Where Yarmiks Roam: Hunting with Travis

Every September Travis goes archery hunting in Eastern Oregon. Luckily I go with him - I think I have been six times in the last eight years. I don't actually hunt - in that I don't carry a bow - but I do assist in the hunting process. Travis takes care of all the hunting equipment, I take care of the food. He generally goes out twice a day to find the elusive elk - once very early in the morning (I stay in my warm sleeping bag) and then in the afternoon (about 4:00) until dark.

We travel east on I 84 until we get to exit 252 which is west of LaGrande. Here is the ominous sky early in the morning. Turned out the weather was perfect all week long.

At exit 252 we head south driving on windy roads through beautiful eastern oregon mountains until we come to a small road that is barricaded by a locked gate. Then we unload our gear, transport it over and around the gate, load up the ATV and trailer, and head up the hill to a very likely spot where we are certain there will be many trophy size bull elk. We fondly call this place, "The Meadow".

Here is our campsite.

As 4:00 nears we head off to The Meadow.

See the trees across the meadow? That's where Travis goes to wait. I sit right here where i am nestled in the trees ---and I also wait.

I have my chair, my pack, snacks, a book, water bottle, a jacket, and several more coats in my pack for when it gets cold as the sun goes down.

Here's how it's supposed to work in a perfect world....an elk will walk out of the trees and into Travis's firing range at which time Travis will shoot him with a well aimed arrow. But usually the world is not perfect, so we go to plan B. Travis uses his elk bugle (a new style this year), and with a hearty blast of air, blows into the bugle to create a blood curdling scream. Silence. Travis bugles again. With luck, a nearby elk will answer and come running.

Now, I enter the hunting scene. We have our walkie talkies; Travis will call me and will say, (in a whisper), "Mom, bugle!". I'm involved in my book, eating a granola bar or an apple, and wrapped up in my coat and wearing a heavy hat. Eventhough we have expensive walkie talkies, I usually only hear mumbling through the static. "What? Travis, did you call me? What do you want?" He says, "Mom, bugle!" This goes on for the rest of the evening's hunt. The theory behind all of this is that Travis' bugling will get the elk close, and my bugling will lure the elk to pass him by and head for me at which time Travis will........what can I say..... will harvest the elk.

The harvesting, on the first evening hunt of 2015, did not happen. So next morning, we packed up, went down the hill, over and around the gate and headed to the next really good spot where the big elk had gone.

The next spot we call Mount Baldy. It isn't really Mount Baldy, which is on an adjacent mountain top, but since Travis doesn't know the real name, we call it Mount Baldy anywat. We parked the cars at a gate (yes another gate) and headed up mountain side.

This portion of the trip became a bit complicated when we came upon a really huge log that blocked the road. Looks like we can get through, doesn't it? But the chain saw cuts are at an angle, and with the trailer on the ATV we could not get through without unloading the trailer and manually lifting the trailer to change its orientation.

Success - we're through.! You can see two other hunters with us - Dan Armstrong and Dustin Ables.

I had a mishap in all of this. I had placed Travis' bow on top of the big log so I could help - help by taking photos.

See this small limb protruding out of the log? See how sharp it is? I reached out over the log to get the bow, and that nasty razor sharp limb

sliced my forearm and peeled back a piece of my skin. Blood! Dripping blood everywhere! In the excitement I didn't get any pictures. Fortunately Travis had great first aid skills and I got bandaged

and we were on our way again.

The remaining part of the road to the top of Mt Baldy was pretty steep - so steep that there were no passengers - I walked and the gear got transferred in stages.

We set up camp and the next two days were a repeat of morning hunt and evening hunt. Repeated results.

During the day I usually walk around and do a bit of exploring. These next few pictures are of a "hunter" I came upon. Focus on the spindly trees in the center of the picture, and you'll see hunter. He freaked me out.

Yeah, it was just a stump, but it could have been an army sniper.

Here's a goofy picture of Travis in the tent trying to zip up the window of the tent.

We grew tired of Mount Baldy because the trophy size bull elk were being quite shy. So we headed to another very promising place called Starkey. Here's our campsite and a sunrise.