The author Robert Louis Stevenson said something that I have taken to heart…. “We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world and the best we find in our travels is an honest friend”.
I recently received a call from an outfitter that I hunted with last year on an elk hunt in Montana, and I now call my friend. His name is Ralph Johnson, of North Fork Creek Outfitters.
I have come to know, respect, care about, and have empathy for this fellow and his family. We talk from time to time and I will go back to Montana this fall to see him and spend a week or two with him and his family. I plan to go with them when they go to their camp on the Hellroaring River and cook for them for a week. That way I can reinforce what Texas cooking is all about. I will pay my own way there and back and will not accept payment for my effort. It will be a labor of love. Ten days in the wilderness for a flatlander, talk about an adventure.
Anyway, Ralph called about a week ago and said to me, GW, I need your help. He indicated that the negative posts on Hunting Information systems, plus my post on 24 hour campfire were causing him problems. We talked and I told him I would do what I could to rectify that.
So, here goes.
I posted the following question on 24 hourcampfire at the "Elk Hunting" forum on 8/13/08.
“Last year I bid on a hunt through the Austin Texas RMEF chapter. I won the bid on a hunt that is supposed to be a 1 x 1 7 day outfitter sponsored combination elk and mule deer hunt. The outfitter is Ralph Johnson of North Fork Creek Outfitters. I am out close to $6k as I have paid for the hunt and the outfitter sponsored combo tags. I have recently ran across several very negative reviews about this outfitter on Hunt Info Systems outfitter reviews, anyone here have any info pro or con about this outfitter
GWB”

I got a few PM’s and even spoke on the phone to a couple of guys that post on 24hourcampfire, but nothing I could hang my hat on, so I decided to go ahead and make the hunt. Without writing a book about my hunt let me post the following.

Ralph Johnson is not a crook. The posters on Hunting Information Systems implied that he was. I saw no evidence of that. I am a businessman and have been self employed all my life. His family has been in the Jardine area, living , hunting and outfitting over fifty years. You don’t do that by being a crook. I would guess he has around $350K to a half million dollars invested in his outfit, if not more.
What I would say, is that he is a fellow that is trying to continue to make a living doing what he and his family have done for the last half century or more during a rapidly changing world. To my understanding elk numbers in his locale are decreasing and the re-introduction of wolves are not helping.

My hunt date: I could not make the date I originally booked the hunt due to the damage inflicted by hurricane Ike two days before I was scheduled to be in camp. The whole gulf coast area was without power for over a week . With two days notice, Ralph re-scheduled my hunt for later in October during the peak of the mule deer rut. No extra charge.
I got to Bozeman two days early. I called the day before I was to be at the lodge. Ralph said, come on out a day early so I can do some scouting and glassing with the fellow who was to be my guide. Wow, now eight days hunting instead of seven.
My Guide: My guide was a local. He was young, being about 23. He made his living during the off season collecting sheds and as a farrier. I grew up around horses and have been hunting all my life. My guide was no greenhorn. He knew what he was doing and knew the area like the back of his hand. His biggest concern was whether he could put me on a mule deer buck and a bull elk. We stayed out each hunt till I said I was ready to go back.
I had a combo tag, elk and mule deer. I spent the first part of the week hunting mule deer. I passed on a 4 x 4 and a 3 x 4 that were pretty good, but it was early and I guess I had watched too many TV shows. I should have taken the 4 x 4, but it was the second day. I ended up taking a 2 x 2. Fifteen minutes after I shot my buck another hunter that was with one of Ralph’s guides got a really nice 5 x 6,
with eye guards and kickers. Oh well, that’s why the call it hunting rather than shooting.
I did not kill an elk. The area we were hunting is up the mountain from Gardiner, in Jardine. It is along the route that the elk migrate out of Yellowstone park. If the weather does not drive the elk down out of the park, there aren’t bulls to shoot. The week I was there, the weather did not co-operate. It got up to around 70 degrees F. on or around October 17th last year. As near as I could make out there were 20 hunters that were in camp at his brothers outfit and eight at our lodge. Plus there were locals. I think two bulls were shot the whole week I was there. If you had a cow tag you had no problem. All the hunters in our camp that had a mule deer tag either took a buck or had to opportunity to take a buck.
I killed my mule deer on the last day of the mule deer season. Basically shot it for camp meat and to give away. I hunted for six days and Ralph allowed me to cook for the whole group for the last two days as he had recently lost his cook.
Accomodations: I had a cabin all to my self the whole time. The accommodations at that time were spartan. I had a cot on which I put a sleeping pad and my sleeping bag and a table for my gear. I had an electric heater with which to keep warm. This is one facet that could easily be improved upon.
Food: Ralph had recently lost his cook. Ralph is no Emeril or Bobby Flay. However between he and his sister, we had plenty to eat. Morning, noon and night. Eggs, toast, sausage, cereal and fruit for breakfast. Sandwiches for lunch. Chili, lasagna, spaghetti, hamburgers at night. Plus cakes and pies that his sister Chalotte made.
Stock: I would typically ride two horses a day. One in the morning, and one in the evening. My favorite was a pony that was as nimble as a mountain goat. A good thing too, considering some of the areas we rode up, and mountains we trod down on foot leading said horse. At 57 years old, I can still do a days work and get on a horse. I’m 5’8” and 185lbs. When I was there, there were eight other men in camp. A couple of guys had to be closing on 300 lbs. Ralph had stock that would carry that weight. I think he told me he had something like 60 head. His stock appeared to be well fed and cared for and not old and worn out as I had been led to believe.
Repeat hunters: While I was at the lodge, I met two guys that had hunted with Ralph several times previously. One guy had been there enough that he was getting his guides license. He said he had stayed 17 days the year before.

