Hunt With Walt 2011

I left Cheyenne about 1130 and headed across the state to meet our hunter in Lander. It was a perfect fall day – pale blue sky, golden leaves on the cottonwoods and that wonderful smell of sagebrush in the air. I met Tom Vowls and his friend Richard at the hotel in Lander. These are true gentlemen. They’ve been hunting together for about as long as I’ve been alive, I think. They are the greatest of friends and the greatest of sportsmen. We talked about Wyoming and the country we’d be hunting in and the elk we’d be hunting. We just immediately clicked. It promises to be a great hunt. I spent all evening getting the truck packed and my gear ready for morning. I was glad I’d organized it last week. This would have been a bad time to find something missing. I talked to Joy and Armond on the phone and made sure we were all coordinated. The wake-up call comes early – 5 AM.

October 24, 2011
I was up at 5 AM, and getting things ready to go. I could hear Armond in the next room doing the same thing. We had the truck all packed and ready to go by 6 AM. I checked in with Tom and Richard. They were in the motel office getting a cup of coffee. Both were excited and ready to go. We headed out as soon as Joy arrived at 6:30.

It was a warm and windy day. The high was almost 70 degrees. We started into Hunt Area 100 at first light on the Oregon Buttes Road. I like to hunt this area first because we almost always see elk immediately. Today was no exception. We saw two bulls on the north end of Joe Hay Rim – neither of them was one I would go after, especially on the first day. Immediately after that, we saw another bull and a spike in the head of Bear Creek. Again – not on the first day.

We worked our way around the Buttes and into Alkali Creek. We saw a bunch of about 22 there, but the bull that was with them was nothing special, so we moved on over to Continental Peak and had some lunch. Then we began working our way east along the rim where Lewis Sytsma killed his bull two years ago. It was very interesting – as soon as we got east of Continental Peak, we simply ran out of every form of vertebrate life. No antelope, no feral horses, and dang sure no elk. We worked it east all the way to the west end of Cyclone Rim and finally gave up and headed north. It took the bulk of the afternoon. We got to the Sweetwater in the late afternoon and took a break. What a beautiful stream it is, and the guys were very interested in the Oregon Trail that runs along it. I told them about the Seminoe Cutoff, the Lander Cutoff and the Parting of the Ways. It’s good to be able to share things about the state and the history I love.

We worked our way back up to Oregon Buttes by dark, and still didn’t see an elk. Tomorrow, we’ll move south a ways. We got back to Lander late and had dinner at Pizza Hut.

October 25, 2011
Same start time, but vastly different conditions. It was cold and spitting sleet in Lander when we left at 6:30 AM. Going over the hill was a little dicey, but we took our time and did just fine. There was a fresh dusting of snow on Oregon Buttes.

It was pretty darn cold and really windy, but we worked the country south from the buttes toward the head of Rock Cabin Creek and down toward Mowing Machine draw in the morning. We saw the same bunch we had seen yesterday, but we were sure we could do better.

We spent a lot of time just glassing and working the spotting scope, trying to find some elk for Tom to look over.

We had a great lunch on Rock Cabin Creek, then moved on down toward LaFonte Canyon. I hadn’t been down there in years. Immediately, we were in elk. Joy spotted two bulls bedded only about 400 yards from the road. One was small, the other one a potential shooter. The little one got up and stretched and walked around. The bigger one stayed bedded and didn’t give Tom much of a shot. Finally he stood up and almost immediately turned tail and vanished into a little slot canyon. We made a sneak on them, but were unsuccessful.

We kept working our way up toward the rim and spotted a bunch of elk with a dandy bull in it. They were in a very difficult spot. It took almost two hours to get up on them, hiking about two miles and crawling through the sagebrush. Armond stayed with the truck, Joy carried the sandbags and Richard coached. Got Tom up within about 250 yards of them, but we couldn’t see the bull. I finally stood up to flush him out of the draw below us and he bolted before Tom could get a shot. Poor guy – he had to have been a little frustrated. He was the ultimate gentleman about it. What a guy!

We stayed until almost dark and saw plenty of elk. We’ll definitely be back in here tomorrow. /there are a lot of elk here. We got back a little earlier and had burgers at the Gannett Grill. I think the guys liked that. There were lots of pretty girls there.

October 26, 2011
On the road at 6:30 again, but this time we headed south to the Tri-Territory Road. It was snowing in Lander when we left, and the roads were a bit dicey again, but once we got over the Continental Divide, it cleared right up.

Not sure exactly what was going down on Pacific Creek, but there were a bunch of county sheriff and federal law enforcement outfits parked there. They seemed to be clustered around a set of corrals with a bunch of cows. Rustling, maybe?

On over to Rock Cabin Creek and down toward Jack Morrow Creek. The plan was to be back in LaFonte Canyon early and get on another bull. As it turns out, we didn’t even make it to the turnoff. There, standing beside Jack Morrow Creek, were two bull elk – the same two bull elk we saw yesterday. We drove up to within about 250 yards, pulled off the road and Tom shot the bigger one of the two. It was a nice clean kill, and he did a great job. I think he was a little surprised that you can shoot a bull elk with a big rifle like his (.300 Weatherby Magnum) and he doesn’t just fall down. They’re big, strong critters.

It was a cold morning – about 20 degrees, with a stiff breeze out of the west. So I was glad we had lots of help to field dress and load the bull. I was able to get the pickup within just a few feet of him. Joy and Richard and Armond were all good hands.

But the absolute best part was watching Tom and Richard. What great friends these two gentlemen are. What a support each is to the other. And how lucky we are to be able to take them both elk hunting in Wyoming. It was an unforgettable experience.

It took us an hour or so to get the bull dressed, cut in half and loaded in the truck. We started back for Lander about 10 AM. En route, we stopped at the Parting of the Ways, and they guys got to hear some more about the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails. It was still darn cold, and the wind was howling, but they enjoyed it.

We got back to Lander and had an early lunch at Apple Valley Market, then spent the entire afternoon boning out the elk in the hotel parking lot. A number of people came by to congratulate Tom and admire the elk. I wonder if that would happen if we were cutting up an elk in the parking of a hotel in Denver. I suspect not…we’d probably all be in jail. It was a good afternoon.

We all went out for a nice dinner and had a wonderful time. Aaron and Sebastian Bannon joined us, and it was a great time. I found it harder than I expected to say goodbye to Tom and Richard. I’d hunt with these two guys any time.

Walt Gasson