The Hunting Stories Podcast
Elk. Bear. Hog. Turkey. Deer and More. Hunting Stories that will make you laugh or maybe cry; real life chronicles from the field.
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 120 The Hunting Stories Podcast: 2024 Archery Season Recap
What happens when you combine an Englishman with a love for hunting, a Canadian outdoorsman, and a group of passionate hunters in the wilderness? You get a thrilling recap of the 2024 archery season! Join me, Michael, as I gather with my friends Robin, Lucas, and Jared to share our unforgettable hunting adventures. From meeting under starlit skies to the thrill of hearing elk bugles, we recount the camaraderie and unexpected twists that made this season memorable.
Our journey is filled with laughter, challenges, and the unpredictability of the wild. From spooking moose to navigating swampy terrains in tennis shoes , our tales capture the essence of what it means to be part of a hunting community.
As we hike through rugged landscapes and encounter curious coyotes and generous fellow hunters, we celebrate the shared knowledge and bonds formed over campfires and shared stories. Even when the wind isn't in our favor and moose sightings remain elusive, it's the camaraderie and hope for better luck next time that keep us going. Tune in to experience the highs, lows, and laughter of our high-altitude hunt, where every moment is an adventure waiting to be told.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael and we got a good one for you today.
Speaker 2:Today is actually the 2024 recap of my archery season. So moose hunting and lope hunt. I have a couple of my hunting buddies on, some folks you've heard before and some folks you've only heard of, so I hope you guys enjoy it. We're just gonna jump right into it. I don't love these ones because I feel like I'm talking too much, but that's the nature of the beast. I hope you guys enjoy it. So let's get into this thing and I'll tell you a couple of my stories. Thank you All. Right boys, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. How are you guys doing? Hello?
Speaker 1:We're doing well.
Speaker 2:Hello. All right, we got a bigger crew than normal because we are going to do the 2024 archery season hunt recap, because we still have some more hunting to do this year. But let's kick this thing off by doing some introductions. We'll start with the man who's been on the podcast the most Robin. Why don't you go first, man?
Speaker 3:How do I introduce? Okay, my name is Robin. I'm English, lived in America for nearly 10 years now, got myself a US passport, maybe almost two years ago, so I'm official now. Chaps, I can't get rid of you. Uh, yeah, I've been hunting maybe five or six years not very long but I've been making up for lost time by pouring my attention and focus into it. Uh, for a lot of that time picked up a boat pretty quickly as soon as I discovered hunting. Luckily, I'm also married to a South African, so I've got the whole African connection and actually learned a bunch. Whilst over there I have my own podcast. It's actually because of Michael.
Speaker 3:I had so much fun on his, I was like ah, I feel like I should do this too, but I think that's probably me in a nutshell yeah, what's the name of your podcast?
Speaker 2:it's called the wild dispatch and it's great, and you've been on this podcast twice, once telling your crazy south african stories and then once where we kind of go back and forth sharing some stories because I was on your podcast. Thank you, robin. Who wants to go next? After that fantastic introduction, I'm gonna go with, I'm gonna make one of you do, I'm gonna say lucas, because otherwise you guys will just sit there and look at each other for the next five minutes. I'll say because I was gonna have jared go, but, um, my name.
Speaker 4:My name is lucas. Um, I've probably been hunting since I was seven years old, but I've recently moved to colorado. Six years ago, um met michael and jared at the western hunt fest back in 2022 and that's kind of how we got connected and then kind of always stayed in touch since then and was lucky enough, when Michael drew this moose tag. He invited me to tag along and I was more than willing to to come along and be be the strong legs and a young back to help pack out a moose.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, all right, lucas, cool Jared, or do you want me to introduce you by your nickname, we'll get there. I'll start off with you. Know, fellow foreigner Canadian, I have my passport for a bit longer I think I'm going on 14 years at this point but I was able to meet michael during covid times, actually connecting at a country hunters and anglers event down in texas yeah the story of, um, hey, let me buy you a beer.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, I actually think, uh, you need to buy me a beer this time. Yeah, we really went off to the races.
