Nov. 8, 1997 - Elk Trip

I decided I was going to go hunting and I don't know many people who go hunting. The ones I do know I didn't want to go with. They usually let me pay for most of the trip when I ask them, so I decided to go by myself.

My wife loaded the food for me. As usual there was enough for a lot of us for a long time. I guess too much is better than not enough. I had lots of room for it because the van is a one-ton maxi. Twenty-three people all sitting down is the most I ever put in it, and we only went ten miles to the Oregon City Shopping Center to play videos. It drove sluggish and did not stop as fast as usual.

I put in the things that I would need -- gun, ammunition, socks, hat, and boots. Oh yes, knife. Why I don't know. I stopped at the gas station and filled up my 51-gallon gas tank just so I could get one of those free elk that I never seem to see. When I do, it's only for a tenth of a second because they can go so fast through a bunch of trees. Sometimes I can even tell what sex they are. It is a lot of fun to see one and I get excited when I do see one. I thought I had enough clothes, but the little wife says, "No," so she puts more in. With everything for the trip that anybody could ever want in the van and barely enough room to sit and drive, I am ready to go, I think.

About half way there I thought that an alarm clock would be good to get up by, so I pulled into The Dalles. There was a store that had everything in it, but nothing you wanted -- alarm clocks? Lots of them -- electric, battery, and plug-in. There was one that was wind up, and I bought it. Off I went again.

Off I go and I get there with no problems. I drive right to the spot I want to camp and there is no one there; so I set up camp. This involves shutting off the motor and walking around to the side and getting in. I can crawl over if it is raining, snowing, or muddy out side.

Yes, I think I will cook a can of food. The propane tank needs a wrench to put the pipe on for the hose to the stove and the lantern on top. Wrench. Where is it? No tools that will work. This truck is full and no Wrench. Well there was a camp down the road, so off I go. I walk to the camp. It has three big tents, a trailer house, and a pile of wood that would last me half a winter at home. [They were only there for a week -- two guys and their wives.] Well, I asked them if they have a wrench. They went in one of their tents and got me one. Their dog, a rotwiller, knew that I was there and got up and barked, scaring the you-now-what out of me. Well, I put the pipe on and took the wrench back.

Yes, it is time for food. My raviolis heated right up and I ate them right out of the can. That way I only had to wash the spoon. Well, it was starting to rain and getting dark. It was about 8:00. OK, I went to bed after setting the alarm that I made the special stop for. It was a loud tick-tock-tick-tock, and it was really loud when there were no other sounds out there to go with it. But, I was tired so off to sleep I went.

Yes, that alarm did work. There is no light out and it is cold, very cold. I found the flashlight and lit the lantern, then the stove, and opened the window just for air. I got another can. This time it was beans. I put it on the stove and when it got hot, I ate them. It is getting warm in the van. I get all my things together an put on and off I go.

There is a good place to hunt right back of camp so I go right up the hill. I get up there on top just as the sun starts up. I am right were I want to be. There were no tracks so I mosie along very slowly. I noticed a hunter, then another. I picked up the pace. I think I went right down the line of them. There were about ten of them and I saw them all. This made it about noon so back to camp to eat and think of a new plan. It was a can of heated corn for lunch.

I went across the road and up the other side. It is old growth and dark in there even in the middle of the day, but on top it is a lot thinner. You can see for a long way in some places. The wind was blowing hard and you could sneak around and not be heard by the elk. To this day I don't know why I try to sneak up on them. They can walk faster than I can and hear better. The truth is I get bored and start to doze off. So on the move I go. I walked all over this little area and on my way back I saw a cow through the trees. I froze. There was a herd of elk, about ten or so that walked through. I was looking for horns. I didn't see any but my heart was going about hundred times a minute. I thought that was all of them so after a little while I started walking. Evidently, it was not long enough because there were more of them there. They ran down the hill and I didn't get to see them. Darn. I started back to the van. It was about an hour away. There was a little rain coming down, not enough to worry about. Ha. It picked up and kept picking up. When I got to the old growth, it was coming down hard and it was dark in the woods. When I got to the van, I was wet and cold so I took off my wet clothes and put them in a bag. I put on clean dry ones. This made it about four o'clock. I cooked a can of hash. Now what do I do?

There's the radio, and if you want a campfire, it is out side in the cold. I think I will read an Archie comic book and then go to bed.

I am up and hour before dawn eating my can of food, getting my things on and ready to go hunting. I walk off into the old growth and find a good spot to sit and wait for a big one to come by. After a few hours I am off moseying again. I get on some fresh tracks and follow them. They take me toward the main intersection and then go along the main road just where you can't see the elk if you were on the road. I circle around this little hill and head back to camp to eat my can of food.

I am at camp and here comes Vellen. He is driving the GEO that we just put a front end on that had been crunched. It was a money making adventure that Vellen found hard to part with. It only got 54 miles to the gallon. I can see his point.

We ate and into the old growth we went. I told Vellen to walk along this edge and I would go on this stand and we would meet at the van. I got to the place were I wanted to be and started to wait. I was there for what seemed to be a long time so I started to mosey very slowly. It wasn't very far across there to where Vellen was. As I was walking out of the woods, I saw this big elk with a big rack. I pull up my gun, took aim and shot. Then I put in another shell and shot again. At 50 yards it should have gone down with two shots in it. I made sure the cross hairs were on the heart. I can still see it in my mind. I thought I had missed it and was cussing myself out. I ran to where I last saw it and started to track it. There was no blood, then there was a little blood, and then more, and then there it was just laying there with blood running out of its throat. I had jerked the trigger and it had run into one of the bullets. The bullet cut the main artery in its neck and it quickly bled to death in about 100 yards or so.

