Gini's Dad gave us some REALLY good tickets to Mary Poppins so we went to with her sister, my sister-in-law and our two nephews. Gini's nephew loves movies and plays and is just so smart, he can memorize a play or movie from watching it one time and then wants to reenact it a billion times, it is really cute. My nephew loves Mary Poppins, whether he is watching the youtube video of Let's go Fly a kite for the 50th time at 11:30 PM while everyone is going to bed or he is doing stepping time everywhere he goes, he is truly a fan of Mary Poppins. Both of our
nephews were really into the play and it was really good to see that. We both really enjoyed spending the night with them, and I loved going to the play with my wife. Here we are
The next day we went to Logan, and watched Lori and Kassie play volleyball in the USU tournament. It was a lot of fun and I am starting to enjoy volleyball, I can't wait until Gini coaches our kids.
Sunday night I began my pilgrimage to the land of my forefathers, the Clear Creek area. For the past three years I have gone on the archery elk hunt with Greg down above Scofield. This year has been by far the most epic. I arrived up there Sunday night and setup my tent in the dark. I was really excited to sleep in a tent because I had bought this really nice tent like 3 years ago and never got a chance to use it. It performed like a champ.
Well so Monday morning we wake up and head down into a canyon. I took some zinc on the way down because I wasn't feeling too hot and was hoping to hold off a cold as long as I could. Well no one told me to take zinc with food or you'll get really sick. I got really sick, in the bottom of a canyon, like lost my lunch sick. We got close to the elk that morning but no shots. That night we rode the horses to the bottom of a different canyon and went for a hike, we got into the elk good. There was a herd of about 9 with a really big spike at like 70 yards I couldn't really see the whole herd so I stayed out of the fray but Greg got some shots off, but no hits. We then rode horses out of that canyon and were so glad that we had them, it was one steep son of a gun.
Side-note; to say I was out of shape would be an understatement. I have been working my nice cushy job in an office all day while Greg has been out on his feet, he was kicking my trash all over the mountain and I was glad he was there or I probably would have hiked half of what we did.
Tuesday: We wake up and go to check some feeding grounds, on the way Greg says hey let me borrow your range finder. I go to grab it from the belt on my bag and it is gone and I say ohhh crap. Right then I know that it is at the bottom of the canyon where we tied the horses up. I just had this feeling I was hoping it would be in camp but I knew it fell off when I was messing around with the horses last night in the dark. So we go look for it around camp. Finally we both realize we have to go back down into that steep canyon. We get on the horses and go and sure enough right where I got on the horse it was just sitting right there in the dirt. So we decide to hunt that area again. I see some elk at like 40 yards but they are through the trees and so I don't have any shots. It was so cool to just watch them move and interact. Finally they know something is up and they take off. So Greg and I are finishing up for the night when all the sudden we see this herd coming out of the trees at like 200 yards. I tell him and we hunker down, out walks this HUGE bull elk. We closed to 150 yards and then we couldn't get any closer because it was all open ground. We watched him and the cows for about 20 minutes before they decided to go the other way. Way cool. He was bugling at Greg and making sure we knew that was his place.
I know this is long but just bear with me.
Wednesday: We start off on a walk, I am tired and trying to take it easy and half way through the walk I realize you know taking it easy won't kill an elk I should just suck it up and hunt. So I just start heading to the bottom of this canyon. I can hear a bull bugling and so I make my way towards him. I am walking along a great trail when I see a cow coming my way at like 125 yards. I duck behind a tree and peak out and see she is on my same trail, so I range two turns one at 50 and one at 30 yards. I draw and lean out she hits the 50 yards turn and turns right towards me and is coming closer so I lean back behind the tree and lean out the other way she turns at 30 yards and I put right on her and let it fly. Direct hit, I can see the arrow sticking in her. She has no idea what just happened. She just turns and walks off like nothing is going on. I was like ohh crap I didn't hit her good so I am trying to nock another arrow when she just lays down like 10 yards away from where I shot her and die. I was so shocked and surprised. I look at my GPS, 8:15 AM.
The rest of that day was spent getting her out of the canyon and by rest of the day I mean I didn't leave the bottom of that canyon until 7:17 PM when I got in the truck to head back to camp.
It was sooooo much fun and I loved every minute of it. Here are some pictures and a video I made to keep myself occupied as I sat at the bottom while Greg made trips with the horses packing my cow out.
If you can't tell from the pictures this isn't very friendly country.
As if this all wasn't exciting enough, I hit a really nice 4-point buck just past the dam in Scofield, he didn't do more than a dent even though he rolled up my hood. I was really blessed.
The past week has been an amazing time for my memory banks. I can't wait to feed Gini and Emily good elk steaks.
