The Obsession Hunts and Outfitting

It's been two weeks since my last scouting trip. This time I decided to try a spot I haven't been in several years. This spot is a little higher traffic area than the previous places we have been to. I say that with some frustration because it is supposed to be a primitive area, which means hiking or horseback only. The invention of side by side OHVs has given any idiot with a credit score the chance to be in our mountains. I could see several places where people had bypassed the trail closures and gone up there anyways. These people epitomize lazy and selfish in my mind. It only matters what they want and to hell with the rules that benefit the land, wildlife, and those who respect it. I hadn't quit made it even to where I wanted to start looking for elk and to my surprise I found a bull elk standing in a meadow eating. He was only approximately 125 yards away from me, wind was on my side blowing my scent the other direction and making enough noise to cover the sound of ...

I was so excited to have my brother coming with me on this scouting trip. It wasn't as much about finding elk, it was about being together. A chance to escape the world and talk and just be together. We have always been hunting partners, it is on of the best parts of my life. For the third week of our scouting Merrill and I decided we would use maps to locate a place we had not been but looked promising according to what we see. The conditions we were looking for is a canyon or habitat that is at the minimum a mile from any roads. No roads at all, not even a 4 wheeler road. I think back to hunting for my dads elk. We were all standing on a ridge waiting for fog to clear. We knew that in the canyon below us there were elk, we had seen them on the days before and could hear them bugling below us. We were preparing to drop into the canyon, It was a steep hike in and out and once we were in we had a good view of the elks habitat. The fog cleared and as we were preparing our gear for ...

My second day of scouting came a week after the first. I decided this time that I would hike to the location where Merrill, Brett, and myself watched a beautiful big bull elk push his herd up over a canyon right to us. We then watched him push them up the same canyon we were in until he finished at the top of the canyon. I say they were his herd because he was the biggest bull in the group and he was very vocal. This hike is not as far as the hike I did a week ago but a little steeper at the start. The trail is one that the three of us accidentally came across as we were hiking up a ridge. We followed the trail to the top of the canyon. We later discovered that the trail head at the bottom of the canyon is hidden, there are downed trees blocking the entrance and unless you were very observant you would never see it. As I started the hike I was about 15 minutes in when I walked up on a cow elk. She was laying in the trees watching me walk, she stood and looked at me for a minute before...

I had been waiting everyday since finding out I had drawn a tag to get on the mountain. Now I understand that early June is not going to produce a large bull for me to look at. My idea was to find out if I could locate elk and learn about their habits and track them for the next several months. I started my first scouting trip heading into the canyon Merrill and I had seen the most bulls the previous deer hunt. The area I am talking about is several miles from any roads and was not accessible to four wheelers or people who think now that they can drive side by sides on the mountain they should. Trust me, we don't want you there. I read a lot about where elk would be and why. A major point of what I read was to find places where there were drainages. Places water would be flowing or had found its way to a pond. This particular canyon supplied both of those needs. I decided I would take the exact route Merrill and I took the previous year because it provided a great view of everythin...

Finally I Drew the Tag!! After fourteen years of applying, I finally drew what most elk hunters would call the tag of a lifetime. Utah big bull. If you are unaware exactly what that means there are a few things to know. In Utah there are some of the biggest bull elk you will ever see, in several spots you can hunt and harvest any adult male, most of the time you can find some decent sized elk in these areas. In other areas you can hunt the females. I happened to draw a tag in a premium unit, meaning the state of Utah only allows so many people to hunt mature "big bulls", it is also called an "open bull" unit. In this area there are some trophy bull elk. Competition for this tag is huge. Several thousand hunters apply for this tag each and every year. Approximately 300 of those applicants are successful, give or take. As I previously stated, it took me 14 years to draw a tag for this unit.  For lack of wanting to increase my competition, and being unaware where t...