I stood there for a few minutes. I cleaned it and that is lot of fun by yourself. Of course, I don't know what some body else would do but give you encouragement. Then I started to skin it at the base of the neck and skinned out the neck. Then I cut off the head and was going to carry it to the truck. I took off my red shirt and put it over the horns so they were not visible. I don't think I would like somebody to shoot at me. I am not weak but not terribly strong either. The horns did not go up on my shoulders. In fact they didn't get close to them. The head and horns were heavier than I thought. So I grabbed one side of the horns and off I went. This lasted for about a hundred yards. I tried the other hand. This went about the same. My rifle seemed light compared to this head. The thing that was bothering me was that it was about two miles to the van. So back and forth from one hand to the other. Finally I was just dragging it along the ground. There was still a mile to go.

It seemed like forever, but I was at the van and Vellen was there. It was almost dark but I knew where there was a road close to where the elk was. I opened up the van doors and was going to put the head in. Wrong. I had to move a lot of things to get it in and it was a struggle even then.

I drove this way and that. It was a long way by road but we finally got there. I grabbed a flashlight and off we went up the hill. I had left toilet paper hanging from the trees so I could find it without looking too hard. We walked right to it. It was only two hundred yards or so.

We had brought a rope so we tied it on the rear legs and thought we wood pull it down the hill. We pulled and pulled. Yes, we got it turned around and started down the hill. It was still right there where it was. We did not move it at all. So we took the rope off and I started to skin it. I got one side of the front shoulder. I cut one of the front legs off and Vellen carried it to the Van and got the lantern. We only had a three gallon tank of Propane so he carried the whole thing up the hill to the elk. By then I had the other leg cut off so off he went again. It was getting to be a long day for me, but the elk was top priority. I skinned out the back and cut it off at the hips. We then found a big stick and put it through the middle of the rib cage.

It was dark by now and there were no streetlights. It was heavy. I was on one end of this pole and Vellen was on the other end. It had little dried limbs that poked in your shoulder. You put it one side then the other so they hurt about the same. Vellen was leading. He had been to the van about four times so you would think he would know the way. I was standing in about a foot of water. I didn't even know there was water on the hill. It was a creek going down the hill. The only way to get out of there was to lift the rib cage over this fallen tree and it was waist high. In my tired state that was a long way up. We got it on top and I think that was the second time we stopped to rest. I felt like I was going to pass out. I got my wind and only had to stop one more time before getting to the van.

We put it on a tarp and up the hill we went again. It was easy without carrying anything. The leader went right up with out having to step over a little log. I think he was trying to get me. The rear quarters were still there. We put the rope on and started to pull. It dug in and was not working at all. So we put a stick at the legs and lifted them up. That worked for about a foot and the stick broke. We put the two halves together and that worked fairly well. That put us close together but we could handle that OK. We would pull, then go back and get the lantern and put it in front, then pull past it. One time we put the lantern in front and went back to get the rear quarters and couldn't find them. We had to get the lantern to find them, then carry the lantern up ahead again. We finally got to the van and I was ready to rest. In fact I did. We ate a candy bar and thought of a way to get the rest of the Elk in the truck. We did that by come-along. In fact it worked well and I didn't have to lift it one more time.

We wormed our way back to camp by about ten o'clock. We put two cans on the stove and ate diner. I think anything at that time would have tasted good. The elk was still in the van. We had backed up to a tree and cut some limbs off and put the come-along up the tree and pulled the elk up the tree to finish skinning it. Then we put a bag over it and with the elk in the tree and all bagged, it was time for bed. Midnight is a good time to go to bed. Ha Ha. I was so tired that I don't think I got all the way laid down and I was asleep.

Yes, the alarm went off an hour before daylight so we put on another can of food and had some hot cocoa so we could go hunting again. There was that spot where I got mine so I sent Vellen to my stand and I did the walking. He was standing there for a little while when one ran by. He didn't get to see what it was but at least he got to see one and that is better then most times.

Back at camp Myran and Ilene showed up and this made a bunch. So that evening we went to that stand. Myran and Vellen went to the stand and I drove. After a little while a bunch went by them. They were cows, but at least they got to see some.

We hunted that spot the next day and there were wall to wall people. It was so bad that I could smell them smoking; in fact I could smell them chewing tobacco. I know the elk could too. So we stayed awhile and then went back to the car and took a drive. During the day we went here and there just burning gas I guess. We never saw tracks or elk or anything. So back we went and into our spot. Those other people were still there so we called it a short day.

Back a camp Ilene was cutting up the elk. She had almost all the bones out. We had liver and onion and off to bed.

The next day we loaded up and off we went. We stopped down the road to see how our guns were shooting. I had some old ammo and it was a good thing we didn't use it. It did not work well. In fact there was only one gun that was working when we got through. It was fun while it lasted.

When we got back, it took two days to get all the meat cut up. One of my venders was wanting me to cut wood for him. I told him he would have to wait until after the elk was cut up. I only see him once ever three months so I didn't care if he got his sticks or not. He grabbed a bunch of them and off he went. He was a little mad. Oh well. I didn't care.

I took the head down and had it stuffed. It looks good. Everybody who looks at it don't realize how big they are. An elk is a big animal. I am happy to have this five point in my living room. The wife thinks it is a little much. Oh well.

Happy hunting.