When I locked the door to the office at 5:00 Friday I pointed my faithful GMC Pickup “Mighty Whitey” to the East and joined the throng headed up the west side of the Sierras on Highway 80. I picked up my brother-in-law Mike in Loomis. We stopped finally at 11:00 pm in Winnemucca for the night before pushing on to Elk Camp in Wyoming. Saturday night we arrived to a hot meal at 6:00 pm MST, and readied our saddles and rifles for the morning.
Our crew consisted of myself, my 36 year old brother in law, Mike Karle, a Veterinarian, My 68 year old father, Paul, and my 65 year old Uncle Colby. Our support staff from Western Wyoming Outfitters consisted of the owner Gene Borre, his capable assistant guide Brendan Rien, and first year guide Mike Findarle. We also enjoyed the company of our camp cook Lee, and “Indian Charlie” who served as the rough string rider and packer. Charlie did all this with one foot in a “walking boot” from a severe ligament strain. The guy is a hand.
Sunday morning we were up at 4:00 am and had coffee and a hot breakfast before mounting our horses for a two hour ride in the dark. We arrived at an area our guide Brendan had heard elk bugles earlier in the week. We rode up one canyon, down another, and back up to the spine of another ridge overlooking a large burned area. Faintly we could hear a bull bugling way off in the distance. After following our ears we realized he was across a huge basin, and out of our reach. Since we were already 10 miles from camp, we made plans to return the next morning to this spot to see if we could catch the vocal bull before he retreated to the timber.
We rode the three and a half hours back to camp for a total of 23 miles ridden and walked.
