This album is the fourth part of my deer & elk hunting photos (see note 1 below).
Vermont and I (Wayne) had a productive hunting day during the Fall of 1994. As recorded in Wayne’s Journal, on 5 November 1994, Vermont and I got up at 3:15 AM. We were on the road at 3:45 AM. We had breakfast in Olympia. Our objective today was to hunt for elk near a land mark ridge we had named “Razor Back”. We reached a wide spot on a logging road at 7:15 AM, which was about 300 yards from a “landing”. I started walking down the logging road toward the landing. It was starting to get light. Another hunter arrived and drove to the landing about the time I got there. The hunter got out of his vehicle and walked along the ridge crest [downhill from the landing]. I looked across the creek from the landing, but I didn’t see any elk. Soon fog moved in. A short time later the fog lifted. Suddenly I spotted 4 elk in the clearing on the far side of the creek. Through my binoculars, I could see that the trailing elk was a “legal” branched antler bull. Vermont was about 50’ away from me. He spotted the elk also. I crouched behind a boulder; I took the scope covers off. When I fired a shot, the elk tumbled down to a flat spot next to a stump … I got a day pack out of my truck … I then walked down to the creek and up the far side through a clear-cut, until I arrived at the downed elk. It was a 4X4 bull.
Vermont soon hiked to where I was. Together, we rolled the elk over and began to field dress it … We used my saw to quarter it. I packed a hind quarter out to my truck, which took an hour; Vermont continued the field dressing process. On the 3rd load, I packed the head out. Vermont carried his day pack out, along w/ my rifle. He then stayed at the truck between 2:00 PM until dark, while I made the last 2 carries. I took a head lamp w/ me to pack out the final load. I used the green packboard to carry a front quarter; I also carried the day pack that contained “back straps” by placing it over one shoulder. When I got to the creek bottom, I started carrying the day pack by hand. This proved cumbersome; I then started leap frogging carries between the packboard and the day pack. I got the front quarter out when it became dark. I still had to go back 75 yards to retrieve the day back. This proved to be tricky in the dark, in spite of fresh snow on the ground, and I spent about 10 minutes locating my day pack. Fortunately, I was able to find it using the headlamp. I got the final load out at 5:40 PM.
Doris met us in town, and we had a nice dinner at a Red Lobster restaurant. Doris was looking forward to making a new batch of canned mincemeat (see note 2).
On Nov. 6th, 1994 we took the elk to a business to get it cut and [double] wrapped. They told us the 4 quarters of the elk weighed 230 lbs total. We requested that some summer sausage be made also.
We picked up the cut and wrapped meat on November 12th. We again found that it is a good idea to wait to ensure that the packages are frozen. We paid $88 to have it cut and wrapped. We got 5 boxes back, and each box weighed about 30 lbs. We found that it is a good idea to bring your own boxes when picking it up. We picked up the summer sausage at a later date. It was very good! We got 124 packages of elk (excluding the summer sausage).
Note 1: Part 1 of this set of slides can be found at Sitemap->States(US)->Washington->Hunting (big game) [Part 1].
Note 2: Related slides that pertain to canning mincemeat can be found at Sitemap->Recipes->Family recipes->Aunt Janice’s Mincemeat recipe.
Note 3: The elk antlers were done by Marvin; he also performed taxidermy work regarding the 5X5 Bull Elk Vermont and I got during the 1989 elk season.
