Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #237: Public Land Elk Adventures w/ Ryan Callaghan

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #237: Public Land Elk Adventures w/ Ryan Callaghan · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan in this episode number two hundred
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and thirty seven, and today I am joined by First
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Lights Director of Conservation and public Relations, Ryan Callahan, and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: we're talking about the elk hunt we just went on
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in Montana over the past week and all the adventures
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that went along with it. All Right, real quick, before
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we get to that, they'll just want to give a
• 0:51
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• 2:00
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to you by Onyx And I'm sitting in Montana in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a truck on a mountain next to Ryan Callahan. Ryan,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: we had a snowy cold morning. Huh yeah, man, first,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: like very cold morning. How cold do you think it
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: actually wash? Mid twenties, twenties somewhere in the twice yeah,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: if not, maybe even lower. Because we're it's mid day
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: now and we're down where there is no snow and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it's thirty six. It was frosty. Chili felt good. Yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I did impressively cold. Yeah, it felt like something could happen.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: It did. Um, we're out here in Montana and we've
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: been elk hunting, and Ryan, I was hoping to kind
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: of run through the story since I've been out here,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: what what what I did before I met up with
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you and and what we did together, and then, Um,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind hearing a little bit about your elk
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: hunts ahead of this. You're telling me some stories about
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: your early season action. I wouldn't mind hearing about some
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of that again. But I also want to make sure
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: we touch on a few things about the Land and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Water Conservation Fund. Is that something you're up for chatting
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: about two? Yeah, absolutely, good timing, all right, Yes, this
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: is primo timing. So I guess that we talk elk first.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: This is the first time up hunting elk in two years. Well,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I took I started hunting elk in two and then
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: one every year for four years or five years after that,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and then took last year off because I did that
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Carabra hunt. So this is good to get back out
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: on the Elk woits I was missing it. Um, but
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a short trip, yes, yeah, um, but
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you know, good good thing to remember is this is
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like longer than a lot of folks is average ELK trip.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, I mean I know so many people
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that are you know, they're lucky if they get out
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: for a weekend. You're saying, locals, local folks. Yeah, yeah, well,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I guess you're right. I feel we were talking how
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like so many of my all of my elkns.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It's always a great, big production, right, It's this big trip.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: All this planning goes into it. It's this long time
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: period that you look forward to all year. It's gonna
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: be so different for you or anyone who lives around
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the stuff where it's like I'll go out for a night,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: or I'll go out for Saturday afternoon and yes, yeah, yeah,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: ripping out after work as fast as you can and uh,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: at least get into the spot that you want to hunt,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and then give it a good solid morning
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and if it doesn't seem like it's gonna turn on,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe bail that whole weekend and go get
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: your all your chores done and all the your responsibilities
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: taken care of, and you kind keep tabs on it
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: and hope to get out when things really happening. Um,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you know that that was something that it was very
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: familiar to me, not all that long ago. I feel
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: like I feel like being an out of stater or
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: when you hear about folks talking about how you can
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: find public land out these days, and it always sounds
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: like you gotta get ten miles off the road, you
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: have to be way back in the middle of nowhere.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So I will always kind of have this assumption. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: feel like a lot of other people that haven't having
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: out kind of very much, that live out on the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: other side of the country, have the same assumption that
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you need to come out here for some expedition and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you need to be back there fifteen miles. But when
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I was heading out here, you know, chatted with you,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you know, you pointed me towards a spot that I
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: should check out to start, and You're like, oh, yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: just drive down this road. People just drive around bugle
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and then go chase him right off the road. And
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that's something that kind of wouldn't even thought was possible. Yes, well,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you know, it's all I always talk about like having
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of different tools in your tool kit, right,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and so every area is different. And you know this
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: is um where we're sitting right now, there's a lot
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: of like standing lodgepole pine country. It's really thick timber
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: um and that you know, the animals use the roads
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a lot um and um. Yeah, so I mean that's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that can be an effective tool um to locate and
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: maybe figure a spot out and then then you know,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: get the backpack on and and and go in there.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Like we were talking about, I had, uh a friend
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: of mine who never I never saw him once wear
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a backpacks, stuff up bottle of water and it's you know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: military surplus uh cargo pants and that was his whole
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: whole kit, you know. And all he did was, you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: he operated solely within a mile of the road. Yeah.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I guess it comes down to what you were talking
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: about the other day, just the value of mobility. Yes,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, you kind of It's interesting. This is the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: same thing with white tailed deer hunting. Very often it's
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: so easy to you pick this by your in hunt
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and once you pick, once you make that decision, once
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you kind of prepare for that if you just are
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: stuck in that rut and you're not willing or able
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to adapt, and you can very often be stuck in
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a bad place. So like when we backpack in for
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: these elk counts have done in the past, we've kind
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of been stuck. We could have pulled up, but we
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: never did because of all the work it took to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: get in there. So you're kind of in this one
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: drainage and if it's not happening there, you're kind of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: s oll But it seems like this this other way
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of going about it that you're talking about in certain
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: situations that seems to make a lot of sense. Check
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: out a lot of different areasun till you find where
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: they're at. What how do you can you walk me
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: through kind of what that would look like like, how
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: many different places are, how far back off the main
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: road or ian, what's like the details of how you
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: go about that kind of mobile elk hunt, the way
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you approach it. Yeah, well, you know, there's um a
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: couple of different techniques s um, but you know, you know,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: obviously it works better when you're in some bigger chunks
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of national forest where um, you don't I guess, don't
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: get stuck on trailheads. Um. An official designated trailhead isn't
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: your only means of accessing the Elk Woods? Right? Um?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And you know hit stop primarily when I'm checking out
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: new areas. Um. You know, in the evening primarily um
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that last hour um and into the dark to all
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: stop bugle off the road, listen, move on, stop bugle
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: off the road, listen, move on, um. And it's it's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: about locating, it's not about hunting. Right. So you look, kid,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: you look at the map and you're like, Okay, I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: think that people came from about here, but it's now
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: it's nine o'clock at night. I'm willing to bet that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that animal moved off of this ridge and it might
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: be heading this direction. So maybe in the morning I'll
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: figure out how to be on that ridge somehow. Um.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: And then you know, the backpacking version of that is. UM.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll try to be I'm never like an
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: ultra light person, but I try to just pare things
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: down as small as possible. So uh, no stove, no
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: tent um. You know, if the weather is pretty inclement
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and I'm by myself, a tarp is about all the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: shelter I'll bring UM, and I'm just kind of cruising
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and calling, cruising and calling, cruising and calling UM. When
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I do locate ELK, I have the ability to stay
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: on them until I can kill one, right, because you're
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: keeping your camp on your back, because campus on my
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: back the whole time. Yeah, that was that was something
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: we did this time too. That was different than what
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I've done the past. I want to talk about that too,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: but um, but I guess basically, if we rewind the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: tape a little bit, what you talked about in the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: beginning is kind of how I started out. Because you
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: couldn't meet me for a day, so I came out
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and just thought, all right, I'm gonna try to find
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: something and make a move on something quick. So I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: drove around a bunch of these National Forest roads and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: stop bugle drow around, stop bagle drow and check trail heads,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: try to see where there are other trucks and stuff,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to try to figure out where other people. I figured
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: that was a good starting point, a void where there's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a bunch of other people. So to your point, the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: one main trail head that we were near, there was
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: three trucks and another truck and a horse trailer, so
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: everyone kind of congregates around that, right. Um eventually found
