Post by zeeriverrat on Dec 9, 2014 10:43:37 GMT -5
My sister's partner, Rick, invited me to hunt elk in the Bob Marshall wilderness of Montana. He and his mates have been hunting there for the last 17 years and have had a fair share of luck killing elk. It has been a dream of mine to experience a horseback hunt in the 'Bob", so I was off to scratch another item off of my bucket list.
I had no idea of how much work it was going to take to organize and a pack for a trip like that....they had to gather up the stock, horses and mules...Rick had 4 of the mules and 2 saddle horses...the rest of the stock was supplied by the other guys.
We had to truck the stock about 60 miles to the cabin that was used as a base for packing at Home gulch in the Sun River Canyon. The cabin is located on the eastern front of the Rocky Mtns.
All the gear was assembled and the loads were calculated and weighed so that they would stay balanced on the mules...
In this picture Rick and Dave Carlson are beginning the process of manty-ing the loads of duffel to go on the mules....
There is an art to packing this stuff...
When it is done right you get a nice compact package...
Once everything was packed up we had a big truck load of gear....that made up loads for 6 mules and one horse...
Then the stock was loaded into trailers and trucked 6 miles to the trail head...once in the parking lot the mules were loaded and the horses were saddled....
It had been 30 years since I had been on a saddle horse...and I knew what was coming! They put me on a big horse named Patriot...or BigBoy as the called him, it was like straddling an oil drum.
the horses and mules got lined out and our 6 saddle horses and 7 pack animals started up the trail.....we would follow the Gibson Reservoir Lake trail and eventually end up in Arsenic Creek after a 3 hour ride.....
I had been warned about the lake trail...it got interesting very quickly. It was very sobering to know that my existence now relied on about 1000lbs of horse flesh that was plodding along beneath me...
The trail was carved out to the rock into the side of the mountain...and it was a long way down to the water...
I didn't want to think about meeting another pack string headed back to the landing....
In spite of the trail...the scenery was spectacular.....
Eventually we got to the camp spot on Arsenic Creek...everyone pitched in and the tent went up in a hurry...it was late in the day already.
The stove was installed and the kitchen gear unpacked....
Wood was cut and stacked...gear and sleeping stuff organized....and Rick and Ronnie managed to find a beer...
We weren't short on groceries and we ate quite well....Under Rick's instruction I learned how to do a roast on the top of the wood stove...something that I will try on my own camping trip one of these days....
The hunting plan was to leave camp each morning and ride in the dark to Whiskey Cr. to try to intercept migrating elk at daylite....the next morning I stayed in camp. I was so crippled up from the ride in that I couldn't get on a horse. Someone was required to stay in camp with the stock (Forest Service regulations...) to deal with any grizzly bears that showed up. Ronnie was going to stay in camp too...so he and I hunted in a ground blind that was close to camp, across the creek and just up the mountain a little....
We arrived just as day was breaking....we watched this opening and glassed openings across the creek from where we were camped...
We could something moving in the dark timber near the stand..it was getting closer... I said it might be elk..Ronnie said maybe a bear....the sound came within 30yds...and our wind was going that direction...the sound moved back the way it came...and about 75 yds away... See the red circle in the pic, a big grizzly bear stood up to look at us....! Ronnie immediately threw his arms in the air and began yelling...to my surprise the bear took off like a shot! It was a bit un-nerving...we didn't stay in the blind much longer before returning to camp!
Here is the view looking across Arsenic Creek and toward the North fork of the Sun River...
Back at camp....I got acquainted better with the horses and mules... This mule 'Butter', like the rest of the mules was a friendly sort that would come when called by name...never having been around mules before, I found them to be delightful creatures...and not nearly the crazy stubborn animals they are made out to be...
The next morning was my first trip into Whiskey Cr....Long before daylight in the pitch dark we saddled up and once we left the thicket we were camped in, all the lights were turned off...and the horses traveled in the dark. It was an errie feeling to be going along on a horse and not even being able to see the horse in front of you....once in awhile you would see a spark on the ground where a hoof hit a rock with the metal shoe....up hill, down hill, across creeks...never knowing what was coming... Then we came around the mountain and I could hear a water fall roaring hundreds of feet below me in the dark...my imagination could conjure up some scary descriptions of the trail we were riding on.....
After an hour or so, we made it to the Whiskey Cr. area and got off the horses to hunt...there were 5 of us and we spread out in the dark to take stands.... As it got light I saw that I was in a vast grassy area...favored by the elk for night feeding... at daylight they would move down hill and cross the river to the safety of the Sun river Game Refuge... No one in our party got a shot...a few elk were seen a long way off. A group of hunters farther up the river shot a couple of times... The pics below are from the Whiskey Cr. area...
Over the 12 days we spent in Arsenic Cr... I made several trips to Whiskey creek and did a lot of hunting close to camp on the days I was too beat up to ride a horse. I rode on 5 different horses...Bigboy, JoJo, Elmo, Maggie, and Elvis.....and learned that everyone of them was a unique individual, and they all treated me well, except for my aging hips! Hunting out of camp I did end up seeing 7 elk one morning on an opening....but they were too far to shoot at.. I managed to get set up closer to that opening and did see another elk in range right at daylight one morning...It was a lone elk and I could not be positive if it was a spike or a cow...Spikes were not legal to shoot and I certainly did not want to make a mistake...I just did not have enough light to be sure...so I passed. This picture shows the opening and the location of the only elk that I saw on the trip.... the ? mark is where the lone elk was...it got into the timber just as it was getting light...
Ron surveys the countryside when he and I hunted from camp one afternoon....
The 'Bob' is a truly beautiful area....
When I started on this trip....elk antlers were pretty important....but as the trip progressed and I was immersed in the vastness and beauty of the area the antlers lost their importance...
