Our Little Family: October 2009

Friday the 9th we headed to the hills, destination Riggins, Idaho. It was crazy just tring to find a camp spot. We ended up making our camp at the base of a trail that headed into wilderness area. It was great having the tent with a fireplace to keep us warm.

Temperatures were only about 36 degrees during the warmest part of the day. No need for ice in the coolers. We had a hard time not having everything freeze. We kept the fire burning in the tent all night and that kept the temp at about 45 degrees which seemed nice and cozy compared to outside.

I can honestly say this hunt taught me why they call Hell's Canyon by that name. It is steep rugged terrain. Opening day was the 10th and at about 7 pm I shot my 3x5 bull elk. It was dark by 730 so we flipped on the headlamps and Jared and I went to work quartering out my elk. It was 3 am the next day when we got back to camp. I was swearing on the mountain that I'd never do it again, but now I look back with a great feeling of conquering the challenge. I'll do it again. Here are a couple pics of my bull. This first one is right after I shot him. He was 200 yards broadside. One shot right through the left shoulder, to the heart and then out the other side. He walked about 20 feet before dropping and sliding about 60 yards down the hill where he was stopped by this big tree on the ground.

This is a picture of where I got my bull. In the center of the picture where the yellow meets the green off down in the hole is where we got him.

Jared shot a nice 5x5 bull 1.5 miles in down this nasty hill that dropped 1500 feet in elevation in that 1.5 miles. We left it over night and went back the next day with horses. It still took us all of the next day because the country was so steep. Ahhhh. I'm glad it's just another story now. In this picture Jared's bull was at the far right hand side and up about 1/3 of the way in the photo.