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: what I thought was decent looking out country that he
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: had to go up this big steep ridge to get too.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: But it was kind of dark, timber, and some scattered
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: meadow as long as ridges. So that first, I think
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: it was that that first evening I just got in there.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I all right, if I can get up there high,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: maybe I can see something, maybe I can hear something
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: in these drainages way back there. At least have a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: starting point, you know. Um. So I hiked up the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: top of that ridge, got way up there, could see
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: into almost three different drainages, did little locator bugles along
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the way every once in a while, didn't hear anything.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Sat on that ridge, glassed a lot of country, didn't
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: see anything, Um, but it looked like good enough country
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: that it might be worth checking out that general area again.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: So the next morning I got up early, and I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: talked to a guy the night before, another hunter was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: in the area, and he'd mentioned that they've been there
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: for days. I can't remember how many days, but a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: handful of days, and they hadn't heard a single bugle,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and I hadn't heard a single bugle. So I kind
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of had assumption now that maybe like the locating tactic
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: might not work as well for me, like bugling from
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the road or bugling all over the place. So I thought, Okay,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I just need to put some miles back in there
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and try to see this tucked in drainage. I've been
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: looking at the map. So I came in from a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: a different access point, but heading towards the same different
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: or same general direction that I was at the first step.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Hyked back in there, calling every once in a while,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: but I didn't hear anything. I came over this ridge
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that was back ridge towards this final drainage I was
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: heading into about three miles off the road, and I
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: was walking on the side hill of the ridge right
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: where the timber met this little meadow, so right along
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that edge, and I come around a corner and I
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: see an elk standing out there, maybe a hundred fifty
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: yards away. I just freeze, and I'm trying to sick.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Is he's staring at me? This is this elk staring
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: at me, And I can see his head turning facing
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the other way. So I dropped down to my knees,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: pulled with buy nose and can see it was a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: decent bowl. Um. I think it was a five by five,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and um, that was encouraging to see a bull. But
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: as I've got my bonos up looking, I noticed there's
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: a cow standing behind him and she's looking right at me.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So I think that I had only seen him. And
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I dropped down because I thought he wasn't looking at me,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: so I thought I was safe, But I bet you
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: she was behind him. I couldn't see her. She saw
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: me kneel down, so she's staring at me. The bulls
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: get his head down now feeding and then she barks,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and then a calf jumps up behind her, and calf
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: runs down the hill and then she runs down the hill,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and then eventually he followed, and that was exciting to
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: see a bull. And at that point I thought, maybe,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: you know, he didn't he didn't run. He like fed
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: for another twenty seconds and then turned and just kind
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: of walked down her following. So I sprinted down the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: mountainto the timber. I'm like, well, maybe I can get
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: close enough into the world, and they hear some crashing
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: then trout a couple of cow calls, and maybe he
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: would be another cow um. So I did that, but
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I never caught up with him and never could hear
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: them and never spun my calls, and that was kind
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: of that. I kept hiking, exploring this new area. But
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I have yeah, many times I've been like, well, it's
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: game over, and somebody wants to try this very low
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: percentage success, last ditch effort, and I've seen it payoff,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you know, and I'm like, no possible way this is
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: gonna work, so it is worth trying. So so the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: sprint sprint into the woods? Yeah, would you have would
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you have done that? Or would you have said she
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: barked there out of here, bail or what would you
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: have done that scenario? Yeah? For me, I would have
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I would have just chilled him and like, all right,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give these guys some time or I'm gonna
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: go find other Elk Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, Because I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: mean a big part for me too is you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty spoiled. I get a lot of days in
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the Elk woods, and and I like my situations as
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: much as I like my Elk red. So I'm like,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I want that bowl vocal and I don't want them
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: trying to step on top of it, right, um, and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: so I'll mess around with them until I can get
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: that to happen. Typically, man, you are spoiled. Yes. So
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: then I went up and met up with you and
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: we had it off to a new area. Yes, and
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: we're again looking for that type of snare you like, Yes,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and um, so yeah, this is kind of like, um,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a zone that you know, very confident there's elk in there.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: We pulled a couple of bulls out in the past, um,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: but it was still you know, kind of that road
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: hunting scenario right where it's camps on back. We're doing, um,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: quite a bit of calling. Um. You know. My theory
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: um is that these elk are always talking. Sometimes you
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: just gotta be right on top of them. And you know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not ripping like giant, huge bugles. It's more conversational,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: like um, confidence inducing bugles, I would think. So, so
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: what does that actually? I mean, obviously you can't make
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: this sound, but just like a high squeally short bugle
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: kind of thing, or how would you describe your locator?
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Short and not like piercing And then didn't seem like
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: you didn't do like any junk afterwards, not a lot
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: of grunts or glunks or chuckles or anything at least. Yeah, yeah,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: and just just trying to um. It's more like, you know,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this time of year, the rets on elk are moving
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: all over the place. Elk are getting beat up and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: pushed into different herds, different drainages, people pressure, pushing alk around,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: and you know, for me, it's paid off to just
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: have that more like everything's great with the world type
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: of bugle. Not I'm intimidating you. I'm trying to find
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: somebody else type of bugle. I'm looking for a fight,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for ladies. It's more just like our little
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: groups doing just fine. Yeah, I feel like I know
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I was telling you this that we must maybe was
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: missing um the boat on this a little bit because
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: we got so call shy where we hunt in Idaho,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: because we we assumed that any bugling was sending these
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: elk the other direction. So we we stopped bugling all together.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: We did zero calling, except for if we heard a
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: bugle and we got closer to that bowl than we
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: tried a little with cal calling, and that was all
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: we did because we were so worried about the pressure.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: But from what it sounds like, we maybe we could
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: have got away more. Yeah, it's it's really hard. It's
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: really hard to get in this mental space of um
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: playing people more than elk. And and yes, sometimes that
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: is the right call, but more often than not, UM,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: when I gotta remind myself like, um, there's some absolute
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: dumb ass luck involved. But I've very consistently been an
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: l killer and you just need to go hunt and
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: kill elk and not worry about the next dude in
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the drainage. So UM, you know, I'm sure there's some
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: folks that would argue with that. Again, there's situations where
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you absolutely do need to play the people like they've
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: been sitting on elk that have been coming out of
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the same betting zone and they just sit there and
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: on the same ridge top and rip bugles and rip
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: ugles and rip bugles. Um, those elk could probably figured
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: out not to not to even recognize those things. Yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I mean I but you know, it's an odd thing.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Like I was staring at a you know, a very
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: large herd bowl in Idaho, um, a couple of weeks ago,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm two fifty yards from him. I
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: have cows behind me and in front of me, it
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: should have been like a pretty darned good situation to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: get this guy pissed. And I did like three huge bugles,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you know, two fifty yards, but everybody was on their feet. Um,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: my mind should have been close enough. And uh, he
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: didn't respond or even look at me till the third bugle.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: What and then what did you do? Then he scooped
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: up his cows and got out of there. Yeah, yeah,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: but you know so I think that particular bowl is
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: was just in the mindset of like, you know what,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the red's not really happening. He wasn't. I've been watching
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: him for a while. He wasn't picking up cows actively.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: They were basically coming to him. And I think really
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: his strategy and and this is something I very much
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: believe in, is there's a lot of bulls out there
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that they know be going at tracts attention from you know,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a variety of predators of course, but also just those
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: other bulls, and they're like, well, why would these ladies
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: are coming to me? Why would I tell everybody about
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it and make my job harder? Do you do you?
