Big day of climbing on this day as we saw elk and some bulls high up on the mountain the day before. As we hike and climb about 1,500 feet with any luck then all of a sudden we spotted two cows bedded in the open on top of this mountain. They were about 150 away from us and we knew there had to be more there. We tried hard to keep looking for more elk without being spotted but we couldn’t find any more. So we back off and took a break to think about our strategy and then a bugle came from where the cows were bedded. Casey the guide went to check where the bull was and noticed him bedded under a tree about 500 yards away. Now we knew he was but had no way to get to him with bad terrain or the other cows spotting us. So we stayed where we were and ate some lunch and enjoyed a awesome vista. We finally just thought we would wait for the bull to get up in the evening but we had to wait 4 hours for that to happen. About 45 minutes into our wait the wind started to really pick up and we heard the bull start to bugle again. So Casey went to check on the bull and noticed he had moved closer to us. He finally moved into a little draw that was out of the wind. We all tried to get in position to get a shot while the bull was just over a 100 yards away. The bull was eating and chasing some cows and worked his way as close as 85 yards and Brian saw his opportunity. Brian made a fantastic shot at a bull. He didn’t run 20 yards before collapsing.
