As many of you already know Scotty. Brian and I are back from our Idaho Backpacking adventure. I have spent the last week eating, (attempting to regain the weight that I lost) to regain the strength, muscle mass and repair the dislocated elbow, and stretched tendon that I lost while hiking about south central Idaho. My history with elk hunting as most of you know spans several decades. After serious thought and self analysis I am unable to recall a hunt where I traveled farther or faster on foot. Most men would have difficulty keeping up with these two, let alone a 67 year old. Most days started with a brisk 3 or 4 mile walk in the dark, and ended with a brisk three or four mile walk back to camp at the end of the day, in the dark. I will say in Brian's defense that he did stop occasionaly to check for me on the horizon. Scott however only checked when he thought that a lion or other predator (wolf) may have killed me. Uphill or down hill, we traveled at about 5 miles an hour. Occasionally they would stop to glass, and as soon as I caught up, we were off at a trot again. I called this a backpacking adventure, because we were there under the guise of hunting, but other than a few scrawney deer there was little game to be seen or heard. Like much of central Idaho the beetles and fire have really hit the country hard. 100,000's of thousands of acres have been burned. Escape cover is minimual and scattered far apart.I cannot remember when I have hunted so long and hard, and "never" seen an elk. Our estimate of 60 miles in seven days seems low. Because of the fires/beetles even small game was non-existant. The Gray squirrel that we hate so much because of its warning cry, was virtually non-esistant outside of the small patches of timber. I am the only one who saw a grouse, and that was on one of the days when I was dogging for the other two. They lined me out on a ridge with a 1,000 drop on the west side, compounded by several rock bluffs that I had to traverse "down" through. Some of the rocks were the size of a small car, and only held on the hill by sheer mass. After 7 days of this I finally sustained enough physical damage that my partners allowed me a couple of days off to clean and cook. By then our time was over and they headed east and I slowly headed west.
All and all it was a great adventure and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Two wonderful young men to spend time with.
All and all it was a great adventure and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Two wonderful young men to spend time with.
