Park. It was dark as we drove through yellow stone so I'll have to go back.
Our hunt started about 20 miles west of Choteau, Montana. We went with 7 Lazy P Outtfitters. We got in mid afternoon on Thursday and sighted in our rifles and checked out our cabins. We had electricity and wifi in the main cabin so I stayed up after sunset to talk with the kids and my wife before we set out the next morning.
We would leave on horse back with our things packed out on mules. We would be gone 8 days. No electricity. No running water. No gas. No roads. No tires allowed. 9 hours on horseback covering 25 miles into the wilderness to get to our camp site.
We rode up, down, across, jumped creeks, walked our horses for a break, crossed the continental divide, crossed rivers, let horses drink, stopped for lunch and a break or two in clearings...finally got to camp.
There were 5 hunters, 2 guides, 1 cook, 1 trail boss, and 1 wrangler. As the days went on I learned these were some tough people. Old school bad asses....just get your work done type of people. My kind of people.
I saw 1 mule deer the first day...and 2 birds the next 2 days. No one else saw anything. I heard an elk or mule deer breathing but couldn't see it....I heard an elk or mule deer approaching...close enough to draw my rifle and wait for him to step out....he didn't. No elk...lots of elk sign, lots of mule deer sign, lots of wolf, mountain lion, and bear sign....first 3 days were hard work and we didn't have anything to look forward to. The hiking was no joke...lots of side hills to navigate and lots of fallen timber from the fires. My knees hurt more than anything and I'm only 32.


(I'm posting from my phone so bear with me)
This first group of pictures covers from when we loaded up our gear, rode 25 miles out, and our first 3 days of hunting.

On our 4th day we rode out 2.5 hours...we tied our horses up after crossing the creek (crick if you're from Montana) and we started up the first of two Mountains on the left side of a horse shoe formation of mountains...a crick ran down the valley of the horseshoe. We came across the mountain lion track pictured below on our way up the first mountain. Just after this is when our guide spotted the elk.....at the top of the peak in the very back of the horse shoe walking from right to left to our side of the horseshoe was at least 1 bull and 3 cows (turned out to be 1 bull and 7 cows)

Grand Tetons






Driving into the foothills of the Bob Marshall we saw some black bear cubs... I could only get a shot through our bug splattered windshield


Turning in


Main lodge




Inside the main lodge




Our cabin for the night before we head out


Packed up on the mules...ready to head out






Me trying not to fall off my horse and take a picture of the valley behind us


Taking a break at the continental divide


The fires ripped through here a few years ago






Water and a break for the horses


This is Gooseberry Cabin...you can see all the scratches and bite Mark's from the grizzly. Just an old guard station the first service used to use. Now used for storage mainly


Notice the welcome mat for the bears so they don't knock down the door




First day hunting... that's the guide glassing across the valley.
I took a nap here before lunch (top 5 nap for me easily)


Grizzly will tear trees up like this then rub on them to get there scent and hair in the sap to mark territory. This was about 200 yards from camp


You can see the grizzly fur in the sap here




Glassing some side hills


Kitchen/dining tent at night




Mountain lion print on our way up to get to the first elk we had seen

On our way up to get to the elk


Looking back at where we came from that morning


We finally get to the top of the 2nd mountain. The last 50 yards or so were steep enough we had to use our hands to climb up. Our guide told us to wait and he would move up to see if the elk were in fact still up in the clearing ahead. He came back with bad news....no elk. They had doubled back around the horse shoe and now were on the opposite side of the horse shoe from us...damn. We watched for a bit... they bedded down so we started to move back down the mountain...






The bull is to the left of the trees in the middle....2 of the 7 cows are on the hand side right


The elk stopped and bedded down...it was in the 40s but we were drenched in sweat. We stopped to eat, dry our feet, and switch socks


Ok, I don't have any more pictures from the hunt that day. We sat for a bit and decided to go up and get the elk. It was my last day cause I had to leave early to go to a wedding. So up we went. We went down the rest of the mountain...straight down. Then crossed the crick...then straight up. I mean straight up the mountain. I'm in pretty good shape and go to the gym 4-5 days a week. The hike that insued was the hardest physical day of my life. I was resting every 4-5 steps....I almost threw up twice. I dont know how steep it was but we climbed up with our hands. I was too nervous to stand straight up in fear of falling off backward. Calves cramping, legs soar, running out of water but knowing the elk were up there kept us going. We get to the top and our guide turns to us "you texas guys are some tough sons of b*tches....I've never been able to bring hunters up here" (good validation for me not being a complete wuss and completely out of breath lol)

We crawl around the ridge and the bull bugles before we can even sit down. It sounded like a dinosaur...what an awesome experience. Adrenaline pumping...trying to slow my heart beat and breathing down from the hike up. Hes above us but we cant see him through the trees. We bugle back...he starts coming down the mountain toward us. We cow call and bugle back and forth just catching glimpses of him moving in the trees in front of us. Then it goes quiet...wind switched. Damn. We don't see him until we catch movement at the very top of the ridge...hes gone over to the other side of the mountain. Sigh. That's hunting I guess....we wouldn't like it if it was easy.

It's late now...we are an hour passed when we were meeting the others back at the horses and we were still on top of the mountain. We were almost out of water so we divided up what we had and started down. Down wasnt much easier than up. I started getting dehydrated...head hurt, legs cramped, dry mouth..... started losing coordination with my feet. Not good. Started taking longer routes around fallen trees and not climbing over them. Finally get to the horses and get on for our long quiet 2.5 hour ride to camp.

We get back to camp and the other guide asks us where we were. We tell him which mountain we climbed....he says "I've only been up there with one other person. Yall are probably the only humans to ever see that bull elk and if u don't go back then you will probably be the only people to ever see him." (I'm pissed right about now that I'm leaving the next day and cant go back out)

Long story short my brother in law who was with me that day went back up and found him...called him in and shot him from 40 yards. I'm pissed I didn't get him the first day but happy for my brother in law because one of us deserved it after the work put in to just finding them. We were the only 2 hunters to find elk that week..... the wolves have really changed how the elk move and how vocal they are.

The small tiny peak in the distance is where we were laying when we spotted elk across the valley from us.


Long quiet ride back to camp exhausted


Kitchen


Our tent on the left with some clothes drying outside


Lion or bear used this as a scratching part outside or tent


Dinner table telling jokes and stories


Our cook getting dinner ready. Everything cooked on that wood stove....she was incredible


Cup post


Father in law got a wolf! Guide bugled once and within minutes 4 wolves came on to them.... he got a relatively small one. Probably 70-80 pounds or so


Packing up. Everything is loaded into these wooden boxes then wrapped in these canvas tarps and then tied to the mules


Corral at camp


Outhouse back in the woods. That walk at night in porch black was never calm lol. Seeing eyes in the woods reflect from my head lamp...hearing wolves in the distance I just knew I was gotta get attacked on the sh*tter


Shower....heat up water on the stove and mix it with creek water


Tough to see but it's a wolf print


Heading out




I can see the trucks...heading back to civilization. Man I loved it out there....I'll go back. No stress, hard work, good food, outdoors, good people, no cell service, complete silence at night, gorgeous scenery....memories and stories for a life time.

Packing out