Bottom line, would I hunt with Ralph Johnson again? Absolutely. As I have told a number of people, including Ralph (before I got to camp), I was not looking for guarantees. In most things you have to pay your dues. You usually get out what you put in. What I was looking for was an experience. I hunt year round in Texas, shooting hogs, whitetails, and varmints.
However I had never been to Montana, I had never rode on horseback in the early morning darkness in the snow and ice up the side of a mountain upon which I had seen a grizzly on the day before. I had never looked from Deckerd flats over on to “Electric Peak” with its snow capped peaks all purple turning to gold in the early morning dawn. I had never looked a couple of miles over into Yellowstone Park and been able to see elk and big horned sheep grazing on the side of a mountain. I had never walked down a steep and rocky mountainside in the snow with a horse right behind me. I had never walked downhill through the snow in broken timber and flushed mule deer. Now I have, and plan to do it again. In fact I’m going back this year.
As I said before, I did not kill and elk. I did take a mule deer buck. Did I get my money’s worth? Absolutely.
If you would like to contact me for more details, I would be happy to exchange e-mails with you or you can call me at 281.799.8811. I took around 600 pictures during the time was there. Here are just a few.
G.W. Brown

Game photos

Mule deer buck


Cow elk at sunrise


Young buck that came passing by that I caught with telephoto


my guide and camp meat buck


cow elk


grizzly feeding on a gut pile. This same bear got between a couple of our hunter, their guide and the horses. Kinda tense for a couple minutes


Mule deer buck


Lodging photos

my cabin


Outfitters house


guides cabin


Lodge exterior


Lodge interior (where all meals were served)

Scenic views


Typical view of the area I hunted in Jardine, Montana


View of Deckerd Flat, looking toward Gardiner. Electric peak is in the foreground, Yellowstone park is just to the left across the Yellowstone River


View looking down Deckerd flat at the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Park


Sunrise over Electric Peak


Sunrise over Yellowstone Park

Beautiful pictures. I bet this was one hell of a trip.

Great story and pictures! I would hate to be an outfitter who takes clients on public land. Far too many so called hunters turn up 80 pounds over weight, never riden a horse in their lives and have done no training before the hunt. Most times all they can do is whinge while stuffing their faces with KFC. Then they give you a bad report when they go home empty handed, which you new they would be the minute they rolled out of their pickup. Go hard or go home I recon.