clu__82
09-28-2016, 07:23 AM
WOW!!! What an amazing trip!! 30 years in the making and it did not disappoint. Truly waaaaay too much to put down in typing but I'll do my best. I have posted here over the past year...long story short...I've been dreaming about this trip since I was a kid (as long as I can remember). Grew up in Kelowna...moved away to play hockey at 16, went down to the states on a scholly at 19, moved out east to ON and here I am 33 years later. Dad was diagnosed with cancer last summer (He's doing fantastic and all is well...fingers crossed). Best friend just got into hunting and got all of his stuff finalized this summer and BILs started hunting 3 years ago and hadn't sealed the deal on an animal yet. So......
I want to start off by saying thanks again to everyone on this site for making this trip much smoother and a dream come true. Myself, best-man/best friend, dad and two BILs ended up making the trip. Dad, best buddy and I hunted Sep 1-5, then dad and I Sep 5-9. BILs showed up SEP 10-18. Everyday was a learning experience and offered so many cool and memorable events. The scenery was amazing and I found myself in the middle of nowhere KMs from nothing staring at the mountains in the distance or natural grass meadows. I personally saw every representation of the elk species (calf, cow, spike, 3 point, 4 point and massive 5x5 and 6x6...happen so quick as he rumbled through the timber 40 yards from me it looked like a bus with antlers). Dad and I hunted with our bows the entire time and ended up finding some good spots in the 1100m zone which ended up being our primary area. We ran into elk almost every day and had our chances. Truly that's all we/I could ask for. BC and the elk gave us our chance and we as hunters didn't do our job. We quickly learned that things were much different hunting with a bow and the ON setup that I had prepared for coming into the trip (10-50 yard shots in ON from what I was used to just didn't cut it). We spent a good amount of time early on scouting, learning and re-sighting in bows to give us some extra distance as the early experiences were just outside the 50 yard range. All worth it and all a very good learning experience as hunters and bowtechs....lol
Highlights:
1) We ended up camping at Cherry Lake (then made the 30 km voyage down and back to 1100m lol almost everyday). Spot was beautiful...lake was beautiful and fishing for small rainbows (something I miss) with my belly boat for the hour that we did it was great.
2) Archery season was awesome...lots of animals and lots of learning. Other than Grizzlies (which is ironic because of my previous posts leading up to the trip) we saw every animal group...grouse, rabbits, deer, moose, black bear, turkeys and of course elk. Awesome!
3) BILs - my one BIL got his first black bear and first WT (a nice 2x2) and my other BIL got a nice 4x4 WT. Such a cool thing because living out east I never get to hunt with them and considering that they've hunted for 3 years and these were their first animals...I sit back and think things are often meant to be. These are memories that we will all have forever and can talk about for a lifetime. We all will get our first animals....but getting them together as Brothers was just awesome! We got to talk about and walk through the gutting and cleaning process...and I since I do all of my own butchering, we went through that too.
4) Deer - saw tons of deer. Could have shot many but dad and I decided that Elk was the focus and that getting a deer would waste time and complicate things...so we just ended up watching, learning and just enjoying deer after deer after deer.
5) We have decided that this trip (well Archery Sep 1-9) is going to be an every 2 year trip. A month long trip is not in the cards for us moving forward...but a 10 day trip with weekends on each end will definitely be doable...how cool...
Great story -- So one of the main contributors to this trip and giving me info was Hunter1947. He helped me out a ton...gave me a bunch of info and was just overall awesome. So there we are...we had hunted to dark at one of our spots and got in the truck..there were a couple options to get home so we decided to take a shortcut....a short 5km vein that lead us back to the main road. It was dark by then and we headed home. ABout half way down the road there was a small truck parked on the side of the road...we slowed down and asked if they were ok. One gentlemen called to his buddy 'Do we need any help?"..."sure" rang a voice from the darkness. We pulled ahead...and headed back toward the truck....a light appeared and it was a quad. A gentleman on the quad now appeared...'Man he looked familiar' I said to myself....The gentleman on the road introduced himself and introduced his buddy 'Harold'. Wow! Turns out in the middle of nowhere ...on a side road...in the pitch black...I end up running into Hunter1947! Chances of that?!?! We help him and his buddy and get the animal into the truck...share some laughs...share some stories. I ask if I can take a pic of the elk. He says sure.... I head to the truck ...open the door turn on my phone 947pm (I know it's not 1947...but weird). The world works in weird ways...and maybe that was my chance to give back and say thank you buy helping him out and loading the animal into the truck....makes you think...