Speaker 2:That was, yeah, okay. So I'm going to elaborate on that story, jared. So we're at a Backcountry Hunters and Anglers event and I'm like, hey, man, we parked next to each other, we got the same truck and I'm like, hey, are you here for this event? Blah, blah, blah, whatever. Five minutes in I'm like let me buy you a the bar. And I realized I left my wallet in my truck.
Speaker 2:So, and our trucks were not like right out yeah our trucks were not right outside, for whatever reason, we had to park like I don't know the 200 yards away. So I was like, uh, you got this one. And like that's jared's first experience was me being like I got you a beer, buddy, actually, no, you're buying me a beer, um. So that's probably the more eloquent way of telling that story.
Speaker 3:Start how you mean to go on yeah.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, man. So these you guys, I'll put a little bit color as to what this group is. I obviously did draw a moose tag this year and my wife I think I've mentioned before she doesn't love me to go into the woods by myself. I also don't want to carry a moose out by myself. So I, as soon as I drew the tag, started asking people hey, can you help me?
Speaker 2:And Lucas, you were like well, I think Jared was number one because he's my normal hunting buddy and he's like, yeah, let's get this thing done. He's like I'm in, I can do some of the weekends. I don't think I can do the week. I called up Lucas because, lucas, we met at Western Hunt Fest and hunt fest but you left something out that, like you won the pack out challenge. So like when I thought I'm gonna be carrying hopefully carrying out a lot of heavy weight and meat, I'm like I want lucas to come along, I need that guy there.
Speaker 2:Um so, and you were amazing man, you immediately like, yep, I'll be there, I'm good for at least the first four to five days and I was like, hell, yeah, I've got some backs, like that's what I really need is someone to come on this hunt with me. And then I realized okay, what if I don't kill it in the first four days, or the first five days? How do I fill in that gap? And I thought of Robin, because I know that Robin and I are in a unique position where we have more time off than most folks. And, robin, I never expected you to say yes, being that you're from California. And I was like, hey, you know, we've never met before we. And I was like, hey, you know, we've never met before We've talked on Zoom for like 12 hours or something like that.
Speaker 2:But would you have any interest in coming out to Colorado hunting moose with me and then, if we get something done, you know, maybe you could buy yourself an elk tag. And man, you immediately were like I'm interested. Let me talk to the wife. How did that go? Man Like, was that an easy?
Speaker 3:conversation, or was that a tougher one than you thought? It was a pretty easy conversation, to be honest. I think I'm quite lucky. I realize the more and more people I meet and hear about rumblings of complaints should I say sometimes, occasionally I think I can get away with quite a lot usually. So, yeah, my wife was well on board. Also, she knew that she had a trip abroad with her family without me invited, so this was a good little trade for trade kind of situation. So, yeah, I was basically there was no leverage required. But yeah, I kind of was like oh yeah, I'm going to go. I think I maybe downplayed how long I might be away for. Yeah, um, which is usually the right tactic to play at the beginning. I think there was not a direct conversation about how long are you actually going to be in Colorado until I was there.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, Right, yeah, like I told my wife, hey, it's only a week, it's like five work days, it's nothing. That's actually like nine hunting days that I had scheduled out to plan. So, either way, this is. You guys are my A squad. You were the gentleman that I asked to come along and you guys were all there and I'm very thankful. So thank you guys for coming along. I don't know where we want to start this story.
Speaker 4:If anyone wants to, before we all start showing up to camp, I guess we can just kind of jump into this thing, anybody. I want to know how long Robin's drive was from California to Colorado.
Speaker 3:It was actually longer than it said on Google Maps, which was slightly upsetting because I thought I was driving fast. But yeah, it was. I think it was supposed to be about 20 hours or something like that. Yeah long, long and it ended up being a bit longer than that. I think I don't know why. I don't know if I had my granny on on that drive or something, but yeah, it took about 22 hours, I think, to get over. But it was fine, I had some fun. I stopped with a few people.
