All right guys (and gals).  I will see you all in about 2 weeks.  I am flying out of Atlanta early tomorrow am, and going elk hunting with my brother.  

We will be hunting in SW Washington State, where he lives.   He has been doing a lot of scouting and has seen at least 7  legal bulls in the area we are hunting, including a couple of monsters.  So, Saturday morning, I will be waiting on an unsuspecting elk to walk into my sight picture.

Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT catch all the fish, until I get back  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Hopefully, I will have lots of pics of dead bull elk  and stories to tell when I return.  

Good luck. Elk hunting is addictive. I really miss it. Living in Wyoming for ten years it was a yearly ritual that I looked forward to all year. I hunted within sight of the Tetons up high early in the season in one of the few areas where you could legally hunt bulls during the rut in Wyoming. The aspen were all in yellow and it was beautiful.

Good luck. I've alwas wanted to hunt elk.

Post some pictures when you return! hope you get a big one.

Good luck. Elk hunting is addictive. I really miss it. Living in Wyoming for ten years it was a yearly ritual that I looked forward to all year. I hunted within sight of the Tetons up high early in the season in one of the few areas where you could legally hunt bulls during the rut in Wyoming. The aspen were all in yellow and it was beautiful.

Well paparock pretty much stole my whole post except it was colorado. man i miss it.

FB

Well, it was a great hunting trip.  Saw about 150 head of elk total, and several bulls.  Saturday morning the 4th was opening day, and there was about 3000 hunters (not quite that many, but sure seemed like it) in the woods with us.  I had elk on a clear cut above me, I was just waiting for it to get light enough to count antler tips (it is at least 3 pts. on one side where we hunt).  A hunter comes over the top of the clearcut and spooks the elk before I can see well enough to shoot. >  Spent the day chasing elk all over the mountain, but no shot presented itself.  Sunday, same scenario, I am watching the same clearcut and can hear and see the elk moving around, but still not light enough in the light drizzle to count antler tips, and the hunters come over the top and spook the elk again, they never even seen em.  > > It was raining cats and dogs all afternoon and into the night.  Found out later almost 5 in. of rain in less than 24 hrs.  One hunter in his truck was washed away, down the Cowlitz River and over 200 had to be airlifted out after the only road into an area was washed away.  The officials did not find another 28 hunters until Thur. behind another washed out road.  The Forest Service closed the National Forest due to danger of mudslides and roads washing out.   :o

Monday we only hunted the afternoon hunt and did not see any animals.  We hiked about 9 miles that afternoon, watching clearcuts, and trying to find fresh sign.   Tuesday came and we hunted a diff. area, but had no luck.  We saw elk but nothing legal, and they were all real spooky.

Wednesday morning came, and we hiked in 4.5 miles to the same clearcuts we had seen the elk on over the weekend.  About 8:15  I had 3 cows and this bull walk right underneath me about 100 yrds. away.  They never knew I was there.  I broke both shoulders with one shot from my .338 Win. Mag. He fell and rolled about 20 ft. down between 2 logs  :-? :-/ :-/

While we are skinning, boning out the meat, etc....  we hear a cougar hissing at us from close by, man, we all went instantly on alert and someone held a rifle for the rest of the time we were butchering.

We started back to the truck at about 12:30 in the afternoon, did not get all the meat into the truck and head home until almost 5:30 pm.

Wed. night it started raining hard again, we all decided to take a day off, then the power went out for about 8 hrs.  

Friday, we were all back out, chasing the elk again.  I had a black bear tag so I was legal to still be in the woods, I just could not shoot an elk.  But I could spot and radio locations to the guys.  Unfortunately, our elk luck was finished and this one bull was all we got.  But man was it fun, and relaxing.  As you can tell by the picture, I was slightly worn out by Wed.   ;D

Wow - Very nice John. Hope you enjoyed it. See Randall's last few outing posts for what you missed  

adam