I made new friends, both human and animal...and was in a very beautiful and special place....
How was my hunt....well, my tags remained in tact...but it was a wonderful hunt!!
Zee
I had no idea of how much work it was going to take to organize and a pack for a trip like that....they had to gather up the stock, horses and mules...Rick had 4 of the mules and 2 saddle horses...the rest of the stock was supplied by the other guys.
We had to truck the stock about 60 miles to the cabin that was used as a base for packing at Home gulch in the Sun River Canyon. The cabin is located on the eastern front of the Rocky Mtns.
All the gear was assembled and the loads were calculated and weighed so that they would stay balanced on the mules...
In this picture Rick and Dave Carlson are beginning the process of manty-ing the loads of duffel to go on the mules....
There is an art to packing this stuff...
When it is done right you get a nice compact package...
Once everything was packed up we had a big truck load of gear....that made up loads for 6 mules and one horse...
Then the stock was loaded into trailers and trucked 6 miles to the trail head...once in the parking lot the mules were loaded and the horses were saddled....
It had been 30 years since I had been on a saddle horse...and I knew what was coming! They put me on a big horse named Patriot...or BigBoy as the called him, it was like straddling an oil drum.
the horses and mules got lined out and our 6 saddle horses and 7 pack animals started up the trail.....we would follow the Gibson Reservoir Lake trail and eventually end up in Arsenic Creek after a 3 hour ride.....
I had been warned about the lake trail...it got interesting very quickly. It was very sobering to know that my existence now relied on about 1000lbs of horse flesh that was plodding along beneath me...
The trail was carved out to the rock into the side of the mountain...and it was a long way down to the water...
I didn't want to think about meeting another pack string headed back to the landing....
In spite of the trail...the scenery was spectacular.....
Eventually we got to the camp spot on Arsenic Creek...everyone pitched in and the tent went up in a hurry...it was late in the day already.
The stove was installed and the kitchen gear unpacked....
Wood was cut and stacked...gear and sleeping stuff organized....and Rick and Ronnie managed to find a beer...
We weren't short on groceries and we ate quite well....Under Rick's instruction I learned how to do a roast on the top of the wood stove...something that I will try on my own camping trip one of these days....
The hunting plan was to leave camp each morning and ride in the dark to Whiskey Cr. to try to intercept migrating elk at daylite....the next morning I stayed in camp. I was so crippled up from the ride in that I couldn't get on a horse. Someone was required to stay in camp with the stock (Forest Service regulations...) to deal with any grizzly bears that showed up. Ronnie was going to stay in camp too...so he and I hunted in a ground blind that was close to camp, across the creek and just up the mountain a little....
We arrived just as day was breaking....we watched this opening and glassed openings across the creek from where we were camped...
We could something moving in the dark timber near the stand..it was getting closer... I said it might be elk..Ronnie said maybe a bear....the sound came within 30yds...and our wind was going that direction...the sound moved back the way it came...and about 75 yds away... See the red circle in the pic, a big grizzly bear stood up to look at us....! Ronnie immediately threw his arms in the air and began yelling...to my surprise the bear took off like a shot! It was a bit un-nerving...we didn't stay in the blind much longer before returning to camp!
Here is the view looking across Arsenic Creek and toward the North fork of the Sun River...
Back at camp....I got acquainted better with the horses and mules... This mule 'Butter', like the rest of the mules was a friendly sort that would come when called by name...never having been around mules before, I found them to be delightful creatures...and not nearly the crazy stubborn animals they are made out to be...
The next morning was my first trip into Whiskey Cr....Long before daylight in the pitch dark we saddled up and once we left the thicket we were camped in, all the lights were turned off...and the horses traveled in the dark. It was an errie feeling to be going along on a horse and not even being able to see the horse in front of you....once in awhile you would see a spark on the ground where a hoof hit a rock with the metal shoe....up hill, down hill, across creeks...never knowing what was coming... Then we came around the mountain and I could hear a water fall roaring hundreds of feet below me in the dark...my imagination could conjure up some scary descriptions of the trail we were riding on.....
After an hour or so, we made it to the Whiskey Cr. area and got off the horses to hunt...there were 5 of us and we spread out in the dark to take stands.... As it got light I saw that I was in a vast grassy area...favored by the elk for night feeding... at daylight they would move down hill and cross the river to the safety of the Sun river Game Refuge... No one in our party got a shot...a few elk were seen a long way off. A group of hunters farther up the river shot a couple of times... The pics below are from the Whiskey Cr. area...
Over the 12 days we spent in Arsenic Cr... I made several trips to Whiskey creek and did a lot of hunting close to camp on the days I was too beat up to ride a horse. I rode on 5 different horses...Bigboy, JoJo, Elmo, Maggie, and Elvis.....and learned that everyone of them was a unique individual, and they all treated me well, except for my aging hips! Hunting out of camp I did end up seeing 7 elk one morning on an opening....but they were too far to shoot at.. I managed to get set up closer to that opening and did see another elk in range right at daylight one morning...It was a lone elk and I could not be positive if it was a spike or a cow...Spikes were not legal to shoot and I certainly did not want to make a mistake...I just did not have enough light to be sure...so I passed. This picture shows the opening and the location of the only elk that I saw on the trip.... the ? mark is where the lone elk was...it got into the timber just as it was getting light...
Ron surveys the countryside when he and I hunted from camp one afternoon....
The 'Bob' is a truly beautiful area....
When I started on this trip....elk antlers were pretty important....but as the trip progressed and I was immersed in the vastness and beauty of the area the antlers lost their importance...
I made new friends, both human and animal...and was in a very beautiful and special place....
How was my hunt....well, my tags remained in tact...but it was a wonderful hunt!!
Zee