Speaker 3:I stopped with Preston, actually a guest uh, he's from mountain physio a guest uh a guest on the hunting stories podcast, so I stopped off with him and, yeah, he fed me some wild game, which is good. And, um, yeah, I stopped off with another buddy in eastern california too, so just made a bit more of a road trip about it and, uh, didn't, didn't get too tired out. Yeah, you made it home pretty dang quick too.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, okay, well, let's kick this thing off. So we'd never, lucas, to be frank, you and I had met one time. We chatted, but we had that one time like three years ago, so I don't know, we all just sort of roll into camp, right. So I get there, robin's just sort of walking around barefoot in the woods by himself when I arrive and I'm just like, well, hi, I'm michael, and we introduce each other and, um, man, I, I can say right now. And then, lucas, you showed up maybe an hour later, but, like, we couldn't have had more fun in that camp that first night. We cooked some steaks and we had some beers and, uh, it was exactly what I hoped for in the first night of a hunting camp. And it's always a risk when you have people you've never been out with, right, like you never know if it's going to go well, if you guys are going to get along. Robin, you were the real wild card. I'll say Like we knew nothing about you. We got along great. We had a pretty good campsite.
Speaker 4:I brought my camper out, out, so we all had a place to sleep and um, yeah, I mean I don't know, does anyone?
Speaker 2:want to kick off the story for jared. Did you get in that first morning or were you? Jared was there before morning. Yeah, you got. You got there late, late, right. No, that was me oh, that was you.
Speaker 4:Okay, I was trying to remember who. Okay, I was the late one you're waiting on lucas.
Speaker 1:He's driving past us trying to find the elk at the end of the valley already.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right, yeah, we were like he's got to be here by now. We see a car driving making U-turns down the valley, so cool.
Speaker 2:So then this is always. It's weird when I don't get to ask questions and I got to just tell my own stories, but the first morning I thought it was pretty awesome. Jared, you said you had about half a day. So we are camped at the bottom of this logging road that drives up to the spot that last year is basically exactly where I killed my elk, and my plan, I told you guys, was we're going to go back to roughly where I saw my elk, because I saw moose there every day that I hunted last year. I know that one person, jermaine Hodge, specifically went in there and killed a moose, but I was assuming there'd probably be another one in there, right? So we head up first thing in the morning and at the top of the road there's this camp and we pull over because, you know, a bunch of podcasters in a car were probably going to talk to anybody, right, robin?
Speaker 2:So I just jump out of the car and run out to these other hunters that I see. I'm like hey, guys, I don't want to step on their toes. I'm like, hey, what are you guys doing? Elk hunting? Good luck to you. They're like no, we're cow moose hunting. My heart sank. I'm like shit, there's four of these tags and we're camped 300 yards from the only other people that have this tag right now. They ended up being great people. I can't recall their names right now, but I'm sitting there talking with them and you guys are in the car and I just turn around and I'm like do you guys hear this right now, do?
Speaker 4:you remember that Yep? Yeah, that was insane.
Speaker 2:Did you guys hear anything in the car? And for the listeners, what was going on is like I'm trying spots where all these cow elk were going to be um, and they had basically said they're going to hunt the spot that I wanted to hunt. So I was a little disappointed. But at the mean, at the same time, there are elk going off, just absolutely going off um. Could you guys hear it in the car?
Speaker 3:not really. I didn't. I don't think I mean you guys jump in if you heard it, but I didn't. I don't think I mean you guys jump in if you heard it, but I don't think I really heard it until we hiked up the hill. But it was pretty exciting hearing that because that's the first elk I've ever. I mean obviously, listening to hunting podcasts. You hear elk buoys a lot, but that was epic. I think I actually had some audio that I recorded as we were going up as well, just because I wanted to capture that moment.
Speaker 3:It was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and tell me if I'm being a little like overzealous here, but it felt like I could. There was a bull bugling every 20 seconds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Just like constant bugling. There was one to what would I guess would be our east and one kind of to the southwest, and they were obviously just calling back and forth and we just happened to be parked talking to these people right in between these two bulls, just going crazy so they sounded kind of funky as well.
Speaker 3:Though, right, go on, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Sorry no, I think in the car there's really not too much. But the moment we got started really picking up there, they just started taking off all over in the woods. It was insane and it almost felt like they were coming in on us from both sides, like they were trying to find each other and we just happened to be right smack dab in the middle, trying to not spook them or anything, but get where we need to go real fast Because, you know, I don't think we had enough. I hadn't met anybody with an elk tag in sight yet, so it was just all kinds of moose. Well, here's the elk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah For four guys with zero elk tags. I've never been so excited to run into the woods Like it was awesome. It was just like the exact feeling you want, and it was our opening morning.
