Last elk hunt of the year - early Decembr in Idaho

[jon_norstog]

We gave up the Oregon hunt Saturday, 11/28. My brother Paul had a tag for the 4-day December elk muzzle-loader hunt in the "Dworshak Zone" in Idaho, beginning 12/2. He got a cow year before last and it was looking like we would get snow this year. I tried to buy a tag for this hunt in August, (I have a lifetime ID hunting licanse) but they were all sold out, so as in the last two years I was there to “help” hunt and so we could keep track of each other. Years back I could always carry a .22 and bring back a grouse or two. They were scarce last year and nowhere to be seen this year. So what the hell - carry a camera!

Used to be you could count on some snow during the regular elk season; what with climate change elk rifle season tends to be warm and dry, hard to track the animals plus you make a lot of noise walking around. Also the wolves have really changed elk behavior. You can’t just blunder around in the woods and get lucky, not like you used to. December used to be impossible in these mountains, but now it is more like late fall.

The area we are hunting now, above the North Fork of the Clearwater, is very steep and the wolves have a tough time operating ... they are out of luck unless they can catch an elk or deer in a flat place like an old logging road. One catch on this hunt is with a muzzle-loading rifle, you get one shot so you better make it good.

We have a good general idea where the elk are going to be so we would hunt as a team: while Paul took a likely position I would slowly work around him in a half-mile to mile circle. We have walkie-talkies so we can stay in touch. There were hardly any hunters in the area and the animals were not being startled into making stupid mistakes. I was carrying a camera instead of a rifle so I took a mess of pictures.

It was a lot warmer than the Oregon hunt, temperatures in the low teens at night and mid-twenties during the day, plus the sun was out every day of the hunt, We have a campsite we keep going back to, above Breakfast Creek at maybe 2700 ft elevation. Steve and Mike showed up and set up a pretty flossy camp, while Paul put up his old wall tent.

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Morning before the fog burned off, looking toward the North Fork way below. It was cold and sunny the whole time.

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Paul is looking down into a big clearcut to see if any elk are moving through it.

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This is the main road runs down to the Dworshak Reservoir and onward to Weippe.

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Lots more coming. This site only allows so many photos per post.

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