[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, when you take that orange and peel it and then split it into each of those little wedges,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That surface area is just the backside of that wedge initially. Now you've basically tripled or quadrupled it because you've got each of those wedges opened up that are now facing the outside air and exposed. Why didn't I ever think of using that? You graduated in accounting. I know you started in engineering, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not the 10% hunters. I mean, they're not the 10% success rate hunters. That's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people who put in that time and I always said it when we were doing seminars, the people who come to seminars, the odds don't apply to them. The averages don't apply to them because they're putting in the time in the off season. They're sponges that want to learn. They're thinking through this stuff and they want to truly absorb information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we get the, you know, the fishing game looks at it and says, well, 10% success. This is how many elk we can let Randy and Cory try to kill this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't have to go find the wolves, I just have to put a trap out and let it work 24-7.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll never forget the sound of the chain rattling on that first wolf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are, but there are sacrifices that were made to be able to do that. And it's, you know, I mean, hunting is a, I didn't move to where I live for hunting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But hunting was one of the things that I felt would be good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I mentioned I made a little video for Jessie when she graduated and went through pictures from the time she was a month old until the day she graduated basically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And some of those experiences we had, it was fishing for five inch brook trout out of a little pond. It was all these things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's the experiences that I moved toward. I made the sacrifices that I did to have those experiences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, they're a blessing, but they come at a cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's nothing, again, it's not one is more rewarding or better. For some people, they just want to go and experience it. And if they shoot one, that's bonus, but that's not some of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We lose sleep at night thinking about that tag that's still sitting in our pocket with three days left in the season. It's like, all right, this is serious. I've got to figure this out because right now I'm losing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guarantee if somebody came up to my wife and said, how would you describe your husband? She would say he's an elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he's, he's fair at manual labor, but if you want to describe him in two words, he's an elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't even fathom quitting elk hunting. I'm pushing up on 50 years old before too much longer, and I'm thinking,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've grown enough to be able to recognize what's important in it. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, what success is, you know, and I think that's the difference between where I was 20 years ago and where I am now is, yeah, it's about killing elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there's more layers to it. And those layers are the memories. You know, those layers are the things I remember. Brinker and I, I did a podcast on David Brinker's, uh, Altitude podcast today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we were just talking about that and I said, you know, I walked out in my shed the other day and I have every set of elk antlers I've ever killed with one exception. The first elk I ever shot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I threw them away, the antlers, you know, after a couple years, just, I didn't think ahead and I've got every other set since then and they are filling the rafters and I got thinking the other day, this is a nightmare for my kids. They're going to look at that and be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so does it matter how big of an elk I shoot? Does it matter, you know, any of that? It doesn't. What matters is how excited I got on that hunt and the excitement I was able to share with my kids or who I got to share that experience with. And you know, you'd asked me that 20 years ago, I'd have been like, I'd give anything to shoot a 400 inch bowl. Now, no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even 10, 15 years ago. I think hunting with my kids, having them old enough to hunt with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nobody's gonna remember who killed 400 inch poles. Nobody's gonna care about how many antlers you have in your rafters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even if it's a new hunter, even if it's somebody that's killed a hundred elk, I don't care if they have that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's, I mean, it's fun to go out and I can point to each one and I can tell you the full story right where that pole, I could walk back to the blade of grass that pole was standing next to for every one of them. But.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're just antlers. Yeah. You know, it's, it's the memory and it's that I think the, what makes the memory so memorable is the way you felt when that happened. And


