Locked Up in Mortal Combat

On February 7, 2008February 8, 2008 By LPR OutdoorsIn LPR Adventures4 Comments

Last night, a friend forwarded me an email. You know the kind, forwarded so many times there is no way to tell where it originally started or how many times it has bounced around the email providers throughout the world. But this one was a little different, it wasn’t some chain mail, humorous tale, strange video, or even a friendly note telling me I’m the greatest friend in the world. This email included a story from a Utah Conservation Officer and pictures of two bull elk which had their antlers locked. The images also included two individuals, conservation officers, who were helping free the remaining live bull from the one which had perished in this most unfortunate event of nature.

My first reaction was, “These are amazing photos, I have to put these on my blog.” But was this another hoax? My next reaction, “Was this an ethical thing to do and is this going to compromise the integrity of my blog?” So I posed the situation to Professor Morgan, who suggested I attempt to contact the conservation officer who had sent the original email.

Now, even though I immediately sent an email to the conservation officer explaining my intentions and requesting his permission and comment on the story, I was envisioning a “returned mail – invalid address” message, let alone ever seeing a reply from a conservation officer who would surely think responding to my email would be a waste of time. I was wrong. Utah Conservation Officer TJ Robertson was gracious enough to answer my email request, in which he explained the “information is correct and true,”and remarked that “this has truly been a crazy experience…. it has been amazing the publicity it has received.”

The following is the actual email story and pictures sent by Officer Robertson, seen in sunglasses in the foreground of the freed elk picture, who informed me that this took place on November 29, 2007 about, as stated in the email, 15 miles northeast of Monticello, Utah, which is in the southeastern region of the state. He is joined in this rescue effort by Sergeant J. Shirley, the other officer in the photos. Nice work guys. And Thanks!

Guys,

Got a call that 2 bull elk were locked up and one was dead the other still alive.

The bulls were in a field about 15 miles northeast of Monticello.

When I got there I actually found 2 bulls locked antlers… I thought this only happened in other areas…

J. and I were going to tranquilize the bull and saw the antlers… one problem, we did not have enough of the drugs to do a good job. So we walked out there and sawed the one point off of the dead bull’s right antler and then we had to saw the main beam of the left antler to get the other bull free. The whale tail was over the bull’s eyes, lodged between the eye guards.

When we cut it free the bull stood there for awhile catching its breath with the piece of the antler still in its antlers. When it took off the piece of antler came out…

WOW! This was for sure one of the most memorable days….

Enjoy the pics.

TJ Robertson

Conservation Officer

Moab District

State of Utah, Division of Wildlife Resources

Vigilant Crossing

On February 5, 2008February 26, 2018 By LPR OutdoorsIn LPR Adventures, LPR Writing1 Comment

On this beautiful winter day, I decided to take a hike into the deer woods. I hadn’t been there to check things out since I hunted last, over a month ago. This fall, loggers had been marking up the place getting prepared to harvest another section of acreage. It was time to check on their progress. The fresh dusting of snow would provide the opportunity to investigate any fresh tracks as well. Plus, I still have a scouting camera and deer stands in place that needed to be checked.

I have about a mile hike until the last ridge above the swamp where my camera stands post at the beaver dam crossing. With limited time to get in and get out, this would be my main objective today. However, upon arrival at the trailhead, it was obvious that the loggers had begun their work. The popples that once walled off the parking area from the county road, now lay stacked in piles ready for shipment to the paper mill. I believe the rest of their work will be down the west trail, but I would be travelling the east trail today. I will have to check the rest of their progress on another date.

Fresh deer tracks greeted me as I stepped foot out of my truck. Two sets. I followed their on and off trail meandering as I headed down the east trail. Before long, they turned south along the major trail that runs along the north-south ridge. As always, the north-south ridge deer trail entrance is being heavily used. Another hundred yards east and my trail turns south as it heads for the swamp. Another hundred yards and I encountered coyote tracks working against me along the trail. A sign that the wolf trapping had probably seen some success this fall. Wolves and coyotes do not exist well together. A wolf will go out of its way to kill a coyote, and even break off from a hunt to do so. The tracks entered the trail corridor from the west and broke off to the east; headed for the cedar swamp to the north, perhaps. Further down the trail, there were rabbit tracks, grouse tracks, small rodent tracks of some sort, and more deer tracks, but I had to keep moving if I was going to make it to the scouting camera and back to town in time for class.

The boughs of the white pines in the depression below barbwire knob still held snow. The sun hadn’t reached them yet. There had been a lot of activity on the east-west deer trail on the ridge above the swamp, but very little at the beaver dam. The scouting camera’s batteries were dead, but it didn’t look like it had missed much recently. I replaced the batteries, changed the memory card, and reset the camera. I had no idea, at the time, how many images the camera captured before the batteries succumb to the cold, but from the looks of things I may need to relocate it up the ridge. But that would have to wait for another day because I needed to turn around and beat it on down the line to make it back for class in time.

Tonight I checked what the scouting camera had seen before the batteries gave out. There were only four pictures: a spiker, a fork, a larger buck, and a doe all from December. The doe gave the best pose early one evening in late December on a vigilant crossing.

Wild Turkey Hunting in 2008!

On February 4, 2008February 26, 2018 By LPR OutdoorsIn LPR AdventuresLeave a comment

This week I received notice that I was chosen in the 2008 Minnesota Spring Wild Turkey Hunt lottery. I applied solo this year as I chose to return to the site of most of my previous turkey hunts in Minnesota, the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area. The beauty of bluff country is difficult to match and, with the abundance of acreage offered by this large WMA, there are countless opportunities, techniques, and scenarios to call in that boss tom. Plus, the central location of Whitewater State Park in this hunting zone provides comfortable camping accommodations. Another reason I love this hunt is that when I case up the shotgun for the day, it’s time to pull out the fly rod and try to raise a brown, brook, or rainbow trout to throw over the fire for dinner.

However, that will not be the case this year. The area and the park are still in the process of recovering from the rainstorms of August 18 and 19, 2007 and the ensuing flash floods that decimated the valleys. With the park not reopening until likely Memorial Day weekend, I will probably be forced to find lodging in Elba, Altura, one of the surrounding communities, or travel from Winona or Rochester daily. It should be interesting to see the effect the rains and floods had on the turkey population and fisheries of the trout streams as well as take in how the communities and park is recovering from these devastating events.

I was not drawn in last year’s lottery and this year I was given my second choice of season. My second choice was the week-long, seventh season. Although I know the Whitewater valley pretty well, I will be encountering some conditioned birds in this later hunt , combined with the factors of the flood and having not hunted there in a few years, and it should prove to be quite a challenging hunt.

My most recent turkey hunt, two years ago, Craig and I were both fortunate to take nice jakes off of Butch’s place a little farther southeast near Spring Grove, MN.