jon_norstog
12-20-2020, 01:03
Eastern Oregon is all controlled hunts. I drew a tag for the last hunt of the year, Thanksgiving week, in the Murderer's Creek unit, south of John Day, Oregon. I had gone and scouted the area in October and thought it looked good around Big Creek USFS campground south of Strawberry Mountain, right at 5,000 ft elevation. When I got there it was snowed up pretty good, but some other hunters had broken the snow on the road in! It was the day before the season opened when I set up camp. It was cold and clear, below zero at night but got up into the low teens during the day - beautiful weather, but too cold for the animals. They were not moving much at all.
My brother Paul came to join me right around dark the next day. It was too cold and dark for him to set up his wall tent so he slid in with me. He wasn’t quite prepared for sleeping on the ground below zero. He crawled into his bags fully clothed just after dark. I had energy left so I went out scouting in the moonlight … bright as day! When I got back a few hours later he was awake and shivering. I was triple bagged, so I gave him one of mine, a ten-pound Coleman Elk Hunter bag and he warmed up enough to sleep. I was still OK except for my butt.
48574 48575 4857648577
Paul stuck it out two nights, then suggested we move into a motel at John Day and commute. Got no argument from me. Everything was crazy there because of the virus. People were doing their best to comply with the state orders, even if they were not too happy about it. At least the heat was on in the motel.
We managed to find where the elk had gone but never got close enough for a shot. There wasn’t much sign of elk around Big Creek, so we decided to road hunt a bit. There was a tag end of USFS just north of the Bear Valley private rangeland that looked good to me – 4,600 ft but a south exposure and as it turned out a fair amount of browse. We drove on over a couple ridges into Murderers’ Creek and saw a lot of tracks there. Those two areas we hunted pretty hard. I managed to stir up a herd of 6-7 cows in the Bear Valley area. I saw them out in the open maybe 600 yards away. And me with my iron-sighted Krag! As I was walking back to the truck I heard a rifle shot, then nothing. Decided to give Bear Valley a rest.
Back to Murderers’ Creek. Tracks everywhere but no animals. The road petered out at someone’s inholding ranch, it was 4,200 ft. elevation and I think the animals were further downstream, no way to get there except over miles of trail. Back to Bear Valley the next day! After hunting the ridges in the morning we found fresh tracks, Paul suggested I follow them and lent me his scoped .35 Whelan. That cow (I think) really moved around but I kept getting closer and closer. I crested a ridge and found where she had rested a bit, then took off, trailing pellets of sign. She made a run for the border, onto private land and out of sight. That was Friday. The hunt continued another couple days but Paul had to go back to Idaho and get ready for his hunt, while I needed to go home, lighten my load, take care of business and then get up there to help him on that hunt. (We are both of an age where we shouldn’t be hunting alone in the mountains, especially in winter)
No animals were harmed in this hunt. Not for lack of trying though. It's a beautiful area, and off the beaten path, worth a visit in the summer.
My brother Paul came to join me right around dark the next day. It was too cold and dark for him to set up his wall tent so he slid in with me. He wasn’t quite prepared for sleeping on the ground below zero. He crawled into his bags fully clothed just after dark. I had energy left so I went out scouting in the moonlight … bright as day! When I got back a few hours later he was awake and shivering. I was triple bagged, so I gave him one of mine, a ten-pound Coleman Elk Hunter bag and he warmed up enough to sleep. I was still OK except for my butt.
48574 48575 4857648577
Paul stuck it out two nights, then suggested we move into a motel at John Day and commute. Got no argument from me. Everything was crazy there because of the virus. People were doing their best to comply with the state orders, even if they were not too happy about it. At least the heat was on in the motel.
We managed to find where the elk had gone but never got close enough for a shot. There wasn’t much sign of elk around Big Creek, so we decided to road hunt a bit. There was a tag end of USFS just north of the Bear Valley private rangeland that looked good to me – 4,600 ft but a south exposure and as it turned out a fair amount of browse. We drove on over a couple ridges into Murderers’ Creek and saw a lot of tracks there. Those two areas we hunted pretty hard. I managed to stir up a herd of 6-7 cows in the Bear Valley area. I saw them out in the open maybe 600 yards away. And me with my iron-sighted Krag! As I was walking back to the truck I heard a rifle shot, then nothing. Decided to give Bear Valley a rest.
Back to Murderers’ Creek. Tracks everywhere but no animals. The road petered out at someone’s inholding ranch, it was 4,200 ft. elevation and I think the animals were further downstream, no way to get there except over miles of trail. Back to Bear Valley the next day! After hunting the ridges in the morning we found fresh tracks, Paul suggested I follow them and lent me his scoped .35 Whelan. That cow (I think) really moved around but I kept getting closer and closer. I crested a ridge and found where she had rested a bit, then took off, trailing pellets of sign. She made a run for the border, onto private land and out of sight. That was Friday. The hunt continued another couple days but Paul had to go back to Idaho and get ready for his hunt, while I needed to go home, lighten my load, take care of business and then get up there to help him on that hunt. (We are both of an age where we shouldn’t be hunting alone in the mountains, especially in winter)
No animals were harmed in this hunt. Not for lack of trying though. It's a beautiful area, and off the beaten path, worth a visit in the summer.