The car was packed and gassed up, and I was ready for the four-hour drive from Boise to Cottonwood, Idaho where I would meet my outfitter and prepare for the second leg of the trip, which entailed driving another three hours into the National Forest to the hunting camp. Then, 15 minutes before I was to get into the car to start the trip, my phone rang. It was the outfitter with bad news. Northern Idaho had an unprecedented amount of snow, including a recent storm that November, and we would not be able to get to the camp. In the blink of an eye, the moose hunt was gone with no reasonable alternatives for hunting that year. That was in 2020.
Idaho has a rule that if you get a moose tag but do not harvest, you have to wait a year before applying again. Of course, if you do harvest, that is your lifetime moose. I put in for a 2022 moose, hoping almost beyond hope that I might get lucky two times in a row. The odds for my area were fairly good. Well, at least not outrageous. I did get lucky! I had made arrangements with the same outfitter, Dan Everson, owner of Cayuse Outfitting, to take me out, so I called him and we set a date for early November 2022.
Dan and I made the same arrangements to meet in Cottonwood, and I would follow him in my Land Cruiser to the hunting camp. It was a fairly nasty drive through rain and mud, much of it on Forest Service dirt roads. We came to the last leg of the drive, a seven-mile four-wheel drive stretch to the camp, when we rounded a corner. About 200 yards into that last stretch was a semi-truck/trailer stuck and completely blocking the jeep road. Unbelievable! The driver, knowing nothing of the terrain, had been following a GPS route when he turned onto that jeep road and almost immediately got stuck. He had been there all night with no cell service. Another hunter had been coming the other way hours ago and was also blocked. Luckily, he had a Garmin InReach satellite communicator and had gotten in touch with the sheriff who was a long distance away. The sheriff arrived hours later, assessed the situation, and called a tow truck, which was also several hours away. When the tow truck finally arrived, I was really impressed with the skill involved in picking up the back of the trailer and putting it back on the road multiple times while the rig was backed up. Total elapsed time – about eight hours.
Needless to say, we got to the camp a lot later than expected, but I was very impressed with the permanent camp so far into Forest Service land. Dan had been improving the camp for years. There were wooden floor tent cabins with wood stoves, a nice cooking and eating facility, a hot shower, and, believe it or not, flush toilets. We had generator electricity from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and even Wi-Fi. Two other hunters were in camp when I arrived. Both had shot trophy elk the day before on the first day of their hunt. I was impressed. Remember, this is public land hunting. Apparently, the trick is to go with an experienced outfitter who has a well-located camp and horses to get even further back in.
The next morning started out with a great hot breakfast. We then got into the pickup and headed to the hunting area about an hour away by four-wheel drive road. While most of Dan’s elk and moose hunts use horses, the area I drew had a single four-wheel drive road through it, so we used that to spot and stalk. The terrain was beautiful but steep. Dan prompted me to look for the moose above the road because there were no other roads on the downhill side, and it would be difficult to retrieve a downed moose. I tried to follow his direction, pretty much.
For two days, we used the pickup, our binoculars, and spotting scope to try and find a bull. It rained and snowed. We had fog and then sunshine. The countryside was beautiful, and the American Tamarack pines were just starting to turn a beautiful yellow- orange. I wondered how many people knew that this species of pine tree loses it needles every year. Dan and I had a great time talking about hunting, guns, and solving the problems of the world. I related that I was 75 years old and probably would never hunt moose again. I did not need a giant trophy, just a representative Shiras bull.
On the third day of the hunt, we spotted a nice bull about 185 yards away above the road. I got out of the truck, set up for the shot, and put a 185 grain Berger VLD hunting bullet out of my .300 Winchester Magnum right behind the shoulder. He walked about 20 feet and fell over. The shot had gone right through the heart and lungs. Then the work began. However, in terms of a bull moose retrieval, it was not all that bad. Dan used his InReach to call back to the camp and get two other people to help. Then, Dan took his chainsaw and began sawing downed timber to make a path to slide the moose on the snow down to the truck. He then got some downed lodge pole pine, trimmed them, and made a kind of slide from the road embankment to the flatbed truck. With the help of his other staff, they slid that moose whole onto the flatbed. His antlers measured 39". That’s all I wanted. I was ecstatic. There were no other issues than the fun of trying to turn a big pickup around in the middle of a snow-covered jeep road. You’ve heard of a three-point turn? How about a 20-point turn?
This was my first and probably only moose, and I was looking forward to some great steaks. Dan was skeptical that the meat would be tender. He had shot one in this same area and the meat was so tough he had the entire thing ground into hamburger. When I took it to the butcher, he observed the striations in the meat and said it would probably be tough. He suggested cubing the steaks, so I agreed with the expert. After hanging the moose for about 10 days, the butcher called and said it was ready. We cooked some of those cubed steaks, but after two bites, we came to the conclusion they were too tough to eat. Even the garbage disposal could not handle them, and we ended up having to pull the mess out of the disposal by hand. However, the hamburger made with 10% beef fat was great.
I want to thank Dan Everson and his staff for a wonderful hunt. Although I was very disappointed that my first hunt ended before it started, the second hunt was great. Second time’s the charm! I highly recommend Cayuse Outfitters for moose hunting, and based on the success of his other clients, elk and bear.
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