Wes Coffey

Loose scree, down timber, thick patches of alder.

We moved slow.

It took us about an hour to get to the bottom.

That's where we found the gut pile.

it was in a small clearing maybe thirty yards across right where the timber opened up near the creek at the bottom of the basin cole saw it first he held up a fist and i stopped he pointed in the middle of the clearing there was a pile of guts

Now, if you've never field-dressed an elk, let me explain what a gut pile looks like.

When you take the insides out of a 1,500-pound animal, you end up with about 100 pounds of stomach, intestines, liver, lungs, and heart piled on the ground.

It's wet, and it steams in the cold air for a while.

It stinks.

And scavengers find it fast.

Ravens first, then coyotes, then bears, then wolves if there are any around.

This gut pile was fresh.

There was still steam coming off it.

Cole and I both crouched down at the edge of the clearing.

We didn't say anything at first.

We were listening.

You find a fresh gut pile in the middle of nowhere.

The first thing you do is figure out where the hunter is, because either he's close by and you don't want to surprise him,

or he's already walked out with the meat and the bears and the wolves are on their way.

We listened for about five minutes.