10-14-08

First off I have to say thank you to my brother-n-law and husband. Without them I wouldn't have made it, being 100% honest.

We awoke to an amazing morning and had bacon and eggs. Jason being the spotting fool he is found and deer and an elk to the north-east of the rock slide. While Jason and myself looked at him Johnny was gettin dressed and ready to head out after him. As the elk worked his way down the mtn I caught a glimpse of main beams and eye guards. I turned to tell Johnny and he was dressed and waiting on Jason. I settled in with the spotting scope and a chair as the boys headed out and around the lake.

I kept and eye on the bull watching him graze down the mtn glowing with his bright golden hue of a body and a super dark chocolate brown neck, head and legs. Talk about amazingly beautiful! Making a few quick trips for binos, extra clothing and Jason video camera I watched the bull using his tongue to pick something small of the tall alders that were so tall they were over his back! A quick look at the boys with the binos and the back in the spottin scope and the bull was gone! I'm guessing he bedded down in a small group of three trees.

The boys started up the rock slide, Johnny being his goat-self and running up the mtn with ease...just impressed me to all get out. Jason was going very well also behind Johnny, better than I ever could! Jason stopped where we had talked about but Johnny being Johnny went to the top of the damn mtn! He then ridge lined over to above the group of trees the elk was bedded in. I watched in the spotting scope like it was on t.v. as Johnny told me he was going to hit the hootchi'mama. As he did I watched the elk stand and start walking towards Johnny as he was answering his call. As I watched the bull I spoke out loud " Come one Johnny....Shoot Johnny....Come on baby....TODAY JUNIOR!" Booom a shot ecod...nothing. Boom again...nothing...Booom and he humped up! Booom and he began to roll and I yelled "He's down! You got him!" It was 1140 and my heart was racing as I got on the radio " you got him baby he is down! He is down!" "450 yards, 398 yard shooting distance! I got him baby! I got him!" Johnny replied. I ran and got the sat phone calling the station and Shorty. During this you could hear Johnny yelling making me smile before I then returned to the cabin for the other pack and I started my walk around the lake at 1200hrs.

Jason met me about half way around and headed back to the rock slide with me. That was the start of hell. We started up the mtn 4 times before we found our way to Johnny and continued up the damn mtn. I wont lie I wanted to stop and go back, it was super steep to the point of me crawling on my hands and knees up the mtn. At one point I looked back at Jason...BAD Idea! Way to high and steep for me to be doing that shit!

Johnny and Jason both made it back to the bull and worked as I slowly made my way to them. I had left at 1200hrs and it was now 1600hrs when I got to the bull. I was getting scared that we needed to get our asses down and off this mtn and fast! Darkness was coming and quick! The boys had game bags mostly loaded by the time I go to them. So after I tied the meat to the packs Johnny decided we needed to go "straight" down the mtn. Now Jason and I disagreed with this being we just came up and it was not going to be a fun time.

My knees were already giving out and the majority of the time we all just slid down the mossy steepness of hell someone by cruel fate put in our way. After one "lil drop" as Johnny said Jason caught me and stopped my fall. I will admit this is where I started to become one of my most hated things...a girl. But down we kept going we had no choice. We were lost and couldn't find our trail so after a quick conversation and being that Jason and I were already soaked we were going to head to the water and then skirt the lake. Good plan right?

Well we were all tired and the boys had 100 lbs packs on, the light was fading, and we all wanted to get back to the cabin. All was going fine until the last lil bit of the mtn. Johnny went down and we even got an "O shit" out of him, after he reassured us it was fine Jason went. Then it was my turn... I grabbed a few of the shrubs around me and started the decent... all went bad from there. I started sliding and the ground gave out as I slid right past Jason to the waters edge getting lodged between boulders and a downed tree. I opened my eyes just in time to see the bolt of Johnny's rifle smash into my mouth and the stock into my face. The tree stopped the rifle above my head lodging me even in a more nonhuman pose, lucky for me I'm pretty flexible and I was with two medics! The blood was pouring out of my face, I was stuck and scared and crying like a lil girl.

Jason was right there as I kept saying "please help me" His reassuring words of "I got you babe I got you" in his southern accent really did make me feel safe. Johnny un-assed his pack and go into the lake to help me from the other side of the log. The years of dealing with broken people really made things sorta funny looking back on it. They were both asking the same questions at the same time as they went over every part of my body. The blood was still pouring from my face, I'm talking about lots my shirt was already soaked before Jason even got the rifle off of me. And as for that I felt so bad having hit it and now pouring blood all over it I kept telling Johnny I'm sorry for knocking his scope off. After I got ahold of my whits I looked up at Jason and asked how far I just fell. His response was 12 plus feet. Lucky me right? Now this whole thing took no more than 10-15 mins but with light fading I had no right taking up time on me when we needed to get our asses, mine now hurting like hell going.

We were off again with Jason in the lead and me still pouring blood from my mouth and nose. Its a good thing Jason was 6'2" because he gave both Johnny and I a gage to see how deep the water was. Now this water is 35-40 degrees at best so not a pleasant walk for sure. Now add a heavy loaded pack for the boys and my whinny ass from the fall. It wasn't really all that bad until one downed tree that Jason had to bear hug to get around. His worlds then to us were "its waist deep here careful." "Well Fuck me" was my reply "its gonna be tit deep on me." And that it was. When we finally made it to the rock slide Jason and Johnny were yelling and shouting like they did when Johnny got his elk. We knew we would make it from here.

We got the rest of our shit we had piled there and hauled ass as much as we could into the almost darkness that was in font of us. We all were soaked as we reached the cabin just as we could no longer see who was in front of us. All rapidly stripped our of our water logged clothing and set Jason on starting the fire. Johnny and I then hung the meat, rinsed and hung the packs, and settled in to hear each others view of the day. We all ate warm food the first of the day for all of us since breakfast.

From Jason's view he couldn't see the bull or Johnny so he wondered why Johnny was firing so fast for the first two shots. Then he could hear the twak of the third as I was yelling like crazy. He didn't know if he was getting attacked by a bear or what the hell the deal was then with the fourth shot and my yells getting even louder he knew that was all the shots Johnny had in the Howa and would then have to reload or die....up until Johnny Yelled over my yells and the mnt "YEAH NIGGA AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Jason didn't know he had gotten the bull.

I am so happy, proud and thankful of Johnny, its his first elk, first big kill here in Alaska and his hardest hunt ever. I am also thankful for Jason who came up here and helped on this hunt. Without him I would have never made it up, much less down the mtn without all his help. Johnny also would have never gotten as much meat as we did today without his baby bro. I know I may be boasting but I couldn't have asked for better hunting partners much less husband and brother-n-law. No matter how much I slowed them down, scared or sore I was they kept me going all while making me feel safe.

P.S. Johnny was like a little kid on christmas eve...he was still so excited after he knew we all were safe that I had to threatin bodyly harm to make him go sleep.