After 2 rather unsuccessful rifle elk hunts in ’92 and ’93, we took ‘94 off. However, in the spring of ’95, while visiting a hunting show in Houston, we ran across an outfitter by the name of Dave Stuckey. Dave told us about a pack-in, bugle-season rifle hunt in the River of No Return wilderness area of Idaho. After being on unsuccessful hunts out of houses and ranches, this sounded like it would really be fun! We booked it! We also invited our good friend Kelly, and Janice’s father, Red, to come along. We would be hunting in VERY REMOTE country during September of 1995.

We were able to secure 2 tags each, for a antlered deer, and antlered elk. As far as we knew, we were able to hunt anything with horns! Our preparations were no different than for the previous year, i.e. get in great hiking shape, and practice our shooting out to 300 yards.

After more discussions with Dave, we made our travel plans. Janice, Kelly and I would fly in the Baron to Boise, Idaho. Red would fly commercially from Houston to Boise. We would hook up there, and take a charter plane to a “ranch strip”, and spend the first night there. The next day we would pack-in about 4 hours, then be ready to hunt that evening. This was going to be GREAT!

Departure time finally arrived. We packed the Baron, and lifted off, destination: Las Vegas, New Mexico for our stop-over. When we arrived in Las Vegas, Kelly and I noticed the man at the airport was closing for the evening, and had a brand new bottle of our favorite elixir! Now, Kelly is one of those people that never met a stranger, and before I new it, we were all laughing, and toasting our adventure with this gentleman from the airport. It turns out, this was his last day to privately own the business, as the following day, the airport would be officially taken over by the city of Las Vegas. We had a great time…and had to sleep in late to make sure I was “good to fly” the next leg of our adventure!

The flight form Las Vegas to Boise was uneventful, but a beautiful view. Once in Boise, we secured the airplane, hooked up with Red, and found our way to the Charter company who would fly us to the “ranch strip”. We loaded all of our gear in two tail-dragger Cessna’s and blasted of for the wilderness. Now remember, I used to fly B-727’s, B-737’s and DC-9’s for a living…and when the pilot started preparing to land, I couldn’t see ANYTHING that even remotely looked like a runway! I have heard lots of things about these back country bush pilots, but GEEZ, these guys don’t believe in excess runway and other margins of safety! I have to admit, he knew what he was doing, as we landed on the runway that the pilot described as “starts just past that little creek, and you better have it stopped before you hit the trees! No kidding!

We had a great supper that evening. We hooked up with our guides, and all swapped hunting lies the rest of the evening. We had an early breakfast the next morning, followed by a 4 hour horseback trip to our camp. These guys had set up a wonderful tent camp! We had a plastic-bag floor duct-taped to the walls of a huge canvas tent. We had comfortable cots lining the walls, with a separate cot for each of us to place our gear. The cook’s tent was the same size, and equipped with everything our cook, Kathy would need to make GREAT meals all week. These guys had even put together a hot shower for us…(of course you had to heat the water first!). This was a GREAT SET-UP!

For the first time, Janice and I had elected to try hunting 1 on 1 with a guide, hoping to improve our chances of harvesting that first magnificent bull elk we had been dreaming of for 4 years. I was hunting with Dave’s brother, Doug; and Janice was hunting with a wrangler named Trent. Both were very competent, and a pleasure to hunt with.

The River of No Return Wilderness area is wonderfully remote, high, rough and beautiful. We were here during September, which is the bugle season, although I don’t think the elk had the same calendar we did. We did hear the occasional bugle, but never heard the screaming and hurling of insults that we have heard when the bugle season is really hot! We generally went out on horseback 1 to 2 hours before light, then glassed and walked the remainder of the morning and afternoon, then rode back to camp for supper.