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not about the size of the antlers for me, and for some people it is, and that's again, it's not saying one's better than the other, but for me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and that, it might be a little five point, but when he comes in, screams in my face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really? What would have been the difference if he'd have been a 400 inch bowl or a two and a half year old bowl? You were just as excited as he's walking out. When you see his antlers, there's a different reaction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every other aspect of that hunt is exactly the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had a name for him already made up by the time he got back to campus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come to camp and seen, uh, a big toughy bowl that Bo shot one year. So he, uh, he deserves both of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hung out with a friend over Memorial Day weekend, an old college roommate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he showed me a video of a bull that he called in for his dad last year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean literally you would have thought that's the first year this bowl has ever bugled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was a 380 inch public land over the counter bowl in one of the most heavily hunted predated wolf areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, you just look at it, it's like, I can't even believe that animal lived there and his bugle was just a puny little, so I mean, you don't, you don't know. You know, and then for his daddy would have probably shot a puny little bull that bugled like that and then just tickled with it. And you know, like you say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're expecting a big one, a little one steps out, you shoot it and you're happy. You're expecting a little one, a big one shoots out, or comes out, you shoot it and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was going to say you've been, uh, you were in Alaska and then out there. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I may not, I may not have been in the mood to record a podcast tomorrow night. I thought you were gonna win. Well, you know what? There was a, and it goes right back to what we just talked about, you know, 20 years ago, that's all that mattered. And last year was one of the years that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were so many good callers and so many good people just beyond being good out callers. They're just fun people that I'm as competitive as anybody.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was excited to see him win, as I would have been if I would have won. You know, just because he's a good person, and so, we're to a point where, yeaah, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been a maturing take place because it wasn't too long ago that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so there's, you know, I think I've learned that through being a parent and it's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh oh. Details and color out of it. When I'm just sitting there telling a story, I just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I, I worked in elk for, uh, what 14 and a half years as both a field biologist and also the elk coordinator. So, uh, done a variety of things from on the ground of management to supervision and elk is my passion for sure. Well, you're, you're on the right podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And really for us, it was kind of the next step in a very long tradition of species restoration.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, when you look at Kentucky, our, our story is very similar to all of the other Eastern States is that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we, we lost a lot of our major game animals, whether that was turkey or waterfowl, not waterfowl, but turkey or deer or otter, uh, and elk. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, for us in the agency, we were, we were finishing up a lot of those major restoration projects. Um, you know, whitetail deer, we had as few as a thousand in the state of Kentucky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we're now we have well over a million and they were just in one small little spot in Western Kentucky. And so we.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to where we were still moving and restocking deer in the 90s.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, and, and we'll get into some dates in, in Elk, but that kind of has a tie to it. So, you know, we're moving, releasing deer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we had interest from our, our oversight commission board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know Michigan had some, Wisconsin had a few, and so that, that conversation started and it started and it really moved very quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Tom Baker and then another board member, uh, Doug Hensley, who.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where we looked at the entire state and said, you know, what do elk need? What is all the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the, the landowners, the, the hunters and people that live there already were familiar with this process of capturing, capturing game animals and turning them loose. So it to them was like, well, that kind of makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It really was. You know, but it's also kinda by design and when you have the stars in line and you have the support and the willingness, you need to try to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we were being pushed by board members who have a shelf life and we had the support and realized there could be a shelf life to that as well, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when you look at elk and you look at the history of elk and the numbers across the country, they're fairly genetically bottlenecked back to that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, half a century or a century down the road. So you've got that and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that was really the push on our end was we really, if we're going to go big, if we want this to be successful, we need to set ourselves up for the, for a very diverse, genetically diverse population to where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Load them on a, on a truck and for the most part, we use semis, you know, the typical cattle trailer hauler and they don't stop. You go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 24 seven as fast as you can get across the country because really time is of the essence of that point. Like you said, you can't just stop and let them out and stretch them like you do your horse, right? So you've got to, you've got to move fast and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the winter, so you're coming across the planes and you hit a snowstorm, you know, sub-zero temperatures, those are all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All had impacts, uhm, on, on their, their timing. So they did have a law enforcement escort from our agency just to try to help them move through, through the lawn, but now they're coming across.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and we also tried to pick young, young elk. You know, we had some mature cows, but we did not bring in, uh, bulls of any maturity. Most of them were just spikes or, or cat bull calves. So that, that helped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, pre-Civil War there, the last known elk was, was gone at this point in Kentucky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, you talk about the, the Merriam's. Yeah, I think we see that. So one thing that I see in a lot of our elk and just antler characteristics is very dark antlered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, for a big mature eight or nine year old bull here, you're going to see some crowning. You're going to see, I mean, you don't see them very typical, uh, at that age class. They're going to be a more of a non-typical with crowns here and there and just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of that characteristic, so is it a dominant trait? Probably not, but do we have some of that genetic in our herb? Probably so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He can weigh 900 pounds easily pre-rut. I mean, I mean, they just look like toads, you know, so whatever, whatever you want to call them, but just some monster critters, uh, come, you know, late August.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when you think about that, you know, those mountains are not real tall, but they're stacked in tight. They're extremely dense and, uh, they're very steep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's kind of how Eastern Kentucky is on a natural landscape. So, I mean, you're going to deal with some very steep terrain that's really hard to navigate. Uh, they're just not eight, 10,000 feet high.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when you look at our landscape and how the state's set up and knowing like you referred to the place names, Corey, that we know we had elk all across the state.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in Eastern Kentucky, that's where the oak are. It's predominantly, predominantly a closed canopy forest system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when, when the settlers were moving across the country, they came through the Cumberland Gap, which is a very prominent gap when you read about Boone or Dr. Thomas Walker, they're going to talk about that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, our elk are right there in Cumberland Gap, right around that area, you know, to the north and the west of there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, because of the mining industry, we have early successional grassland habitat.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and most of that is a pretty high layer of coal, so they're getting that, they're extracting that mineral through surface reclamation or surface mining.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they're, they're removing the tops of the, the hills, the mountains, accessing that coal and then reclaiming it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it doesn't, it doesn't, uhm, move as quick from grasslands to, to hardwoods because of that mining industry. So it's a lot slower process, but it still does happen. And so we're really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Struggling with that on how we do that as an agency, how we work with our partners, uh, to maintain those grasslands.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, there are other, other animals besides elk that we, that we care about. And a lot of those are threatened and endangered species.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like different songbirds that really need that, that habitat that they've kind of made that their home too. So, you know, we're trying to piggyback with that and say, you know, for some of these.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's a variety of different species that we're trying to use to try to help manage that and set the succession back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We do, uhm, but also going back to its, its competing interest as well. So one, just the scale, what, how much can we actually physically implement fire on, on a given year? And then two, in the, in the process of reclamation,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, there's what's called bond release where they put up money to, you know, for the reclamation process and it has to essentially be 100% out of bond before you can put fire on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You think about it, you're putting fire on it, you're removing all the vegetation, which is going to increase your chances of erosion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now we have us as Department of Fish and Wildlife having to work with our.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eastern Kentucky Habitat Initiative where we're pushing to do more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of that, what is truly public owned is very, very little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we as an agency only own probably a couple thousand acres. And then the Daniel Boone has, oh, uh, which is a national forest has, um, a couple hundred thousand acres, um, that, that they have. And so it's not a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how are you gonna hunt if there's no public land? So we had to get creative right out of the gate to try to do private public partnerships to where we could work with our landowners to establish hunting on private lands.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you name it, it's, it's public access and it's treated like public opportunities for, for anybody to go enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, we have a lot of big landowners, big conglomerates, coal companies that own lots of land or control a lot of the, the amount of land. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For every 5,000 acres that you enroll into a public hunting area agreement, we will give you one fully transferable either sex elk tag to be used on that property. And you get that every year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, that's a pretty good carrot for them. Uhm, that they get a tag and it's fully transferable so they can sell it, use it, give it away, whatever, whatever have you that they choose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the public gets that land to go out and recreate on and hunt on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I've got a couple thousand, I got a couple thousand and they'll go in together to try to get to that 5,000 mark and then share the tag. And so that's, uh, things that we see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, allow us to come capture some elk. So we haven't really talked about us moving and capturing elk, but we'll get to that I'm sure. But we have, we have lots of different ways to get what we need accomplished, uh, with the issuance of elk tags for public hunting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then after the national recession went through in 07, 08 and that we kind of rebounded as a country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's also allowed us to get into some places that traditionally they wouldn't have let us because they were mining and blowing up the mountains.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little timid of the, the government, but you know, we're not the, the, the mining industry. We're, we're here about the elk and the hunting and recreation. And really once you have that conversation, get in the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How many alt tags do you guys give out in a year?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you know, to the very beginning when we issued, uh, we issued 12. So, uh, you know, 600 is kind of what we have settled on, if you will, over the last couple of years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, for a while we used the hunt of a lifetime kind of tagline. That's really not what we want it to be, but, but as interest has grown and as cheap as it is, you know, we had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100,000 applications, only issue in 600 permits. There's really not a system out there that would work except for the chance that we have. Yeah, I don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if you do a preference point system, how many years is it going to take to move through it all?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My grandkids, I don't even have, my kids are nine and seven. They're never going to have a chance to hunt elk because they missed the first year. So it's just, when you put it in those terms, like, oh yeah, I kind of see that. Like it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of them would say, man, we're making a big mistake. You're going to deal with problems for a long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were starting to get in people's gardens. They were kind of hanging out by the, you know, by the road and cause those issues. And then, you know, we wanted to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Set the standard of, we're going to hunt these out. These are here for,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Recreational opportunities, both consumptive and non-consumptive, but we're going to manage with hunting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, you know, that, that, and then also they really respond well to pressure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that film and that project that we just wrapped up was really, in my mind, the last step in this process. We had, uhm, shoot, how many release sites? Seven release sites? Seven or eight?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we, we check mark, yep, they're, they're here in Kentucky, we're happy. But they were pretty fat and sassy and lazy. You know, they had everything they needed. They had, they had food, they had water, they had shelter, very little hunting pressure, and they just weren't moving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, out of the, you know, the release areas like we wanted and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to, uh, to establish new micro herds, if you will, in certain areas to help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fully distribute elk across the, the, the 16 county zone and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there weren't any else. And so for us, it's like, man, we gotta get them over there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, but we were working through other priorities that were, that we needed to handle first, uh, as a program to get to that point. And really we, the stars aligned again to where we were kind of wrapping up all the other projects. We had the resources, we had the places to get them and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the Daniel Boone came along, our local governments came along and we're, you know, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for all that they do partnered with us and said, you know what, we'll help foot the bill because we couldn't have done it without them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, helped us do all of that. So, I mean, once again, just a beautiful marriage where things aligned and we were able to get the project done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until they were here and they were, you know, people got used to them and the fear of the damage and the negative side of it. We really, really needed to see what works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, we hit that level and we weren't experiencing the problems that we thought we might. And people were happy. And so for us, it's just kind of testing those waters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can't compare how Colorado or Idaho or Utah manages elk and apply that here in Kentucky. It just, it's completely different. It's apples and oranges. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we're, we're kind of, we'll do something and try it if it works great. If not, we, you know, we might adapt and move on to something different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we got that and then the expectations of our landowners and our hunters from nobody's hardly ever hunted elk in Kentucky to now, you know, you go to the sporting goods store or you know, go hang out where people were hunters frequent