Speaker 3:It was like actually September 7th, but the people that were camping there, the other moose hunters. They had told me that the elk had been going off all night long.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you know, I don't know if anyone put anyone down there, but it was going crazy. Uh, at this point I'm done talking. So why don't robin you were right there with me what had let's? Why don't you continue the story from this point forward and we'll all just?
Speaker 3:go from there and like everything's better in a british accent, jump, jump in and add extra color if I miss something. Yeah, but it was. It was actually the time that you're discussing. I mean, okay, so first of all, michael, you're saying, like us podcasters, yeah, okay, I might be a podcaster, but I'm not nearly as much of a chatty kathy as you are, so there seemed to be a recurring theme this whole trip, whereas, like, you're like, oh, that's a good point, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:I forgot yeah, so the evening before we're like, let's just go drive the main road and we drive up this other road and I pull over and talk to those other hunters, remember, and I talked to that guy. Uh, lucas, you weren't there yet, but we talked to the guy and he's like, yeah, if you guys want moose, they're right over around this next bend. Go up there. And so that was the second camp of hunters that I just chatted up and gotten as much information as I could.
Speaker 3:So you're right, yeah, and then I do it again later in the story. You did a lot, but it works, especially works when you don't have a competitive tag, right? So yeah, that was the thing. So, as we were climbing up this hill, we got out of the car. You had a chat for I don't know 45 minutes with the locals. No, I'm kidding, it was like 10-minute chat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were going up this hill, but it was pitch black at that point, I don't know, it was quite a long way before first light. And so we were just going up this hill and using, I think, our red lamps because we'd heard a few elk call. And I think our red lamps because we'd heard a few elk call and the noise of these elk, just like echoing through the hills around us, was so epic and like all I could see in the kind of the little red light was this shining teeth of people smiling, because I think it was a few of us, our first time hearing these elk calling. And then I guess I was a little disappointed because I mean I should also caveat I went into this hunt with very little preparation. Shame on me. I didn't really know that I was going to be hunting moose or elk without too much prior notice. So, um, yeah, I didn't know the zone for elk or anything. In my head I was like, oh, there's elk everywhere. Awesome.
Speaker 3:It was only after Michael explained no, no, you can't use an over. No, this is not an over-the-counter area. So calm yourself down, you're not going to be good. Put your bow away. I was going to get in trouble. So, yeah, we were just climbing up there and it was kind of a weird sensation, but it seemed like these calls were getting in closer and I don't know how we managed it, which is how it always works, right, like when you don't have a tag and you're not in the actual hunt for elk. They're suddenly like swarming you and I think these two elk which sounded, in my opinion, enormous, but I had not a lot of experience in how elk sound, but they sound like these two majestic beasts.
Speaker 3:We're kind of closing in on each other for a big fight and we were kind of walking up through the middle of the of all of them and they also sounded kind of weird and janky as well. It wasn't like your traditional yeah, whatever the thing is. It was like I don't know. One of them sounded really weird and it made me kind of. At that point I was like oh, maybe I don't need to worry too much about elk calling sounding exactly like the people on the podcasts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I remember I remember walking up the in the trees and I saw looking at each other. We're like that one sounds weird and we're also going like, if it weren't for the fact that it's before light, yes, and so frequent, like there's no way that's a hunter, what would that person possibly be trying to accomplish right now? So it has to be a real elk. Um, yeah, but yeah, it did sound weird, but it was still. I mean, we're talking what a 30 minute walk in and almost the entire time bugle's going every 30 seconds the entire way yep, but then you actually bumped one, didn't you like?
Speaker 2:I think I was slightly behind you guys, but you like you were pretty close at some point I don't, I never saw it, but we heard some, some brush breaking and and one of the elk bugles all of a sudden went from in front of us to way off to the north. So I think that we did. I think we just spooked him enough. He was still interested in the other guy, but definitely changed the change, the dynamic a little bit okay, yeah, definitely agree with that so yeah, then we, uh we kind of got to the point.
