These final two summits round out my SOTA/elk hunting trip to Flagstaff for the year. I wanted to get 10 summits AND an elk and as luck would have it, with only 3 days left, the weather forecast called for rain. As I don't care for being soaked and miserable while I am supposed to be having fun, I decided to pack up camp and head back to southern AZ. I fell short of my SOTA goal by one summit and I really didn't put a whole lot of effort into hunting (about 4 days total) so no elk either. RS Hill was interesting. It is in a "densely" populated area with some very nice, expensive houses. There was a lot of deadfall and the summit looked as if it were burned out or the trees were destroyed by the bark beetle. In any event it was an easy climb, save for jumping over all the dead fall. On my way up I could hear an elk bugling and sure enough, about 2/3 of the way up I could see the herd going around the summit. When I got to the top, the bull was there and signal his disdain for me setting up my radio by giving me a loud snort and moving off. The whole place smelled like elk, making me wish, at least for that moment, that I had an elk tag in that hunting unit. For those that don't know, elk smell a lot like cattle but with a touch more musk and twang. Little Squaw was another standard summit for the area. I did run into a hunter named Joe who directed me to the best way up the hill. He was out there giving support for his friends/family that were scouting for hunt. I told him where I saw that elk herd and hopefully he and his left the place with an elk.
