Well…all I can say is W O W !!! The last 9 days has been an adventure of a lifetime. I finally found out where I was going. We went to the Highwood Mountains, near Belt, MT… about 20 miles east of Great Falls, MT. We arrived and I got to meet the rancher Jerry. He is a great steward of his land. He has a 17,000 acre ranch, which butts up to thousands of acres of Federal Lands. We drove the 5.5 miles up the mountains to the cabin nestled in bottom of a draw. The first pic is our home for the week. It was a beautiful serene setting. Just below the cabin was a small trout stream. The views in every direction were breathtaking 
The first evening, myself and my hunting partner for the week, JP, headed out to do some glassing of the mountains, hoping to locate some Elk for the morning hunt. After a quick climb (lots of huffing and puffing) 
we sat on the peak to do some glassing. Immediately, I spotted something on a shale slide about a 1/2 mile away… it was a Black Bear 
We continued to glass until dark, but did not see any Elk. Quite honestly at this point, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. JP assured me, the feeling of overwhelming hills and heavy breathing would become easier, as we became acclimated to the 7000 foot atmosphere we were subjected too. The next pictures are some of the views that I took. The first morning, as they customarily do, we hiked into the mountains in the dark, to sit for a spell, in the morning, to glass and see if we could located the Elk as they came from the low fields, back up into the high timber. That morning I spotted a Nice Bull Elk, about a mile away, with a cow and her calf. They stayed down, in an Aspen grove, and never came up. The temps were in the 50’s in the morning and climbed into the mid 80’s during the day… this is unseasonably warm for this time of year in the mountains in MT. After a trip back to the cabin for some lunch we headed out again. This time, I wanted to go sit in a hayfield, down the mountain and try my luck at a Whitetail or Muley Buck. I set up on the corner of a field, sitting in my Covert Blind 
I seen more whitetail at once, than I never had, minus when you see them herded up here in MN in the winter. I seen a couple of good bucks, but 1 I especially wanted to harvest. That night I had 12 does and 4 smaller bucks in bow range… if you call 12 yards bow range 
After a couple cocktails, it was time to take a rest. The next morning, we went a little farther, to glass again. This morning I seen what I have tucked away into my brain, as one of the most regal things I have seen… a H U G E 6×6 Bull Elk, walked up the side of a shale slide, 260 yards from my spotting area. The tips of his antlers, went to the rear of his body I wanted to run up that hill and harvest this Bull. I waited about 2 hours, I could not keep my Binocs off that area. My arms and neck were killing me from looking so much…. I wanted to see if he was gonna move out of that area or if he bedded down. When the other guys got back to me, I told them of my plan, but they didn’t like the idea so we did not put a stalk on this Bull 
Again in the evening, the hayfield was calling my name. Everybody else was too tired to make the 3.5 mile hike to the field below, but I could not get the nice 10pt Buck out of my head. I set up further down the field, where the big buck came out the night before. I had nice 8 pt bucks coming out, less than 10 yards from my Covert Blind and lots of does. I wanted so bad to pull up on these bucks, but I knew there was a better one 
He ventually came out, about a 1/2 hour before dark….he foiled my plan again… he came out 60 yards further down the field, to the north. I had closed the distance about 40 yards from the night before, but still he eluded me again After a great night glassing whitetails, it was back to the cabin for a much needed rest. Day 3, this was the day we would really push our bodies and lungs. We hiked to the highest mountains…. If you would have told me I would be walking for 2 1/2 hours, in the dark, in the mountains, just to get where we wanted to hunt, I would have called you crazy…. but you know what ??? I did it !!! I would say, I definitely had become acclimated and my muscles were getting used to being pushed. For the most part, it reminded me of marching the hills of Fort Knox in the Army, only that was 20+ years earlier and about 60 pounds ago… You just have get in the mindset of putting one foot in front of the other. Quitting is not an option… there is one way off them mountains…. your legs. We hiked over 6 miles this day… me and my partner JP were coming hunting down a draw, at about a 60′ incline. I found out, it is just as hard to come down a mountain, as it is to go up, when you are trying to be as quiet as possible and you have an arrow nocked on your string. We were set-up about 40 yards apart and moved in unison. After about 2 hours of going down the mountain, I looked over to see where JP was and he motioned down the hill, with an excited look on his face. Directly below him was a nice 4×4 Bull Elk standing. I had a clear view of him… he was beautiful It was then I had realized, I had my rangefinder in my backpack I did some quick calculations in my head and figured it to be about 40 yards from me. I looked over at JP again, and he had his calf mouth call in his mouth and was at Fulldraw… 
I decided against taking the shot, as it was in front of him and he looked to be calling him closer, as he was looking his way towards his calls. The bull circled up the hill to his right, I was to his left. Unfortunately, it went behind a deadfall and he never got the shot After the bull was gone, I ranged where he was standing and the rangefinder read 53 yards. Realistically it was pretty close to 40, as it was downhill and angled… I ranged the tree, eye level with me that he was standing by and it read 41 yards This is a trick the guys told me about earlier, if your rangefinder is not an ARC model. They all told me, I should have taken the shot…. Looking back hindsight is always 20/20, but quite honestly, I did not want to shoot, when I seen my partner at fulldraw, as I thought he would be closing the deal. We didn’t see another Elk the rest of the day. It was a long day, as we headed into the mountains at 4:15 AM and got back to the cabin at 3:30 PM. I had my picture taken on a rock ledge, it is quite intimidating, standing on the wall, knowing one small step, or loose rock could be your downfall…. literally !!! The next morning hiked about 6.5 miles. When we got to where we were hoping to find some Elk… we became immediately deflated…. 
