Utah's extended archery elk hunt ended last weekend and I made one final attempt at "gittin' it done".
All to no avail, if you measure success strictly by filling a tag.
But fortunately, I measure it in the quality of the experience. And last Saturday morning was a great experience with my son Mark.
It was Mill Creek Canyon in Utah's Wasatch front. We started our hike in the chilly wee hours of the morning, at about 6a.m.
The hike was one I've made 3 or 4 times in the past so I felt like I knew the terrain. This time, however, it was covered in snow, and once we broke off of the main, winter white road, Mark and I were busting through untracked snow, as we climbed nearly 1200 vertical feet onward and upward to the saddle below Mount Are.
I figured it would be the right place for elk to hide, counting on the idea that nobody else would make the trek. They'd feel perfectly safe in that area.
Sure enough, on the way up, we saw deer, elk and even moose tracks, but no living animals on the hoof. When we reached the saddle the tracks had disappeared.
QUESTION: At what point should you abandon PLAN A, to follow fresh tracks, as opposed to sticking with the original plan?
Please let me know what you think.
On the way back down, we climbed a ridge to a glassing point and spotted a cow moose on a slope on the other side of the trail, at about 300 yards or so.
But I was wearing my HECS gear, which is supposed to block my electromagnetic field, making living movement imperceptible to animals.
So I decided to see how close I could stalk in. As you see in the photo below, I only closed to about 60 or 70 yards. I think at that point the noise I was making may have scared her off. It wasn't my scent. I was about at the same elevation and the wind was generally in my favor. I think it was the noise. At times I was hip-deep in the snow and was bushwhacking through some noisy, thick brush.
(Moose in the circle on the left; me in the circle on the right.)
But the effort was both hard work and plenty of fun. Great way to wrap up the hunt… except for not filling that tag, of course.
