DBLAARCHERY
Well-Known Member
First thing first...Hi everyone...I sure did miss you guys...This may be a little long but It is well worth the read... 
We headed out on Wed. and arrived in Boise around 11:00 a.m. The 2 hour drive is beautiful...You start out with brown rolling hills with mountains in the back ground to 9,000 ft mountains...McCall is 2 hour north of Boise snugled up to Payette Lake...
We arrived to our trail head around 3 a.m. and proceeded to pack our backpacks, this took around 1 hour because we didn't want to carry to much for a 2 mile hike to camp...For those that have hiked in the mountains you know what I mean when I say breath slow... We arrived at camp around 6 p.m....This was camp...My wife's uncle Jerry had already arrived on Monday and made the pack in 3 times to get all our tents and supplies...What a guy...A true mountaineer, this man can hike circles around anyone I know and is about to turn 55... I need to mention when we arrived in camp he was still out hunting and made it back right around dark...
This is Pearl Lake...To reach this lake you have to hike a trail for 55 minutes with an elevation change of around 800 feet in 2 miles...Not hard at all unless you are a flat lander... ...like us... This was our view from camp not very pretty I know... :whistle: ...Keep in mind after hiking for over 55 miles in three days this hike to the truck got very easy...
Our first day of hunting started out on Thursday and let me tell you...Jerry did not have any mercy for us...We hiked all our favorite spots including the same area I killed my first elk...Areas including the avalanche, cell phone rock, the super bowl, sleepy hollow named after the night I slept with my elk on the mountain a few years back... :whistle: Thats another story in its self ask me sometime and I will tell it...We found the elk in sleepy hollow which is roughly 8 miles from camp...Here are a few pics of the terrain we hiked...No exaggerations the pics really do not do this justice but I tried to capture it the best I could....
This is the bottom of the super bowl...One of my favorite places to hunt and visit...
If you look real close you can see Jerry, and Eric (my cousin) hiking...This is some of the terrain we hiked for 3 days...One false step and well you know...This was the hardest I have ever hunted and I have been to these spots several time...
On our first day of hunting we found the elk 8 miles from camp and heard several bulls above us and below us...To shorten the story some we had a satellite bull bugle up high so we went after him first...Of coarse no matter what you do in the mountains you will never beat the wind...It seems to always blow from your back...We went higher than the bull and called a few times and he sounded off every time we called...Little did we know he had slipped in below us in the tag-alder and we made one more move and ended up pushing him out...In the mean time we had another bull coming up the mountain below us...We slipped down the mountain toward him trying to be careful not to be seen...We finally stopped and set up and started hammering the calls...This bull was the biggest bull I have ever seen in the wild and Jerry said it was the 2nd biggest bull he has ever called up...He came in to around 75 yards and stopped...My cousin Eric and Jerry had a front row seat to the show and I was tucked behind some tag-alder for the shot...Eric had his binos glued to his eyes and gave me the 7x7 sign...Of coarse I thought he was joking but shortly realized it was not a joke...This bull must have traveled at least 400-600 yards from his cows and just didn't want to came any closer...If he would have come another 30 yards I would have had a 15-20 yard broad side shot with little or no detection... :/ That is how it goes...He turned and headed down the hill and I stepped out to watch our dreams go down the hill...What a show we saw and let me tell you this...He would have scored well over 300...We talked latter and figured with the kicker off the back he would go 360+ 7x8...
Thats ok tho because the experience was well worth the 20 miles we covered the first day...The other 2 days was much of the same...We were back in the elk on the last day...We set up on about 30 cows and two bulls...One had a huge 6 on one side with the other side broke off at the sword tine...The other was probably close to 300"...They winded us as Jerry skirted the hill to turn them back toward us but to his surprise stepped out on a trail and ended up behind a 400 lbs brown bear...He walked behind this bear for about 30 yards and got as close as 40 yards from him when the bear finally winded him and heading right threw the herd he was stalking...Needles to say that ended that hunt...Over all we had a great time we fished in the evening that we got back before dark catching cutthroat until our heart were content...Good eating and drinking and company...What more could you ask for...Here are a few more pics I think you will enjoy...Thanks for reading, I had a great week except for missing my kids and wife...
This is myself and Jerry...
Jerry, Eric, myself...
A rub we came across...We have a pic of one taller but its on the other camera...
Packing up and moving out...I ended up carrying around 100 lbs between my pack and the duffle bag I had to carry...We made the 2 mile trip out in 43 minutes...
One last look to take it all in...Man I love this place...I miss it already...