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So your expectations change. Just like you guys, when you were on your first hunt, you harvested an elk, you were stoked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now it's like, man, I think I can do a little bit better. And so now what they're expecting looks different. And that's great for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we've looked at, uhm, cow-calf and all the different research parameters that you can and even adult wolves on what's killing them. It's, it's the bow and arrow and, and, and bullet that's killing them by, by hunters. That's the main driving force.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, we have a little bit of disease. Uh, we're fortunate in Kentucky where we have not found chronic wasting disease and we've been looking hard for it as a state, but not found it. So thankful that it's not here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a, it's a disease that elk have that, and I'm sorry, that white-toed deer have, uhm, that they're not affected by it, but, but our elk herd is negatively affected by it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, through time we have seen resistance and that, that number of elk that are impacted by that, uh, by that parasite has decreased. So we're seeing that's, that's positive. Uhm, as far as, uhm, uhm, predation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we first started bringing elk into Kentucky, we had very few, if any, black bear. Uhm, our, our bear population is growing now. Uh, where we have a bear season now, we're hunting bears and chasing bears and, you know, I'm sure they take a few elk calves over the year, over the years as we have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now we have a big research project where we're looking at cow reproduction and calf mortality. So we're re-evaluating the data that we use in our model and that's a three year project and they touched a little bit about that on the RMEF.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, video that that was kind of a partnership why we are, why we were catching elk in the first place was for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, kind of re-re-uh, investigating a lot of those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, natal information for us to help us better manage. So long story, not a lot and we have very easy winners. I mean, we've had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That are hit on the road, it's fairly stable. Uh, I know when you look at that landscape, there's really one or two main thoroughfares that go through there and the rest of them are fairly small, uh, very curry roads and just doesn't allow for a lot of vehicular traffic and high rates of speed. And we're, we're fortunate in that, in that aspect for, for low numbers. Very cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I love to expound on that. For the non-hunter, they don't really understand, but it puts it in perspective.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I care a lot about these critters. I mean, it's my life work to do this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reestablishments, restoration or augmentation for herds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that has afforded us the opportunity to really pay it forward. If it wasn't for our


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The request wasn't high as far as the number of elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, augment the herd in Wisconsin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my numbers are right off the top of my head. It's like 322 elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's not a lot, but you look at what that's done for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The residence of those states and the opportunities that's afforded it by absolutely the mean that to me is a career highlight to be able to be a part of of those restoration efforts to see those things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like we kind of talked about too in the aspects of, you know, started in 97.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Finished in 02. We started hunting in 01, in the middle of it. And have been hunting ever since.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're now paying it forward and sending them off other places to help share the love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I mean, I think it goes back to the heart of our agency and our desires and excitement for Elk in the East. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our peak breeding is usually the first few days in October, last few days in September. Uhm, you know, peak bugling a little before that. Uhm, it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to be out in your guys neck of the woods in early September and then be, you know, done and then back here and jump right in with our hunters and, and be there. So it was, it's, it's great to extend the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we, we do hunt fairly early. Um, we have a two week archery season that comes in the, um, second Saturday in September.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll tell a little story just in that. I mean, I'm, you know, growing up, working here before, I guess I started working here before I ever took my first trip to the west to Elk Hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Conservation organizations where they raffle those and, uhm, sell them here in the state.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's, that's one avenue. And then the landowner tags that we talked about where we, we give them for public access and there's probably 30 to 40 of those as well. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We do, we do across the state, just not in our elk zone. You know, we've got, I forget how many, well over a hundred thousand acres that we have that we own and manage as an agency, but just, just not in the east.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And natural gas extraction, so there's, there's a very complex ownership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if we owned the, owned the land, but didn't have rights to the mineral and then the mineral company came in and just reclaimed it or, or took it all off, that, that really wouldn't be available for hunters. So, um, it's kind of a complex issue for us in that part of the state.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our legislature's looking at that as well to support that. So we're, we're watching it. We're excited for that opportunity, but man, 55,000 acres that would be ours are in public access.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, that opportunity is once in a lifetime, really it is on something that large.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so it's a 15 year plan and we published it in 2015, runs from 15 to 30. We were, you know, post.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Needing to redo some of our population metrics and research.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I said this a lot when we were drafting this was we've moved out of restoration. We're now into management. What does that management look like? And we know what it looks like now, but how do we gauge into the future?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And knowing that we have very little public land and we expect this population to grow, we have to continue to expand upon that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, we hear a lot about our modeling and better understanding our number.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think it's kind of heavy handed in that no one, no habitat would be very, very key and very big.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we needed to connect them with us to where we had both of those players kind of working collectively on elk management.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, a lot of our, our staff were thinking grouse and quail and turkeys and management for that. And a lot of that is similar, but focusing on the East, focusing on private land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the other low hanging fruit in my mind was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The non-consumptive side of it is, you know, we were all L-cutters and most of us are on this podcast, but you know, that's something that really had not taken off and there was a great opportunity for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kind of another factor that we, uh, that we wanted to expand upon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's part of it, right? Like what we do brings in that. And, you know, as, as a manager, you have to talk about that. And depending on your audience, if you're talking to the local hunter, it's about hunting. But if you're talking to a, a Senator or representative here in Kentucky, they need to see both sides of the hunting, but also the economic impact. And we,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In those 16 counties, just Elk Hunt and Illinois, and what a tremendous resource that that brings in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think for me personally, I like, I like, I like hunting them in the middle of the day, putting them to bed and just getting right up on them in that timber. You know, they're going to retreat into the timber. I'm an arch, I'm an archery hunter like you Corey. I mean, that's what my, my favorite thing to do is archery oak hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and it's also one thing where we talked about going big for the most part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's good to be able to offer that. We're not about making money, but you also, you know, license dollars, what put the bill here in our, in our state, we don't receive any general fund monies. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a perfect year for us to break the 100,000 mark. It's our 25th year anniversary, so we've had elk on the landscape, so what a perfect celebration for us is to have that interest and, you know, you think about it, 100,000 people put


