I was out running the dogs up the Squamish Valley and ran into another hunter. Right away he asked me if I'd seen the big bull elk dead just off the road. I hadn't, so he took me back to see it. A beautiful, huge, 6x7 Roosevelt bull elk crumpled in a heap 55 yards from the road with its tongue hanging out and no apparent trauma save for a thumb sized hole in the hide just behind the ribs.
Bullet? Battle wound? Ungulate hari-kari?
There isn't usually cell service for 20kms but I know of a cell bounce that usually works so I drove a couple kms and called the RAPP line. I gave the details and received a call from a CO within 20 minutes. I told him where it was and said I'd stick around to help. An hour and a half later he arrived and we walked over the the dead bull. Several hours and about 30mms of rain later we figured out what happened.
Tomorrow morning, some photos and the results of our riverside autopsy.
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