straight across the valley, on the other face of the mountain, 9+ Elk were bedded… with 2 good Bulls. I only seen 9, but we suspected there were more in the timber we could not see. Some quick figuring and discussing, it was decided it was too late in the day, to hike back up the finger we were on, down that mountain and back up the backside of the mountain they were on, in order to keep the wind in our favor. We decided we would get up even earlier…. the following morning and get set-up right above where they were laying, waiting for them to come back up after a night of feed in the low fields. I can’t even describe how frustrating it is, being literally 300 yards from these magnificent animals, after hiking for over 7 1/2 hours and with bows, they might as well be on the moon. After the trek back to the cabin… guess what I wanted to do ??? Yup, head down to the hayfield again The other guys went trout fishing for the evening and did pretty well. They caught about 12 keepers, that we would fry up for supper the following night 
I set up again in the hayfield, where I had seen the 10pt Buck come out the night before. This time, I would set-up, right next to a trail in the Aspen Grove. I decided against setting up the blind, as it was just as easy to trim some branches and tuck myself into the brush, and set up on my chair. After about 20 minutes, I heard noise behind me…. I proceeded to watch 9 does, walk with-in 10 feet of me and into the hayfield I had hit the mother load…. I was 10 feet downwind of the trail and they proved, I was well concealed. About an hour later, a nice 8 pt came out, stopped immediately to my left and was staring me down. He was real concerned, but I held my ground… he eventually walked 10 yards out into the field and began gorging himself on the nice green grass. About 2 minutes later, I heard crunching again… I turned my head slightly to my left and all I seen was horns. He had stopped. I couldn’t tell if he had busted me or was just checking out the field…. he must have been checking the field, which at this time had about 40+ deer feeding in it. He slowly walked out and began eating the grass, at 12 yards in front of me. I quickly drew and picked my spot and W H A C K !!! I made what I figured to be a perfect shot…. he ran about 30 yards… stopped… and then began the wobbly legs syndrome. He dropped and didn’t move again. My heart was racing !!! 4 nights of patterning this whitetail, had all come to this exact moment !!! The other deer, basically just kept feeding Some would go over and check him out, wondering what happened to him ??? I sat for another 1/2 hour and then decided I needed to start planning how to get this buck out of here. I was alone, so pictures would be a problem…. I apoligize for the pictures that I could get, but I think it turned out pretty good. Turns out, what I had been calling “My 10pt” all week, was really a 9pt, his main on the left side split is only 3/4″, but I was happy nonetheless It took me 3 more hours to field dress and get the cape and meat back up to the cabin. I had to carry the deer about a mile to the trail, where I could get the 4 wheeler to on the ranchers field road. I did go back to the cabin to get JP and the wheeler and some game bags to hold the meat. After getting everything taken care of, it was time to celebrate a little 
It was then that my brother in law Gary, reminded us, we had an early hike to think about…. We did hike in the next morning, well 3 of us did, the brother in law Gary, was just in too much pain with his shoulder, that he had surgery on, 3 months ago. After getting to the mountain, after a 3 hour hike in the dark, we were disappointed, that the Elk did not come back up there We did spot 2 Bull Elk, straight across, where we were the day before and were working there way down into the draw. We decided to skid across the mountain, in order to try to get closer and try some calling, as they were not responding to our calls from where we were, they would just look our way. We went across the face, as it was very steep… you have to basically zig zag, when the face is this steep. It is very hard on your feet and ankles and back to do this…. the most challenging part is if you get to a shale slide. Shale is small pieces of thin rock, that breaks off the mountain, and is basically like walking on odd shaped marbles… one wrong step and the slide can begin and it can take you with. Unfortunately after getting to the bottom and calling for about 20 minutes, nothing happened. We decided we needed to start heading back. The worst thing about going down a mountain is, you know you have to go back up… We got back to the cabin and we took a nap. Gary said, he has never seen anyone put the miles on that we 3 guys did, in 2 days, in his 20+ years of Elk Hunting at Elk Run Ranch. I felt pretty proud of the fact that I did it…. even if it almost killed me… That evening, my nephew Travis, wanted to take another shot at the whitetails. I agreed to take him down and set him up, where I had seen another nice buck come up, the night before…. we were both tired, but I knew him seeing my buck, got him a little adrenaline again We sat again, until dark and only had smaller bucks and lots of does show up. We both had does, 6 feet from us, doing the leg stomp and blowing at us… the wind was swirling this evening, so every once in awhile, you could see they were winding us… that was also a rush, having a deer that close, but not getting busted 
That evening, we decided to party it up alittle… I decided that, I would not be getting up at the 3 hour before crack of dawn the next morning…. it was go time baby 
Turns out the next morning, everybody had the same idea as me. 
Nobody got up early…. we then decided to hunt the spot we started with on day 1, as my brother in laws buddy, was arriving that afternoon with his group, to take over our home for the next week… we did spot a few Elk, in the usual spots, but we came to the conclusion, that the warm weather, has the Elk acting abnormal, for the opener. Hopefully they have better luck with the Elk, than we had, but I still had a blast, even if I didn’t take an Elk 
Hopefully, we get drawn again next year… I am already planning what to do differently… I learned alot, as this was my first time in the mountains. I can’t wait to get back
September 13, 2009 at 3:38 pm
#208432
