Hunt for Higher Ground - 2023 Elk Hunt

yeah it's down there cuz there's a dead white pine right in the middle of them and he said he's in there so that's where he's bedded right down there so we're a little high we're a little high just be aware that that's where he at Pine Tre down there yeah it looks like a Christmas tree in a little meow by itself just above these this little yellow Willows are us here see these little ones at 10 yards I'm going start call trying to get just to stand up [Music] a these veterans get to unplug from the chaos of daily life when they come to a program like this there are no electronics out here there are no distractions it's about Focus but it's about embracing this Amazing Outdoor environment without the distractions of the modern world they can unplug they can recalibrate and they can think about how they want to live their lives moving forward with Clarity and introspection during a conversation with Matt Crum witty who is here on program with us now as a participant uh he asked me if Higher Ground would ever consider doing a hunting program I've always wanted to do a back country Idaho elk hunt and ever since uh my injuries in Afghanistan I kind of thought that was taken away from me and having this experience to go into the back country into the Frank Church Wilderness um on Horseback was extremely special for me I didn't think I'd ever be back there again and uh just being with a good group of guys um in the rugged Wilderness of Idaho was uh pretty amazing I've been interested in hunting for a while and trying to get out on my own and when an opportunity came up to do a guided hunt and really learn from the best I had to jump on it and you know spoke up and told Justin that I was super interested and would love to go so I I've always wanted to learn how to hunt uh not growing up hunting or having any kind of mentorship in that in that realm it's a daunting task to to think of going out there and getting an animal on your own very peaceful back here it's quiet you get to see a lot of the game the Wild game that's around the area it's just something that just it's just really relaxing I think personally I just love nature man you got to you got to go after it but the camaraderie with it and everything um it's hard to come back to the real world honestly for a little bit um everything's just kind of slower and more focused and um I actually enjoyed the hell out of it and I think it was just a cool opportunity to be with other alike veterans who were interested in the same same thing it's definitely also hunting is a hard sport to get into if you have no experience or you don't have someone showing you the ropes so Higher Ground really like facilitated us gaining a skill set to then do it on our [Music] own we've been working on this since January of 2023 to put this program together as a multiphase program that has training elements to it as well as the culminating hunt where we are today there's a left to right wind right now Impact Center Target a boy nice Shob phase one of the hunt for Higher Ground program is training phase so we're here at our boot camp location in the Frank Church Wilderness supported by the Frank Church Outfitters and during this phase they get some Fitness they get some education they learn about the equipment they're going to need to be successful conducting a Backcountry elk hunt uh they get to to explore the back country Wilderness here and they get to learn about horsemanship they get to learn about riding horses in the back country they get to shoot guns and they get to become proficient with the equipment that they're going to need in order to be successful on this hunt so we're here training their minds training their bodies and preparing them for what they're about to execute in a few months again we have experts with rifles with uh the terrain with guns um it was yeah something I've uh always wanted to do and I've never really had a chance to do and this is kind of a once in lifetime opportuni the last three days for me has been a dream this is a dream hunt this is a these guys have been great I just met them three days ago and it's been outstanding and um I can't say enough about it I really can't I can't wait to come back in October right off the bat I mean day one when the guys got back they were at Benji's shop here working out together sort of you know shooting rifles together in their off time holding each other accountable getting excited going over Gear with each other and so that was one of the major takeaways um and from the get-go I mean you know it's a special group of guys that we have and so maybe that helped out a little bit but everything has just been so much better than we could have ever [Music] imagined we're uh day one climbing the mountain doing the work Sun's just coming up here and uh we're checking out our our country it's really steep temperature's nice it's uh been getting pretty warm but uh real calm looks like it's going to be a beautiful day and we're going to spend all day outside looking Mike what's going on where are we right now I have no idea out outside of Camp right now just kind of working our way up to the top but stopping frequently just a glass and see if we see anything you know listening to Benji he's been doing this forever and I'm very