A Day to Remember – Western Hunter

There’s all the time one thing particular about your first time. A primary kiss, first automobile, and first home are all deeply imprinted in our reminiscences. Attempt as we’d, we are able to by no means recreate the anticipation, surprise, and feelings that solely come when experiencing one thing for the primary time. Looking the West has been on my bucket listing for so long as I can keep in mind.

As a lifelong resident of the east coast, the lure of the West aroused my eager for journey and wild locations. After I obtained an invitation from my pal Elijah, a Utah transplant, to hitch him and two fellow Floridians on a DIY bow hunt for elk final fall, I jumped on the probability (after clearing it with my spouse, in fact).

I’m removed from the primary individual to be drawn west. Having spent my total life looking woodlots parceled like a checkerboard, girdled with “No Trespassing” indicators, the prospect to feed my wanderlust in a seemingly borderless land was greater than I might resist. For Mike, Jeff, and I, this may be our first time looking the mountain time zone. Planning for a hunt of this magnitude was thrilling.

We devoured each podcast and YouTube video about elk and backcountry looking we might discover (shout out to Looking Editor Remi Warren). Greater than as soon as, after reviewing our checking account, my spouse questioned if the journey was right here but. Because the summer season waned in the direction of September, our anticipation reached a fever pitch. It was clear that this journey was going to be a “first” that would go away an indelible mark in our lives. 

Taking It All In

When the day we had all been ready for lastly arrived, additionally my birthday, three expectant hunters converged within the early morning hours on the Orlando Worldwide Airport from totally different corners of the state to embark on an journey we had solely dreamt about. I couldn’t consider a greater strategy to have a good time my thirty ninth 12 months of life.

Touchdown noon in Salt Lake Metropolis, we had been met on the airport by Elijah. After transient stops to seize lunch and cargo our gear right into a small U-Haul trailer, we began the trek into the mountains. As we drove previous wind generators, antelope, and open landscapes, the panorama by the home windows of the four-wheel-drive Tacoma was greater than my eye’s slender lenses might soak up . Three hours later, we pulled right into a trailhead I’d solely considered by a pc display screen throughout e-scouting classes.

Dawn got here each shortly and never shortly sufficient for our weary, but keen group of hunters. We deliberate to hunt our manner up a small, timbered, flat-bottomed drainage whereas calling and in search of contemporary signal. Pleasure got here shortly with two encounters with spike bulls earlier than lunch. After gaining 1,300 ft of elevation, our legs and lungs tell us that it was time to interrupt for lunch. Refreshed by our transient respite, we spent the afternoon looking above 10,000 ft, discovering solely dry scat and year-old rubs. It was clear that the contemporary signal was down decrease, so after ready out a short storm that rolled by, we pointed our path again down the grade.

Bugles And Drums

Whereas descending the excessive alpine timber, by intermittent rain showers, we entered a secluded bowl the place one in all our location bugles was lastly answered by our goal quarry, a number of hundred yards east. It’s superb how a hunt can go from doldrums to frenzy straight away. Inside seconds, three keen hunters had been staged, bow-in-hand, straining our senses within the path of the international noise forward whereas Elijah, essentially the most skilled caller of our troupe, dropped again to proceed the vocal ruse.

Simply after we arrange, the massive bull was immediately in entrance of Mike on the middle of our skirmish line, ripping a bugle and raking a tree. In even much less time than it took for him to chop the space, the bull’s nostrils full of our repugnant odor. He about-faced whereas Mike briefly earned the nickname “Travis Barker” for the abuse he inflicted whereas drumming an harmless pine within the frenzy because the mature 5×5 ran away.

Our first shut encounter with a rocky mountain bull elk left us shaken and exhilarated. We sat down for a brief break to permit our coronary heart charges to drop again into the inexperienced zone and suppose out our subsequent steps. Whereas recouping, a plan was put in place to hunt in the direction of a north-facing slope a mile and half from camp for the stability of daylight. On our manner there, we scrambled over two rocky spines, anxiously waited for looming thunder to cross, and discovered firsthand what it means to be cliffed-out.

Inside Vary

Shortly after cresting onto the goal slope, we had been met by a pungent odor I can greatest describe as akin to a moist barn animal. It didn’t take lengthy for us to be taught the supply of this sturdy odor. A curious 3×3 bull trotted in from behind us to 30 yards, then shortly turned heel earlier than any of us had been in a position to get a bow drawn. Our second shut encounter ended even sooner than the primary, leaving us wanting dumbfounded, considering “What simply occurred?!”

With an hour and a half of daylight remaining, we resumed our descent, solely to be interrupted once more quarter-hour later by one other bugle 150 yards to our left. One other scramble discovered myself and Mike going through the presumed path of the bull whereas Elijah and Jeff hung again to aim to attract the bull in. In the course of the wait, the wind briefly picked up, blowing over a lifeless pine tree that was shut sufficient for me to momentarily query my sanity.

Earlier than I used to be in a position to conclude that thought, the bull appeared under me on a path that may intersect inside bow vary. Scanning the hillside in entrance of him, I noticed a window by the pines immediately under me that introduced my solely shot alternative. Because the bull approached, I drew again, and as he stuffed the opening, I cut up the distinction between my 30 and 40-yard pins and launched.

The one indication that the arrow discovered its mark was a momentary flinch earlier than the bull continued his purposed march out of my sight and into Mike’s, who I might see to my left. I quietly cheered as I watched Mike draw his bow and unfastened an arrow, adopted by the all too acquainted “crack!” of a projectile hitting a tree. The sound spooked the bull again previous me and out of sight. Nonetheless within the “zone” I get into when my total focus is on a singular process, I nocked a second arrow and slipped within the path my shot had flown seconds earlier than. After I cleared the small opening, I discovered the bull was going through away at 40 yards with the look of a mortally wounded animal not sure of what was ailing it. Drawing again once more, I whispered to the bull, “Simply give me one thing.” As if listening to my plea, he turned again to look, offering the quartering away shot I wanted to penetrate a second arrow.

With the bull out of sight once more, I regarded down to seek out the primary arrow at my ft with the purple tint I used to be praying for, confirming the arrow had discovered its mark. Returning the arrow to its quiver, the dam holding again my feelings started to breach. At that time, Mike walked up, and we excitedly recounted our variations of what simply transpired which had been repeated when Elijah and Jeff joined us. Cautiously excited, our foursome fanned out to start monitoring.

Recipe For A “First”

A mere 50 yards down the path, we noticed the tawny disguise of the elk laying on the mountain flooring. After the bull was confirmed lifeless, we threw our warning to the wind and embraced the thrill as a band of brothers who had achieved one thing none of us had been sure would really occur.

In reflection, many substances made the journey and that day one which we’ll always remember: the generosity of a pal sharing the fruits of his 4 years of studying he had invested; the rugged terrain sculpted on the daybreak of time with the wild creatures that decision it residence; the camaraderie and unselfishness of 4 kindred spirits experiencing life collectively; listening to the primal bugles of rutting elk whereas gazing at satellites arcing throughout the starry night time sky; the satisfying feeling of exhaustion after packing out the spoils of a profitable hunt; and rather more that may reside on in our reminiscences.I solely have to gaze on the mount of the beast on my wall that drew us to this unimaginable place for the reminiscences to return flooding again. We had been fellow sojourners in a uncooked and exquisite land whose paths briefly crossed on one memorable day. Whereas the elk’s journey has come to an finish, ours continues with a reminiscence of an unforgettable first that shall be carried and retold till ours reaches the identical inevitable conclusion.