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, increasing that awareness and support of that is one of our, our kind of task and what we want to increase.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what the word I would use, but beyond significant, instrumental, couldn't have done it without them, uh, from day one until, you know, right now in this minute that we're in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The willingness to engage their willingness to get volunteers excited and be a part of it, but also support elk and all the other aspects of wildlife is just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I get called and like, you know, my husband or my wife put me in and I've hardly ever hunted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, people that I've talked to that never really were interested in deer hunting and got drawn for the elk hunt. Uh, it's bizarre to me that, that came to hunting through elk hunting in Kentucky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We deal with those routinely every year of hunters who called that are looking for help and looking for advice that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We definitely are passionate about it and care, but I think about all my, all my co-workers and previous co-workers that have, you know, put their blood, sweat and tears in the elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for all of our listeners that, that tune in, thank you. Thank you for listening and being interested in Kentucky health for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Elk Talk Podcast is also brought to you by Mountain Ops, making outdoor energy and performance nutrition to make you a stronger and healthier elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a full line of hunting related supplements including meal replacement shakes, multivitamins, pre-workout fuel and post-workout recovery, and my favorite, their new performance protein bars that by the way are packed with 270 calories and 20 grams of protein, but contain less than 6 grams of sugar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Visit MountainOps.com to learn more and to order and be sure to use the promo code ELKTOCK to save on your next order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we have a promo code for Gerber as well. Just use the code ELKTALK to save 20% on your orders at gerbergear.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] or buglingbull.com and use promo code elktalk and you're going to save 15% on all of your elk calls and elk call accessories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lastly, the University of Elk Hunting online course is a proud partner of the Elk Talk podcast. And within the University of Elk Hunting online course, you're going to find nearly 60 chapters organized in 17 modules of elk hunting instruction aimed at making you a more successful elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From planning and e-scouting to calling strategies and packing, every imaginable elk hunting topic is included in the online course. And regardless of your previous elk hunting experience or success, I'm confident the University of Elk Hunting online course will make you a more confident, more successful elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just visit elk101.com and use the promo code ELKDOC to save 20% when you sign up for a membership to the University of Elk Hunting online course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, there were a few setbacks this morning. I woke up and it was below freezing and snow flurries again, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Smaller bulls drop later, so they do get a jump start on, on growth. Same thing for us, so we saw,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those things are huge. I'm talking full bean growth, you know, out at 45 inches wide. Like you said, eye guards that were already curled up at nose length and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a good approach. I like, I like Montana's approach there. It's fair for everyone. It's more fair for those who might need a little bit of extra help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm guessing you're gloating because you drew a Wyoming today. I'm not gloating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Driving a couple thousand miles out here and back, that's, that adds a lot of expense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, hasn't heard an elk bugle in a season or two and just wondering if it's the wolves and how you would hunt those elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you have an answer for him? Absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's my approach. And when it comes to calling elk anything, it's the more simple it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then beautiful and try to replicate that sound. And, you know, I guess I will say if you want to go out in your garage, garages give a pretty good echo that you can, you can see that from, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, on the east coast, enough to be able to go and call in an elk in, in the elk woods on the west coast. Just practice, sound your best and, and go out there. Don't overthink that because what that does is you start questioning your ability and then that takes away your confidence and you don't have confidence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sit on the fence and like, I want to go elk hunting, but I want to go elk hunting, but what about this? Just go and experience it. You'll, you'll pick up. I mean, learn as much as you can. Don't go out there blind and put yourself in a dangerous situation or in a situation that you're going to fail before you start, but learn as much as you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do some uh, poking around down there. So we went down and he ended up shooting a really nice bowl and we had a couple days before our plane flew back and there was a guy camped down the road and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Making us nauseous behind him. So we get to a point and we sit down and we're eating a snack and we're sweating pretty good and we start walking up the hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like, gosh, I've got to smell like, you know, I've got to be completely scent free. And the reality is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if we use our senses a little bit, it'll say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have a basic understanding enough to know, okay, what's a gimmick and what's a, what's a resource?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, last week, and we bombed down there for four more days, just he and I, and again, shed hunting was terrible when it, uh, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a great time he did. I found a really big shed last year. It was a ten and a half pound antler which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Isaac saw that waypoint and he saw my tracks and he started hitting little pockets I hadn't hit and I'll be darned if he didn't turn up the other side of that antler and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so you and I both, uh, participated in the Mountain Ops Elk Summit or whatever they called it last year. And, uh, that was one of the big, there were a lot of people from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when you do that for an elk call, you lose your air really quickly. You have no control. So you really have to forget everything that you know about turkey calling and start over at the basics. And you want to just use very light tongue pressure and very light air pressure to make a sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then as you make that sound, you just real slowly flex your tongue up into the latex, keeping that pressure increasing with your tongue, but keeping your air pressure constant. And you've got to really start at that, that basic, uh, that basic level.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Medium wide and narrow frames. They've got, you know, different cuts of tape that enable that call to be different widths.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and why is that? And there's definitely gonna be ones that are more generic or more


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it is important to try some different ones, but also to understand what each of those attributes contribute to the overall use and sound of that call, so you have an idea at least of where to start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I always tell people if you're going to start, start with a medium width frame, medium latex at a medium stretch. And that's at least should put everybody on the board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like you said, the one that you use is probably not the same one I use. And I might be able to use the one you use and use it okay, but it's not the one that's best for me. And I think that's what we want people to find is the one that's best for them. Not the best call, not the one that gets the most marketing or the most attention, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know people that have killed elk at over 11,500 feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I mean, and there are elk found at every single elevation band and topo contour between zero and I don't even know where the top is, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're going to find elk where elk are finding what they need, not at a specific elevation. And like I said, those transition ranges in Montana, they're going to be a lot, a lot bigger than other areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their, their priorities, you mentioned last episode is on feed and it takes a lot more feed to, for that cow to sustain and nourish her new calf through the summer months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, you know, 25% of what we donate to turn into 100% through partnerships that they have with others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Habitat. We have more access. All things that every one of us want and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Elk Talk Podcast is also brought to you by Mountain Ops, making outdoor energy and performance nutrition to make you a stronger and healthier elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a full line of hunting related supplements including meal replacement shakes, multivitamins, pre-workout fuel and post-workout recovery, and my favorite, their new performance protein bars that by the way are packed with 270 calories and 20 grams of protein, but contain less than 6 grams of sugar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Visit MountainOps.com to learn more and to order and be sure to use the promo code ELKTOCK to save on your next order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we have a promo code for Gerber as well. Just use the code ELKTALK to save 20% on your orders at gerbergear.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lastly, the University of Elk Hunting online course is a proud partner of the Elk Talk podcast. And within the University of Elk Hunting online course, you're going to find nearly 60 chapters organized in 17 modules of elk hunting instruction aimed at making you a more successful elk hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From planning and e-scouting to calling strategies and packing, every imaginable elk hunting topic is included in the online course. And regardless of your previous elk hunting experience or success, I'm confident the University of Elk Hunting online course will make you a more confident, more successful elk hunter. Just visit Elk101.com


