snareman1234
12-26-2010, 10:27 AM
Well here goes the story of our Bison hunt over the holidays.
We found out in the summer that my friend (muleymadness) pulled a bison tag for 7-57 from the middle of december 'til the end.
Him and I are only 19 so as excited as we were, we had to make sure my dad was on board as well because it is a bit more of a hunt than we could plan alone. Immediately my dad was on side and all the planning began.
I finished up my semester of school at ubco on the 16th, headed home to Chilliwack and we left for the north on the 18th. It took us a day and a half to finally get up to our cabin. We saw tons of game on our drive, moose, elk, deer( couple beauties).
Day 2. We arrived at our cabin, unloaded the sleds and got set up. We went for a ride the first night to get the lay of the land, and see if we could find the trail around the ranch. We did find it but it was a pretty windy trail and after talking to my dad he said we should just pay Vern and cross the ranch because we came all this way we are not going to dick around on a little trail everyday trying to push up the valley.
Owners house
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC191084.jpg
Our Cabin
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC221121.jpg
Inside
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC221132.jpg
Day 3. So the next morning, we got up nice and early and had some breaky and packed a lunch and away Muleymadness and I went up the valley.
I'll point this out right now before we get too deep in the story, although we have all the gear and we hunt lots, riding sleds and hunting in -30 weather is something we had no experience in and we learned a lot about the cold the hard way, but we learned.
We sledded through the ranch and all the way to the river crossing that morning but did not cross the river because it was about 10ft wide and 2ft deep unfrozen, and we had a skimmer and no river crossing experience and decided a mistake would be very uncomfortable and possibly fatal. We had always said that because there is only the one trail going up the valley that we wanted to get up top and glass to find the bison in the pocket meadows away from the road, so that's what we did.
All the way back down the valley we hiked every mountain/hill we could find and just glassed the valley (was a pain undressing from sledding clothes to hiking clothes repeatedly). On our way down the valley we glassed a few elk in the alpine and some moose and some deer. On the last spot, we hiked higher than any of the other mountains we went up and it was tough footing too.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/36258_10150336464755707_726015706_16205261_3077398 _n.jpg
But, finally we made it to a nice lookout that I had seen on the way up. I sat down and got behind my new swarovski 8.5's. I worked over the meadows and then let my eyes wander up the mountains on the same side of the valley we were on. I spotted our first group! I had never seen bison before in my life! It was soo cool, they were about 2km from the trail and about 500-800ft above it. I called my buddy over and we talked about our plan because it was about 3 and it gets dark at about 4:30 (mtn time). We decided to go after them but to not push them if it got dark. We had a last look at the landmarks so we could find where they were when we go for the stalk ( I have such a problem stalking an animal I've glassed, it always looks sooo different when you are getting up on it) We hopped on the sleds and drove to where we thought we should go in from. Muleymadness led the way and I picked up the tail. We went about 30mins in and I started saying I thought they were on the next ridge and he said no way, lets look over the edge here, and about 10 mins later we walked over to hear a twig snap and then all hell broke loose. These bison were running all around us. My buddy left me and went to circle them and hiked up. All I could hear was animals moving and at one point they all ran right at me, and I could hear them coming through the willows, that was nerve racking, luckily I was out in the open but I was sure they were going to all plow out of there, but they stayed just hidden. I then saw one pass between two trees, and then another, I knew they were all going to file past here, so I called my buddy over and we waited for a good shot on one. Finally, about the 12th one stopped between the two trees and he let her have it.
We hiked up and got on their trail and found blood right away, but it wasn't much blood, just consistent drops. We followed the herd and the blood for a long time, well into the dark, but the blood went to almost nothing and it got really cold. We decided it was of no use tromping through the bush at dark after this animal and the herd and we had to make the tough decision to leave the animal for the night.
It was dark, and we headed back to the sleds, which were now about a 45 minute downhill hike. We finally got back out, and got all dressed up to go back. In my cold weather sledding naivete, I only had the two layers of beleclava, and had left them on the sled, and were now frozen hard. This is what it looked like while I was sledding so you can imagine after it froze in a ball.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/74635_10150336464205707_726015706_16205244_3211669 _n.jpg
We found out in the summer that my friend (muleymadness) pulled a bison tag for 7-57 from the middle of december 'til the end.
