This Moose hunt was organized by Mark and I am happy to say that it was an entire Dye family effort supported by other family and spouses. Early in the year Mark encouraged his Dad to put in on a moose hunt. At that time Dennis felt that he could not do it yet the more he thought about it the more excited he became to do it. Having drawn on the permit the next phase of the project started. While some made plans to get the gun and have Dennis sight it in, others made plans to get time off work to be there. Some had assignments to help get Dennis there and camp set up. It all started coming together Saturday August 29th at noon when Dennis, Terri and John started out with their 5th wheel trailers towards Soda Springs and Dike Lake where camp was to be set up. Tena and Phil had left a few hours before and had called back saying to drive slow due to the gusty winds. Camp was established trailers set up and dinner prepared. Mark arrived later where we all drove and walked to the furthest campsite where we could over look a portion of the Lake area. From there with spotting scopes we could see 6 bull moose in the distance.
Four of the 6 bull moose can be seen here.
The two other moose who were closer in.
Checking out the spoons and size.
Being excited and talking about the hunt.
Dennis decided to head home early for Sunday meetings. We stayed and left early Sunday morning. Phil and Tena were staying to be with the group arriving for the morning archery hunt.
After arriving back up Sunday night we met back together for dinner. Mark, Jake, Gordon and Bailey had harvested a buck earlier in the day and were taking care of the meat.
Hike to the look out point.
Nice moon lit night.
Dennis and LaNae's trailer.
The morning hunt at 7:30 a.m.
Do we take this one or not?? Not.
Testing out the bench rest.
We divided up int to two groups and went out searching for moose.
Within a hour we headed back to camp.
The plan was developed.
Some were assigned boat duty others were assigned as spotters.
Phil and his crew headed out.
Mark loading up Dennis and heading out.
Art, Terri, Tena and John were assigned spotting duties.
During this time the boatmen were out and had spotted 5 different bulls none worthy of the hunt.
That is when Art spotted a nice bull about 4 miles out. He called to the boats and they where about 2 miles south of the bull's location.
Once Mark, his group and the boat were positioned, Phil came and picked up teh rest of the group.
Look no hands..
Phil took us to the island next to the located bull.
This is the bull.
We waited about 20 minutes or so for the Dennis and his group to get into place.
The call came at 2:07 p.m. "The bull is down".
Location the shot was taken. Distance to the bull was about 200 yards which was about 100 yards or so from the boats.
The thistle and the stinging nettle was about 4 ft tall.
This was truly a successful hunt.
Dennis needed a much needed rest.
Time for the skilled meat cutters to go to work.
It was nice being able to trade off along the way.
Cooling off the meat.
Heading out to the landing to shuttle everyone out. Then to return for the meat.
Back at camp by 3:30 p.m. waiting for the boatmen to arrive.
Here they come meat in the boat. It is now 4:30 p.m and more picture time.
Bailey is recovering and one tough girl after taking a spill at the dock.
This was the group and it was fun.
Mark ended up getting a little help and cutting up the meat a week and a half later.
No comments:
Post a Comment