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any farther. I mean, I'm standing, holding onto a tree, looking down, straight down the hill, going, if I take a step here, I don't know what's below, if, if I'm to break loose. And, you know, we're standing there on the hillside and on the video, just like, okay, you're on a steep hill. I mean, you can get an idea that it's not flat, but you can't see how steep it is. But then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John, our camera guy, to be able to continue telling the story with a camera in those conditions while he's packing, while he's doing all that, I mean that adds a whole other aspect to, uh, to what he did on, on that hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And looking back straight up that mountain going, we've got to climb back up out of here. You know, you, you want to push as far as you can, but at the same time, you know that you already pushed to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, something like that is just, if you don't get stopped 80 pounds on your backs pushing you so fast down that hill that, you know, it was, that's when I realized, okay, we can't take chances today. There's no, hey, let's go another 10 yards farther. We've got to, we've got to be smart about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I swear by now, I mean, anytime I go in something like that, they were, they were worth their money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I mean, all of the, the fire, all the fuel up there is just so densely saturated that you couldn't get a fire going. So that, that was one. That was the first thing. Okay, we aren't going to be able to dry out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I knew I was safe and so for six days the inside of my sleeping bag got no moisture and the outside of it stayed dry as well. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll go out, you know, cougar hunting with hounds or something in the winter and get stuck out overnight or shed hunting in the spring and get into bad situations where it's raining and then snowing and freezing overnight. I can always get a fire going. You find a dead tree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even in the middle of a downpour and snap open one of the branches, it's dry enough on the inside that you can get a fire going. And, you know, sub-zero temperatures, middle of a rainstorm, it's never been an issue, but I've never experienced saturation like that up there. There was no amount of flame that was going to dry that wood out and get it to burn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't know the story on that. As we were moving in on the elk, so we didn't plan on staying out. We did not prepare to stay out. It was beautiful, clear weather. We weren't supposed to get any rain until 10 o'clock the next morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, as we're moving in on this bulb, right before I shot it, I look over and I'm like, what is that over there? So I pull out my binoculars. Somebody had abandoned their tent there at some point in the, in the past. And there was a ripped up, uh, rain fly off of a tent that was wadded up in the rocks there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We knew, we knew where the elk were. We saw when we were flying in and I said, okay, I'm looking at the, you know, at the map here and it's this far. It'll take us two and a half, three hours to get there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you'd pull it back out and I'm using the trifold ones that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so I, I mean, that definitely was a thought that, hey, if I break an ankle, if I tweak a knee and I'm stuck here and can't move, I don't have very long. I mean, you literally will go hypothermic in, you know, I don't know the time, but 46 degrees soaking wet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhat dry clothing in the morning. It was never dry, but at least it wasn't completely, you know, I rung it out at night as best I could and literally would get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, a couple cups of water out of my base layers just from all the moisture. And you want to talk about stink?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, you're thinking constantly, I've got to push as hard as I can, but I've got to save energy for tomorrow. And you know, I can't afford to stop, but we can't just sit under a tree for two hours and take a nap or a rest because you just can't stay warm. So you've got to be continually going. And the one thing I wanted to ask John was going into the sleeping bag with wet clothes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, as you're climbing in there wet, it's obviously not going to move all the moisture out every night, but will it continue to cycle through and you'll be able to dry out night after night or does it reach a point where it's like sleeping bags just heavy, it's soaked now and not working?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you know, and I think nutrition wise, when we hunt here, it, you know, we're putting out a pretty good effort. And so we've realized that, hey, I can remember on a Wyoming elk hunt, gosh, what's it been? Four years ago, three, four years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in that situation, and especially after eight days of doing that, on that last day, I just, I couldn't eat enough to, to fill the tank. Uh, but yeah, I mean, we, I had everything planned out, each day was a, was a package.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had, you know, different sources of calories. So it wasn't like it was all protein or it wasn't all carbs. You know, I had it broken up there and, and obviously, uhm, we've dialed that in over several years. And so my, my food source in Alaska, really the difference, like you said, we had to make sure we were producing heat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they're usually loaded in, in a lot of carbs. And then the dehydrated meals or grapes are loaded in a lot of protein. Uh, but if you don't get enough fats out there, it's, you know, you can lose energy pretty quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Too much effort, take the pack off and get a bottle out. So having that bladder, you know, we would fill it up with three liters every day and make sure that when I got back to camp, we were having to pump more water for dinner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, it definitely, I, I gained some confidence in my tent because it didn't, no water came up through the bottom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then sit in a tent to stay dry. And obviously if you're hunting, it's, it's not efficient at all to be out there, but fortunately we were packing and I knew we could, we could at least keep moving because man, there is nothing worse. There is no slower day than sitting in a tent with nothing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, there's, we're talking 150 or 160 elk on the entire island. Uh, in that particular area, that one herd was there with a couple bulls and who knows where they go when it rains, but they didn't go anywhere that, that we went. So yeah, trying to find an elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why I've told several people, I have no doubt if we wouldn't have had that clear day on opening day, we wouldn't have killed an elk. Just cause you can't find them, you can't hunt them, you can't hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You just, you can't glass. I mean, there's just, there's no way to, to find elk in that terrain. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we didn't know how we were going to get the meat back. So to carry it seven hours all the way back to camp didn't make sense. And we ended up