Speaker 3:I think we were mostly just following michael because he had an idea he'd been there before. It's this kind of glassing spot which is kind of a big rocky outcrop which has a nice overview of a couple of stretches of the valley below, yeah, and we kind of got there at first light and did some glassing. A lot of expectation, a lot of anticipation Didn't really see much did we yeah, we split up.
Speaker 2:You and I went on top of the rock and Lucas and Jared went kind of down and around, because that way they could kind of see around this corner that we couldn't. Just kind of we figured different angles, but yeah, kind of anticlimactic, just kind of cold right.
Speaker 3:It was cold.
Speaker 2:Nothing really happened. Yeah, yeah, kind of kind of anticlimactic, just kind of cold, right, it was cold, nothing really happened. Um, and then, uh, I guess, yeah, we'll just skip to. I mean, lucas, jared, you guys want to add anything about this point? Otherwise we're almost to the point where, jared, we lose jared for the day no, no, we're not.
Speaker 2:We got a little, a little further that we well, so yeah, so the next thing we do is we all get together and, uh, we start hiking. We're let's just hike up this draw for a little ways. This is the kind of terrain they want to be in, and so we just start hiking. This is one of my favorite parts, because the entire time we've been talking about hunting, I'm like you need good boots, robin, you need layers, you need these things. And you're like, no, I hunt in tennis shoes, like that's what I do. And I'm like, yeah, but we're hunting moose country, and so you probably want boots. And you're like, no, no, I'm good, I'm gonna wear tennis shoes. And I don't know, within 10 minutes of us leaving, that, rock.
Speaker 4:Your shoes are just water basically it's true, it was not.
Speaker 3:It was not exactly. I mean, I had. Yeah, I didn't have any idea what was coming. I guess, apart from the fact that you kept warning me and I was like, no, I'll be fine, other than the fact I don't actually have any big waterproof boots either, because I'm from California and you know, yeah, but yeah, it's like swampland man and I didn't have my eye in, so I was definitely stepping in some scrotchy puddles and thankfully I didn't have my eye in. So I was definitely stepping in some scrotchy puddles and thankfully I didn't lose my shoes, so I still had them, but they were pretty sopping wet within 10 minutes, like you said, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we basically just hike up there and your shoes are, we're all just walking. It just sounds like we're not being sneaky, it's just four people going, just walking up this draw, just being as loud as possible. I don't know what we were really thinking we were going to be doing, but yeah, we walked to the top and then at this point, jared, I know you only gave us half a day, so you had to head home. I think we probably took you longer and farther than you expected. Was your wife upset or did you get home and everything was smooth sailing?
Speaker 1:Oh, it was totally fine. I had a lovely morning in the woods and my wife loves to tell me man, you really just give me two different sides of you. You start off, you're sleeping in a tent, you're doing all the things, you get home and then we're headed to go out to Breckenridge for the afternoon. She's like, yeah, you just know how to show me the two sides. Albeit, I did miss the good portion of this, but the wife was absolutely fine.
Speaker 1:It was a phenomenal time to get out with you guys, but I'll let you keep going with the juicy bits, yeah Well.
Speaker 3:I could see a little. I don't know I mean, I didn't know you that well at that point but there was a little fear in your eyes. You were like yeah I think we should turn around. You're like I think we should, maybe I need to go back, and michael's like yeah, we're just gonna go around this corner, just the next corner, yep. Suddenly you're like in the middle of a swamp, four miles away from where you're supposed to be, and you got 45 minutes to get home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at 10 000 feet, yeah, yeah, and this is the part where lucas wins, uh, the prize. Because we were like how do we do this? Because we made a mistake, which was jared drove us up to the top of the roads. We're like, how the hell do we get back? Like what? Like I was sitting there. I'm like this is a mistake. Either we all go or lucas takes a hit. And lucas man, thank you you for running back with Jared and then picking up your truck and then driving it back up. I gave you a new pin being like meet us here, we'll walk all the way up this, draw A couple. I don't know, we probably went two more miles, robin, right, roughly at least.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did a big old loop around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two more miles up this draw and we're like like here's a new pin, we'll come through there, and and you were just sitting there just basically snoozing under a tree when we arrived. So, thank you, lucas, thank you jared for driving and then lucas for fixing that mistake, when we should have had probably me driving the first day, um, but yeah, uh, you guys ran into some interesting stuff when you were heading out, right, yeah, as soon as we got back to the truck, um, we ran into another bowhunter just sitting along the road and it's like oh, did you guys see that moose up here?
