An Outdoorsman's Journal

Elk Camp

Hello friends,

This week and next I will be writing to you about my experiences along with my 24-year-old daughter Selina Walters as we camped and hunted elk and deer in the Rocky Mountains near Livingston, Montana.

Wednesday, October 29th
High 43, low 28

My truck and 12-foot trailer were literally as full as they could be as I was about to make the final 10 miles up the mountain of a 1360 mile solo drive on a very narrow and rough road with my daughter Selina following. No problems on the climb up but it took some focus, a wrong move could cause a fall off the edge, literally. In early August Selina and I scouted this area for the first time and there were lots of elk and deer. The excitement was top notch and just the fact that I was about to spend 10 days wilderness camping with Selina who lives in Missoula was honestly the biggest thrill for me.
Before we even built camp or should I say started we went for a 1.3 mile hike from camp and saw one mule deer, no elk. When we returned to camp which is a US Forest Service campsite that is old, beautiful and underused we put up one of my two portable Eskimo ice shacks. This would be our sleeper shack and would have to be a ways from our main hangout/cook shack due to grizzly bear common sense.
The grizzly bear, let me tell you everything is about common sense. Our campground had 2 bear box's which you put your food in or store it in a vehicle or a secure cooler, these are not options, they are requirements that are 100 % common sense. Lack of caution can result in dead humans, grizzly's or both and no one wants either. Selina has been living in the mountains for 20 months and she takes no chances, always carries bear spray and doesn’t even leave a food wrapper around.
On our walk we were hiking so fast we both walked within 5 feet of a skunk, we backed up and there were no issues.
We did not put up the cook shack and had a “we made it” to elk camp shing ding cooking on the end gate of my truck and laughing a lot while Selina enjoyed the company of her favorite dog "Red".

Friday, October 31st
High, 54,44 low 38,28

This story is one of two planets for us, one is always at least 10 degrees colder than the other, one has 3 inches of snow, one just a dusting and mostly grass. This is due to a 3 mile atv trek, down mountain and elevation drop of almost 1000 feet. The atv ride can be crazy as once our hunts started it was long rides before sunrise on an ice/snow covered mountain trail where focusing on staying warm is the name of the game.
Today was day 3 of hiking and our legs are toughening up but will tire out.

Saturday, November 1st
High 52, low 28

We started our hunt today going low, first the ride and then about a 1 mile trek. Knowing how to dress is huge, warm for the ride, shed clothes for the hike and dress up for the hunt. We left camp at 4:30 am, about 3 hours before daylight, separated and began watching the mountains for elk or deer as we both had mule deer/whitetail tags as well.
Long story short, we hunted till 30 minutes before dark as on day one we wanted to know how to get back to our machine. I had not seen a deer or an elk, neither of us heard a shot and Selina had seen a doe mule deer with her fawn.
If you know much about Selina and I you might be aware that we are meat eaters and care little about rack size. On the hike back we came across a whitetail buck on 3 separate occasions that was maybe a fork horn, and it offered easy shots. We let it pass, well aware we were only on day one of our hunt!

The mood is excellent, were at elk camp!

Sunset