I LOVE HUNTING!

no kent did not pay me to say that :)

kent invited me to go hunting with him this year, i was quite surprised...but happy that he wanted to spend some of his limited time with me. so of course we had to get me some camo and practice some cow calls (my job). we left early on friday morning, but not quite early enough...just as the sun was coming up we spotted a 6 point in a field nearby where we were going to hunt, we weren't quick enough to do much but i thought it was a good sign to have seen one already. we got to the area where kent wanted to hunt and got out of the truck and started to hike. well right off the bat we start to see where a bear had clawed the trees and the very first creek we cross we see big bear and baby bear tracks...not what we were hunting for! i did not want to see a bear, or hear a bear, or smell a bear, i didn't even like seeing traces of bear. we kept on hiking-kent wanted to see if a wallow from the previous year was still a hot spot for the elk. this is the wallow behind us...

i guess the elk like to play around and cool themselves off in it. we did see some elk tracks (and more bear) but nothing recent. so kent made a few bugles but didn't get any response. we went on hiking...i actually loved all the hiking, the forest (yes, forest in idaho) was very green and pretty and a little noisy-who would think squirrells could make such a raquet dropping nuts. then kent bugled from another area and he got a bull to start responding to him. that was pretty cool-i didn't realize that kent actually can really talk to elk...full on conversations! pretty cool :) but this elk was lazy and wasn't interested in coming close to us. so we stopped to smell the flowers...
literally-the wildflowers were so pretty! we took a little break (boring part) and then hiked to another spot for the evening, we crouched down and waited for a couple hours (another boring part) but didn't see anything so we headed back for the truck and into driggs for something to eat (the first time all day). then found a spot; close to where we were going to hunt the next day, to sleep. the next morning we got up and one of kents friends-seth met us and we headed out again! we hiked for about an hour and then kent started to bugle. well we immediately got a response and kent thought he could just keep calling him in...in the mean time seth had to get back to a baptism. so kent kept calling and getting response but the bull quit moving closer, so we started to sneak up on him...this is actually quite fun-i like acting sneaky! pretty soon it was obvious that we were getting close, so kent set me up with the elk decoy (a giant cow bum to hide behind and my trusty cow call). but we couldn't get any response to the cow call...so i told kent to try to bugle again and he kind of looked at me like that's not how it works-but since we weren't getting any response anyways there was nothing to lose, so kent bugled again and what do you know the bull bugled back. this bull didn't want a girl, he wanted a fight-or he was gay :) pretty soon i could start hearing the bull come crashing through the forest and i was scared at this point...i was about 30 yards from kent in a clearing and you could tell that bull wasn't happy we were there-he kept letting out mean huffy breaths...i actually wanted to cry. well he walked right in front of kent about 12 yards away...
that's kent hiding! kent put one arrow in him and then another at 17 yards...i was still hiding behind my decoy and then i saw kent reach down to get his camera, so i stood up and that bull was just standing there. kent took a few pictures of him and then the bull walked away. well, when i went over to where kent was he said he thought that the elk looked like it was going to drop right there so he didn't put another arrow in him. we surveyed the scene and found a little blood and one arrow-kent was starting think that he hadn't had a good shot. but we ended up finding the blood trail and i was ready to go on a treasure hunt! kent informed me again that that's not how it's done, you have to wait awhile for elk to lay down and die...that just didn't seem right-i mean we got it and now we were just going to leave for awhile. crazy! so we hiked back out(it took about an hour and a half). we went to seth's house to look at the pictures that kent took. we got something to eat(only time this day too). we went back around 3 to find the elk...come to find out that elk was only about 90 yards away from where kent shot and it was a good shot. kent and seth started to gut it and cut it up: seth called his brother and father-in-law to see if they could pack the meat out on horses...they were such lifesavers and so nice to help at the last minute and give up their evening. we didn't get home until way after midnight: we shot the elk around 10-it was a long day...but it was worth it!