Speaker 4:So there was just literally right where we parked the truck. There was basically a moose sitting in the brush. It was a bull moose, so there was no fret or rush to get Michael and Robin back to the vehicle, but it was pretty funny that there was another hunter that was like oh yeah, there's a bull moose 50 yards up the way. Jared and I went to look for it but we couldn't find it. But it was still interesting that there was a bull moose 50 yards from the truck.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is funny.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, we'll fast forward a little bit. Robin, you and I hike on that big loop. We find some sheds. You found a really cool moose paddle um about half eaten, but still it was really cool yeah, got it here.
Speaker 3:There you go. I'm gonna hold it close to the camera so it looks bigger like a fish.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, but yeah, but yeah, you lugged that around. I think we found like two other small little chunks of moose paddles and like 15 elk wallows, but really didn't find anything, until we're about to get to the point where we're going to cross over this saddle to get back to where Lucas is, and at that point we see and this is dumb, we'll just throw it into the story because why not but we see that coyote and it's just staring at us and we're like, well, let's try and kill a coyote. And so you and I just want to get behind a bush and start walking straight towards it, because we're like, whatever we're not, we don't waste a lot of time on it. But just imagine like two guys six foot four just trying to hide behind a bush as we're walking towards a coyote who's already got eyes on us.
Speaker 3:Uh, it didn't go well, but it was fun it kind of like, but it had that weird energy that it didn't. It was like it looked at us and I think it saw us first, but it wasn't like completely bothered and we just kind of stayed still and it just kind of like sunk down and sat down. I think it's that kind of thing almost like when you see cats do right where they're like sinking down behind the brush, just like maybe they won't see me this way. So I think it was pretty clear after two minutes of attempted stalking that we had seen them, we were trying to make a move, but they vanished pretty quick but worth a try.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, it was fun. But then, yeah, we hike out, we jump up and we see Lucas just again snoozing under a log or whatever, just having the time of his life, and he told us a story about the moose. We head out, we hike out to the road, jump in the car and we got to turn around. So we got to drive forward, like what, a quarter of a mile just to get to a turnaround point. And of course this is what you're talking about, robin. We run into two other hunters camped on the side of the road and I just start talking to him, I just pop my head out the window and I'm like, hey, fellas, how you guys doing. What are you hunting? They're hunting elk, of course. And that's when I'm like I know you from somewhere.
Speaker 2:And it's this guy, todd, and Todd had ran into me and Jermaine last year elk hunting, basically exactly where Rob and you and I had just been looking for moose. And so Todd was like, oh, I remember you, I remember Jermaine, I remember your podcast, hell yeah. And so we just start sharing everything we possibly can Excuse me, sharing everything we possibly can. We're telling him where we heard the elk. He's saying that he's seen moose everywhere. But he's also saying don't come for them, I will text you. I know a big bull is right there. She's like let me kill my bull or let me get out of there and then I'll tell you what happens.
Speaker 2:And so he texted me and unfortunately I didn't get reception. But when I got home I got all sorts of texts from Todd being like the moose are here, a calf and a cow and a bull and all these. And so he's just giving me all this intel. And so that's why you're friendly to other hunters, guys, right? So he had sent me probably 10 texts just being like okay, this is how you get in. He'd shared a bunch of pins with me. He just like walked me through the process of how to get this, uh, this cow, uh. He just didn't know that I'd actually already tagged out like four days earlier.
Speaker 1:Um right?
Speaker 2:So, uh, let's see what else. And am I missing anything? We go back to camp and we just sort of hang out for a little bit. It's pretty late in the day, like we didn't get back to camp until what.
Speaker 4:Three. As literally as soon as we got done talking with todd, we start heading back to camp. Oh and I talked to other people and and literally a hundred, a hundred yards from camp, there's a another vehicle. It's like hey, have you guys seen any moose?
Speaker 2:and there's some, yeah, right down on the main road oh yeah, they're like there's a cow right on the main road, which we won't say the road. But then we're like are you kidding me? Are you, are you fucking kidding me right now? And they're like no, like literally 150, 200 yards that way. And we're like shit.
