This story is great already
This story is great already
Thanks floden! Will get Part 3 up today - hopefully this morning
DAY 7
If I remember anything about this trip, it will be this morning’s five-kilometre ride down river to retrieve my friend’s moose. It was one of those magical mornings in the mountains. The mists clung to the steel-blue river and mountain sides while the sun lit the south-facing poplar slopes with veins of gold. The fact that I was riding through the river on horseback for downed game didn’t hurt, either. We rode in silence, feeling the blood in our veins and the goodness of being alive.
When we got closer to the moose, we dismounted and fanned out in a semi-circle, guns loaded and ready in case a grizzly was on it. My friend and my father-in-law had gutted it the previous night and made the long trek back to camp in the dark. I had felt guilty for being in camp with a full belly and a warm fire, so I stayed up to keep their dinner warm until they returned around midnight. I wasn’t worried about them – they are both experienced in the woods. The only difference here was the wild remoteness of the country. Okay, I was a little worried.
Thankfully, there was nothing on the moose, and we set about processing it for transport back to camp on the pack horses.
DAY 6 & DAY 5
We hunted. It was glorious.
We debated about spiking out further up into the mountains, but in the end decided to stay down low, and it wasn’t only because we were lazy – we were seeing plenty of sign where we were, and travelling to a spike camp would eat up valuable hunting time.
DAY 4
It was pouring. A curtain of water fell off the tarp, cascading down like a waterfall just beyond my boots, which were propped up on a stump in front of me. It was pissing out. I took a sip of my coffee and put down my book. As I looked out on the miserable deluge, my thoughts drifted to my hunting partners, who were high on the ridge a couple thousand feet above camp. They were out in the downpour, totally exposed. Perhaps they could find a tree thick enough to hunker down under, though I doubted any tree could keep out the heavy rain.
As I sat sipping coffee, warm and dry, I almost felt guilty - almost. After all, I had earned a little rest. I had spent the entire previous day dealing with my downed game. I could just see the coloured tarps it hung under at the edge of camp through the mist and rain. I was tired and just didn’t feel the need to trek up the mountainside. I had my animal and if I took another one, it would mean my partners couldn’t get one, as we only had so many horses available for transport. One animal each; that was the rule, unless previously negotiated and more horses brought along.
Of course, my father-in-law had also spent most of the previous day dealing with my animal, as he was close by at the time and helped process it for the trip back to camp. And our other hunting partner had helped out once he was back from his hunt. Guilt churned a bit more in my gut, but I washed it down with more coffee and the thought that I would go help if they called down on the radio with news of success up above. Guilt successfully squashed, I warmed my coffee and picked up my book – I was getting to the good part.
awesome write up and photos. Absolutely love it!!!!!
Epic. Thank you.
Awesome story and trip ! Thanks for Sharing ! RJ
Thanks all. I'm enjoying putting it all together. It's amazing how much you forget that comes back to you when you stew on it a bit.
Yes great recap so far, so what other kinds of wildlife did you see. you just bump into the moose, spot and stalk, call them in.
Hi LMB - we saw a few elk and a number of mountain goats (we could have gone after a nice billy if we had wanted to - he was probably accessible, though it would have been brutal). There was also caribou sign around, though we never actually saw any. For the moose, they were definitely responding to calls - my buddies came stomping out of the bush behind him after he called. Mine was - well, I'll put the story of that up later today.