Family game
Hunting counts as quality time for area relatives
Carol Schmidt of Mead had no reason to be optimistic on Oct. 28 as she hiked up a ridge before sunrise – until she and her husband, Mike, spotted a fresh elk track that ranked with the legendary NBA shoe size of Bob Lanier.
Mike, two of their sons, Mike’s three brothers and his dad had seen big bulls when they were scouting in Stevens County, but the bowhunters among them couldn’t find a bull despite hunting hard during the September archery season, and the rifle hunters hadn’t found elk during the first two days of their October season.
“But Mike had a hunch,” said the 47-year-old ranch wife. “We went over the maps, and made a plan to go up this ridge while his brother and dad went to another area.”
Mostly, Carol was just glad to be out hunting again with her husband of 26 years. “We have three boys, ages 23, 25, 26, and I pretty much lost touch with hunting while we were raising them,” she said.
Some people may think that hunting isn’t the most exciting thing a husband and wife can do together, but the next couple hours of that morning gave both Mike and Carol reason to differ.
“Mike hunted archery, so he didn’t even have a gun, but when he pointed to those tracks his eyes got real big,” she said. “So we went up a little farther and he started cow-talking. Pretty soon, we heard something moving, the sound of antlers against the brush. Then it stopped.”
The bull was close but silent. It stalled as Mike continued to talk to it.
“Mike went away from me 20 yards and started raking a branch against the ground and brush,” she said. “Then Mike bugled and the bull moved.
“Mike was signaling that a spike was coming in below us, but I signaled that the big bull was up here, and I mean BIG. I could see the tines of its antlers above the brush and a little of its back, which was almost white.
“I wasn’t hyperventilating like the first time I saw an elk up close, but I was definitely excited,” she said, stating the obvious.
The intensity of having a huge bull elk 50 yards away teasing your heart, mind and trigger finger for 30 minutes is roughly similar to opening the Grand Coulee Dam flood gates into your circulatory system.
The peek-a-boo game went on for about 30 minutes – “Eternity,” Carol said – before the bull seemed to be getting bad vibes and started working away from the hunters.
“Mike grunted and the bull stopped where I could see it, quartered away from me,” she said. “I realized it was now or never.”
The report of her .308 shook the forest, but apparently not the bull.
“He took off,” she said. “That’s when my heart really started racing.”
The Schmidts couldn’t find a blood trail, but they could hear the bull moving slowly through the thick brush.
“We could follow its tracks,” she said. “Those HUGE tracks seemed even bigger now.”
A few minutes later, she was able to finish the hunt.
“When we got up to the bull, I got on my knees and cried like a baby,” she said. “The whole experience was overwhelming.”
After field dressing, they hiked 45 minutes back to the road and contacted Mike’s brother and father for the day-long chore of packing out the meat.
“Our entire family was so invested in this,” Carol said. “The men and boys had hunted so hard for a big bull. They’re the kind of hunters who go into the woods in the dark, hunt all day, and come out after dark.
“Yet this six-by-seven bull presented itself to me.
“The best part is that they all seemed more excited that I got the elk instead of them.”
Mike, a cattleman, estimated the bull at more than 950 pounds.
“It was a big, big bull, with a hole in its side from fighting,” he said. “We got more than 600 pounds of meat. I packed out the whole head and a big cape – a total of 150 pounds.”
Mike said the hunt was among his most memorable, and he wasn’t even the one hunting.
“Between my brothers, me and my dad, we scouted or hunted 30 days in 32 square miles of country. Some people get their trophies by paying a lot of money for Governor’s tags and guides. We did it on public land with a lot of hard teamwork.”
Said Carol, “I’m so in awe of their dedication. It’s a huge gift to be part of their world.
“I don’t know many women who understand all of this, but when people talk about what attracts them to elk hunting, I get it.”