Anyways..... I could sit and type forever but wow what a trip....what beautiful country and I can't wait to do it again...So again...thank you to everyone on this site for helping me complete a childhood dream! It was worth the wait!
Take care...shoot straight and good luck the rest of the season. I'll be sure to bug you all soon.... Elk hunt 2018 ...t -minus less than two years away :)
Cheers!!
Clu
I want to start off by saying thanks again to everyone on this site for making this trip much smoother and a dream come true. Myself, best-man/best friend, dad and two BILs ended up making the trip. Dad, best buddy and I hunted Sep 1-5, then dad and I Sep 5-9. BILs showed up SEP 10-18. Everyday was a learning experience and offered so many cool and memorable events. The scenery was amazing and I found myself in the middle of nowhere KMs from nothing staring at the mountains in the distance or natural grass meadows. I personally saw every representation of the elk species (calf, cow, spike, 3 point, 4 point and massive 5x5 and 6x6...happen so quick as he rumbled through the timber 40 yards from me it looked like a bus with antlers). Dad and I hunted with our bows the entire time and ended up finding some good spots in the 1100m zone which ended up being our primary area. We ran into elk almost every day and had our chances. Truly that's all we/I could ask for. BC and the elk gave us our chance and we as hunters didn't do our job. We quickly learned that things were much different hunting with a bow and the ON setup that I had prepared for coming into the trip (10-50 yard shots in ON from what I was used to just didn't cut it). We spent a good amount of time early on scouting, learning and re-sighting in bows to give us some extra distance as the early experiences were just outside the 50 yard range. All worth it and all a very good learning experience as hunters and bowtechs....lol
Highlights:
1) We ended up camping at Cherry Lake (then made the 30 km voyage down and back to 1100m lol almost everyday). Spot was beautiful...lake was beautiful and fishing for small rainbows (something I miss) with my belly boat for the hour that we did it was great.
2) Archery season was awesome...lots of animals and lots of learning. Other than Grizzlies (which is ironic because of my previous posts leading up to the trip) we saw every animal group...grouse, rabbits, deer, moose, black bear, turkeys and of course elk. Awesome!
3) BILs - my one BIL got his first black bear and first WT (a nice 2x2) and my other BIL got a nice 4x4 WT. Such a cool thing because living out east I never get to hunt with them and considering that they've hunted for 3 years and these were their first animals...I sit back and think things are often meant to be. These are memories that we will all have forever and can talk about for a lifetime. We all will get our first animals....but getting them together as Brothers was just awesome! We got to talk about and walk through the gutting and cleaning process...and I since I do all of my own butchering, we went through that too.
4) Deer - saw tons of deer. Could have shot many but dad and I decided that Elk was the focus and that getting a deer would waste time and complicate things...so we just ended up watching, learning and just enjoying deer after deer after deer.
5) We have decided that this trip (well Archery Sep 1-9) is going to be an every 2 year trip. A month long trip is not in the cards for us moving forward...but a 10 day trip with weekends on each end will definitely be doable...how cool...
Great story -- So one of the main contributors to this trip and giving me info was Hunter1947. He helped me out a ton...gave me a bunch of info and was just overall awesome. So there we are...we had hunted to dark at one of our spots and got in the truck..there were a couple options to get home so we decided to take a shortcut....a short 5km vein that lead us back to the main road. It was dark by then and we headed home. ABout half way down the road there was a small truck parked on the side of the road...we slowed down and asked if they were ok. One gentlemen called to his buddy 'Do we need any help?"..."sure" rang a voice from the darkness. We pulled ahead...and headed back toward the truck....a light appeared and it was a quad. A gentleman on the quad now appeared...'Man he looked familiar' I said to myself....The gentleman on the road introduced himself and introduced his buddy 'Harold'. Wow! Turns out in the middle of nowhere ...on a side road...in the pitch black...I end up running into Hunter1947! Chances of that?!?! We help him and his buddy and get the animal into the truck...share some laughs...share some stories. I ask if I can take a pic of the elk. He says sure.... I head to the truck ...open the door turn on my phone 947pm (I know it's not 1947...but weird). The world works in weird ways...and maybe that was my chance to give back and say thank you buy helping him out and loading the animal into the truck....makes you think...
Anyways..... I could sit and type forever but wow what a trip....what beautiful country and I can't wait to do it again...So again...thank you to everyone on this site for helping me complete a childhood dream! It was worth the wait!
Take care...shoot straight and good luck the rest of the season. I'll be sure to bug you all soon.... Elk hunt 2018 ...t -minus less than two years away :)
Cheers!!
Clu