new to this so just still trying to figure it out there's our bll track it's a needle in a hay stack out here but we like those odds yeah we're going to work our way up this Ridge I thought we'll glass for a little bit and then we got a saddle two Saddles and it's in the timber looks super elky right there that's where you know he was last seen so we got to hunt him from there all right so we're in the game here like we're within 6 800 yards of an elk we're on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere you kid in there and we might sleep up here if I have my way I'd rather Camp under a tree than walk all the way back down hope you brought long underwear yeah I didn't you to can snuggle I got my puffy pants you did smart dude awesome man here we go [Music] I get up to 500 and not can smash him if he stops he's going further I was about 400 yards away and came out and he kept moving and when he did stop a little bit it wasn't very long didn't have enough time to set my dope and make a decent shot he just kept going and rolled right over the top and that was it trying is like effort wise and putting in a hard day but like we don't try shots you try shots at the range here you make shots or you don't take them so there's no loss in not taking that shot it wasn't set up he was moving you never got dialed you never got settled it just never worked out it's all right we go another day we didn't wound an animal and we clear mines and we don't have to go look for wounded [ __ ] tonight so [Music] did about 1500 ft of vert on Horseback um got up here we started glassing down into this drainage here didn't have any luck and then kind of out of nowhere we had been here maybe 30 minutes and the ground just started vibrating and we looked up and there's a buck standing about for me to you away from us and then as soon as we all seen each other he just booked it out of there and everybody was standing there pretty much with their pants down didn't have a gun in their hands and we were all staring at each other like I can't believe that just happened happened Hunter and I we started tracking it um probably about a mile and a half or so and we just looked down into this Basin um yeah we just got lucky we saw him at about 650 yards set up for a pretty good shot um and yeah took him down from there shooting down on top of him uh we proceeded to then hike down gutted him out headed back to Camp grabbing our packs and whatnot and we're going to go quarter him out we were walking down to pack out Michael's buck that he had shot um and as we were making our way down down towards that animal uh we stumbled upon a bull elk and I just remember Hunter the guy turned back at us with his big eyes and said grab your rifle there's a bull right there and we got up got set up and took a shot and that's something I don't think I'll ever forget just the look on his face the excitement of like there's a bull right there get your stuff let's get it done it was really cool and I think the struggle of packing out packed out a bull elk um between three of us and we probably went down like what 1,500 ft in vert mhm through uh through the gut of one of these drainages and it was just really thick Timber huge challenge yeah yeah definitely like pushed us to the Limit we were cussing and yelling at each other and yelling at the rocks and at the trees and falling all over the place yeah but we got through it and we fell to the ground but we're just stoked to be done with that pack out yeah what's that on take your time Bon do what you did the first time except a little better there it is yeah dude that's him he's a [Music] tank so our fearless leader uh boss over there on the other Ridge just just uh shot a Monster bow so the boys are Prett buked it's been a good day so far [Music] [Music] [Music] we're going to take these boys up the bridge wind's good weather's moving in critter should be moving around well house the weather right now I don't know I was sweating about 5 minutes ago and now it's snowing every it's just going to do whatever the opposite of clothing I've got on so we'll make it work saw one bowl over here here uh TR of cruise down we didn't get a shot on these guys worked their way over we didn't get a shot on them and uh we thought maybe today was good day to come over here but the weather didn't think that so uh end of day two this is the end of this is the end of day two there you [Music] go all right we've got some elk spotted it's day three they're down below us here it's a nice herd bowl with a bunch of cows so one group of hunters is getting the wind and going to track into them and we're going to be ahead of them we're going to be real careful of the wind and we're going to set up and hopefully they bump them into us or they get an elk and uh if not we we're going to capitalize so going down the ridge to get set up the skills that that I've learned both through the training through actually coming out here and trying to apply it and just sitting around the campfire and being able to to go out be out here with experts you know that are like really good stewards to the land and and the environment and uh learning learning a new skill you you know and applying that new skill is yeah it's second and then it's like you can get prone and you can shoot that whole