An Incredible Hunting Experience in Idaho's Salmon River Mountains

CLOSER TO HEAVEN

By ; Matt Yablonski

           What a spectacular view! I thought to myself as I stood perched on a rock outcropping 6500 feet above Idaho’s Salmon River Gorge. A rush of emotions came over me while I took it all in. I thought about how truly blessed I have been to see the things I have seen  and visited all of the wild places I had been in pursuit of big game animals all over the world. These eyes had beheld many a beautiful vista but none quite as breath taking as this place. Truly, of all the many places I had been to this was quite surely the most scenic. The river snaked through the valley below winding through bends, twists & turns like an endless blue serpent with neither head nor tail. Jagged mountains rose skyward dotted with aspen, pine and juniper dispersed among meadows and bold rock cliffs. The expanse of mountain range behind me was home to bugling rocky mountain elk, black bear, mule deer, timber wolves, mountain lions and hoards of smaller creatures. This place epitomized the rocky mountains of the American west. A hunter’s dream and here I was in the thick of it all! I thought about how I got here and how fortunate I was to be the one standing here. I thought about the series of events that took place in the past few days and how surreal it all was. I drew in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and as I turned to walk back to the lodge for dinner I was greeted by an amazing sunset and three big bull elk feeding in the meadow. I truly felt like this was a place closer to heaven or about as close as I would ever get while here on earth. So where this was place and how did I get here? The place was aptly named Mountain View Elk Ranch in Riggins, Idaho. How I ended up here toting a muzzle loader and hunting bull elk is a story in itself. Keith Warren contacted me several months prior and told me that the owner of the ranch, Brad Walters had contacted him to ask if he would be interested in hunting there and filming a TV show. He asked me to research the outfit, talk to the owner, and decide if it would be a good fit for The High Road TV show. When I had finished I gave Keith the green light on the place and after a conference call with Brad, Keith, & myself a hunt was set for September 2009. Keith was to hunt and I was to be the camera man. I received a phone call in late July from Keith. “Yablonski I got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” “Let’s get the bad news out of the way first I guess.” “OK. I can’t make the September hunt at Mountain View Ranch. I drew a once in a lifetime tag for the Indian Reservation and I have to go” Immediately my heart sank. I had a plane ticket booked and had everything set up for the hunt. “Dude, the Walters family isn’t gonna be happy about this. They cleared that portion of their calendar for us in prime rut and I promised Brad a TV show! Now what!?”  “Now the good news brother. You’re just gonna have to fill in for me. I’m sending a camera man out there to film you. You will be the shooter. Is that cool with you?” I was pretty stunned to say the least and was at a bit of a loss for words. “Yablonski are you still there? Is that cool?” “Well Keith, I didn’t expect to be in front of the camera. So you’re telling me that I have to go elk hunting. I guess I’ll have to suffer through it and take one for the team.” Of course I was being sarcastic and Keith knew it. It was the stuff dreams are made of. I called Brad Walters and made sure he was OK with it. Turns out he was. He informed me that we would be looking to take a bull in the 350” class which was also a welcome surprise. A 350” bull is more than a respectable representative of the species in anyone’s book! About 8 weeks later I flew into Boise Idaho, rented a car and made the three hour drive to the ranch. The drive out was absolutely breath taking. The winding mountain road weaved its way through canyons with shear rock faces on either side. Pristine, gin clear, ice cold streams teeming with wild cutthroat trout gurgled their way through meadows and stands of towering pines, their source being some far off snow capped summit where the elevation would be suitable for only eagles and mountain goats. Around every twist and turn in the road one awesome view gave way to yet another and another, each one unique and amazing. I arrived in the town of Riggins, turned right along the Salmon River down a dirt road and arrived at the ranch gates. My first impression was “where are we gonna hunt elk here?” There were large mountains all around me but at the ranch gates there was nothing but hills and pasture. I called Brad on my cell phone and told him I was at the gate. He told me to drive in and shut it behind me and proceed to the small cabin at the end of the driveway. There I met both my camera man Rex Summerfield and the owner Brad Walters for the first time in person. I am always a bit apprehensive when I first enter camp and wonder if the folks that I will be living, eating, and spending time with over the next few days will offer good companionship and will we hit it off. It didn’t take but a few minutes for me to figure it out this time.  