Wyoming Adventure

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Limbrat

Limbrat

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Made it home, what a great adventure it was! You westerners live in some gorgeous country. We camped six miles from the trailhead at 8,000 feet and hunted at around 10,000. I've got to admit, even though I trained pretty hard, that country was tough on a set of sea-level lungs. I guess there's really no way to prepare for altitude. We were in bugling bulls every day and had some hair-raising close encounters. My friend from Illinois took a very nice bull that came in screaming and got within about fifty yards of me but never presented a clear shot. Elk are magnificent animals, I can see why the Indians gave them such great reverence. Even though I didn't loose an arrow and brought home neither antlers or meat, it was definitely the most rewarding and memorable hunt of my life.
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Freaking awesome!!

I love the thin haze in pic #2, it tends to show the immense scale of the landscape out there.

Though you didn't get an elk, did you eat some of the meat from the other elk, how was it??

Will you be going back again soon??
 
Super cool Ray.

To bad you got skunked but at least you banked the time and had a hell of an experience.
 
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Thanks guys. I didn't eat any of the elk Cory, I would have loved to tear into one of those tenderloins up there in the high country. He shot him on the last evening of the hunt and we packed the meat out the next morning so we ran out of time. I don't know if I can make another trip like that or not Cory, this was a swap for a gator hunt/fishing trip. If I had to pay for the entire hunt, probably not. The license alone was over $1,000. You could do a DIY hunt there because it's public land, but getting an elk out of the backcountry without horses would take several backbreaking days and if the weather was warm, you'd lose the meat. The outfitter said I could come back later this year for a rifle hunt but it's a long way to go, about a 32 hour drive from here. I'm not familiar with the western conifers but those mountains are being devastated by pine beetles right now. In some places, mortality looked to be 70% +.
 
What a fine adventure.
I love that part of the country and no more so than when the aspens are yellow.
Apart from the desert, this must be as far from Florida as one can get, when it comes to type of country.

I'm not much of a hunter ( I surmise that not many vegetarians are) but I've hunted mule deer in Idaho in the same kind of landscape, so I know how it feels. That 3rd picture makes me yearn to go again.
Terrific that you got the chance to swap hunts like that.
 
Cool info, Ray.

Damn, bad news about the pine beetles.

Being on the other end of the hunt as a client instead of as the guide, what was it like, did ya learn anything that you would want to build into your guiding?
 
Awesome, Ray! Bowhunting elk is a dream hunt of mine!

Hard to tell from the pics...was your friend's bull a 7x5?
 
If you're not a vegetarian, Elk sausages are mighty tasty with eggs for breakfast. A dry meat apparently, best mixed with some pork for that use. There is/was an Elk herd at Point Reyes National Seashore in N. California, but shooting one might land you in jail for life. I seem to recall that they unexpectedly swam across the Tomales Bay or some other sea inlet, and it created problems. They might have been put down and some people were rather upset.
 
gf beranek said:
nice rack.
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Jeff, he was a 6x7, estimated to be around 900 pounds and Cory I learned a lot and hopefully I can use some of it in my guiding. Our guide Manny is an elk hunter extraordinaire. He knows elk, knows the country inside and out, works untiringly for his hunters, is in fabulous shape, always upbeat, smiling and positive, calls elk with his own voice and sounds better than the real thing. He's not quite as knowledgable on the trees and vegetation and smaller animals though. In his defense, I probably asked too many tree questions.
 
My bro killed yesterday mornin. Not the 6x7 he was after, but none-the-less, a great bull. Boy do I hope I can get back to it soon! Glad you had an excellent adventure!

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That was 45 min outside Telluride, Co. We've spent several seasons in those woods and see fantastic animals every time. Hard part is it borders Ralph Lauren's ranch. He is a complete asshole! I understand, as it is his, but you will be prosecuted if not shot if you go after an animal that you have wounded. I lost a 5x6 that went over his fence a few yrs back. I watched it die 150 yds from me.
 
Bud, I'm not at all privilege to the ins and outs of it, but if there is the possibility that a wounded animal might be going into the guy's ranch, should it even be hunted in that area?
 
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