Speaker 3:And then said thanks and kept going yeah that wasn't actually far from camp either, was it was no no, you could almost, I think where they saw them.
Speaker 2:You could see them from our camp but at the bottom of that road were those looky loos, those recreational campers right? And I think that they pushed them a little bit farther west, away from our camp, and that's where we actually spotted them. But, lucas, why don't you tell this until you drop off me and Robin, and then Robin can tell it?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So we drive down to the main road just to see if we can see this cow and the calf. And then all of a sudden we're driving down the road and then it's like, oh, there they are. And so then we're keep going. And now we're we're making a game plan going five or 10 miles an hour on the road so we don't stop, so the cows don't bust. And then we see them. They must've got spooked and went into the trees, but we have a hunch that they're going to keep going up and then out into a meadow. So we went up and around and then I dropped Michael and Robin off on top of the road and then I went back to the road and just started doing surveillance back and forth after I saw them. So as soon as I dropped them off I drove back down to the main road and first pass. I see them, and then I'm texting Michael. It's like they're right here, they're right here. And then I'm doing like six or seven passes down the main road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, also, we're not. We're not texting. Texting, we're satellite texting, right? So it's not like we're just constant communication, it's like if you don't have the satellite connected on your phone, you're not getting it, you're not sending it, and so we're having difficulty, to say the least. And this comes up again later in the story. But yeah, so you're trying to tell us where it is, but we aren't really getting all the messages. And then I'm asking where it is, I'm not getting any replies, so it's just eventually we do find it, though. We find the cow and the calf. So, and Robin, why don't you tell us how I screwed this one up?
Speaker 3:And Robin, why don't you tell us how I screwed this one up? I'm trying to remember, like I think maybe I was a little bit hungover at this point and my memory is not super clear. I remember that, okay, we got dropped off at the top of a hill and there's this big kind of like area of forest right and it's almost like down that hillside. We know that there's a cow right, so we ended up going back and forth. It's almost like down that hillside. We know that there's a cow right, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:So we ended up going back and forth. The wind kept swirling around a bit because we were kind of at the top of the hill and we were trying to figure out, like, how are we going to find these things and get in with our wind? Good, like it definitely required like a bit of maneuvering. And every time we got down there and we got eyes on them, we're like, oh, they've moved somewhere else. And yeah, I don't think, I don't think they necessarily spooked from us. Actually, you're right, it was probably the, the other looky-loos, like you said, the campers who were just nearby. Yeah, push them around. So then we were like, oh, okay, let's shuffle around to the other spot. But there's just one moment where we're like, okay, here seems to be a good opportunity. It moved slightly around, I guess, like south east, like around the round to another sort of side valley, just a different draw let's just get into this other draw and we're like, let's just try and cut across.
Speaker 3:But it meant that we had to like cut a little bit of open country and I think it seemed like it was going to be good, because the moose previously had just been like grazing in the other direction, like with its ass facing, facing where we would cross, yep. But uh, as we got there, that wasn't quite the case, was it? I think?
Speaker 2:no, no, so yeah. So we were on when we were. When we first spotted it, we were on the west side of this draw and the tree line where the tree line broke was above where they were. So we couldn't get out of the trees without them spotting us. So our big plan was to drop south around them, because that's their backside, like you said, and we go down that way and we're like 500 yards, maybe 400 yards south of them and them looking the other direction, and we have cover.
Speaker 2:And literally within three seconds of like the 15 yard section that we won't have cover, the moose pops his head up, looks at us and bolts and we're like damn it, what the hell was that? So I don't know if I don't know if they can just see the back of their head or what it was, but they were 20 yards from the opposite tree line. So if we were trying to just loop around to the other side of this draw and then come from that tree line, which we would have had a great shot, it just didn't work out. And I think you were yelling at me for being too loud or not standing up too tall Some of your Fred Hammer wisdom. You were like this is what Fred would have done, and I'm like I'm sorry, robin.
Speaker 3:I wasn't yelling at you. I thought I was keeping calm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, if that's calm, I'm just kidding, you were great, yeah, so at that point I was tired, I think before we started stalking that cow, because we had put in, I don't know, probably like six or seven miles at that point?
