Beaverman Seez......"No not at all! most of these units are west of I-5 sea level to maybe 1000 feet, most are in Werehauser or other company tree farms and there are a crap load of logging roads running through them! there are also units in the national forests and state DNR land plenty of low level hunting ground here! Now if you hunt the west slope of the Main Cascade range of the east slope, better be a frickin iron man to hunt on foot or own horses!"
Well let me tell ya a story, He ain't wrong when it comes to the Cascade Slopes. East or West.
Bad Mo-Joe when it comes to Elk Hunting. Everything is straight up or straight down!
I've taken roughly seven (7) Elk out of the Oak Creek, Bethel, and Bumping areas over the years.
For a couple of years we went in just below Rim Rock Lake, offf HWY 12, turned up the Rattlesnake, and went all the way in to the wilderness area. I'm sure Beaverman knows the area well.....
On year I took a nice young Cow off the south-fork of the Rattlesnake not far from Whistling Jacks...back then we all carried Topo and Forest Service Maps.
A quick look at the Maps indicated we were less than 1/4 mile to pack this thing out onto a paved Road that went straight to Whistling Jacks...One guy went back to the truck and drove it around to Naches, up to the Whistling Jack Bridge, across the Naches River, I believe that's Hwy 410....he drove roughly 40 miles from where had left the truck that morning, and while he was doing all that driving, we broke the Elk down into quarters, hanging the skin because we wanted that on the second trip in to donate to Yakama VFW, or the Boy Scouts., and we packed everything downhill to the river on pack frames.
Packing downhill may sound good, but I honestly think I would prefer to pack up-hill.
When breaking the Elk down, We never did recover the ball, but the Butcher in Selah, WA found it, it was in the right rear quarter.
. 54 cal Round ball, 90 gr of Goex FFFg, hit the front brisket a bit to the left and high but angling a bit, that ball traveled the length of that Elk and broke the right rear leg bone before coming to rest.
Heart, Lungs, Liver, Pauch, everything was very little short pure mush...made for a very ugly, stinky, job in trying to protect that meat, but we managed to get her out and save almost all the meat.
The Four Quarters hanging was, IIRC, 288#.
Based on the old rule of 33 to 35% meat hanging, she was roughly 875# live, on the hoof....it's akin to trying to get a dead horse out of the woods!
Fortunately for us there was five in the hunting party, albeit one hunter turned out to be a truck driver...but he got his share of the meat too.
That Elk was actually an easy Elk to bring out, as we've shot some over on Bumping Bethel beforee getting to Naches that took us three solid days to get out!
My wife Jan and I got one down in Hoover Canyon, had to walk out, get the truck and go into Neaches and get an outfitter with the 3 Mules to come in and get him out, and he was barely legal, with brow tines, and a fork on the right side....the Game check station said he was big for a 3 year old, but we never got him weighed.
The outfitter took him on home and did the skinning, butchering, and called us 3 weeks later in Shelton, WA to come back over and get him as he was all packaged up, freezer ready.
Yes Sir, Elk hunting in WA State, on either side of the Cascades, ain't for sissies!
It separates the Men from the Boys the instant the shot is fired, because that's when the real work begins!
All the glory of the hunt is now totally out the window....it's time to get sweaty, stinky, and dirty, and pray your back holds out for one more trip back in, all while you hope like everything that your pack frame remains in one stable piece....me and my wife both have "Kelty Frames", she can longer pack due to her health but I still take both frames with me.
It takes two men to get a quarter of Elk, properly secured on a pack frame, then get you up on your feet ready to move and pack it out....
I know. I have tied a quarter on, laid down to get the frame on on properly, and couldn't for the life of me get back up on my feet. But once I'm up, depending on the terrain, I'm good for a good 30 to 45 minutes....then I have to find something to back up against for a short break, while still standing.
Yes Jim, I think OldeTexian should come pay us a visit during Elk Season!
Topic: Favorite Trekking Meal (Read 10970 times)