Greg Dyson poses with a bull elk he killed with his bow in 2006.
SATELLITES AND BROW TINES
KNOWING TRAVEL ROUTES, FEEDING AND BEDDING LOCATIONS PARAMOUNT
Story by Greg Dyson
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
T
here’s just something about the opening couple
days of the Oregon bow elk hunting season,
especially in the big meadow areas like the big
cattle ranches like the great Holliday Ranch,
JC’s, Silvies Ranch and, of course, the great
Logansport Valley area!
Fresh up and at ’em from the Parish Cabin and try to time it so
we could get there right at shooting time, trying to make something
happen with a herd of elk hell-bent on beating you to the cattle
guard and safety. Once in a while, we would get lucky and drop a
6 • GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL 2017
bowhunter off at the right place, and we would have a high energy
elk hunt, complete with getting some of the bulls to talk to us.
One of the amazing features of elk is their ability to cover
several miles, navigating through steep, desolate terrain in the dark
effortlessly. Over the first decade of bowhunting these giants of the
forest, we began to understand the travel routes and schedules and
learn their patterns.
One important aspect of bowhunting elk is to learn their
feeding areas and where they bed up or rest for the day. This info
is as important to a wapiti slayer as there is. Travel routes!
It was a no-brainer that any elk within 10 miles of Logan Valley
was going to frequent that lush meadow several times a week and
make it their grocery store, just as the elk found feed at
Logansport. They also held up on steep, heavily pine-covered
mountaintops to rest and pump the brakes during the day.
Putting this info to the test early in the first week of the 2006
Oregon bow elk season, it was early quiet when I left the warm cab
of my Chevy Avalanche that planted me on the middle to lower
half of the steep and pine-covered mountain I planned to hunt that
morning.
I covered the one-mile climb to the usually frequented bedding
area in good time as morning began to give way to first light when
I could have sworn I heard a high-pitched cow call with a bit of
emotion mixed in about 100 yards or so up and to the right of my
present location. It was the first and only elk call I had heard all
morning.
MyEagleNews.com