Rex was a soft spoken genuinely nice guy with a polite demeanor, the type of guy that is hard not to like.  Within one minute I knew I was going to like Brad as well as he too was a very nice and welcoming guy. “You can leave your vehicles here and we’ll drive up to the lodge in my pickup.” “Where is the lodge?” I asked “About nine miles straight up this mountain.” As we made the drive along the dirt road we went higher and higher amidst timbered ridges and valleys. Blue grouse flushed every few hundred yards from the brush covered road side. We had to stop to allow a flock of Merriams turkeys cross the road in front of us with several nice long beards in the bunch. A mule deer doe skirted the roadside with a respectable 5x5 buck in tow. This was a game rich and incredibly beautiful place. When we pulled up to the lodge I could hardly believe my eyes. The lodge was a large newly built rustic log cabin. The location was what made this place so special. The lodge sat perched atop the mountain in the center of a large meadow surrounded by mountain vistas in every direction. “My God, now this is elk country” I said out loud. Brad took me inside and introduced me to his mom & dad Ken and Tammy Walters. Absolutely wonderful folks. They explained to me that the ranch is completely family owned and operated. Brad personally guides all of the hunters, Tammy does all of the cooking and Ken tends to all of the ranch chores and maintenance. I very quickly understood that you are not just another number here. They only allow one group of hunters at a time and keep the groups to four or less. After we were shown to our rooms we were treated to a nice lunch and then I sighted my Muzzle loader at the range adjacent to the lodge. We were quickly unpacked and Brad said that we had plenty of time to go out in the jeep and have a look around the ranch and maybe get lucky and shoot a bull. We piled into the jeep and were off. We would stop along the road from vantage points and glass for bulls. I couldn’t believe how steep and knarly the terrain was. Extremely steep timber covered slopes were divided by deep brush choked ravines. We spotted a nice bull bedded on the side of the mountain in a shaded area, but he was not quite what we were looking for. Brad said that once the sun started to go down closer to evening the bulls would come out of the heavy timber and we should see plenty. I wasn’t in a hurry to pull the trigger as we had several days to hunt but if the opportunity presented itself and everything was right to get the kill on video I wouldn’t hesitate. As the shadows began to lengthen the bulls started to melt out of the timber. They also began to bugle. We stopped along the road in a shaded glade. There was a large elk wallow that was obviously being used regularly. “This is a hot area. The bulls are starting to really get wound up in the rut. Let’s get out here and walk up through. This place is covered up in elk sign. Matt, there are two really nice bulls that I have in mind. One is a little more symmetrical and the other is short in his thirds but he is very wide and has awesome mass. He has massive whale tails and has an absolutely gigantic body, one of the biggest bodied bulls I have ever seen. Either bull would be a really good one for you to harvest if we can find ‘em. Both are 6x6’s” We slipped along single file with Brad in front, me close behind and Rex in the rear with the camera. We came to the “elkyest” looking place I have ever seen. There were wallows, trails, and rubs everywhere. Every jack pine that was smaller than the diameter of a telephone pole was reduced to a splintered, tattered, sap oozing skeleton of a former tree by the antlers of a rutting bull elk. The air was permeated with the pungent odor of rutting elk. “Game On” I thought to myself. Brad broke my self induced trance. “Let’s stop here a minute. I’m gonna bugle and see if I draw a response. This area is all tore up and that whale tail bull has been hanging around this area, I’ve seen him here three or four times in the