The Steffens Psych Ward: Bull Elk Hunt Jarbidge October 2016

I got a great opportunity to Bull Elk hunt this year in Jarbidge, Nevada. I was unsuccessful for my group as we didn't draw any animals this year. First time in 10 years of no hunting in the fall, so needless to say I was pretty bummed. A good friend of mine at work drew his Bull Elk tag with only four points, that is pretty rare. It usually takes 10 points to draw a Bull Elk tag in Nevada. 1 point equals one year! So on average it takes 10 years to draw a Bull Elk tag in Nevada. This hunt wasn't like the others, no motorized vehicles on this hunt, so we were packing everything in and the Bull Elk out for a 10 day hunt!

This was day one, we got dropped off on the mountain, glassing for those Elk!

It snowed a few days before we got up on the mountain, about 6 inches. We were at 9000 feet when this picture was taken. This area is very rugged, we had our work cut out for us!

This was our first spike camp, the snow definitely puts a damper on things! Trying to stay dry wasn't easy.

This was the first morning of the hunt, this picture doesn't do justice on how beautiful this area is!

This is Erik and myself with our packs on and ready to move to the next spike camp, relatively clean shaven and full of energy.

This is our second move to get closer to the Elk herd that we spotted the day before. It took us a day to get to this area. The distance was about 3 miles from our last camp in the snow. This new spike camp area was dry with no snow!

This is our second spike camp, nice and dry, we were about 2 miles from where we saw the big elk herd.

Sunset after an incredible thunderstorm!

After a couple hours of hiking to get where the elk herd was feeding we got into position to take a shot. You can't see it in this picture but the herd was about 250 yards to your left.

Searching for the Bull Elk with Jarbidge Peak in view.

Here is Erik's nice 5x5 Bull Elk, shot him at 9000 feet, about a 250 yard shot, now the work begins to pull him off of the mountain! It took us 2 days to pull him off this part of the mountain down to spike camp.

This is where we pulled the Bull Elk off of the mountain to our spike camp down in the draw below.

Bull Elk coming off the mountain.

Back quarter of the Bull Elk coming off of the mountain.

Coming off the mountain to spike camp with meat on our backs!

Spike camp number three with the Elk meat hanging nicely.

The fruits of our labor! Now we have to transport it to base camp where Erik's truck is parted at the mouth of the trail-head.

Nothing like a little Elk tenderloin on the fire! It was the best meal we had all trip!

Packing the head out to the truck. Cool shot of the Bull Elk head!

Getting a little drink out of the stream through our water purification straw, on our way to base camp, very handy tool!

Hiking from spike camp to base camp where Erik's truck was parked at the trail-head. It took us four trips to get the Bull Elk out from our spike camp on the mountain to base camp. That was about 14 miles round trip and we made this run four times. Needless to say we were both extremely tired!