Day 1

“Bust”

..Especially considering I haven’t even left yet..?

I had a phone call first thing this morning for a meet with a tree-farm operation about some field work and it stretched longer than I expected; so there was that delay. Then the rancher calls as I’m pulling into the Vet to drop girls off and ‘needs me to run errands’, and I couldn’t say no.

He’s essentially my boss till I find real employment; and since he’s also my landlord - and has been a hell of a guy cutting me slack on rent; I was busy all afternoon hauling tractor equipment across town.

By the time we were done it was too late to go tonight, so I just put it off till morning. Because of this, I just spent last few hours pouring over my old maps and topos, studying the lay of the land once more - and boy am I glad I did…!?

Given this extra time to plan instead of just “going for it..”; I picked up the phone to try and get better info on road conditions and what the weather was doing down that way?

I called the Madison Ranger Office in Ennis and was reminded of how much of a clueless greenhorn I am when it comes to hunting in Montana, when she matter of factly informed me all those lovely well kept roads I drove on during elk-season “are in that shape because they don’t let you drive on them this time of year when it’s all muddy and covered in patchy snow drifts”. Wonderful.

This means I’ll have to hike up the roads and hunt them I suppose, but how far can I get...? When I hung up I was thinking this plan might not work after all? I’d fully intended on driving in as far as I could then hiking to a few meadows I recalled last year; now though these meadows would be 5 miles up (at least)?!

Screw that!

I called West Fork Cabins to get a forecast and he said “in the past hour it had been bright and sunny, foggy, with severe wind, then snow, and now sleet”? Not that I have the coin to stay there anyway, I was just getting a forecast but it doesn’t sound good for tent camping.

So I called some more FWP folks and asked more questions and between poor cell service on their end, poor map skills on mine, and some confusion as to whether he meant the Madison or Ruby River; when he was describing where I “might see a bear..?” …I was left with more questions than answers then when I started?!

“Shit”!

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...Oh I’m still going and leaving first thing regardless of original plans down the crapper. Once my mind is made up on this kind of thing, especially when it involves hunting something; there’d have to be a major catastrophe to keep me home now.

I'm just gonna have to sort it out when I get there I guess and hike a few miles too.

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Did pull truck into the bay this afternoon and checked under hood and changed oil; so don’t need to worry bout that now either. I also cleaned my gun, scope, and binos, as I hadn’t done either in a year at least; so not a total waste of a day, but a rough start to this adventure already.

I've switched my phone off, so no more interruptions on this trip. Gonna get a good night’s rest for long day ahead. Still got girls and saved a days’ boarding-fees; since rancher caught me in time, but will need to drop them off first thing then hit the road…

Not sure I’ll be able to check-in tomorrow evening since I’ll likely hunt till dark, but might drive into Ennis for dinner – who knows?

I have lap-top, digital camera, and wireless so will try..?


Moe
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