Him and I are only 19 so as excited as we were, we had to make sure my dad was on board as well because it is a bit more of a hunt than we could plan alone. Immediately my dad was on side and all the planning began.
I finished up my semester of school at ubco on the 16th, headed home to Chilliwack and we left for the north on the 18th. It took us a day and a half to finally get up to our cabin. We saw tons of game on our drive, moose, elk, deer( couple beauties).
Day 2. We arrived at our cabin, unloaded the sleds and got set up. We went for a ride the first night to get the lay of the land, and see if we could find the trail around the ranch. We did find it but it was a pretty windy trail and after talking to my dad he said we should just pay Vern and cross the ranch because we came all this way we are not going to dick around on a little trail everyday trying to push up the valley.
Owners house
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC191084.jpg
Our Cabin
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC221121.jpg
Inside
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/PC221132.jpg
Day 3. So the next morning, we got up nice and early and had some breaky and packed a lunch and away Muleymadness and I went up the valley.
I'll point this out right now before we get too deep in the story, although we have all the gear and we hunt lots, riding sleds and hunting in -30 weather is something we had no experience in and we learned a lot about the cold the hard way, but we learned.
We sledded through the ranch and all the way to the river crossing that morning but did not cross the river because it was about 10ft wide and 2ft deep unfrozen, and we had a skimmer and no river crossing experience and decided a mistake would be very uncomfortable and possibly fatal. We had always said that because there is only the one trail going up the valley that we wanted to get up top and glass to find the bison in the pocket meadows away from the road, so that's what we did.
All the way back down the valley we hiked every mountain/hill we could find and just glassed the valley (was a pain undressing from sledding clothes to hiking clothes repeatedly). On our way down the valley we glassed a few elk in the alpine and some moose and some deer. On the last spot, we hiked higher than any of the other mountains we went up and it was tough footing too.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/36258_10150336464755707_726015706_16205261_3077398 _n.jpg
But, finally we made it to a nice lookout that I had seen on the way up. I sat down and got behind my new swarovski 8.5's. I worked over the meadows and then let my eyes wander up the mountains on the same side of the valley we were on. I spotted our first group! I had never seen bison before in my life! It was soo cool, they were about 2km from the trail and about 500-800ft above it. I called my buddy over and we talked about our plan because it was about 3 and it gets dark at about 4:30 (mtn time). We decided to go after them but to not push them if it got dark. We had a last look at the landmarks so we could find where they were when we go for the stalk ( I have such a problem stalking an animal I've glassed, it always looks sooo different when you are getting up on it) We hopped on the sleds and drove to where we thought we should go in from. Muleymadness led the way and I picked up the tail. We went about 30mins in and I started saying I thought they were on the next ridge and he said no way, lets look over the edge here, and about 10 mins later we walked over to hear a twig snap and then all hell broke loose. These bison were running all around us. My buddy left me and went to circle them and hiked up. All I could hear was animals moving and at one point they all ran right at me, and I could hear them coming through the willows, that was nerve racking, luckily I was out in the open but I was sure they were going to all plow out of there, but they stayed just hidden. I then saw one pass between two trees, and then another, I knew they were all going to file past here, so I called my buddy over and we waited for a good shot on one. Finally, about the 12th one stopped between the two trees and he let her have it.
We hiked up and got on their trail and found blood right away, but it wasn't much blood, just consistent drops. We followed the herd and the blood for a long time, well into the dark, but the blood went to almost nothing and it got really cold. We decided it was of no use tromping through the bush at dark after this animal and the herd and we had to make the tough decision to leave the animal for the night.
It was dark, and we headed back to the sleds, which were now about a 45 minute downhill hike. We finally got back out, and got all dressed up to go back. In my cold weather sledding naivete, I only had the two layers of beleclava, and had left them on the sled, and were now frozen hard. This is what it looked like while I was sledding so you can imagine after it froze in a ball.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c270/empire_baller/74635_10150336464205707_726015706_16205244_3211669 _n.jpg