First Hunt of the Season

September 3, 2012

Kyle and I decided to go out for a late afternoon/evening hunt. We got our packs ready with some food, knives and clothes..and anything we may need. Changed our field points to broadheads. I asked Kyle if he thought I would need my insulated jacket and he waved a hand at it. So, I ended up wearing my light hoodie and packing my vest and rain jacket. We headed out at 3pm and took the kids up to the grandparents then headed up the valley. We were heading to our elk spot that we hunted opening day last year.

Unfortunately the road had been washed out near the valley bottom and we had to hike in much earlier then we had thought. We parked the truck, put on the war paint, buckled up and started trekking up the mountain. It was a nice day, 21 Celsius with a breeze. It was a long walk up to where we wanted to cut in to head up to the ridge. As we came to the clearing we were planning to cut through Kyle whispers, "Bear!". I look up and sure enough a big black bear was meandering about in the clearing. Black as black could be! Kyle looks at me and asks," Do you want him?"

I pulled my cap back on and nodded. We started to cut through the clearing in the more grown in part, making it hard to keep an eye on where the bear was. Once we got to the spot Kyle thought was good we tried to look for him, but the trees were to tall and grown in, we couldn't find him. Then Kyle gets this brilliant idea to use his elk reed as a dying rabbit (predator call)....well let me put it this way...it definitely did NOT sound like a dying rabbit! It was a sound that words can not explain...
It obviously was interesting enough to catch the boars attention though. I had ranged a few trees to get an idea of shooting areas while Kyle was dying with his reed. Soon you could hear the boar coming in, but couldn't see him. Then, 30 yards from us, right behind the tree in my shooting lane were little nubby ears sticking out, then his face...I pulled back and anchored. Mean while Kyle couldn't see what I was seeing and is telling me I'm pulling to early and to let down. So I did...and as soon as I did he walked right into my shooting lane. SOB, I pulled back again, and again Kyle is chirping away beside me like a squirrel in a tree. I didn't have a clear shot so i let down again. After that he cut into the trees and slowly made his way past us and up to the woods. Not a bad start to the evening.

We cut up through the rest of the clearing and broke through the trees. Up and up we hiked. Soon the trees started to thin and turn into alpine. The colors were beautiful, fall had touched the top of the mountain. Brilliant reds and yellows. It was also much cooler up on the ridge, which was nice after climbing for so long. But I was soon wishing I had brought my insulated jacket! We hiked for another hour before Kyle picked a spot to set up. I dropped my pack, got the bear spray out, my bow ready and set up beside some root balls. Kyle went 60 yards behind me and started bugling. Not even 5 minutes after his first bugle, we got an answer. So they called back and forth for a while until the bull lost interest. So we packed up and headed to the valley he was calling from. Which included more climbing. We climbed and side scaled a step part of the mountain and set up. I went down into the trees and set up again while Kyle stayed up on the rock face. He started up again and instantly got an answer back. The bull was not happy we had found his valley. As Kyle was watching from the cliffs he located 2 of his cows, so he packed up and came down to where I was, told me about the cows and we decided that if he had cows with him he wasn't going to come out of his safe haven. So we headed down into the valley...crashing the entire way..it was steep and thick. Of course the bull heard us coming down into his territory, but he didn't take off. He came to us, screaming. He thought we were a herd of elk. When we heard him screaming and coming closer we stopped and got set up, Kyle 20 yards behind me. Soon you could hear the cows calling and him screaming, coming closer and closer. Then it went quiet for a minute....and not far off he started chuckling at us, then let out a loud and aggressive scream. Kyle let out a bugle back...but cut the bull off....crashing....then a bugle...from the bottom of his valley...more crashing...another bugle from the other side of his valley. We scared him, he thought we were a big bull coming to get his cows and so he took them and ran. After there was a lot of swearing coming from Kyle and my heart returned to its normal pace, we took a look around and noticed it was getting dark. We packed up, put my bow in my pack and we hurried down the mountain trying to beat the encroaching darkness. We made it to the road just as it got pitch black. We put on our head lamps and headed back towards the truck...keeping an eye out for bears. We came upon to sets of glowing eyes staring at us, Kyle started yelling at them and getting the defender ready. They bounded down off the road...mule deer..a spike buck and young doe, brother and sister. By the time we got to the truck it was 10:30pm.
It was a great way to spend our date night!


Kyle & Nikita