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So that's like that's the most difficult scenario than for Hunter.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Right when you've got a bull like that or all
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the bulls like that, which sometimes it seems like recently here, Yeah,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and that has been That's where we're in my past
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: altcining trips, that's where we've struggled the most, or maybe
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I should say the other way. The only time we
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: found any successes when they're talking a lot. Otherwise we struggle. UM.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And what we've done in the past when that has
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: happened is we just walked around and glassed, walked around
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and glass and called a little bit, you know, like
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I mentioned a little bit of kyl calling, but UM,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: it seemed like that's kind of what you do too,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: based on Yeah. So yeah, I'm sorry to go back
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: like the new spot. Then we went into after we
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: met at UM. You know, we we worked UM a
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: variety of like high and low ridges, UM, and we
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: were basic. I gotta I gotta jump in and say that. UM.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I have always al khinted with like other friends from
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Michigan and in in Iowa. So when I go on
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: these trips with my buddies locally, and I told you
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: this yesterday, but I'm like the mountain goat in my
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: friend group. So I was like jeez, Marks had these
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: long legs. I was hiking Safari. You never stops for breaks,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. But now I'm hiking with with
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you Ryan, and you're going up this first ridge and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: it's I don't know how high we went up? How long?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Was I camp? Full miles a decent chunk of elevation
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: game and not a single stop for a breather. The
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: whole time, I'm just thinking, ma'am, I like it when
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I'm the one who gets to be leading the way,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and that feeling like I was dragging. Ask oh you
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: did great? That that's not a fun ridge either. I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: was like, this is a long ridge. Usually I'm I'm
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: waiting for people behind me. And now I realized I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: don't want to be the one that someone's waiting for.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Like in my head like, do not stop, do not
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: make Ryan waite for you? Oh no, yeah, you know. Unfortunately,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: like I've definitely like clicked into this mindset where it's like,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: no matter, just disconnect your feet from your body, let
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: him do the work. And the only thing that's going
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to make this long steep ridge more painful is stopping,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: because it's never gonna get over yeah, and that's kind
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of clicking to that mode when I'm packing meat out too.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: It's like, just keep the wheels turning at all costs.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: It is such a mental game. It has to like
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you said, you have to disconnect your mind from your
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: legs and just like go into some other space and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: just like be an autopilot. Almost, yes, exactly, because if
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: you get if you get in your head and you're like,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: oh this is miserable, I'm so tired, then you're then
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: you're just going down to fast. Absolutely. So we kept
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: cruising and really we're like, Okay, I know there's elkin
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: here um. There's always elkin here um. But everything that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: we've been hearing um from friends that we bump into
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and stuff, I've been like, there is no talking going on.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So despite the no talking that we were experiencing firsthand,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: we were cruising and looking for sign um because you know,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: we get a lot of success um, you know, killing
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: bulls that come in silent and and but you know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna like stop and set myself up for
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: that success unless I can find fresh sign. Yeah. Can
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: you can you walk through what that specific fresh sign
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: was that you were looking for, because I was really
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: interested to understand what was going through your head as
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: we were hiking around all the time, Like what what
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: was enough sign or fresh enough sign to make you say, okay, yeah,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: this is an arraybaty to focus on more than just
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: like a single bowl track coming out of the timber,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: like ideally there's some back and forth and multiple animals. Um,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: that all looks relatively fresh, you know. Unfortunately, when we
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: were finding is what I would refer to as historic
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: elk sign, not current elk sign. And what do you
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: think a few weeks old? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and but
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of it, a lot of it um, which yeah, man,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: it was just like, um, you know, that was the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: spot the boys and a handful of cows were hanging
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: out in and then once the season started getting going,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I think those cows probably pitched off into a different
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: drainage and the bulls may lingered a couple of days
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and then followed, you know. Um. But so you know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: it's nice having like the fresh rubs around, but those
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: balls can travel so much during the route that I
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: don't put like a I don't get super jacked when
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I see that. Is there anything like with white tails?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Something we see a lot is you're gonna see um,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: increased rub activity closer and closer to their bedding areas.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: When you find like a buck betting area like just
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: littered with rubs, like we're in it, do you see
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: anything like that? Yep, absolutely absolutely, but again like a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: little people pressure, predator pressure because it is so close
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to the bedding area like that can be red hot
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the day before and you just missed it. Or they
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you know, they picked up uh, you know, a cowin
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: into asters in the next freaking county and it seems
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: like they're gone. So what I want to see is
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: ideally U scat that I can just be know, no
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: question that just happened. Um, like a real elk smell before.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: It's like crazy ammonia elk um. And some back and
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: forth tracks would be like the the Holy Trinity, right
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: um that are also like fresh um and yeah, a
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: lot of like this super dry country that I hunt.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's pretty darned easy to see what
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: a fresh elk track is. Yeah. So if we had
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: been hiking along on our first day and we ran
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: across that, so up until this point, we've been hiking, glassing, bugling, hiking, glassing,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: bugling from ridge to ridge, checking all these things out.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: But now let's say we got to the spot you
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: found this Holy Trinity assigned. What would we have done
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: differently at that point? Well, at that point because that
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: never really happened. It never happened. Um. You know, most
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of the time you can unless you're in like again
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: like some of this lodgepole stuff where it doesn't really
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: seem to look like there is, um like a defined
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: betting area or defined like well, yeah, of course they're
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: going to be on this bench or working through the saddle,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: unless you're in a spot like that. You know, I
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: am looking for those obvious like okay to me looking
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: at this hillside, like they have to be in that draw.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: So here's the sign. That's where they're coming out onto,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: like the exposed ridge at night to feed and and
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: mess around and and get into that running activity. Um.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: This is kind of like the area that they're using,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: um most of the time for me, because I I'd
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: like to throw caution to the wind. Is I would
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: slipping in there on that same trail, get as close
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: as possible to the betting zone. Um. And you know,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and and and that's about the most that's the time
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that I'm the most quiet in the elk woods, because
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: when I'm like, okay, I know they're betting right here.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I was just two yards away ripping a bugle and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: nobody responded. So now I'm gonna be You're like pretty
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: darn quiet. From a calling standpoint, you're saying, and from
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a walking standpoint like yeah, but not like my boots
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: off or anything, but just being a little more. I'm
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: not gonna go crashing through brush. I'm slipping around it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Um and then uh, you know, and paying attention to
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the wind the whole time. And then I'll set up, um,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll have my bottom my bow m in
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: my front pocket so it's a vertical and I can
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: rest it would rest my arm and sit there and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: call and do you try to get close enough that
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: you're actually seeing like a betted cow or something. Sometimes
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: sometimes that's too close. Most of the time, most of
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the time you don't need to be that close. So
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you're just in the timber, you're in the dark stuff.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: You've got to feel that there's somewhere on this ridge
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: your yards. Yeah, I mean you're definitely within a hundred yards. Yeah.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: So then you're set up and do a little calling. Yep,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and it's a little calling. So one call this is
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: a calcol calcol, like wait a little bit, a couple
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: of alcohols, and then I'll wait for half an hour
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and then I'll make another calcol, A couple of calcols um.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's definitely time dependent. During the day
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: when I found these things, all right, because you don't
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: want that wind to switch on you. But then all
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: do like a really like very very chill, don't mind
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: me type of bugle that says, I'm I'm a little bowl.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I am in here with these cows, and I do
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: not want to screw up this situation. And a lot
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: of times that's when I'll get like a grunt or
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: a chuckle out of that timber and that's the bigger
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: bowl likely that says, what's this punk doing in here?
