From a Pro's Point of View

Steve’s story is a good account of his 2000 elk hunt. I have to say that it was enjoyable having him along on this hunt. In the outfitting business, you get city folks, country folks, construction workers, computer programmers and everything in between. It is always a pleasure to share my “back yard” with sportsmen that are willing to hunt hard, yet take the time to enjoy the scenery, the wildlife and nature.These are the type of folks that say, “I am coming out there to have a good time, and if I get an elk, it will just be icing on the cake!” Steve is just that type of sportsman.

I want to share my account of our little “incident” in the woods. As Steve described, I was raised in the area that I hunt, I am a sixth generation resident of the area. I have been guiding for almost twenty years and hunting for even longer. Many, many of my hunts have taken place on the very ridge that we got turned around on.I have spent time on this ridge at all times of the year, spring, summer, fall and even in the dead of winter. I have to say that I have been turned around a few times prior to this, but this was the first time that I truly thought we would have to spend the night on the mountain. It would not have been too bad to spend the night, we were a little wet but we had matches, food, drink and communication with the other guides. The worst part of the whole deal for me was that I had a paying hunter with me that trusted me as his guide. An incident like this is not something you will hear too many outfitters or guides talking freely about, but I think it is important to try to help other outdoorsmen realize that this is something they will have to deal with someday. If you spend much time in the woods, it is not a matter of “If,” it’s a matter of “When.”

On Steve’s final day of hunting, I was definitely not concentrating on the terrain and our position as much as I was on getting into some elk. The day being cloudy with rain and snow throughout the day did not help matters any. This was the fifth afternoon of a five day hunt and we had hunted hard all week Steve had been such a trooper in going along with hunting strategies throughout the week, that I was pushing just a little harder than I should have been to find him “his” elk.

As we left the main Forest Service trail to take the dim cow trail toward the meadows that we had ridden through on the way up, I had no doubt about where we were. There was even an occasional blaze on the trees that told me we were on course. The main ridge runs east to west and the main Forest Service trail also runs east to west about mid slope on the south exposure of the ridge. Thus, I had no concern about getting lost because if there was any problem, I could just drop down the south side of the ridge and hit the main Forest Service trail. We traveled down what I thought was the main ridge when after a while it started getting steeper and rougher than I remembered. Since I was confident of our route, I just kept going thinking that we would break out into the meadows that we wanted to hunt at any minute. The further down we went, the steeper it got. Finally, it got so bad that we had to get off and lead the horses, and that is when I started to realize something was not right. I turned south thinking that we would drop straight down the face of the ridge and hit the main trail, then hunt the meadows from the bottom. We dropped and dropped and dropped with no trail in sight. Finally, we got to a big creek and I knew we were not where we were supposed to be. At that point I turned around and told Steve that I had no idea where we were. It was about 30 minutes until dark and I told Steve that if we did not find something familiar in the next half hour we were going to have to sleep out. He did not seem too excited about that! I was not too excited about that either! We hustled trying to get back up to the top of the ridge we had just come down.

Just at dark, we reached the top, but I still could not get my bearings, as there was no sun and nothing that looked familiar. I called the other guide on the radio and had them fire a shot so we could get an idea of where we were. I knew where they were, and when they fired the shot, it sounded fairly close and it also gave me a pretty good idea of our position. (What I realized later was that somehow we had left the main ridge and had inadvertently caught the top of another ridge that ran north and south). I knew the terrain between them and us was terribly steep and rough, but I figured it was worth a try, so we headed toward the shot in pitch black. About this time the battery on my two-way radio went dead. Thank goodness, for some unknown reason, I had brought two radios with me that day. After thirty minutes, I called Jeff again and told him to fire another shot. We could not hear the second shot, so we decided to sit down, build a fire, dry up a little and try to decide what our next plan of action would be. I told Jeff to call Huie (a friend of mine who lives 10 miles south of where we were) on the radio and have him telephone my house to tell my wife that we were not going to make it home that night, and that we had all we needed to get by.

The way I saw it, we had two choices; spend a long, cold night out in wet clothing or try to backtrack a ways and see if we could find the trail. We got a good fire going and felt a little better about the whole situation when Steve got his GPS out of the saddlebag and began to fool with it. I did not have much experience with a GPS prior to this and to tell you the truth, not much confidence either. I asked Steve if he had punched in a waypoint at any time during the day so that we could try to get a better idea of where we were, but he had not. I asked him how this thing was going to show us the way out and he said, “The only way this GPS is going to help us is if we have a map.” Hmmm, I thought, “No I don’t have a map with me, but wait a minute! Jeff has been in contact with Huie already and I am sure Huie has a map!” We called Jeff on the radio and had him forward our coordinates to Huie. After a while Huie radioed back and said, “According to the numbers you gave me, you need to go a half mile due west to hit the Forest Service trail.”

With this information, I was able to talk Steve into giving it a try. I said, “We have nothing to lose. If we hit a road block, we’ll just stop and build another fire and spend the night.” So it was that we put the fire out, got out our flashlights and began our trek westward. As we traveled we called in our coordinates every so often just to make sure we were on track. Finally, after about an hour, we hit the main trail. I was so relieved that I felt like kissing the ground. I told Jeff to tell Huie that I owed him one, a big one. We were now on the trail, but we still had a five-mile night ride over a pretty rough route to get to the truck.

I went out the very next day and bought a GPS and I now carry it with me wherever I go. I also bought some new two-way radios with heavy-duty batteries. The GPS was invaluable to get us out of our situation, but without the radios, it would have been useless. This incident was a real “wake up call” for me and it has made me pay a little more attention to the smaller details like making sure your flashlight batteries are fully charged and your matches and lighters are in usable condition. Fortunately, this was never a life-threatening situation, but it sure would have been a long, miserable night without the correct safety gear.

Eric Roybal
Bear Creek Adventures LC