Lost elk herds of the Lochsa
It was November 1973. A group of six middle-aged men planned an elk hunt in Montana. One of the gentlemen, who later ended up being my stepfather, had to back out and I was asked if I would like to go. The idea of hunting elk had never even entered my brain — until then.
About a week into the hunt on a windswept ridge by Lincoln, Mont., I said to my partner, “It looks like a herd of mules moving up the ridge.” He told me to get ready because that was a herd of elk. Hubert and I shot two spikes that day and I was hooked for life. I was 22 years old with a young son and a pregnant but very understanding wife. That experience pumped elk hunting into my blood.
Later I got the phone call from my Uncle Pete Thompson of Sandpoint. “What are you doing in Montana?” he asked. The hunt of 1974 and the next five years were spent with my uncle, cousins and my partners that I started bringing to Idaho.
My hunting started as a very tight group and we kept together for many years but my brothers, partners, and friends had children and our hunting party evolved through the years. Yes, we got help from Pete and his sons but learned on our own with each hunt. We hunted the high drive out of Clark Fork until 1979 and then I asked Pete if he could suggest some new territory for me and my partners.
“Try to put us in some new area but we don’t want to infringe on your cherished special area,” I told him.
He sent me a map that had two stars on it — Papoose Saddle and Jerry Johnson’s Tower. I think his words were, “These two spots have the highest concentration of elk in Idaho. Spread out from there and you should do well.”
For the next 34 years and 40-plus hunts, my partners and I have stayed at the Lochsa Lodge and hunted from Lolo pass to Saddle camp both north and south of U.S. Highway 12. (There are more hunts than years because I bow hunted twice — ’91 and ’92 — and some years that I didn’t get an elk on the opening two weeks, I would go back out for the last week. Remember, I have an understanding wife.)
It’s 1980 and Larry, Schmitty, Craig and I set up a camp 3 miles up Papoose Creek in a curve in the road in the cedars. We called it “lost cold canyon camp” and never saw any sun. It was and still is a beautiful spot, but it just gets no sunlight so we were always cold.
When camp was done we went for a little pre-scout drive. The four of us talk about it to this day. As we rounded paper plate mile marker six on Papoose Creek, we started seeing elk tracks in every mud puddle. We were shocked by the elk sign that we saw on the roads as we continued up Papoose Creek over the top of Papoose Saddle and down Parachute Creek. Next we drove up Squaw Creek and Doe Creek on the way to Deep Saddle, then up to Jerry Johnson’s old tower. To our surprise we discovered a huge base camp; I bet there were 40 hunters there with corrals and lots of horses. As the hunters stared at our North Dakota plates, we slowly backed up and turned around and drove back down the mountain. We decided we would leave that spot alone for a while and see if a few hunters would clear out.
The hunt of 1980 produced one elk shot by my brother Larry. While spotting on one of our nicknamed ridges (Papoose Lookout), we heard our first elk bugles. We were so inexperienced that we didn’t know what we were hearing. Larry shot across canyon on Wendover and we had our first bull on the Lochsa. The gate closure program was not yet started so Craig and I went to the elk and Larry just started experimenting with new roads from the Badger and Wendover side to find a road to make for an easier pack out. We were greenhorns. As I move forward with my story I would like to make a few comments.
In 1982 there was an article in Outdoor Life about the Lochsa and the elk in the area. That fall there was a camper or tent in every curve of the road. Prior to that we had seen few hunters. Correct me on the years, but two things greatly improved our type of hunting: the gate closure of roads roughly 1986 or 1987, and then in the ’90s, the reclaiming of logging skid roads were huge. The gate closure helped the elk and eliminated the lazy hunter. The reclaims as we called them and the natural grasses they planted on them were used heavily by the elk.
I’m not going to go through each and every year but I would like to add my comments that I believe were huge setbacks to the elk. As the logging slowed down, the habitat and feeding areas for the elk lessened. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game policies in the ’90s of taking up to 300 cows out of Unit 10 and 12 was a mistake. The winter kill of ’96-’97 was unbelievable. The elk came back quite well but then wolves were introduced to the area. We have been in steady decline ever since.
n Contact Mike Muscha at: loceng671e@mlgc.com