Arrived in my camp the day before yesterday to begin guiding for the season. Weather was ugly - raining and blowing and it got worse yesterday including snow up in the mountains. Spent the first day and a half rebuilding camp after a grizzly bear tore everything apart. It wrecked everything it could get ahold of - luckily there wasn't food in camp but anything it could get it's mouth on was full of holes and bite marks. It left muddy foot prints all over the cabin floor and destroyed all the hard work Wojo and Matt had done just a week earlier to get camp ready for us.
 
Today...
Finally got camp organized and set out on the trail into the mountains to do a little scouting. The weather is gorgeous and we made it up to the most spectacular valley in my territory. The sun is lighting up the bright red mountain birches and yellow willows along with the white caribou moss and grey shale rock - it couldn't be any more beautiful!

We didn't see any moose in the valley, but we did have a great big one in camp by the lake yesterday along with a bunch of caribou. We saw a few caribou in the valley today, but nothing really big - we know they're around here somewhere and we'll find them sooner or later.

Everything is going great - the big push of hunters is starting to arrive and we're away to the races for 2009 moose camp. Can't wait for the season to get into full gear!

We got up this morning first thing. It was clear, but you could see fog rolling in from down below. The whole bottom of the valley was covered in fog by the time we had breakfast; and by the time we loaded up the horses it had rolled up right into our camp and above us. And by the time we rode up an hour close to the top of the ridge where we could start side-hilling, the whole mountainside was covered in fog. So we were basically in fog all day.

We saw the big guy this morning when it was clear. We went over above him, so we were within probably 500 or 600 yards of him, but we couldn't see 100 yards. We sat there all day long. It was raining, blowing, cold ... I was shivereing like crazy because I didn't bring any cold-weather gear.

Then all of a sudden the guys spotted three tur that came right up within 160 yards of us. They didn't see us, so I had the gun out and I could have pulled the trigger on the biggest one, but it wasn't big enough, wasn't what I'm looking for, so I let them go. Then it got socked in even worse. We made it back here just at dark.

Now it's cleared off ... It was a miserable hunting day. Steep, steep, steep stuff; about as spooky as I ever want to have to hunt in. A guy did die here a bunch of years ago hunting these tur, so it's not a real safe animal to go after. Judging from this terrain it's probably going to be a really long shot. I may have to use their rifle, instead of muzzleloader.

On the way up the mountain today, I counted 27 different species of wildflowers ... beautiful place, gorgeous. Guys are fantastic, and the food is as good as it gets. 

The Next Day ...
Woke up this morning with fog below and low clouds high above, but we were able to spot the band of four male tur on the mountain face which was uncovered by cloud and fog. You couldn't see below, you couldn't see above, but you could see the tur, including the giant one that we'd seen the first day...

I had talked to our local group of guides early in the morning because they seemed kind of depressed. I asked what was the matter and they told me that they didn't think we'd be able to get close enough for the muzzleloader. They have a .300 Win. Mag. here in camp, and, given the steepness of the terrain, I knew that I might have to use it for this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. When I told them I'd shoot the tur with rifle if necessary, their spirits soared.

We headed carefully over toward the tur, sometimes attached to ropes to ensure that nobody ended up at the bottom of the mountain. Extremely dangerous. Some of the mountainside is green with grasses and other foliage, but it's slippery and a rock pops out and down you go...

We finally made it to within rifle range of the tur, 355 yards to be exact. Felt strange, for sure, to shoot an animal from that far, but I got him and he's huge! They think that this one is among the top 10 they've ever taken over here, 39 1/2-inch horns. An absolute beauty.

He fell into a chute and it was really hairy getting in there and getting him out. Then it took us three hours back to camp. Great day! Now I'm going to try to get one with my muzzleloader. I can legally take another tur, and have almost five days to try with muzzleloader. It might not be as big as this one, but I don't know if anyone has even taken one of these with muzzleloader, ever.