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: It's like, I like the cows. And then I'll just
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: go back to cow calling and again like very sporadic,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: and I get a lot of success with that bowl
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: standing up in the middle of the day and coming
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to check that stuff out. Not a lot of people
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: do that kind of betting here sneak, do they? I
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: feel like that's it's high consequence right, right, because you
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: blow up the betting area, just like with white tails,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, you just screwed up their safety zone.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And so a lot of people would say, well, why
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: don't you just stay on the ridge where you know
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: they're coming out to feed? Um, And you know the
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: answer sometimes is well, I know this is a press
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: trud area and that's where the people think comes in.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: And it's like if I don't get him today, um,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know, this betting area doesn't really look like a
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: betting area. It looks like a place that you can
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: just walk through and no problem, and and somebody might
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: do that in the next five minutes um or um.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: You know they've been really quiet, and this is my
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: weekend to hunt, you know, because I gotta go do
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: something else. Um. You know, there's plenty outside factors, right,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: It's like, this is my last weekend. I gotta make
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: it happen. Um. But the biggest factory for me is
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: like that's like those situations, I just have a lot
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: of success. And you were saying too that you like
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the shorter shot opportunities to versus like big wide meadow
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: type things where lots of times you're you're stuck with
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: her and do I want to take that sixty yard
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: shot or seven yards whatever? Fifty yards? Um, you're kind
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: of forcing yourself to a much higher percent of shot, right, Yeah,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And you know that bowl has to come find you
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: in the timber and they're comfortable in the timber, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: then but you know you you just called your butt
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: off and you did a great job, and that bowl
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: breaks through the tree line into a meadow at a
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: hundred yards. A lot of times he's gonna take five
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: or six steps and lock up and be like, Okay,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I should see something. Yeah, where where where is he? Yeah?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: So yeah, And I mean most most of the time
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: when i'm um, if I'm calling for somebody else, I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: can work things a lot differently. But you know, most
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of the time when I'm out there for the freezer,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I'm just by myself. So yeah, So we're doing we're
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: doing the thing you mentioned before. We find hot sign.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: We're still hiking, glassing bugling, hiking glassing bugling. It's something
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: that should be pointed out about this area is that
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: it's just blowdowns everywhere. So it's and I think to
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: your point you talked about how this is one of
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: the reasons why this is a better spot was because
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: that was a tarrant to people, right, most pikers didn't
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: want to go in through that kind of stuff. Yeah,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I mean it's not a pretty place, it's not a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: welcoming place, um, and it it can be kind of
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: a sanctuary um as other places get pressured. Right now,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: we're kind of later in the season, felt like the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: time was ready to go in there, um and pretty
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: shocked that we weren't weren't really finding anything. So like
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the you know, the most sign that we found would
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: be like a single bowl um had like cruise through
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the area like probably within three days um and then UM.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: But I mean still, like when things aren't talking and
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you have the confidence that there are elk there, you
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: don't have a lot choice other than to totally leave
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and find a different area like we talked about before,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and find where they are talking, or to like really
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: hunt the thing well and and hit those pockets that
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: you know where they like to hide and and hang out.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: And so that's what we kind of did. And I
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: hope that something comes in quiet, right and just make
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: sure you're really ready for it and that you're ready
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: for it at all times. Yeah. So we're we're doing
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: this and we get to this back kind of ridge,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: a little bowl, I guess before this last major ridge
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: sort of rum rumors. Right, we're kind of we walked
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: up to the little outcrop of rocks. Ryan lads off
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: a bugle, um, don't maybe Kyl call or to something
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: like that. We listened and nothing as it had been
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: for the last two days. And so then we sat
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: down and just kind of started bussing a little bit, right, Yeah.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: And I had my back against this rock because I
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: didn't really want to sit all the way down um,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: because you know, I was kind of getting into magic time.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: It's getting later in the days. I was like, probably
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: if they're not here, well we got to charge over
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: this next reage. And and Mark, you're looking the opposite direction,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and you're like, hey, right there, and you know, that
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: was definitely something I've been wanting to hear, right, But
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I was looking. I was basically standing up leaning against
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: this big rock, looking the opposite direction, and I was like,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: oh boy, what are they doing? Yeah? And I was
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: sitting on I was sitting on a rock like ten
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: yards away when I bowing my lap facing that direction,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: and I just remember hearing like rocks clattering, and so
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: you were like you were in the middle of saying
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: something because I remember like, hey, like pointing at you,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: like right right, and then hearing this, like that's definitely
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the sound of elk. And then yeah, when I turned
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: to that noise, there's this elk coming right at us.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: There was a bowl, but I just remember thinking, oh,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: there's no way that this is gonna work out, because
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: he's he must he must see us or something. But
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: we just stayed frozen. Man, Yeah, and talk about should
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: have worked out. So yeah, I kind of craned my
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: neckground and I see that the bulls heads all covered up. Um,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: but I'm looking at the body and I'm like, oh,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it's not a huge bull. And then his buddy started
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: coming over the ridge, and I'm like, oh man, this
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: is like home run. This is like I'm immediately I'm like,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: go put okay, elk goes down here. We're gonna have
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to camp in here, and we're gonna drop down this
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: ridge and get this thing packed out. And this is
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: the way we're gonna have to do it. And this
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: was not what was going through my mind at that moment.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Oh man, yeah, So I was just like, yeah, golden scenario,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: and um, they like those little tiny cow calls and
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: they were kind of marching in and then um, yeah,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: that's like yeah, so you you were behind I was
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: closest to where they're at, and so I'm thinking I'm stuck.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I thought you since you were behind me and you
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: were you were lower. I felt like it was a
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: little bit lower, but you know, my head was sticking
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: up about that rock, so I thought like, you might
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: be able to move, and I didn't think I could.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: But when I realized that this bull the front bowl,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the other two yet. I just saw
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the front bowl. Um, And at first, like I said,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I thought, oh, he's gonna see me, but then he didn't.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: He just started kept walking and put his head down.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So I was like, oh wow, i'mn have an opportunity.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: So he started walking, put his walk behind a tree,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and at that point I dropped down to my knees
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: behind this rock. And then he went behind another tree
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and I pulled an arrow and knocked it and got
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: set by another tree. And now I'm like, okay, he's
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: getting like close to that that range. So I got
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: my range finder out and there was one there was
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: a bunch of dead trees, and then there's a cluster
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: of dead trees. But just after that cluster of dead trees,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: there was a nice wide opening and I ranged a
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: big bowlder right there that was sixty yards and that
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: was a shot. I couldn't take it, and I feel
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: comfortable taking an elk. And he was going behind all
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: these trees. You know, he's probably eighty that he was
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: at seventy and like, okay, he's gonna go right into
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: this opening, right at my range. And so he gets
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: behind that cluster of trees, walking on the steady walking
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: like the holy crap, this is happening in my head.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I'm like at first I was I couldn't believe it,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, whow, I might have an opportunity.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And then he got behind the cluster, like oh wow,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: this is this I'm about to shoot out ye And
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I kind of peeked over it, you know again, like
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to be moving because I was exposed
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't really see what everybody was seeing, but
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: I had kind of peeked and I saw you like
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: like there was just like a little bit of tension
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: on the string, like okay, like here, like this is
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: gonna happen, and uh again, I was like, oh, thank god. Yeah. Literally,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: had I had the boat up, I had, I was
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: clipped on, and I was like starting at the beginning
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: of the drap process, and then he froze and or
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: he never showed up on the other side, so I
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: couldn't see him anymore. But I knew he should be
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: like any second, because the cluster wasn't so big that
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it was like an elk body with probably,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: but he was. He was stuck in that cluster, and
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I just need him to pop out, you know, a
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: handful more yards, and I'm like, uh. And then which
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: which that bowl would have done under any circumstances other
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: than what we experienced, Right, Seriously, what happened Even if
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: even if he was like, oh, there's no Elk here,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: I don't like it, that's the way it was gonna go.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: And if he was like, oh I saw something weird,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I don't like it, that's the opening he would have
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: gone through. And however, what we experienced was, you know,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I'm craned around, I'm looking directly at these three balls,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, so like my left ear
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: hole is towards the balls, and my right ear hole
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: just gets full of wind. And I was just like,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: oh man, I wind shifted right on us. Yeah, and
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: it was just like second literally just seconds before I