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did, and we're talking all like 10,000, 11,000 feet, something like that, and so we just I'm like trying to. I'm just like Lucas is still driving up and down the road trying to find them because they've run somewhere, and we're just trying to get Lucas to like pay attention to us. We're like, please come back. We don't want to back to camp. Right, take a quick snooze. Nothing, nothing much else happened, right?
Speaker 2:no, that was the morning hunt that ended at like 1 30 I feel, I feel like it was later than that, but still, yeah, so we do take a quick nap.
Speaker 2:And I don't know if I told you this, guys, but my thought everyone was like, what do you want to do this evening? Because I'm the person that's been in the unit In my brain. I'm like, okay, I have to come up with a plan that involves minimal effort, because I am fat and tired, like that was what my thought process was. I'm like, how can I pretend like I'm working hard but really put us on an easy path for the evening hunt so we can get back and get a good night's sleep, because I need some sleep. And that's how I picked our spot right. So, um, going back to the day before opening day, I talked, I chatted up those other hunters. They said go around this bend. I knew that that bend was a nice easy walk up to the top. We'll just go sit there. Uh, jermaine had given me a pin in that area and I was like, okay, we'll just go there. Jermaine says that's one of his moose hot spots. That's an easy walk, I can do that.
Speaker 2:So we hike in I don't know a little later than probably we planned on like 5, 5, 30, something like that. Probably, yeah, definitely later than we probably should have. Um, but we hike up the easy stuff. And now we're like, okay, we got to figure out how to get up, because I'm gonna sit and watch over this big draw, and then you guys gonna go up top. And then of course lucas is like, all right, I'll go up top. So lucas just charges into the field and spooks a cow moose, literally like it couldn't have been less than 15 yards from the exact pin jermaine gave us that we were kind of hiking to. But lucas is fired up, he's ready to go. He didn't do all the hiking, robin and I did um, and so I'm like, damn it, well, there goes that evening hunt, like we have no opportunity. That's what I'm thinking. What were you guys thinking when that happened?
Speaker 3:I think I had a bit more of an optimistic view, if I'm honest. I think I was like, oh good, there's moose here.
Speaker 4:There's one running away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I think I was excited to have a look at the top as well. I've always got a bit of a grass is greener, um, mentality, so I was excited to go up to that other draw. It's like I don't know another couple, a couple hundred feet. I don't know how high it much higher it was. It was way higher. Yeah, I was excited to look in the other valley because on the map it looked. I was imagining like this perfect green jurassic park, you know environment, where it's going to be full of animals. So yeah, I thought, yeah, let's go have a look up there as well and you can sit here and see if something walks up the hill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I basically sat in the same spot she spooked from and I could see all the way down that draw. I figured there's a good chance something could come out from the other side that we didn't walk up. So I all the way down that draw. I figured there's a good chance something could come out from the other side that we didn't walk up. Yeah, so I was like this is still, you know, not likely, but something could happen and you guys head up. So I'll let you guys tell this way, because I don't know what you guys are doing besides climbing trees.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's true, lucas. You want to start this one off, yeah I was in.
Speaker 4:I was in the same boat as robin, thinking that we're going to go up and to the other side and thinking it's going to be the same exact kind of higher up elevation and then we're going to look down and do another kind of basin. But as soon as Robin and I kind of make our way, All right, guys.
Speaker 2:That's it. I hope you enjoyed my stories. I hope you enjoyed our laughs and us making fun of each other. It was a hell of a season. I finally got it done early. I've actually never had that happen before. Most of the time I don't get it done at all, or it's at the very end of the hunt. So it was a great season. I really enjoyed it. It couldn't have been spent with better guys Robin Lucas and and Jason, who wasn't on the podcast but was there for a quick 16 hours or so. They couldn't be better guys than that, and that's what it's really all about. So I hope you guys enjoyed this.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for tuning in November's coming up soon. Guys. Make sure you take someone with you to vote. It is really really important Someone that doesn't normally vote. Take them with you. Let's get the turnout to be better than it ever has before. But let's get the turnout to be better than it ever has before. But that's it, guys. Thank you so much. Hope you have a wonderful day Now get out there and make some stories of your own. Bye.
