Justin and littlebuf's elk hunt

[Justin Crossley]

Dinner time.

 

[Brock A]

No jetboil yet? ;-)

Man I can't wait till Tuesday!

 

[Justin Crossley]

Just got back to camp. We had a bull bugling at us this morning. Couldn't get him in range.

We followed him and got him bugling again. Still couldn't close the distance as the elk were moving away.

We'll be back after them again after we dry out.

 

[Liljozie495]

Awesome! Hope you Guys get back on him!

 

[Justin Crossley]

Found some more Mario mushrooms Brock.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Well I'm back home for the week. Littlebuf hiked out with me after the morning hunt today. He'll be back up there Tuesday and I'll be back up Friday.

Last night we hiked to a spot we knew the elk would be crossing through to get from their bedding area to their feeding area. We were hoping to get back on the bull that we called in earlier.

As we worked our way through the timber, we started running into cows but no bulls. We kept working slowly along a really steep side hill careful not to spook the cows that were all around us. As we came to a really steep spot we heard an elk spook and looked down to see a rag horn below us about 100 yds. We cow called a couple times and got him to stop and look back up the hill. Since littlebuf called for me earlier, it was his turn to try and get a shot. We tried getting the bull to come to us but he wasn't having it. Plan "B" sent littlebuf down the hill to try and close the gap while I continued to call from above to keep the attention of the bull. As littlebuf got to the bottom of the hill, the bull moved off a little way and I started heading down while still calling to the bull. When I was about halfway I caught sight of it again and saw that it wasn't too far from us. At that time littlebuf motioned to me that he could see another bull. So now I'm up on a steep side hill about fifty yards above littlebuf and the bulls are to my left about 100 yds. still. We both started moving toward the bulls while calling back and forth. The bulls kept slowly moving away and we were unable to close the distance.

Hopefully by next weekend they will be rutting better and we can close the deal.

 

[Justin Crossley]

A couple pics.

 

[littlebuf]

Should I tell them about the two times I died?

 

[Shrek]

I'm hoping this story doesn't have any mouth to mouth recessitation or big spoon little spoon hypothermia treatments .... but if not enquiring minds want to know !

 

[Brock A]

I'm hoping this story doesn't have any mouth to mouth recessitation or big spoon little spoon hypothermia treatments .... but if not enquiring minds want to know !

Im putting my money on big spoon, little spoon ;-)

 

[Shrek]

Im putting my money on big spoon, little spoon ;-)

I'm afraid that might be the case lol !

 

[littlebuf]

alright but just to stir the pot cuz im getting bored waiting till tomorrow to head back up. last week we had an incredible storm roll through Thursday night (no spooning I was up by myself) any way it was huge weather. wind up there was pushing 50 and it rained at least 4 inches in maybe 6 hours. heres where I almost died

1- I was using a down quilt not a synthetic bag
2- the quilt got wet
3- I got wet and got in the quilt

now ive been on rokslide long enough to know that any one of these things listed above means certain death by them selves, I combined all three. so as im getting in my wet quilt (not synthetic bag) in my wet clothes I just laid there waiting for death to take me. and then I felt it, the warm sensation of deaths embrace......

but I wasn't dying and the warm sensation was actually my wet down quilt (not synthetic bag) not only keeping me warm but drying me out, even while it was still getting wet from the gallon size rain drops hitting my single wall tent and splashing up all around me. I woke up warm and dry, not cold and dead like I know I should have from all the wisdom ive read on this web site. any way I spent two nights where I got in that quilt wet, one of the nights only was the quilt wet to begin with. and theres the two times I died based on what I know is infallible internet wisdom.

 

[colonel00]

Interesting story. What clothes were you wearing when you got in the wet bag?

 

[littlebuf]

filson long johns, some random wool socks and a merino top. I may be dead now and this is all just purgatory

 

[littlebuf]

but I also put my wet accent pants in the bag next to me to dry them out. they got dry.....

 

[Justin Crossley]

Just to make sure, he also sleep walked/crawled out of his tent Friday night and awoke laying outside in a puddle, with his tent pole knocked down. At least he didn't rip the door out of his tent this time.

 

[littlebuf]

that would be the second night I spent wet in my quilt. I was just doing that for testing purposes. doesn't every body roll around in a puddle in the middle of the night to see how there gear works?

 

[Hunt'nFish]

Are they using that fancy new rainproof down in that Borah quilt?
And this was w/ your Squall II?
Hunt'nFish

 

[littlebuf]

rev x quilt,regular down. 900 fill I think. it was my TT squall. and honestly for the weather I was in I was really impressed with how it held up. the new guy out points I put on leaked a bit but that was my seam sealing. its a single wall tent so with the incredible amount of water coming out of the sky it was condensating a ton and then the huge rain drops would constantly knock the condensation off the tent. also developed a puddle on top of the tent it was raining so much it just couldn't run off fast enough so that would condensate and drip. but where I was really getting wet was just the splash and wind driven rain from the lower venting on the tent. ive had this tent in some pretty bad rain storms and been perfectly dry, but this was a different storm. all in all i was really impressed with how dry I did stay. I would have had to have a 4 season double wall tent up there to ride that storm properly, so my little two season toughed it out pretty good. if I didn't have the mods I did on the tent it would have been a lot worse though. that guy line kept the tent off me just like I planned.

 

[Hunt'nFish]

Thanks Trevor, good to hear your opinion of it. Yeah, I think that storm is about the worst a guy would ever see. Question....how close to the ground can you pitch the fly on that? And how close DID you have it pitched?
Mike