Rugged Beauty

Rugged beauty is how i found myself describing one of my most memorable hunting trips in the high country through national forests in Montana. The three of us(father and brother) arrived on a sunday morning to the ranch we’d be staying in while trying to fulfill our tags and fill our freezers. The first morning came early and started out with a 6 mile hike through a foot of snow giving us all a wake up call. This hunt was not what we had imagined but sure was worth it in the end.

Our trusted guided Caleb and Bill were both native to these mountains and told us they’d eventually find us an elk but we would have to earn it, and they weren’t lying. Hiking all day just to get to a vantage point and glass acres upon acres of timber in hopes of spotting a bull elk. As I was soaking in the scenery I couldn’t help but just feel so relieved and relaxed being in this beautiful country. Hiking through the Ruby valley mountain range was nothing short of running a marathon, day in and day out. The first 3 days came and went unsuccessful with seeing only cows and bulls too small to harvest and draining our morality to an all time low. The 4th day was more of the same but at the last minute of the hunt my dad missed his chances at a bull elk than ran by too quick for a shot.

As the alarm sounded one last time at 5am on a frosty 23 degree morning we got dressed and hit the trail for one attempt to come home successful. We hiked about a mile up an old logging site to the peak overlooking a snow capped mountain range. 10 minutes after we got set up caleb called bill over to get a second opinion on something he saw and he indeed saw something. I picked up my binoculars and began to make out the shape of elk after elk, there had to be at least 300 in this herd. Instead of making a straight forward attempt to try and get in close to the herd we had to devote our entire day to hiking around the mountain range to get close enough to attempt a shot. As we were hiking through the snow covered fir’s and the loose shale of the hillside we eventually came within 500 yards of our target, out of our comfort range.

As most stories from the woods go, the game got away this time but we left with memories that will never fade. Memories of seeing mother natures greatest work of carving rocks into canyons and rivers from snow melt.

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