8:30am: Elk down

 

      Just couple of hours into my first day of cow hunting I got into a few near Table mountain... lower southeast side, near my dad's place up the East Fork of the Wind River.  Had to work to get up there.  Had this ol' gal fallen over where I shot her, it wouldn't have been quite as bad getting her out.  That's not what happened though. 

 

 

All smiles now... not for very long though.

 

  She went over the mountain and I had to shoot her again.  She ended up in the bottom of this draw.  The red arrow (upper right) indicates what I had to pack her back up to, before I had gravity on my side again.

 

Either that, or haul her out through the bad lands toward Dubois...

 

 

      I decided I'd have to bone this one out.  Nice day- early still.  I had time.  I saw Barney and Charlie (they guys I was hunting with) shoot an elk across the way from me, so I knew they'd be busy with that one for a while.  Got our my meat sacks and started butchering.  Wyo law says you have to take the four quarters and the back straps- which I did.  

 

 

 

 

By the time I was done, I had a 40 lb pack with two 75-100 lb bags of meat  to haul out.

 

 

The red arrow indicates the kill from about half way up what I had to pack it up.

 

 

Almost to the first saddle, two thirds of the way up (red arrow kind of gives you an idea where I came from).

Finally out of the draw she was in. 

 

     I couldn't really pack both bags of meat at once, so I would pack one up a ways with my pack and then go back and get the other.  I leap frogged like this for an hour or so (seemed a long while) until I finally got it all back up on top, where it started.

 

Finally up on top... all down hill from here.

 

 

 



A long, long ways down hill though (route is in red).

 

 

Happy to see Barney and Charlie. 

 

 

    Barney and Charlie had finished dragging Barney's elk out, by the time I had got mine packed out of the draw.  The met up with me at the bottom of the bigger hill/ mountain and help me haul the meat the flats.  Thing went much fast after that.

 



Barney and Charlie work together to drag one of my sacks out, while I hauled the other on my pack.

Easy cruisin' now.

 

Ho, Ho Hooo... finally back that the trucks- 1:30pm or so??   Four or five hours later?  Dunno for sure.  It was good to be done though.  Second and final elk of the season... bagged and done with.

 

 

Thanks Barney and Charlie... appreciated the help.  Thanks to Dad and Seamus too for waitin' so patiently on me!