Well after 18 days in heaven, I did fill my tag. He's a last day bull, not what I was hoping for but he'll taste good!
We had such a good time, saw one huge bull (in the middle of 50-100 cows) and some other 6x6's, just wasn't able to make it happen. Passed on a lot of little bulls. Put a lot of miles on in the sun, rain, fog and snow. Saw a lot of elk, lost weight, got into shape, and saw some new country. Took two days off the whole trip, it was very intense and focused hunting, but needed to help cut up meat and a shower might have been necessary, lol.
My dad shot his cow opening night, my sister has a little mare that she was told that would pack meat. Worked slick, put the rear quarters on the mare and used the frame packs for the fronts and head. That was the best thing we learned this year! My dad can just drop off the mountain and grab her as needed.
My father in law shot a 5x5 (he wasn't picky) the first night he was out. What a blast! He was the "herd" bull, lol, bugled the whole way in and was raking trees.
The last couple of days hubby and I got less picky, Brant got his 5x5 on my birthday, snowed a bit and used the packs to get him out of the timber then a sled, then we ran out of snow so back to the packs.
It was the last day and we could only hunt the morning, had seen some elk on the way out after dark the night before. Walked in and sure enough was able to connect with my little guy. 350+ yards straight up a steep hill
Can't wait till next year!