I woke up bright and early at 2:50 am this morning to make the drive north to see the elk. I’ve written about the Pennsylvania elk herd here before and my regular reader will know that I love the area where they are located. After slowly getting myself going this morning, I was dressed and out the door shortly before 4 am. Snow was expected for the northern PA counties so I wanted to give myself enough time to get there without needing to hurry. It’s usually almost a 3 hour trip from my house to the elk country.
I took my time and drove carefully north on Route 28 to I-80, the drive was a little tricky at times because from about the half-way point up 28 to Brookville, the roads were untreated by the road crews and I found too many icy spots. I don’t know how it happened, even with my usual stop at the Sheetz in Brookville, PA, but I made it to Weedville, PA by 6:30 am. Weedville is right on the border, more or less, of the PA elk country. I don’t know how I made it up there that fast either, I wasn’t driving over the speed limit, I was actually driving under it most of the way due to the road conditions. Since I was very early, the sunrise wasn’t expected for almost an hour, I decided to stop at a local gas station/convenience store to fill up my tank and kill some time. I ended up having a real nice conversation with an older, local gentleman about the elk, rabbit hunting and the woods in general. He was a typical, small town guy: spend 5 minutes talking and he’ll be a friend for life.
My new friend told me that there was a herd of 25 elk being seen regularly in the Caledonia area which is only a few miles from Weedville and on my way to the heart of the elk country. He actually said that they have been spending the last few nights in the yard of the Caledonia Church which can be seen from the road and if I was lucky they should be there this morning.
As it turned out, I was lucky; the herd of 25 elk was behind the Caledonia Church. Unfortunately it was still to dark to take any pictures so I just pulled to the side of the road and watched the elk for a few minutes through my binoculars. I figured that had to be a good sign for the day.
I left Caledonia and proceeded east on Route 555 towards Benezette and into the heart of the elk country. I saw nothing really of note along the road so when I got to Benezette I decided to take a drive up onto Winslow Hill to see what I could find. Sure enough, when I got to the top of the mountain and approached the first viewing area, I saw more elk in a field to my right.
I found a place to park off of the road and grabbed the digiscope. Like a fool I left my binoculars in the truck, more on this shortly. Before I even got to the field where the elk were, I was almost run over by a full grown cow elk and two first-year calves as they crossed the road. I think that they were as surprised and I was because one of the calves skidded on the slippery surface, fell on its side and slid for a few feet when it saw me. The darn thing nearly hit me. Ok, he was about 5 feet away but that is close enough when you have 300+ pounds of four legged critter sliding out of control.
I made my way to the brush on the edge of the field where the elk were and got quite a surprise. There were elk everywhere!! I set up the digiscope and started taking pictures. It was at this time that I realized that I left the binos in the truck. I wanted to get an accurate count of the elk in the field but couldn’t do it properly without the binos due to the overcast conditions and falling snow. I was at the time too well hidden in the brush and the elk were too close for me to try to sneak out to get the binos, I’d have to wait. How well hidden was I? I had a cow elk come within 40 yards of me and never realized I was there. I’ve had elk closer to me but most of those times it was during the mating season when they are more concerned with mating and less about humans. The cow knew something was amiss in the brush where I was hidden but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Of course I was fully dressed in camo at the time. I might have been able to draw the cow in closer but I realized that my elk calls were sitting on the kitchen counter at home instead of in my pockets. I guess I forgot a few things this morning.
I stood there for almost 45 minutes, snapping pictures and listening to the herding calls of the lead cow. With the exception of the wind it was almost like heaven.
I left this field and walked back to the truck. I spotted the cow and two calves that had almost ran me over bedded down in a field just in front of the truck. I shortened the tripod as much as I could and belly-crawled towards the three elk so that I could get as close as possible without them spooking. I ended up less than 20 yards away and happily snapped pictures of one of the calves as it relaxed in the falling snow of the morning. The wind soon shifted, which happens quite often on this mountain top, and the three elk caught my scent. Even though they never fully looked in my direction, they got up and walked out of sight towards the edge of the field.
I went back to the truck, got my binos and went to the field with the large herd. Through the binos I was able to count 39 elk in the field. That count, plus the three in the other field and the 25 behind the church brought my morning total to 67 elk and it was barely 9 am.
After I got everything back in the truck I made my way back down Winslow Hill to Benezette and turned east on Route 555 towards the Hicks Run area. I haven’t seen elk in that area in two years but I am not giving up hope. I didn’t see any elk while in the Hicks Run area but I did see a Pileated Woodpecker and a Great Horned Owl while I was driving along. Unfortunately they were both quick glimpses and there was no way I was going to be able to get pictures of them. I did almost have a major mishap while I was in Elk State Forest in the Hicks Run valley. I was about 2 miles into the forest on an access road when I nearly lost control of the truck. I was able to get the truck stopped before it ended up in the well swollen Hicks Run stream. I guess these things will happen when you ignore signs that read “CAUTION NO WINTER MAINTENANCE BEYOND THIS POINT” and you’re driving on well over 6 inches of packed snow and ice.
After I got my truck oriented in the right direction to leave the forest I made my way west on Route 555 and out of the PA elk country. I did manage to see another small herd of 18 elk along Route 555 but found no safe place to pull over to take pictures. This brought my total up to 85 elk for the morning which is a new daily and trip record for me. The most that I had seen in one trip was 82 and that was over three days last October. I had a big smile on my face and a great sense of refreshment as I left the elk once again.
My fun for the day wasn’t finished yet though. As I was driving south on Route 28, I decided that it was still too early to go home and I still had plenty of memory card space left. While I drove south, I tried to think of a place to stop for pictures. I knew that most of the lakes and ponds that I could think of in the area would be frozen over due to the cold weather that we’d been having and that chances of seeing waterfowl on them would be slim until Deer Lakes Park entered my mind. Of course!! Even though the lakes there are small, they usually have an aerator running during the winter to help prevent the lakes from fully freezing. DLP wasn’t far from Route 28; it was on my way home so even though I was already somewhat tired I decided to make a visit.
When I arrived at DLP I was happy to see that the middle lake was still partially ice-free but I was very surprised to see that there was a Mute Swan on the water in this lake among the Canada Geese and Mallards. I found a place to park, grabbed the digiscope and got as close as I could. Since this is a small lake the waterfowl that are usually found here are somewhat used to people because there are folks that walk around the park regularly for exercise. I was able to get right to the edge of the pond that the swan was on without him spooking. I got enough pictures of this swan to fill up the 2GB memory card that I had started in Elk County.
That was enough for one day, I made my way home but never expected what I would see on my next digiscope adventure….Stay tuned.
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