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: would have had a shot. Yeah. I was like, okay,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: well this isn't ideal. And so I kind of hit
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the calcol a couple more times and and they all
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: three like again, like the age, they were at a
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: very impressionable age, these balls, and they were trying their
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: best to ignore the wind. From what I saw, they
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: still badly wanted to keep coming. I couldn't see them
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: at all, and I could not a single one could
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I see at this point. So I was just stuck
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: waiting for him to pop out. But you you were
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: seeing that they were just kind of looking at our direction.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: But yeah, and they just knew. I was like, oh boy,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: something stinks over there and that's not good. And and
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: then yeah, they yeah kind of pe old ah in
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the wrong direction. And then you know again I was like, man,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: so so close, and you could just in my mind
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and my experience said, I was like these this would
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: have happened, This would have happened, and even watching how
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: those bulls walked away like they wanted so badly to
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: come check that out, just couldn't let them. They kind
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: of like a slow turn and jog away, and then
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: do they stop and we started walking again, and yeah,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: and they kind of paralleled us a little bit, and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean that was that was pretty much. Yeah,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: those were our elk of the trip. Those were our
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: elk of the trip. Yeah. We kept hiking, we kept bugling,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: we kept glassing, and I did. I felt very good
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: about how we covered the rest of that ground. Um,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: I mean we really hunted it. We didn't just like
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: march through there. I don't feel like there's a much
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: of alk hiding underneath rocks. You know, there could have been.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: In my mind, like there are maybe something like cow
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: calf pairs in there that were hiding from everybody else,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Like Mom wasn't ready to kick her calf out and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: be bread, so she's staying out of the fray. Like
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: that's about what was probably in there. Well, like we said,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: when we gave her hell, gave it a good college effort, Yes,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: we we did, we did, um so Yeah, and then
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: speaking of college efforts, we um uh. Upon her hike out.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: It was late in the day and we had a
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: couple of beers. We got to bed relatively early after
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: we transitioned to a new spot. Then it felt very
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: much like when I was because I haven't hunted these
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: areas in a long time. I'm I am happy to
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: know that there's still elkin here. Um, but yeah, it
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: was definitely taking me back to the college days, like
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: these are the old stomping grounds, hyeah, old stomping grounds.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: And then um, yeah, that the spot that kind of
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: our last ditch effort spot for this morning because we
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: both gotta go back to the jobs. Um still has
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: elk in nu and we uh yeah. The only bugle
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: of the entire trip is like pull up to the
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: spot basically basically drove to the top of a mountain
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: through these all these forest roads, and a couple of
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: times I'm like, where is he taking me? Like is
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: this where he kills me now? And also also yeah,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: I'm driving. I guess I'm just not as confident with
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: my rig as you are with yours, because you're driving
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: down these roads just way faster than me. It's your
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: way ahead of me. I can't see you anymore. I'm like, Okay,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: if I blow a tire or if i'm if I
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: take the wrong turn, I'll never find him. And so
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: at one point there's a fork in the in the
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: road and I stopped and I'm like, well, the main
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: it seems like the road to the right is more established,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: but that left one certainly could be a road he'd
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: go down and sat there like, man, it's the mill
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of night. There's no cell phone set. I'm not gonna
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: get turned like. You can't turn around a lot of
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: these roads. It's so narrow, like this is a nightmare.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: But I finally did pick the right spot and I
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: found you. It was so funny, man, I was because
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: I was thinking to myself. I was like, man, you've
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: really matured. You used to drive these roads so much.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Well that shows you how that is the lame of
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: a driver. I am. Well. This morning, when we were
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: driving out in the snow, though, again, I'm like, oh,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Ryan's gotta think I'm like the old grandma driver of
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the world. But I haven't driven with these new tires
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: in my truck and snow yet. And then we're going
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: down these muddy dirt roads. I'm like, man, and The
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: last thing I want is like to start spin and
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: go off one of these big banks. I was creeping
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: in low geared going down those hills. Well, yeah, I
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: know that was gosh man. Yeah, so this morning was
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: super super cold. Um, we heard a bugle in the
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: middle of the night as we were shock a shock bugle. Yes,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: we shocked, shocked, shocked bugle Smelk with her truck doors
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: canopy doors as we were going to bed. Um, and yeah,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: it's just colder and cold this morning. I thought we
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: were going to get up and just I thought they're
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: gonna be lightening it up. Yeah, it was this cold weather.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: We heard the beagle last night. I thought we wenna
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: start hiking and you were rip off a locator. Then
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: finally okay, here we go game plan huh. But yeah,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: I mean it was cold enough to where like the ground,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the ground had like no squish to it, right, it
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: was like awkward uneven cement walking um and just kind
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: of do a little loop and it was gorgeous. And
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: then the snow started just like it was like more
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: so like wanted to rain, but it was just like
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: at any given time you could see like a dozen
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: snow flakes maybe um. And then then you pointed out
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: the snow to me at that point, and then that's
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: when I go to you, like, man, I've got a
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Christmas carol stuck in my head. Immediately got chestnuts roasting
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: over an open fire playing in my head when I
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: saw the first snow of the year. You I mean
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: it was cold. I mean I was I was wearing.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: We were both wearing a lot of clothes, and I
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: was surprised and and you know what I mean that,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, the body, you know, just it's been
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: so warm and then to be have this type of cold,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: you know, your body needs to acclimatize. And I'm basically
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: wearing you know, what i'd be wearing if it were
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you know, ten degrees, probably more than what I would
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: be wearing if there were ten degrees, and I was
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: actually doing so you think that maybe it wasn't the teens.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, So I don't feel quite so bad
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: that pilot on the puffy stuff. Dude, it was cold. Um.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: And then so get into this meadow finally, and it's
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: just more of the same, no talking. Get into this
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: meadow and it's like, okay, well there is brand new
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: fresh tracks. Um uh you know, a big noticeable bowl track.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: UM couple, you know, a cow and a calf and
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: a cow, um, And they kind of peeled through this gap,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: and then we went through a different gap trying to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: keep the wind right and I'm like, yeah, we're just
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: gonna follow tracks, and then we've ended up on what
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to me was like a very noticeable like Raghorn bowl track,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: and more so because it was separated from the group,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Like he's in proxid to the group, but he's not
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: a part of the group. But I'm like, okay, this
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: is young bull could have been a spike for all
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: we know, and you and you said to me like,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: this is a great scenario, right, yes, So why why
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: did you think that the scenario we had was was
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: so good? Because those those young bulls um, you know,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: like especially like late out there in the tracks. I
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, this guy's he wants to be a
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: part of the group, but he's not a part of
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: the group. If we become a welcoming group, he's gonna
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: march right in. Um. And so then I was not
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: bugling at all, just like really soft cal calls as
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: we kind of like slipped through that timber and continued
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: tracking these elks and and then like get to the
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: spot where I was like, yeah, they gotta be betted
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: up here. What did you think that? What was about
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: the habitat? It's just something about like a lot of
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: times like you have like a nice contouring ridge and
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's relatively mellow, and then there'll be
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: a face that's much steeper and heavily timbered, and to me,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: that's like an elk bedding area. They like the steeper stuff. Yeah,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: I mean not all the time, but I'm like, yes,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: if I had to like draw this up, I'd be like, yeah,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: that's where they're gonna be. You basically pointed there's like
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: this knob up ahead of us, as timbered knob that
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: as you just said, this mellow ridge we are on
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: all so it' steper up that and their bed right there,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: and yeah, so let me start making remove. So we
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: started making her move, and then it was just kind
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of like almost like a repeat. Right. It's like you
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: get on top of the ridge, the snow like really
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: starts falling and it's kind of swirling around us in
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: every direction, and there go all of our tracks, um
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: and Uh, I guess I should say like in that
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: kind of like hardened cement ground, those elk elk toes
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: were punched and through that stuff and leaving like very
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: nice noticeable tracks. Um and man, it's an odd thing Montana, Idaho.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: I've had it happened a hundred percent of the time,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: like where like a real snow day, it just shuts
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: everything down. And uh so we you know, I switched
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: over to bugles to try to like, okay, maybe we're
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: close enough and might fire something up last to Jefford
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: kind of last at she effort um and nothing and
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: we kind of you know, hit our tails and slunk
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: off for the track. So so we never really talked
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: about it. But why didn't we go push into that
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: betting air? Did you where it was? The snow? You're like,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: you know what I was thinking? Maybe in your head
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: you were thinking this is getting like a serious snow
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: maybe we should get off the mountain before it gets worse?
