Hunting with Emily

My wife, Emily, is one of the people I enjoy spending time in the outdoors with the most, and no I'm not just saying this because she is my #1 blog fan. She may not be the fastest hiker, but she eventually gets to where we need to be. She may not be quietest stalker, but I've been around much noisier hunters. She might not want to spend hours at a time behind the binoculars but she picks up game quite regular. She is, however, very dedicated, strong, and by far the prettiest hunting partner I've ever been around. This was Emily's first year hunting big game in Wyoming. Emily has several good mule deer under her belt but decided she would try her luck on some elk this year.

I slowly made her aware through the year that were we'd be elk hunting is absolutely infested with grizzly bears. Surprise! I had to remind her there was good news as well. The good news is the hunting area is close enough to home that we could just do day trips and not have to sleep in a nylon tent in grizz country...plus it's only 30 miles from the hospital in case I needed to life flight her back to Cody after a bear encounter. I'm kidding. Kind of. 

All in all, even after a good friend of ours was attacked by a 300 pound grizz--twice--this year on the same hunt we were on, she was rather cheerful and less nervous than I thought she would be. At least on the outside appearance, it wasn't until after the hunt did she confess her guts churned everytime she saw grizz tracks or poop--which means she had a constant stomach-ache the entire hunt.

Our good friend Bob Wells

What a hunt it was. The wonderful part was there was absolutely no stress to kill as I was certain we could fill the freezer this year without an extra elk. I really didn't care if she killed a bull, I just wanted her to enjoy herself, which she did. On several occasions we got up into the elk country and found solid bulls, but she elected to pass because they were deep in the wilderness or it was late enough in the day, the thought of packing out elk quarters in the dark definitely swayed her decisions not to kill.    

Her elk hunt truly wasn't about killing a bull. It was about giving Emily and I the chance to spend hours together exploring ridgetops, taking a horse ride, talking about life while glassing, finding petrified wood, spying on a herd of bighorns or a grizz, or just enjoying the vistas together. 

We glassed up this bear directly below us. It was too busy on a deer carcass to pay much attention to us

A herd bull and cows Emily elected to pass

petrified limb casts and quartz layers in the ground

Tough girl. This was a beautiful afternoon of quiet snow fall

No, those aren't bigfoot tracks, but those are our tracks on the left side of picture for comparison!

Emily probably wont want this picture posted but I need to explain. Her mule was so fast she needed to really lean into the curves for balance (:

#Areyouthistough? #5milesback

Contemplating whether she wanted to walk another mile towards a big bull

Grizz Turd and Grizz Medicine

Emily's deer hunt ended with a notched tag. She had one day to hunt and the season was ending in mere days. We took off from the truck at the trailhead and the thermometer read -5 F. No wind, just beautiful sunlight. It was picture perfect! We hiked in 2 miles to get on a glassing post I am familiar with. As we approached our spot I was seeing does feeding along the cottonwood-lined creek bottom. 

We had just settled in and had found various does and a small buck we will call "corkscrew". He had a 4-point on the right side and a corkscrew beam on the left side. He was ugly, but "unique", says Emily. I'd like to take him, She said. I convinced her that he is bedded in the brush for the day so we had an hour or so to look for an "upgrade"  and enjoy the warming air and sun on our faces before getting closer to corkscrew. 

Wolf tracks from that night

What happened next I need to be careful explaining...because it almost ended our marriage. What I can say is Emily spotted two bucks moving through the migration trail. They were toads. There was some real struggle to find them in the scope. They left unscathed only after a couple shots were fired and lots and lots of swear words, elevated voices, tears, and maybe a little bit of buck fever.

What is important is we are still together and after a 20 minutes breather, we were both over it and ready to keep hunting! I love that girl. She decided at that point that she better just go kill corkscrew. We made our way down to within 400 yards. We had limited visibility on his vitals as he fed in the deep sage in rather flat terrain. Emily was laying prone waiting for Corky to make a move into the open. Meanwhile, we would take turns watching Corky while the other would warm their hands in their jackets and maybe do some jumping jacks for circulation. 

That's when it happened. I rolled to my right and pulled up my binoculars and scanned the area to our right. Suddenly a big buck's head melted out of the shade of a dead juniper. The buck is bedded staring right at me...at 185 yards. Emily swivel the rifle this way...Big Buck!! Emily, like a pro, adjusted the scope and was on the buck in no time at all. I'm gonna shoot. I couldn't believe the luck.

The buck never got out of it's bed. What a day of ups and downs...but ending on such a climax. Thanks Emily for putting up with my buck fever melt-downs. I can't wait till next years fall adventures with you.