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Up there, there were no trees. There were literally no trees that we could hang it in. We had to put the game bags on a rock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it cooled, you know, we got the meat, it was all boned out and it cooled just fine. Uhm, but yeaah, we couldn't carry it back. Turned out to be only two of us packing and with an elk that size, it was not a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A one trip deal and I've told several people the only way you could ever convince me to go back and do that hunt is if I had four guys who are willing just to pack meat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can pack all my gear, I'm fine with that, I can hunt, I can pack my load of meat, but I don't ever want to have to make a multiple trip pack again in that kind of condition, in that kind of terrain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm 46 years old, uhm, I've been in the outdoors my entire life, and I can remember my first true backpacking trip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that's a huge thing that a lot of times gets overlooked, that there's people from Alaska that are absolutely used to that and they can go out there and live on an island in those conditions for 10 days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they probably don't have the elk hunting skill set to get it done. Or there's guys that are great elk hunters that haven't been in that situation in those conditions that, you know, like the pilot said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, cause we didn't know. I mean, he's sitting there with the SOS button under his thumb, you know, with pressure on it a couple times. And the only option then is the coast guard comes in a helicopter with a long line and you dangle from a long line till they can get somewhere they can land because that's, that's your only option if you want to push the SOS button. So, uh, I think the mental part of it is just,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can't be overstated, you know, physically you can be as prepared as possible, but mentally you just have to know I'm in it for the long haul. I'm safe. Yes, it's dangerous. Yes, there's some elements that I don't like. It's completely uncomfortable, but I'm not going to die here. I'm just going to weather it out and make it through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like I said, you know, we saw those elk from miles away and looking at it, you know, in Idaho, I see an elk at two, two and a half miles away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't, like you said, the unfamiliarity with it and once we made it through, figured out how to get from our camp to the elk and then from the elk to the lake, it was easy navigating once we had done it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. So John, with that being said, what were the top three things that you would critique on that and say, you should have done this different, or this would have been a better way to handle that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let me move on, on that. On the sleeping bag, so synthetic sleeping bag, you don't want to do it in a down bag. Is that correct? That's correct.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and that navigation piece, you know, we, we were looking for the easiest, most direct route to get that meat down, knowing that we had a lot of meat and only two guys to pack it and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We wouldn't have been in a very good place on the lake as far as where we came out. There was nothing flat. It was just rocks and basically an avalanche shoot that came out into the lake there. So the way we ended up going was a much better route.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I would have loved to have had just a clear day to stand up there and look and pick, pick that apart, but you just don't get that. And like I said, that terrain, you know, not only the vegetation being thick and not being able to see, but then you had the fog and the rain to it and a hundred yards is max, even above the, the alpine looking down on it. You just can't see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And had they been there before, you know, they might have ribboned out a little path and there might have been a good little trail, but yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's part of me that pulls and says I want to go back, I want to go back and experience, you know, more of, of it, of the hunt, not those conditions necessarily.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can probably find a better place to, to suffer. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll head that way and come get you, but we have to leave by this time. And we flew back in the mountain pass we were trying to go through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was fogged in and we had to turn back and basically hit the bank and fly along the coast the whole way back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the cloud floor was too low and we couldn't make it over. And after that, so the next day when we flew out on the commercial airlines, they shut the commercial airlines down because it was too windy and too rainy to fly out. So they couldn't have got back in for six more days to that island.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, I mean, looking back, you know, and I know there's people that have hunted there before or that live up there that are like, oh, they're just dramatizing this into a degree. Yeah, there's some, some dramatizing going on, but every one of those points that we talked about and that John mentioned,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm the biggest baby when I'm sick. I'm in a 72 degree home with people waiting on me hand and foot and all the food I could want and all the medicine and access to doctors and everything with just a common cold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And knowing that your hunting partners are out in a torrential downpour packing alchemy in dangerous situations. I mean just the, the mental stress that that adds to something like that. Then to find out, Donnie passes three kidney stones, you know, the last day we're up there. And that's, that's how we finally realized this problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, it's, uh, and John, you know, you can't say enough about John, just to be able to capture all that and never complain. I mean, he's out there to film. He's not there to put himself in dangerous situations with crampons and a hundred pounds of meat on his back, but he does it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's, uh, you know, positive attitude is such a big thing and we try, I think for the most part, we kept a great attitude and we made it as fun as possible and, and John didn't deter from that one bit. You know, it was always, hey, wherever you want to go, yeah, just let me know. Let's, let's go that direction. Let's try that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Never, never complain. So yeah, that's, that can't be overstated enough. Just having good partners that you can rely on and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll let the cards fall where they are on the timeline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's been the comment we've got is I could have watched that for three hours. I was on the edge of my seat. Like I needed to go and have a drink afterwards because I was so tight and so stressed from just sitting there watching that. And that's what, you know, I think that's what you want to do. You want to, you want to bring people with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Had we shot him the first call in, you know, when he first came in, if he had just came straight in and we shot him, it wouldn't have been near the, the film. But the way he came in for 40 minutes and just stood there in front of us and put on a rut show, uh, that, that was pretty awesome. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cory, have a great day. You too. Thanks for listening, everyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All elk. All the time. Only elk. Only elk. Well, it's us having conversations, so we usually go down some rabbit holes, but- If you hunt with Cory J.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, uh, the picture you sent me when you first cut it with the blood and everything on it, it looked like a pretty nasty cut. Seeing the stitches and the scar from that, you've, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of your job is bow hunting, isn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're going really good. We, uh, we've got one more, our final episode that we are in that episode. We announced all the winners for all the episode giveaways and we've got to wait until the last episode launches. So John's coming up Thursday and we're going to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Film, uh, drawing all of those winners randomly and put that into episode 17, which launches on the 14th of March and then we're done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This year was one of the best ones. I mean, they're all phenomenal. It's hard to compare them because they're all completely different, different kiddos, but it was, uh, we've never, I don't think we've had as much of a challenge, um, physically as we did this year. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in July or August to do a little seminar, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think so. I haven't fully made up my mind yet. Montana is probably a definite no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I don't think I'll be, uh, applying there and I've got a bunch of deer points, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, uh, you know, I applied and drew that deer tag, was it last year, you know, the year before last year, and then ended up turning the tag back in, just had too much going on. And I finally realized it's, it's unfair to apply for that tag, you know, with now I have whatever, 18, 19 points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's, it's hard to do that when I'm still coaching basketball. So I think I've got to wait till I quit coaching basketball to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Burn those points because it falls right at the beginning of basketball season and me being gone for 8 or 10 days right at the beginning of the season just doesn't, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I've got to figure something out. Yeah. New Mexico is probably the most likely of the three, but we'll see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is the way to do it. And that's the biggest thing. I mean, with like a lot of the Arizona units and New Mexico, it's a stretch. I mean, we talk about guys coming from back East to Colorado to hunt. It's, uh, it's not a whole lot different going from Montana, Northern Idaho down to New Mexico.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because typically the way that math is taught in public schools is if you're above .45,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can round up because 0.45 rounds up to 0.5 and 0.5 rounds up, so that's, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're definitely, uh, they're very conservative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know, I think for them to turn the results around so quickly, I'm willing to let them hold onto my money a little bit longer. It's places like Wyoming that hold your money and your results all summer that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's where it's like, hey, give me one or the other back here. You don't need both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The good news is, is the, uh, the people who decide to pony up that money will have really good draw odds. Those of us in the regular draw.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are going to suffer the effects of everyone that's been in the special draw bailing out of it and go into the regular.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, what's next? I mean, you look at, you look at Europe, England, you know, only the royalty get to hunt in some of those places, only the very wealthiest. And, uh, I mean, that's the trajectory that, that we're pointing toward is, hey,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you've got enough money, here's a pile of tags for you. If you don't, go, uh, go dine with the peasants and apply with them and we'll pick a few of you to go and hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know. That's uh, you know when you and I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think have been blamed for having a hand in that COVID bump that we're telling everybody to go hunting and we're to blame for that. We certainly didn't start the pandemic or anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone realized they don't like living in some of these states that aren't very friendly to hunting. And so a lot of them have migrated into states like Montana and Wyoming and Idaho and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is putting a definite strain on a resource. And we're gonna see states start to protect their residents, which is what we're seeing in, in Wyoming. You know, already, you know, whether they're protecting their outfitters or the, the residents, you know, it could be argued either way, but non-residents can't hunt in the wilderness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now for the special tag that, you know, for non residents, it's going to be almost $2,000.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, they just put a, there's a new bill there that non-residents have to wait until seven days after the start of a shed hunting season in Wyoming to be able to go shed hunting there. So, you know, you look at the, the Jackson antler race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, so on four service land there, it's, uh, you aren't able to even go on four service land, uh, in a lot of the state.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until May 1st, and so it keeps people out from harassing wildlife while they're, you know, in critical winter grounds, which I'm 100% for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so they open it up and it's kind of a big, big deal. You know, it's a fun, fun activity. I wouldn't say that anybody gets rich. Although last year I did see quite a few people that did really, really well on that national forest behind the refuge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, so anyway, you know, it's always been, you can come, there's people, I've seen people there from Florida, from Virginia, you know, that come out, drive out to go on that shed antler race. And it used to open at midnight. Now they've changed it to six o'clock. So you at least get a little bit of daylight to keep you from running into a grizzly bear, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody goes at once. Exactly. Yeah. So there's a bill that's been introduced now that effective July 1st would make it illegal for non-residents to shed hunt until seven days after the opening of the shed season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that means for something like the Jackson Hole Great Antler Race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the sad part is, is the not, or the residents of Wyoming, they also have that restriction. They can't pick up antlers until May 1st. So what do they do? Starting March 15th, they start driving to Montana and Idaho. So they shed hunt there for six weeks. And then once their season opens, they go up there and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're just, uh, on a spiraling path to, uh, protect resident rights, which like I said, I'm all for it, but I think, uh, we don't want to get too greedy. We want to share our resources as long as they're available to share. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the April 1st deadline, I was going to say, is the April 1st deadline an April Fool's joke? I don't know, you better go look it up. I might have given everyone the wrong