On the third morning, Doug and I were moving through a little valley when we both heard a bull bugle off to our right. The wind was also from our right. Doug placed me behind some brush, and explained he was going to ease his way down wind and try to call the bull right by me. I stayed still, and within a few minutes, I heard Doug cow call to my left. The bull answered back to my right! I was getting very excited, as this sure looked like it might work out. From my right I heard crackling brush underneath hooves, and branches being broken by huge bodies moving thru the woods. Then, I saw elk! Two cows making there way right to where Doug was calling from. Then further to my right, I heard more movement thru the woods, I saw a large animal; he definitely had antlers! I found him in my scope, made sure he had antlers one more time, waited for an opening in the brush to allow the bullet a clear path the animal. I then squeezed the trigger! As my .30-’06 fired, I could see the animal crumple to the ground. He was only 125 yards or so, and the feeling of accomplishment soon overwhelmed me! Doug came up after the shot and we walked over the animal…..As I got closer, I noticed he sure didn’t look like an elk…and he wasn’t ..he was a young Shiros Moose that had no palmation on his antlers! Oh my! I had no idea they had moose in Idaho! And I HAD NO MOOSE TAG!

I think Doug developed an instant liking of me when I didn’t even hesitate to say “we have a lot of work to do: dress this animal, then go all the way back out and visit the game warden”. It was the ONLY RIGHT thing to do.

I really felt bad. I had never taken a illegal animal before, and felt like a poacher who was shooting out of season and on somebody else’s property. However, in my defense, I had NO IDEA there were any antlered animals other than Elk and Deer in this area, and I had a tag for each of those!

We dressed the moose, then headed to camp. We explained the others what had happened, then started the long trip out. We then drove to town and had a late meeting with the game warden. The Game Warden was as professional as could be and told me he really appreciated my honesty and integrity. He fined me the minimum amount the law would allow, and asked us to bring back the rack, cape and quarters the following day. He could have taken my rifle, my tag and fined me far more severely, but I think he knew it was truly an accident.We made the horse trip back to camp in the middle of the night. Early the next morning, we went back to the moose, then skinned, quartered and packed him on the horses. Then back to town to visit the game warden again. Then another late night ride back to camp. The ordeal was over. Although I wish I had done more research about the animals in that area, I felt good that we had spent 2 days doing the right thing. I now had 2 more days to hunt!

I got up the next morning with renewed enthusiasm, and was ready to go! Nobody but us had even seen an elk (I saw the 2 cows), and no shots had been fired. It was lightly raining. Doug and I tied the horses, and began to walk up a small finger then thru a flat. There, not 170 yards from us, was a nice young white tail buck, something like I would expect to see at Red’s ranch in East Texas. I harvested the young buck, thinking that this would break the ice for the rest of our camp…and I also knew our cook could really make some good eatin’ out of fresh venison backstrap!

Kathy, the cook, did indeed make us a fine meal from this camp meat. Unfortunately, the luck for our camp didn’t change. Red’s guide did call in a bull close to Red, but the bull saw the hunter before the hunter saw the bull! Janice and Trent took off from hunting one afternoon, and Janice made a make-shift fishin’ pole and cought us all some mountain trout while her guide snoozed..that was another great meal Kathy whipped up!

Each night, in the cook’s tent, we told jokes and drank whiskey after dinner. Kelly and I even left a full 2 liter bottle of Jack for the hunters that would be in camp the following week. We wanted them to have a little present from us! Of course, we had filled the bottle with water and food coloring! We were told later that the next hunters went from jubilation to pure disappointment when they saw the full bottle, then tasted the contents!

This was a superb camp, with fond memories that will last forever! The only thing wrong was the elk didn’t cooperate! We left the meat with Dave to be processed and arranged to meet him in Houston in 2 weeks to pick it up. He was going to be in town another show.
We said our good-byes and loaded the bush planes for the short flight to Boise

When we got back to Boise, the 5 of us went to the airport Holiday Inn. It was lunchtime, and we were all hungry after the horseback ride out, and the bush flight back. Here we were, just back from the Wilderness, haven’t taken a good shower in a week and generally looked and smelled like something the cat dragged in. The restaurant was pretty full when we arrived. We noticed after about 10 minutes, we had the place to ourselves. I guess everyone in Boise goes back to work after lunch at about the same time!

Once airborne in the Baron towards Texas, we all talked about what a great week it had been. However, this was our third hunt, with still no elk on the ground. They were elusive critters, indeed! Maybe next year! Little did we know at the time, we wouldn’t even try again until 1999!