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Was that? What was it going in mind? Or do
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: you think we're not gonna make this happen? It was
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: kind of a combination of like, Okay, how how much
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: do we want to push this? And um, yeah, like
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: the amount of snow that accumulated just in that brief
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: window of it picking up like that was a pretty
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: darn treacherous drive off that mountain, So we probably made
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: the good call. Who knows, well we we would just
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: told I think you were telling me this story, um, right,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: were you telling me this story like an hour or
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: two before about how you and a friend got caught
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: in like the snowstorm deal like that, right, yeah, where
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: it came out of nowhere and now we're I'm like, oh, well,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: now that's happening to us, how fast can we get
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: six inches pile up here? Yeah? We had this like, yeah,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: this spot that we had both hunted a bunch and
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: knew the area really well, and this inversion happened and
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: it was like this super wet snow that just like
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: soaked through everything. Plus it was like super warm and
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: you were dressed for super cold, and they're just like
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: no finding that happy medium. And it was a complete
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: complete white out, like you know, ten yards of visibility
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: type of scenario, And it took us a long long
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: time to find our way off this place that we
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, you really really knew, but it was almost
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: like a full vertigo situation. What's amazing how different things
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: look when it's all white. And then then if you
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: can't see ahead of you at all on that wall
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: of precipitation, that's it's all in the world. Yes, so definitely.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I mean when you're out here in these areas and
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: weather comes in, it it's just it's not like a
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: snowstorm blown in. When I'm in Michigan and I've got
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: quarter mile to the truck, you gotta think a little
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: bit more like, is this something that you're prepared for?
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Is is something that you're able to get out of? Um?
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that's something that has to run through your
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: head many times a year when you get something like
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: that coming through. Oh yeah, all all the time, all
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: the time. Um, And that was her hunt did. But
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: I do feel like we gave it a heck of
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: an effort, So I don't feel bad about that at all.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah for having a weekend. Yeah yeah, I mean yeah,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: grown up here, I've had way worse, way worse l Kins.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: You know, would you have done anything differently if you
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: like look back, Is there anything we could have done
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to any mistakes we could have avoid other than I
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: guess not being ready for those three to kim In.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I think honestly, the smart move would have probably been
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: after that first night um on our kind of multiday
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: spot probably would have been like, Okay, we just need
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: to cut our losses and bail um. The problem is
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: I would be sitting here right now being like, man,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: if we would have gone over that other ridge um
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: and and just been like more cognizant of the time,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: right and be like, okay, only have a weekend, let's
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: just like turn and burn as many spots as we can,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: um and just get that active bowl. I feel like
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: there's some guy and we're talking about, you know, just
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the different styles stuff. There are some people that that's
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: all they do, right, They just drive from spots spot bugle,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: spots spot Bugle, And I guess it can work for
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: it yea yeah. But I mean the reality is like
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: we basically did that last night, and we had a
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: bold Bugle at us right off the road and we're like, okay,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: well yeah here we go. Yeah, that's that's our plan
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: out for the morning. Perfect. So um yeah, man, I
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: don't know. Um yeah, it's just you gotta you gotta
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: have like that rolodex of spots and be able to
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: go through them and definitely burn some shoe leather and um,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I think anybody that knows me knows I'm
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: not like the bast and maximizing my time. Uh, and
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: so that's something I gotta get get that are on
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: in the elk woods too. So it's funny that a
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that you've talked about here, as
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: far as the elk hunting public land elk hunting, it's
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: very similar public land white tail unting in that you
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: need to have a whole lot of different spots you
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: can go check because you can't just depend on one
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: spot because if there's so many different variables that can
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: change on public land, one spot might be hot right now,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: it might be horrible in two weeks. So having a
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: lot of different options, a lot of different you know,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: scenarios play out. If a bunch of people show up,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: you've got something else to fall back on. The same
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: thing with the aggressive tactics that you talked about, how
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: it might pay off on public land to go into
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: a betting area because if you don't, someone might do
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: it tomorrow. Um, they might be betting some completely different area.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: But if you know that there right now, you gotta
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: go with that, and a lot of the guys that
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: are talking and a lot of that that betting scenario
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: is certainly like if you've um taken note of some
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: pressure at Yeah, so it's like no trucks at the trailhead,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: pretty darn confident I can leave these guys untill tomorrow. Yeah.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: That that typically typically a good good bed is to
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: let him have that betting spot and catch him on
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: the outside if if you know, you got a couple
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: of days. But yeah, the flip side is definitely like
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: there are people all over I know these alk are
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: betted right here. Um, and this is definitely like I'm
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: up here, so that stands to reason somebody else is
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: gonna walk up right, And I feel like that's the
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: same thing a lot of people that are finding success
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: on public land white deals, especially back in the Midwest
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: or different more heavily pressured areas. That's becoming like the
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: most consistent way to get the mature buck in those spots.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: You can't hang around the edges, you can't wait for
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: them to come to you. You have to go for
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: those high risk, high reward type tactics. Get in that
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: betting area and like you said it's high consequence, you
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: might ruin it, but that might be your only chance
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: to actually get a shot too. And like you're saying,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: if that's your only spot, it's like, well, you better
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: have a whole lot more spots. Yeah, you better, you know,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: be prepared for that. So I had a really good
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: time though. I appreciate you show me around and taking
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: me out to some of your spots and we had
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: a good time. Didn't didn't get an out, but good man,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: good Yeah. You know, you know how it is. You're
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: always like, I hope they see that there is a
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: point in this, even though it doesn't seem like it.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like I am encouraging myself right now. Yeah,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, I know. That's that's how hunting goes a lot,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: So you just gotta put an I always, I don't
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: feel too bad about a hunt that doesn't end up
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: with me in the freezer. As long as I feel
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: like I didn't like take any shortcuts or I didn't
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: do something. As long as I don't feel like I
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: pulled out without giving it everything I had, I'm okay.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: But that's a horrible feeling if you ever, you know,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: leave early or you're like, well, like I knew I
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: should have gone off that ridge, but it's so steep,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to do it. Um, I always want
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: to make sure I never have that feeling. So I
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: don't feel like we had that. I feel like we
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: did it. Do a brest of efforts so good, so
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I can ask for good good Thank you for saying
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: that those nice things mark all right? Before moving on,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to think our friends at
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: White Tailed Properties. This week. With white Tail Properties, we're
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: drawn by Jeff Probes it lands specialists out of Missouri,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: and Jeff is going to be telling us about shopping
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: for properties away from home. Well interestingly enough, um, I
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: just became one of those buyers. I live in northeast Missouri,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: but I just my wife and I just bought a
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: farm in southeast Kansas. So you know, it opened my
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: eyes to what my buyers come, you know, go through
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: when they come into my area to buy a property,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: when they're when they're not from here. The biggest thing
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: is is get to know the neighbors, find out what's
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: going on with the you know, most of the properties
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: we sell our for deer hunters, and if it's a
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: deer hunting property. Try to find out, you know, how
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: the management's going on in the area for you know,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: upper age class year if that's what you're after. Trying
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: to find out if there's any issues with any of
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: the neighbors around the property that you're looking out or
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: the area that you're looking at, and you know, get
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: to know get to know the neighbors because they live there,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: they know everybody. They can refer you to people you
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: might need help get the stuff down on the property.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: So I think first and foremost is to find out
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: the general scope of the neighborhood and get to know
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: the neighbors. If you'd like to learn more, and to
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: see the properties that Jeff currently has listed for sale,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: visit white tail properties dot com, backslash probes. That's p