past week.” Brad pulled out the bugle tube and let one rip. Immediately a bull answered back about 500 yards directly in front of us, then another from our left. What a sound that is, the bugle of a bull elk. There is nothing quite like it. It personifies western hunting. We moved ahead slowly and came to a stand of sparse pine intersected by a logging road with a small meadow on the other side. I heard the clatter of hooves on the ground and saw the tips of elk antlers disappear over the hill to our left. I thought we had blown it. Brad quickly raised his binoculars and shook his head. “That’s not what were looking for .Watch that flat down there those bulls are coming out. There’s five of ‘em. Those are all young bulls another year on those bulls and at least three of ‘em will be shooters.” We were sort of ducked down in some high grass and Brad was telling me a little about each bull’s age and how you determine score on the antlers when Rex interrupted. “What about that bull that just stepped into the meadow?” Brad and I looked at the same time and my heart skipped a few beats. “That’s  him! That’s the whale tail bull I was telling you about!” The three of us hunkered down in the grass and had an excited whisper session pow-wow. “It’s up to you Matt, we have lots of time to hunt if you want to try and find that other bull.” Brad said. I asked Rex “what do you think Rex?” “It’s not my decision but that is one heck of a bull and it can’t get any better than this for film.” “Brad, which one of the bulls do you like better?” I asked excitedly. “They are both good bulls but to be honest this bull is a lot more impressive. He’s way bigger bodied, has wider antlers, lots of character, and those whale tails are just….” “OK Dude, he looks good to me. Let’s take him!” Rex was already rolling as we belly crawled to a stump to get a good rest. The bull heard us and looked in our direction, then ripped out a bugle that sent chills through me, as if to say I don’t know who or what you are but you’re on my turf  and you better get out! The bull was broadside and looking in our direction. Brad raised the rangefinder, “89 yards” he whispered. I flipped the safety off the ML2 Savage muzzle loader, “You there Rex?” “Yeah, take him” The crosshairs settled on the bull’s massive front shoulder as I tried to control my now totally pegged adrenaline meter and I took a deep breath, let half of it out and squeeezzzeeddd  BOOM!  “Great Shot!” The behemoth animal hunched up, a crimson spurt of blood pumped out of the 50 caliber bullet wound indicating a heart shot. The giant bull took two side steps, lost his footing and piled up stone dead less than 10 yards from where he stood when I shot. I could see one side of his massive rack above the waist high grass. “I want to go see him!” I said gasping with excitement. “It would be better to do the out take shots and stuff before we shoot the recovery footage.” I really wanted to see my bull and put my hands on him, but I knew that Rex was right and half heartedly agreed, after all that’s what we were here for to shoot a good TV show.  It took nearly 45 minutes to do all of the outtakes and lead up footage and it was killing me. I finally got to walk up to my bull. “Oh my God!” He was truly massive and magnificent. Brad was not exaggerating about his body size he was absolutely huge. Brad estimated him at well over 1,000 lbs! And those antlers! The 6x6 bull was very heavy and carried his mass well the entire length of his main beams. The antlers would later be scored at 355 & 2/8” SCI. I was elated. As the sun dipped below the mountain peak the air carried with it on the breeze a crisp chill hinting what was to come in the months ahead. As darkness enveloped us the sky was painted crimson, violet, purple and a slight hue of orange. The moon hung in sky above the mountain peaks like a luminescent crescent sickle. The stars shined like diamonds against this intense backdrop of color. The mountain Peaks now stood out like a black skyline in the distance. The gold and yellow leaves of the aspen now barely visible in the twilight whispered a prayer or maybe a blessing in the silence and the amen was the chilling bugle of a bull elk on some distant mountainside. At that moment in this special place I truly felt closer to heaven.

AUTHOR’S NOTE;

If you would like to watch the TV show on the hunt featured in this article go to the website   www.keithwarren.net   Click on the tab for  FULL EPISODES.  The title of the show is
 “A MOUNTAIN OF BULLS”  To book your own elk hunt at the ranch contact Matt Yablonski at Inner Circle Hunts International    (www.huntich.com)