This elk hunt started in early 2006 when after a frustrating 5-6 years of searching for a hunting area that wasn't over-run by other elk hunters, I decided to accompany a longtime friend and deer hunting partner, Dave, on a hunt into an area he was familiar with. Dave told me he was seeing lots of elk every day in the past, and I was kind of expecting to hear the "you should have seen them in here last year" story. But I was not to be disappointed. We packed in our camp in mid-August and hunted opening weekend and Labor Day weekend. We saw lots of elk, heard lots of rutting activity which was a surprise to me that early, and actually called in a few elk. One cow came within 3 paces of me. I was looking for a nice bull, and I decided early on that I was either going to shoot a 6x6 bull or a cow, and pass on any lesser bulls to let them grow up.

Our camp was situated at about 8500 feet, about 6 miles from a trailhead. It was fairly steep and rugged country with a lot of downfall timber. Our primary hunt week was the third week of September, the last week of the archery season. This week should be the peak of the elk rut. We both ended up shooting our elk, and a few blue grouse to eat in camp. It was snowy and cold most of the season, which was a bit unusual for this time of year.