wall okay and then I'm going to move Mike up with me to shoot the saddle a little better but you're going to be like covering the second shot okay is that makes sense but there's a her of about 15 cows and a bull elk with them I just blow our camp so all right we're loaded it's a waiting game at this point which uh sounds like hunting so so it's the night of night of day three um the boys across the canyon knocked down another Bowl so I got two animals since we've been out here filled two tags uh one was a pretty nice mule deer and then um got a bow as well a bull elk yeah and I um I got a bull elk Tuesday so the second day of the hunt um then we spent the rest that's the time packing meat packing meat yep yeah we just came up here to check out a wolf sat here for a few minutes but now it's getting dark so we're going to head back to Camp we'll get them tomorrow we just rolled uh rolled up for the uh final day it's beautiful sunny freezing cold just did 2000 burd and everyone's stoked to go we just hammered it out we're sitting where we know there's some elk we just got a locate them and uh put the slip on them and get some guys on the gun so hopefully we're packing some meat here later today I mean anytime you're in nature it's it's just different especially if you're not used to it or you're kind of working all the time or in a city um but being out here and we are the old only humans that are out here which is kind of cool is um kind of nice all your problems kind of get put into perspective of bit and it's been um been a good few days um it's very good for the soul well that's five days with uh our team we had an awesome day we saw Bulls we saw some deer couple bucks even saw a wolf two ridges away so nothing to complain about you know stoked to be out here it's warmer than any day we've had except for the day in so everyone's been super stoked on that and uh I mean living in this High Country for a week is just awesome so no regrets and I think we'll get back out here again soon and and keep trying to get some tags filled so these guys have some food this winter [Music] damn it's definitely the struggle like I think being with the boys out here and like being in the thick of bit with 80 lbs on your back and you're struggling for hours on end yeah I think you um really get to know each other when you're out doing something really shitty together um and you become closer through that difficult time [Music] I met a lot of new friends a lot of these guys uh I've met um we have a lot in common even though I'm a lot older than most of them they're all outstanding men they're all outstanding veterans you can see where where they got their training from and all that and they're just good people and U I'm very honored to have met these men and um and and glad to call them my friends so the benefits of this program for military veterans is it gives them a sense of purpose planning for a hunt itself is a lot like a military operation that all of these participants have known you have to think about the logistics there's a lot of planning considerations that go into a hunt like this they have to train for this Evolution and they have to do it in a group of peers so the benefits are they start to develop their sense of purpose around this activity they also find camaraderie with like-minded individuals that come from a similar background so we're starting to see friendships and bonds happen between these participants there's just so many things going around and going on in this world that we can have trouble focusing on friends family work uh things that matter most and especially as veterans we have other things that are going on in our minds especially ones with injuries people suffering from physical or invisible injuries and having this experience really helped kind of elevate yourself above those injuries and reset refocus have a good time with a great group of people and just focus on hanging out and hopefully getting an animal to bring back home and also just experience ing a different type of world that most people won't get to experience I want to thank our sponsors none of this would have been possible without the right equipment out here in these arduous conditions so I want to say thank you to cryptech who provide us with cold weather gear and rain gear out here I want to say thank you to our friends at initial Ascent with amazing packs to carry heavy loads in this terrain I want to say thanks to fhf gear that provided us the vinyl harnesses and accessories so we could spot big game out here successfully and I want to say thanks to our friends at first flight from right here in Idaho thank you all so much and we look forward to doing this again next year the inaugural Higher Ground hunting program is coming to a close we harvested four bull elk this week one mule deer Buck had an incredible time with a little bit of suffering in this intense Terrain and everybody is walking out of here with an education on what it takes to be successful with new friends a new sense of purpose and becoming Hunters with the confidence to go out and do this independently on their own [Music]

Channel: Higher Ground

Views: 5,236

Keywords: veteran, hunting, idaho, elk hunting, idahohunting

Id: rgrfFPNtaT0

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024