This was our crew..Uncle Jerry, Uncle Ronnie, Eric, and myself...
We headed out on Wed. and arrived in Boise around 11:00 a.m. The 2 hour drive is beautiful...You start out with brown rolling hills with mountains in the back ground to 9,000 ft mountains...McCall is 2 hour north of Boise snugled up to Payette Lake...
We arrived to our trail head around 3 a.m. and proceeded to pack our backpacks, this took around 1 hour because we didn't want to carry to much for a 2 mile hike to camp...For those that have hiked in the mountains you know what I mean when I say breath slow...
We arrived at camp around 6 p.m....This was camp...My wife's uncle Jerry had already arrived on Monday and made the pack in 3 times to get all our tents and supplies...What a guy...A true mountaineer, this man can hike circles around anyone I know and is about to turn 55... I need to mention when we arrived in camp he was still out hunting and made it back right around dark...
This is Pearl Lake...To reach this lake you have to hike a trail for 55 minutes with an elevation change of around 800 feet in 2 miles...Not hard at all unless you are a flat lander...
...like us... This was our view from camp not very pretty I know... :whistle: ...Keep in mind after hiking for over 55 miles in three days this hike to the truck got very easy...
Our first day of hunting started out on Thursday and let me tell you...Jerry did not have any mercy for us...We hiked all our favorite spots including the same area I killed my first elk...Areas including the avalanche, cell phone rock, the super bowl, sleepy hollow named after the night I slept with my elk on the mountain a few years back... :whistle: Thats another story in its self ask me sometime and I will tell it...We found the elk in sleepy hollow which is roughly 8 miles from camp...Here are a few pics of the terrain we hiked...No exaggerations the pics really do not do this justice but I tried to capture it the best I could....
This is the bottom of the super bowl...One of my favorite places to hunt and visit...
If you look real close you can see Jerry, and Eric (my cousin) hiking...This is some of the terrain we hiked for 3 days...One false step and well you know...This was the hardest I have ever hunted and I have been to these spots several time...
On our first day of hunting we found the elk 8 miles from camp and heard several bulls above us and below us...To shorten the story some we had a satellite bull bugle up high so we went after him first...Of coarse no matter what you do in the mountains you will never beat the wind...It seems to always blow from your back...We went higher than the bull and called a few times and he sounded off every time we called...Little did we know he had slipped in below us in the tag-alder and we made one more move and ended up pushing him out...In the mean time we had another bull coming up the mountain below us...We slipped down the mountain toward him trying to be careful not to be seen...We finally stopped and set up and started hammering the calls...This bull was the biggest bull I have ever seen in the wild and Jerry said it was the 2nd biggest bull he has ever called up...He came in to around 75 yards and stopped...My cousin Eric and Jerry had a front row seat to the show and I was tucked behind some tag-alder for the shot...Eric had his binos glued to his eyes and gave me the 7x7 sign...Of coarse I thought he was joking but shortly realized it was not a joke...This bull must have traveled at least 400-600 yards from his cows and just didn't want to came any closer...If he would have come another 30 yards I would have had a 15-20 yard broad side shot with little or no detection... :/ That is how it goes...He turned and headed down the hill and I stepped out to watch our dreams go down the hill...What a show we saw and let me tell you this...He would have scored well over 300...We talked latter and figured with the kicker off the back he would go 360+ 7x8...
Thats ok tho because the experience was well worth the 20 miles we covered the first day...The other 2 days was much of the same...We were back in the elk on the last day...We set up on about 30 cows and two bulls...One had a huge 6 on one side with the other side broke off at the sword tine...The other was probably close to 300"...They winded us as Jerry skirted the hill to turn them back toward us but to his surprise stepped out on a trail and ended up behind a 400 lbs brown bear...He walked behind this bear for about 30 yards and got as close as 40 yards from him when the bear finally winded him and heading right threw the herd he was stalking...Needles to say that ended that hunt...Over all we had a great time we fished in the evening that we got back before dark catching cutthroat until our heart were content...Good eating and drinking and company...What more could you ask for...Here are a few more pics I think you will enjoy...Thanks for reading, I had a great week except for missing my kids and wife...
This is myself and Jerry...
Jerry, Eric, myself...
A rub we came across...We have a pic of one taller but its on the other camera...
Packing up and moving out...I ended up carrying around 100 lbs between my pack and the duffle bag I had to carry...We made the 2 mile trip out in 43 minutes...
One last look to take it all in...Man I love this place...I miss it already...
This was our crew..Uncle Jerry, Uncle Ronnie, Eric, and myself...