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: r O p ST. While I got to though, right,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about another issue on the public landfront,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: not just chasing Alkina. But um here this is coming
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: out today is the twenty fourth, maybe in September, I think,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: is what my watch tells me, and this podcast we're
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: coming out on like the seven or six of September.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: Land and Water Conservation Fund. There's some big stuff happening
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: here this week. Can you talk to us about what
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: what's going on? What do we need to do on
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: that front? Yeah, So Land Water Conservation Fund UH. You
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: know it doesn't sound like UM something that you use
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: every day, but UM, I mean so many communities benefit
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: from this big and small. It's it's a uh basically
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: a tax on offshore oil gas leases UM UM that
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: goes into a fund which is the fund part of LWCF,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: and it it goes to lots of access UM and
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: lots of basically like think of like outdoor like things
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: that you can get people outdoors on easily, like UM,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: bike paths, city parks um. Uh. If you like, walk
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: from UM the city up into UM an area that
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: everybody goes and walks their dog that but it's private
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: all around there. That's probably an LWCF easement. The LBCF
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: typically does matching funds UM and they work with private
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: landowners or that fund can be used in private land
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: situations that provide ease months through private land UM. You know,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: full blown access UM like new boat ramps on rivers
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: and lakes UM again, parking areas, picnic tables, UM, bike
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: pass UM. Chances are everybody you know, benefits from l
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: WCF if they do anything semi active outside including if
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: that activity is just going down to the park. Um
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: so UM. The land our Conservation Fund um has been
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: is something that needs to be reauthorized. And you know
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: we've been fighting, advocating rather for a long time to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: get this thing permanently authorized. UM. A vote just went
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: through the I believe the twelfth of September two permanently
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: reauthorized Land Water Conservation Fund, which sounds fantastic. However this
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: was a committee ville right the next and however, what
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: we need is funding in the fund, and they have
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: not authorized how much funding uh it will receive. UM.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: We would like, you know, permanent reauthorization and fully funding.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: It has been fully funded like almost ever for a
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: very long period, right correct, Yes, yeah, and we're talking
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: about a big chunk of money. UM. And again uh
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: you can um, you know, you can utilize those funds
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: to either match funds that you already have, which is
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: the most common um or um. Sometimes you can get um,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: you know, a full grant basically from LWCF to on
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: a on a particular project if it shows value. So
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: and it's something I was just reading in Bugle magazine
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: on the way out here. I think it was. I
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: think it was in Wisconsin, maybe where they fountain that
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: where they've got their elk herd. Maybe Minnesota. I can't
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: remember which. But there's a scenario where you know, there's
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: this large chunk of state land, state forest or national
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: forest up there where they're herd is and a piece
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: of private land right in the center of it, kind
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: of some core habitat was going out for sale, and
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: if it were sold private landowners is likely going to
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: be subdivided into houses and stuff like that, kind of
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: right in the core. That's great habitat, great hunting opportunity.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: And so instead of that being sold off to someone
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: to be developed, um, the state was able to I
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: think this is right. I think between between r m
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: F and the state, they were able to pool funds
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: and then get LWCF money is to help acquire that
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: land and then give it back to the state to
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: become public land open to hunting, wildlife, all that kind
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: of stuff. That was a cool example of how they're
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: using that I mean direct benefit to hunters right there.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, great example. And and you know, when these
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: deals go down, it's not like they're doing it on
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: the cheap. You know, it's it's market value. It's it's
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of money. Yeah, but obviously it's you know,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: that scenario is a perfect one because it's it is
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: market value, and the market is again a favor um,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: you know, subdivisions a lot more than it's gonna favor
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: open land that uh help get to live on. And
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: I feel like, not very it would be very unlikely
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: that a state or DNR or whatever could pull off
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: something like that without the help of these programs, right,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: and organizations like Rocky Mountain, Elk Foundation others that can
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: help coordinate these things and bring people together on that front.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: But you know, they need this l w CF to
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: be able to finance that kind of stuff, to be
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: able to protect these final places and these special little spots.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's been used a lot to help
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: open access to landlocked public land to right. Yes, that's
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: something I've read a lot about. So it's something that
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: catch my Idaho where I live, like every subdivision um
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: has basically an LWCF funded easement through through the private
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: property into the public land. So this vote or I guess, basically,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: what what do we need to do or what can
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: we do to make sure not only it gets permanently reauthorized,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: but also funded. And what's the timeline? It is absolutely
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: critical as fast as as your finger yours can fly.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: You know, Um, you don't really just call you're elected
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: officials and say, hey, I benefit greatly from this. I
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: want I want you to vote or advocate or take
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: a leadership position that that to fully fund Land Water
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Conservation Fund. Um. Something that you need to realize is
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: this is not You're not gonna see anything tax based
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: regards to this. This is something that is that has
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: nothing to do tax wise with you locally. Um. This
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: is literally when these oil and gas leases are activated,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: there is tax that puts this money aside. And basically
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: what they need to vote on is to utilize those
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: funds and how much of those funds. And this isn't
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: just a Western state issue, not at all. If you're
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: in New York or Alabama, I mean you should be
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: calling your represents just as much there as if you
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: live in Montana. Yeah. I mean, if you have a
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: dog in a big city, chances are you're walking it
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: into something that LWCF had a part of the same
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: with your kids. Um, it, yeah, man, I mean it's
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: it's critical. Um. I guess we could talk about like
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: the negative side of things is, you know, the detractors
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: from this say, well, they're the funds aren't being used efficiently. Um.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: That's something reppround Bishop uh would would always hang his
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: hat on. And the fact of the matter is, Um,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: you know, there's there's definitely some cases there and everybody
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: you know who probably could do a heck of a
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: lot better job of spending their funds efficiently. Um. But
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: you know, in this day and age, we're likely not
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: going to see some bipartisan, you know, unanimous vote to
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: tax anybody and have those funds be used for wildlife again,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: so their habitat and wildlife and access again. This is
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: one of those another byproduct of the of the sixties
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: where we got so many different programs like this in place, right.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's when the LBCF was put in place.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: Was some point in the sixties or early seventies somewhere
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: out there that that, to your point, that was this
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: kind of odd time where there's bipartis and support for
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: so many things related to conservation in the environment. I mean,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: incredible landmark regulations and laws are put in place during
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: that time period that we benefit from now. But there's
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: no way they could happen now, Like odds are no. Yeah,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say no way, Like I still
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: got some some faith out there. Um, but you know,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: I mean to be completely honest. Um. You know when
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I was in in d C the middle of the month,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: you know, part of the spiel is is definitely like listen,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: if you aren't to vote on behalf of you know,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: public lands access. Um, you know, I'm gonna vote for
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: somebody who will. Yeah, And and that's our job as voters,
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: is you know this is not as much as we
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: want to think that somebody else is just going to
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: go out there and do the job for us. The
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: whole system, this whole crazy democracy system that we have
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: here in the US, is based around active participation. And
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: so you actively get up and vote, You actively keep
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: tabs on your elected officials. You put them in office.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: They're supposed to represent you and your interests. You need
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: to let them know what your interests are and how
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: you want to be represented. And that's the way the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: system works. And you've got to be the squeaky wheel
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: on a lot of this, And I feel like for
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: so many people today we identify as hunters or anglers.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Is like that's how we identify. It's for a lot
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: of us, it's not just like some little hobby we
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: do one week a year or weekend a year like
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: that is like our who we are. And if that
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: is who you are, then what allows us to be
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: that person to live that life? Are these places? The wildlife?