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, no, you can start a plan on March 1st, but the deadline is April 1st.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, you can't make this stuff up, Cory. No, but the bad thing is, is so if you want to apply, so they have preference points, like what you've been talking about to get you your general combination deer or elk or deer and elk license. Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In order to apply for a limited entry permit after that, as if this wasn't limited enough, then they have permits that are even more restricted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they have a bonus point system for that. So you have to collect separate points for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, you don't even know if you have enough bonus points, you might not draw that general license to begin with. So you don't even get to apply for the special permit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you have to apply for and draw that general license first.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. Then if you've done that and if you've applied already for that special permit, then and only then do your bonus points get thrown in and your name gets put in the hat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I draw my license, the general license, but then don't draw my limited entry permit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't get the option of getting a full refund on that first license. It's either you come and hunt on the general tag or we'll keep a hundred and seventy some dollars of yours and, uh, let you try again next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big game combo, so the deer and elk license is now $1,208. If you want just a general elk license, it's $1,018.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's a thousand and eighteen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, and I think for us, we, we apply in these states, so we're, you know, it's not that we're being a downer, it's we're just as frustrated as...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Others that, you know, we're non-residents in a lot of states and we're getting the same treatment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody else is. I mean, I'm the first to say Idaho's system was a debacle for non-residents and I don't have to deal with that, but I still felt pain for the poor people that did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know, I just, I understand to a degree, but this, there comes a point where you're just whining at some point and you don't want just general competition. You want to shut down all competition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you, uh, you can't go back on the National Forest behind the refuge until May 1st. They've got a spring bear season there. How's that, Pops?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was amended by Wyoming Game and Fish in November, 2020 requires that antler collection on public land began at 6 AM on May 1st.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So accordingly Wyoming game and fish department, wildlife habitat management areas in the Jackson and Pinedale regions also open at 6 a.m. on May 1st. Uh, same with public land on state land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then it also says the Jackson Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest has issued a temporary special order that allows access to critical winter range at 6am on May 1st as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nobody's supposed to be in there before May 1st, like not doing anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the collection of shed antlers as defined by Wyoming is to search for, locate, stockpile, or possess shed antlers, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, he didn't, but he was just saying thanks for sharing your knowledge and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Given him the motivation to, uh, to work out to become successful. And I think that is something. Yeah. And that's something, you know, I talk about quite a bit that you've got to be proficient with your weapon. You've got to understand elk. You know, you've got, there's, you've got to be a good caller if you're hunting during the rut, all these things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And being in shape is important as well. And if any one of those pillars is weak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can cost you. I mean, it can absolutely keep you from success and it doesn't mean you have to be stellar at all four of those areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you need to pay attention to all four of those areas because if one of them becomes a weak link, that weak link can break the whole chain and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep you from success. And so it's, uh, it's awesome to see that he recognizes that and is gonna change that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How much more the, uh, incline or the decline now, uh, decreases or increases exponentially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, uh, I'm not a fan of the first week. Donnie and I hunted the first week last season and it wasn't fun. I mean, I'm not going to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, second week is better than the first week from the standpoint of you're going to be less likely to have as much heat, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every day that you're going into the season, your chances of weather cooling off increase. Every day that you're going into the season, your chances of the rut picking up increase. So it definitely gets better as you go in there. The other thing that we're looking at this year is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're going to have a pretty bright moon at the beginning of that week. Uh, it's definitely tapering off quickly that week, but you've got more chances of heat. You've got more moon. You're farther away from the fall equinox, farther away from the peak of the rut. So if you could go the week of the 10th through the 16th, uh, I think that's going to be a stellar week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, 5th through 11th isn't terrible. The 6th is when you have the half moon, so you'll be dealing with a descending, waning moon from the 6th on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, and I just look back at when my kids were little, my wife, the last thing that she wanted to do was sit at home for 24 hours a day with no relief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I'm out playing and, and vacationing in the woods. That's uh, that makes it tough. But if you put in your time and sacrifice then and help her out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the attorneys charge you to be on your podcast. You have to hire an attorney to come and state the legality of it. Interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody really truly thinks that they were damaged to the tune of seven and a half million dollars from a stepladder not touching their property and allowing four individuals to float through the air on from public land to public land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can be disappointed with it, you can disagree with it, but to bring a lawsuit and charge, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the expenses to taxpayers and to individuals that are involved in that and everything. That's just, it's crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] New Mexico and then Montana and then Colorado. You've been warned. Got three deadlines coming up within a couple of weeks of each other there or within, yeah, inside a couple of weeks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, uh, I have some chapters on cow elk hunting and the University of Elk hunting, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're pretty basic. I've never actually shot a cow elk. I've hunted them, you know, I've called them in, I've been around them, all that, but uh, yeaah, I would...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought you were supposed to create, you know, the nerdy stuff is supposed to create the format and the outline and then we just backfill with my fluff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of my looking is, you know, most states give out more antlerless tags than antler tags. So, you know, there's a lot of people we kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Focus on teaching people how to hunt bulls, you know, especially when it comes to calling and everything, but we're leaving out half of the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Public land, over the counter elk hunters and, you know, hunters in, in all these states that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get antlerless tags. So I think there's some value there for sure. And like you've always talked, it's finding the elks 90% of the battle. And if you want to find the elk, you got to find the feed. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm connecting those dots and then I'll share some tactics and things that I've learned over the years, but it really all comes down to finding elk, which comes down to feed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, and we, you know, we've talked before, we get questions from people saying, hey, should we apply for cow tags at the same time we're applying for bull tags? So that those of us who don't draw bull tags at least have a cow tag. And the answer is always yes, absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and end up in the ER with, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You separated ways with her and you went up to the show, wasn't it? And she wasn't there with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, uh, last I saw, we were scheduled for May or June, so it's coming up. Oh really? Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nah, it sounds like they, uh, they know they're, they know they're, they know what they're in for. The one lives up there, lived up there. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would never, I would never wish on anybody to shoot two of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are done. Yep, state championships were, uh, this past weekend and. And did you win? We didn't even make it to state this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we, uh, we had a very direct path to get there that was just one game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we lost that game and so then we had the long path to get there and had to fight all the way through the consolation bracket, which we did. And then we played in the play-in game and ended up losing to the team that got third at state this year. So. Oh bummer. Didn't get a go. But. Next year. Next year. The next two years. I'll predict the next two years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We do. We had a decent team this year, but it was kind of a rebuilding year a little bit and not a lot of experience in big games like that. And it showed, you know, they played really, really well all season, but they got in some of those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really intense games and the lack of experience in those situations showed, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're bringing most of them back next year. And so they'll have that experience and be a year better. Yeah. We will be, we'll be good for a couple of years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those buggers. I went down there. Yes, let me, I've got an update for sure. No, I, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I've got the traps out and I'm not, I mean, I'm taking it seriously for sure, but it's given me an excuse to get out a little more and keep tabs on the wolves. So I'm not necessarily hoping to be successful in trapping, but I'm hoping that the time I'm spending out there will lend itself to success in hunting them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've gotten so close so many times. Had them howling more this winter than ever before. Uh, had them howling a week ago and was moving in on it. And, uh, a snowmobile came down the mountain and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I had fresh snow and could see where they were going, but I just, by the time that happened, I left there and went to the other pack and just couldn't catch up to them. Um, but with that being said, I did find a pinch point where one of the packs has been continually crossing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's probably my best, the most hopeful and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to know why they're gonna step there why they're gonna be traveling there in the first place and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I am sooo novice when it comes to trapping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you put in there an animal like a wolf that is, in my opinion, the smartest animal I've ever hunted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, it's a, it's a chess match now. It really is. My wife said the other day, she said, are you enjoying it? And I'm like, it is like trying to solve a mystery. Like it is, there are so many moving pieces and trying to analyze everything that's going on and trying to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to get ahead of them. You have to think ahead of them and it's, uh, it's not an easy thing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you know, there's been nothing, nothing, uh, noteworthy to report yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yup. No, that's absolutely. In fact, you know, I have three foothold traps in dry ground right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the dry ground is just as bad as snow, you know, because you get that melt during the day and the water soaks down into the dry ground and then it freezes at night. And I had one of the traps the other day. I went to freshen them up and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I couldn't get it to go off poking a stick on it because the ground, the dirt layer on top of it was so frozen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does he have a heartbeat? Yep. I guess, guess he beat the expectations this time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, physical therapists probably use a little bit of trickery on you. Hey, let's hear how good your fingers are working. Can you, can you slide your credit card out of your wallet with those two fingers you just had surgery on?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to Reaching Your Peak, an educational storytelling miniseries of the Elk Talk Podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reaching your peak is brought to you by Peak Refuel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're looking for delicious, freeze-dried meals that are made with 100% real ingredients, including premium USDA meats, you've probably already heard of Peacree Fuel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their meals have nearly twice as much protein as the competition, which is important for fueling your body in the backcountry. There's no fillers, no empty calories, just premium nutrition that truly meets the needs of elk hunters. And the taste is second to none.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My personal favorites are their homestyle chicken and rice and the beef stroganoff, but they have a huge selection of other incredible meals like chicken alfredo, biscuits and gravy, chicken coconut curry, sweet pork and rice, mountain berry granola, and a whole lot more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you want to taste the difference, visit peakrefuel.com and use the promo code ELKTALK to save 15% and get free shipping on your next order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the first episode of Reaching Your Peak. And if you have ideas or suggestions that you'd like to see incorporated into future episodes, just let me know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And subscribe to these podcasts wherever you listen to your podcasts


