ADVenture Elk Hunting

First of all, I am an avid outdoorsmen, Husband, father of two wonderful daughters, and generally a nice guy, that feels blessed to be able to enjoy the freedoms of the USA!!!

My disclaimer...........If you are a tree hugging, can not keep your nasty comments to yourself about hunting kind of person...........Please move along as there is nothing to see here........................Please do not get me wrong, I love trees also, and I respect your opinions, but if you have nothing nice to say.........Please keep it to your self.

If you enjoy the outdoors, and want to see how Elk hunting is done ADV style............stay tuned and enjoy the story

NOW FOR THE SHOW!!!!!!!!

It is late and I can not sleep, so I might as well get this started

Friday afernoon, all the stress at the office I can take for a week, cut out at noon, load up the Katoom and head to the......................................

SOUTHFORK of the Walla Walla.

A shot of me and the loaded Katoom.



Just the bike and my pack.



On with the riding gear and pointed out the driveway.



It is about 33 miles from my house to the trail head, so I use as many gravel roads as possible, gotta save those tires





I buzz pretty quickly to the trail and stop a couple of miles up to take another snap of the Katoom.



Stay tuned, plenty more to come

As I am gawking off taking pictures, up rides this fellow. He is packing in his camp. ATGATT must not be his motto



We chat for a brief moment and he heads on down (out) the trail. I am just about ready to take off, when in come my hunting partners. You can tell they come from the same school as my ATGATT, and at least always a lid and heavy boots

The first fellow is my friend G, he is 60 and has his first branch bull tag in the Walla Walla unit. He is also my connection to the awesome camping arrangements later in this story.



Right behind him is T, he is the youngster of the bunch. A great rider and fun to be around. I met him and G around 8 years ago while playing on this trail system. It has been a great friendship.



We arrive at Casa de Southfork cabin.



This cabin is only accessible by motorcycles, horses, foot, or mtn bike all year long, no ATVS the trail is two skinny. And a short window in the summer for land owners to bring in supplies using jacked up 4x4s fording the river crossings 11 times. I have spent many a great times here and so has my family. Thanks G

Our gear and our BEER UMM BEER Yes, that is a PIG filled with Premium Micro!!! G thinks of everything!!


Some MGD and my helmet, lights strapped on for our nightly camp raids



Get a fire going and hang out until supper.

Yes we are, on all three the first day and help on the second. I will keep the photos tasteful, but there may be a little blood, but nothing graphic (hence the disclaimer). No worse then a dead deer on the highway, and a steak at your supermarket. Due to the fact it is hard to pack a Bull elk out whole on two KTMs and a two Suzukis...................OOPS, I have given away a guest appearance of another ADVenture Rider

Believe me to get into this country..........Hunt...........successfully kill an Elk.............and pack it out..............is more then sporting and a story to be shared.

If this is acceptable.......................I will continue

Great riding (I have) and Elk hunting (I have to drive 1000 miles) 33 miles from the house..WOW.. I am looking forward to your story.

thanks

I shall continue.

Dinner was home raised beef.........not elk..........at least tonight



Cooked in a cast iron skillet with potatoes and onions over an antique wood burning stove



And the finished meal, more then we could eat!! Had to save the leftover meat to put with our fresh Alaskan Halibut the next night!



We eat dinner, play some dice, tell some lies, drink a few beers, and retire to our more then comfortable rooms. This is ADVenture hunting in comfort



I just noticed the date on the pictures, the above picture is actually not the first night, but still a picture of the room, if you don't like it............sue me

On the edge of my seat...but I didn't see any rifles, bows, spears...what was the weapon of choice, and how did you carry it in?


...and by the way, don't you feel a little guilty about having such plush accommodations while elk hunting?

...on the other hand, any damn fool can rough it!

Only one tag, only one rifle................Winchester model 70 sporter magnum in .300.

I have a pistol on my side on the first pic, personal protection only, theres cats in those woods.

And believe me.....I do not feel guilty.............lucky...........but not guilty.

Thanks for the reply and stay tuned. MUCH more to come

You're riding the weapon...now go seek revenge on the ungulates for all the damage they've done to motorcycles!

KICK ASS! Talk about mixing up two fantastic past times. I can't wait to see how you rode the elk out. Bet that raised some eyebrows going down the road?! :huh

This is a cool thread! I'm looking forward to the pic of a dead elk with a happy hunter posing behind it!

BTW, I'm guessing that you'd field dress and butcher it, pack it in several ice chests, and have each bike ride out with one chest. Is that the plan? If so, you're a better man than me. I can field dress with the best of 'em, but when it comes to really butchering the meat I feel like I'm all thumbs.

We had a guy at our deer lease near Comanche, Texas a few years ago who was a Cajun boy. He owned a restaurant in Dallas and alwasy brought a big ice chest and the finest set of specialty butchering blades you've ever seen. Sharp blades, too! He'd bring a deer back to camp and within an hour it was expertly butchered into beautiful cuts, wrapped well, and put into a cooler full of ice. Everybody would just stand around to watch because he really put on a show.

Like I said, this is great idea for a thread!

Y'all making me hungry.

-2 points for not offing the elk with your bare hands.

Excellent! What a cool hut out there.

I tried grouse hunting once in New Mexico since I saw them everytime riding in the hills around Taos, seemed like a natural. Dirt bike and a shotgun. Saw my first bird, jumped off the machine, un-holstered the weapon and drew on the bird only to bonk the butt on my helmet, can't aim! Dang, bird flew away, kinda funny really, took off my lid, left it right there, rode away and came back about 20 minutes later, sure enough the same big fat grouse had returned and I blasted him this time.

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

I wanna go!!

+2 points if you take the elk alive and ride it out with your motorcycle strapped to its back.

Edit: BTW Excellent thread. Not a hunter myself, but I get it. If you're a good tree hugger, you'll know that one of the best ways to keep the ecosystems we leave our animals heathy and hearty is to have a toughtfull and well administered game harvesting program.

My kind of weekend.

great write-up so far, looking forward to more..