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: These wild places. I mean, there's not many other people
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: that are speak up for him, you know. It's it's
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt said, Uh, these animals and place you can't
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: speak for themselves. So we have to. Yes, and we
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: have a giant tracko uh driving driving into check us out.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: I wonder what that was. Unfortunately they move it like
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: one mile an hour. Um uh, but yeah, it it
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: is man. I mean, it's a lot of folks like,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: oh well, I don't like being political. This isn't political.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: This is just the system that we're in. And you
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: gotta participate, um and stand up for what you believe
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: in because nobody else will. And it's you know, everybody's busy.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Everybody's busy, and they're gonna take the path at least
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: resistance is the unfortunate thing that I've learned. So you
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: gotta you gotta get in there and you gotta say
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: this is you know, this is what I do. These
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: are the programs that support it. You need to support
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: those programs and don't let them off the hook. So
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: on this front, what's happening. Why is September important date
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: for us to make these phone calls before? So I've
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: been seeing that that date throw around. Yes, September is
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: supposed to be like when like House Appropriations Committee UM
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: is supposed to have all their ducks in a row
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: for um UH, basically going forward with with the budget
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: for this year. So if you hear this in real
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: time on the ninth September two eighteen, give your representatives
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: a call, let them know that you care about l WCF,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: that it's benefiting you and other hunters and anglers and
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: outdoorrect creators. And that's something that's a very quick I mean,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: does it take very long place a quick phone call.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Lots of times you'll leave a voicemail or talk to
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: a secretary or something, but that stuff, it takes five
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: minutes of your time, and it adds up and makes
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: a difference, doesn't it. Oh, it adds up. It makes
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: huge difference. And and the man, it is so so easy,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: and it is not like I'm not somebody who likes
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: conflict at all, and this is not conflict at all.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: Their job when they pick up the phone is to
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: listen to you. They ask you where you're from so
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: they can make sure that you're you know, you're in
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: their district or not. Um. And and that's basically it say, Hey,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: I wanna you know, I need need to let my
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: congressman know or my state senator know that this is
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: extremely important to me. Um. You know, it absolutely helps
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: if you're part of the tax base. And and you know,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: if you have that story about like listen, boy, I
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: just you know, moved to this place with my three kids,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: and this is a huge part of why I moved here. Um.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a very important thing. It's big economic impact. UM.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: And you know, as we see a lot of folks
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: come into these Western states, you know, it's like the
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: time to get this infrastructure in places yesterday. Like the
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: more we can do right on the front end, the
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: better it's going to be for generations and generations to come. UM.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: And the tool is sitting there, and we gotta figure
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: out why the heck these folks aren't using that and
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: and make sure they pick it up again and start
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: getting these easy monts in place, and and and get
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: that funding, you know, ideally fully funded permanently. I hope
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: it happens. I was glad to see that the votes
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: went well earlier this month through the committee. But to
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: your point, we still have work to do. So if
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: we can get you know, we got tens of thousands
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: of people who could pick up the phone and if
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: we all did that, that would make a real big
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: noise in d C and across the state capitals, across
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the country of all sorts of hunters and anglers started saying, Hey,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: this matters, this is something we care about. So we
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: do have a lot of power. I think we've shown
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: that in some of these past things over the last
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: year or two that when we stand up and make
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: some noise around issues like this, politicians take notice. And
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: we need to you know, wield our wield that big stick. Sometimes.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And you know your your buddies over there
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: at on X and uh Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, you
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: know they just released UM, you know, something that we've
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: all known about, but they did a great report and
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: you know, laid out in a way that anybody can
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: follow about how much land that we're currently paying for
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: that we have no access to landlocked public land um
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: all across the US, and LBCF is one of the
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: tools that you can use to unlock those gates. Literally,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: when I was in on my Montana and white Tail
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: hunt a few weeks ago, I was dealing with that.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be there's public land, great looking public
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: land that I couldn't access because there's private landing between
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: me and the road, and I had to go get
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: permission to get to those spots, and some of the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: people wouldn't give me that permission, and it's kind of frustrating.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: This is public land, this land I own, UM that
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: essentially becomes private land because of that. UM. So this is,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: like you said, l WC d F. L WCF is
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: a great tool to to fix that. If you're one
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: of those folks, it's like all the fans have too
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: much ground already. Well call an advocate for LBCF, because
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: we should at least be able to access the ground
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: that we already have, right um, you know, and the
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: reality is is we need more, we need more access,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: we need we need more more ground out here. And
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: you know, the population is growing and and we like
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: our wild and free places. And that's you know, how
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: America was founded. To get kind of cheesy. But um,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: I don't fence me in, man. Man, I'm right there
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: with you. Every time I get to take some time
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: away from the office and get out, whether it be
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: driving around the back roads in northern Michigan or out
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: here in Montana, and it is just such an incredible
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: feeling to know that you can step out at the
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: truck door and walk for miles and that's that's land
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: open to every one of us, and you can hunt it.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: You can forge for mushrooms, you can fish, you can hike,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: you can just sit down and have a picnic. To
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: still have places where you can get away from the
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: hustling and bustling, the noise and the smog and the traffic.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know in today's world, I don't
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: know how you could live without places like that, absolutely
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: escape from it all. I know, like one of the
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: roads just up behind us, Um it was not a
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: good elk hunting spot. But you'd always get like nice
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: afternoon sun. I don't know when the wind was blown
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: in these lodgepool pine You know, I couldn't hear a
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: bugle to save my life. And you know I'd pull
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: in there and just lay in the sun with my
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: dogs and read a book. And if that's all the
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: value it has to you, pick up the damn phone. Yeah,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: good stuff. Well, is there any other final plugs you
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: want to make, any projects or any anything you want
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: to make sure he's out there in the world that
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: we need to pay attention to other than what's happened
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: with LWCF. Um, you know, you know, really we have. UM.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: I want to see more active participation in in these
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: advocacy fights that we need to be a part of,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: as you know, people who enjoy the outdoors period. So um.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I think we got mid term elections coming up. UM,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see just a higher voter turnout period. Um,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: because man, it's dismal. And when you travel to other
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: countries and you tell them how few people vote in America,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: they look at us like we're the stupidest people on
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: the planet. Um. So i'd I'd love to see those
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: numbers start cranking up. And i'd love to see folks,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: you know, vote vote on behalf of public lands man hunting, fishing,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: public lands, while life wild places. That's one of our
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: greatest tools, that vote. And we're seeing we're seeing the
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: public lands uh get thrown around is starting to get
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: tossed back and forth as this political football. And we
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: know the politicians are paying attention to it, um, but
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: they also need to know that there's some consequences there too.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: So all right, well, good stuff, Ryan. I appreciate the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: work that you're doing, you know, spreading the word about
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: these things and working on a lot of different programs,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: going to d C talking to people about this. UM.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: As a hunter angler myself, I'm glad there's people like
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: you leading the charge. So thank you for that. And
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: thanks for leading the flat land around the mountains for
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: a few days. Oh man, great attitude. Thank you very much. Now,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: it's a pleasure being in the woods with you and UM.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: And like I said, coming off the mountain today, even then,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: though it didn't see like it seemed like it, I
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: think we'll have that you know, successful very heavy pack
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: out here in the near future. So we'll make it
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: happen eventually, Yester, and that is it today, and we
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: didn't get to talk about on this episode, but when
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: you hear from me next it will be white tail
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: season here in Michigan and across most of the rest
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: of the country. So man, best time of year, very
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: exciting things to come, lots of stories, hopefully an update
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: on holy Field and all those things I will be
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: sharing not just here on the podcast, but also on
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: the wired Hunt Instagram account also on the wired Hunt
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, so make sure you're checking out all of
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: those things. Will be keeping you posted. Thank you for
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: following along, Good luck out in the woods. Until next time,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: stay wired to Hunt.