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It'll help Randy and I continue to grow the Elk Talk platform.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, we have a winner for the Prime Revics bow that we gave away in the last episode.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm going to be announcing that winner just a little bit later here in this episode. But for right now, let's kick off the storytelling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When it comes to answering the question of what is your best day of elk hunting, it would be difficult for me to isolate one single day that I would consider to be the best. There have been so many incredible days. My first elk, uh, each of my kiddo's first elk, Donnie's first elk, cameraman John's biggest elk,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A couple years ago there were just way too many incredible elk hunting experiences for me to pick which one's the best.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you were to ask me what is the best day for elk hunting, that's a question I can answer. And coincidentally, the story I'm about to share could possibly answer both of those questions. The year was 2009.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had officially kicked off a new elk hunting website the year before called Elk101.com


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've been brainstorming all kinds of ideas for creating exciting elk hunting content that other elk hunters would enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just purchased an expensive new video camera, the trusty old Sony GL2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for the first time, I was taking a full two weeks of vacation from work to make this a truly unforgettable elk season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Little did I know at the time just how memorable it would end up being.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For those of you who know my elk hunting partner Donnie, he and I had just started hunting together two or three years prior to this season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we'd also recruited another good friend of ours, Dave Perry, to hunt with us that season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our plan was to hunt together on opening weekend in an area that I'd hunted for many years and then part way through the next week we'd regroup.


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[Assistant] And head into some incredibly remote country that we had scouted for a probably an eight or nine day bivvy hunt.


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[Assistant] Donnie and I had spent the spring and summer leading up to this season competing in triathlons, which really was fueled exclusively


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[Assistant] By our desire to be in the best shape we could possibly be in for elk season.


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[Assistant] Dave, who was several years younger than us, was also in great shape. So there were going to be no limitations in the distance or the difficulty of the train that we'd need to take to lead us into Elk.


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[Assistant] One of the ideas that I'd come up with for content for my new website was to video every day of our elk hunting adventure and then share it on our newly created YouTube channel as a day by day elk hunt. Keep in mind,


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[Assistant] This was 14 years ago, a time when there were very few elk hunting or any hunting videos on YouTube.


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[Assistant] In fact, YouTube was mostly just short videos of cats chasing lasers. And at the time it was a far cry from the content platform that it is today.


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[Assistant] We decided we'd just rotate through the different responsibilities each day. One of us would be the shooter, one of us the caller, and the other the cameraman.


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[Assistant] So we drove to our initial hunting area on a Friday evening. It was Friday, September 4th to be exact.


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[Assistant] And we'd be starting our hunt on a completely full moon.


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[Assistant] I'd spent the previous three days leading up to that, finishing a paver patio at our house. That was my big pre-season honeydew project.


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[Assistant] And I did it in 100 plus degree heat. And I was looking forward to getting to the mountains and finding some cooler temperatures.


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[Assistant] On the drive up to camp, though I wasn't feeling all that great. And I just chalked it up to being exhausted and probably slightly dehydrated from the past several days of manual labor in the extreme heat. We got to camp and got it set up.


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[Assistant] And even though I wasn't feeling all that well, we decided to take a drive.


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[Assistant] And just see if we get an elk to bugle and hopefully give us a good, solid starting point for the next morning. And fortunately, we did.


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[Assistant] Being the 4th of September, it was still really early in the season, so we didn't get much in terms of an aggressive response, but we did get a faint bugle from about a half mile up on the ridge above the logging road that we were driving in on.


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[Assistant] The next morning we were parked in that same place and started hiking up the mountain as the first light started peeking over the skyline across the canyon behind us.


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[Assistant] The bull that we had heard bugle the night before was bugling on his own that morning, but he was further up the mountain than where he'd been the night before. And we were hiking up the mountain in his direction. Every time that we got to a new vantage point, we just stopped to catch our breath and let out a bugle, just keeping tabs on where the bull was.


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[Assistant] As well as trying to get a better idea of where he might be going. After just a few minutes of hiking, we reached a vantage point which was just a flat bench at the top of a really steep hillside.


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[Assistant] When I looked over and saw a movement, uh, coming through the chest high Cianothus up the hill to my right, I quickly indicated that I could see an elk and I was out in front so I knocked an arrow.


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[Assistant] Donnie slid back a little bit to call, uh, if needed, and then Dave moved up right behind me with the video camera.


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[Assistant] At this point, I could see it was just a smaller raghorn bull, but even on our first morning, I wasn't about to let a tender bull like that get away, especially with it being so close to the logging road we'd driven in on.


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[Assistant] Plus, there were still some leftover non-resident elk tags that I could buy.


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[Assistant] And if I got really lucky, maybe even shoot two bowls that season.


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[Assistant] And he's trying to work its way below us to get our wind, but before he could make it around below us, I came to full draw.


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[Assistant] And as he stopped to cautiously look around and survey the surroundings, I shot. We were less than an hour into our elk season and we had the first bull down.


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[Assistant] And made it to the logging road we had just driven in on.


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[Assistant] He died probably 10 yards or so below that road. So it's going to be a pretty short pack out.


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[Assistant] As we got the bowl cut up, we put the quarters in game bags and then set them off to the side in some shade.


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[Assistant] And then once we had all the meat in the game bags, we started shuttling them back up the steep bank literally just 10 or 15 yards up to the logging road and right into the back of Donnie's Suburban. We didn't even use pack frames or packs. As I was packing one of the quarters up the hill in my arms, I felt the sharp bite


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[Assistant] I was even more surprised to realize that it had been the tick that was the source of that somewhat sharp and painful bite, but