Hunt in mountains above Vernal

Hello everyone... time to update you on a few things!

Life is very full and very interesting, and very rewarding and very frustrating, and very blessed, and .... well you get the picture! After all it's life!

Family are all working hard on their lives... some doing extremely well, while other are working hard on issues... all things are as they should be right now. Bless all my children in their various challenges... You can do it!! I know you can!!!

The hunt is over for this year! Sad for that, as it's so nice to take the trailer in the mountains, far away from work, phones and lifes pressures. Hunting is a great deal of work however, but it's nice to be physically tired and then end of the day instead of mentally tired... Makes for a great nights sleep!! Rhonda and I had a wonderful time, and really enjoyed the time we had hunting with Kevin!

Successful was our hunt! On Monday am after three days of working hard hiking the mountains, Kevin and I decided to do some road hunting to start out the day... We took the truck to an area where we had seen dows (female deer)... as we approached the area, there were several deer there... Kevin maned the field glasses to see if any were bucks (males) with horns... After seeing one run off, another came into view. I said... is that a buck, and as soon as he said yes... I took the shot with the muzzleloader (black powder)... It was a hit, but he ran off... not sure how much hiking we had to find him, Kevin walked down the road to find an access point to begin climbing up the mountain to find a blood trail... We... luck was on our side... after I hit the buck he ran only a few yards into the trees, then must have done a serious jump and landed on the road... We both couldn't believe our luck.... we loaded him in the truck and off we went!! Here's our guy!!







We continued to hunt for our Cow (female elk) but didn't have any luck. Unfortunately Kevin had to head back to work and school on Tuesday pm... but it was so great having time with him... He and Nicole are living life fully while living in Orem and going to school and working.



Back to the hunt... so the days came and went and I worked hard hiking through the dead fall and trees... each night I was completely spent, but got up the next day before light and went out again... well, Sunday morning came, that's the day we had to head home, and still no success... Well I made the decision to go out one last time... and went to an area that I hadn't worked thus far, but one of the other hunters in our group was successful in the area the day before... Well, I hiked a couple miles and decide to sit on a log and just watch and listen, figuring that I was sit in the quiet and not hear or see anything, much like I had done throughout the week... Well, I just got settled when I heard a crashing sound across the canyon... holy smokes I thought... what was that.... then I heard it again... grabbed my gun and removed the safety.... there they came... a herd of elk... 3 bulls and 5 cows... what luck!! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!!! And they were on a dead run!! So finding one in my scope was a real challenge... When I thought I had one, I took the shot... they all stopped, looked confused and turned direction and ran right in front of me! Not knowing if I had hit anything, I got a nice 4 point in my site and took another shot! This time he dropped immediately... I was shocked, and excited all at once!! After making sure that he wasn't going to get up and run off, I went to where I had taken the first shot... but there was nothing there!! I was so excited to have seen a herd of elk. After hunting this area for 3 years and never seeing one... then to see a herd... well it was amazing!! I joked with my friend Caleb Harper who is the one that has helped me get into hunting, that we were in search of Unicorns!! It was amazing!! Here's the amazing Elk we got!!







After making sure that he wasn't running off, I hiked back to camp and got help... Even my wonderful Rhonda, who is not a big fan of hunting came back to support me! She was so happy for me to have gotten one... Here are a few pictures of what we had to do to get the very heavy and very large animal out.






















He's such a beautiful animal, and my first, I've decide to mount him and put him down in what Rhonda calls my "Man Cave"... Rhonda is amazing and is so open to trying new things, and supporting me in doing the same... Caleb who is an avid hunter, capped the Elk out in preparation for mounting... Sorry to those of you who are not in favor of hunting... But I need to tell you, that when we were butchering him, we cooked up the best steaks I've had in a long time... Elk is very lean and very good!! Nothing is going to waste... the meat that isn't good for steaks or roasts, we ground into hamburger!!

It was a productive, hard worked hunt! Thanks to all that helped me bring the Elk back!! The Honda 4wheeler earned it's keep this time round... did great!!

Here's a link to more hunting photos...
http://picasaweb.google.com/happytewphoto/Hunt2010#

More later...