We got an early start today and reached our starting point before daylight. Shortly after organizing our gear at that spot, we heard a bugle but couldn’t tell where it came from.
After deciding to head toward a mountain to the south, we heard the bull bugle again. Unfortunately, we had chosen the wrong direction. Since I knew our chances of seeing something would still be good, we continued toward the mountain.
A few minutes later, a black bear scared us when it bounded away from us from the timber. It was an average size bear with a nice black coat. After the bear disappeared, we headed in the same direction.
About 15 minutes later, a bugle erupted from the valley below us. I quickly told Brian to bugle back to the bull. I knew it wasn’t too far away. When he bugled, the woods erupted with elk crashing through the timber in every direction. They weren’t with the bull that was bugling, which gave us some confidence. Hoping to catch up to the bull, we called to him again, and he answered again, but that was the last we heard from him.
We spent the day looking at some new ground and sat in a big meadow for the evening, which turned out to be uneventful. The daily storm rolled in around 2 p.m. and lasted until about 5 p.m. We can’t seem to escape the storms this year. We have had a storm every day except one.
Since dad is no longer hunting, he pulled a trail camera today. He got some pretty cool pictures on it. It’s nice to have something on trail camera other than deer. It’s a refreshing sight.
Tomorrow is the last day of the hunt. Although I didn’t connect on anything, or even draw my bow, this trip was one of my best yet. It was enjoyable for a number of reasons, which I’ll get into when I wrap it all up when I return home.
Brian and I are going out in the morning to give it one last shot before packing up to head home. I’m just going to soak in the experience and enjoy what the day has to offer.