Whoever thinks hunting is where you just go up and have a choice of your animal to shoot is wrongly mistaken....at least that's my experience with archery hunts. Friday I hightailed it out of Reno to meet up with Rob in Battle Mountain. We loaded his truck and took off toward Ely, where my elk hunt area is. We stopped at The Star for dinner where I should've known then it was an omen, since it was the worst dinner I've had there. But I didn't and we kept on trekking. We got to Ely around 1am and checked into the only hotel in town that had vacancies. Saturday we woke up with the sun at 5:30 and started our long day. We drove to an area that Rob's buddy told him would be a good place to spot elk. Other than a deer or two we didn't see anything of interest. Then we took off for the most beautiful part of NV that I've been to (Other than Tahoe). Cave Lake/Mountain is full of bristlecone pines (which I'd never seen) and aspens, tall mountains and lush green grass. Rob and I fell in love with the place immediately but we didn't necessarily fall in love with the hiking at 10,000 ft elevation! We drove to various places that people had recommended to no avail. We got out and hiked up and down canyons, only to see old elk droppings but no elk. We drove up a steep mountain that I worried we'd get down, but not in the same way we went up. We got to see the world from the top of various mountains throughout the day. But, by day's end the closest we'd come to seeing a cow elk was a herd of sheep and cows....cattle cows. We were getting discouraged so we called our neighbor that's had successful hunts in the same area. He told us of some water holes so we made our way to those right before dark. After looking around we figured that's where he'd start the day in the morning. Exhausted, sore and cranky, we made our way to a new hotel on the other side of town. We fell into bed, dreading our 3am wake up call.
When that call came through we pulled ourselves out of bed to start a new day of hunting. We set up at the water hole well before daylight. Since we weren't even hearing elk rustle around in the aspens close by Rob decided to head out in hopes of finding a different hunting spot. He struck gold! He found a couple cows and heard a bull bugling so he hurried back to get me. We walked around the area for awhile until we found a natural blind that someone had made. We knew then that this would be a successful area to see elk. After coming up with a game plan for the rest of the day, we went to have breakfast then went back to the hotel to get some much needed shut eye. We woke up, refreshed, and ready to tackle the evening hunt head on. Much to our dismay, there was a couple families camping right at the base of the canyon where we were going to hunt. Since elk are known for their sense of smell, we were worried about the campfire but we shouldn't have been.
About an hour after setting up our blind we heard a lot of rustling in the rocks to our left. We looked over and saw 2 bulls and a cow making their way right to us. It couldn't have been more perfect. Well, it could have but I'll get to that part. They stopped to drink from the stream, oblivious to us. When the cow was about 10-15 yards away Rob told me to take aim and shoot. All my nights out shooting at the deer target on our property did not prepare me for that moment. Without even picking a spot, I drew my arrow back and let it go. The cow easily moved away without as much as a scratch. She went up a hill directly in front of us, 40 yrds away. It was like she wanted to be hit because she couldn't have done anything more perfect. Lucky for her, she had a rookie shooting at her. Hands and body shaking, heart beating 100 mph, I drew back but this time my arrow didn't set up right so I frantically asked Rob to help me. Again I drew back, without picking a spot, and let the arrow go. She continued her way up the hill and I was ready to throw a temper tantrum. I couldn't believe I had screwed up not once but twice!! I had wanted an elk so bad because the meat is the best I've ever eaten. I'd had two chance to obtain that goal and blew it both times. After that I stewed the rest of the hunt, mad at myself for blowing such an easy shot. We waited until dark to leave because we kept hearing her move around to the right of us. Since we were down to the wire on time we were hoping she'd come back. But, no such luck!
Monday morning we woke up at 3:30 to set out for a few hours of morning hunting. Rob was sure we'd have a shot at something but unfortunately we didn't. We had to leave around 7:30am so I could get back to Reno. I left dejected, still mad about my botched hunt. But Rob made the drive back to Battle Mtn fun, making up songs about my hunt, laughing about our antelope hunt (I can laugh about that one but not the elk one yet) and pointing out places of interest. I'd love to have another opportunity at an elk but I don't see that happening. I guess there's always next season to bring home the meat!
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