By Sid Evans
In the first week of September, I set out on a weeklong bow hunt for elk in Wyoming's Thorofare region, which some say is the most remote wilderness area in the Lower 48. I believe them. To get to our camp -" an old wall-tent setup that had been there since the 1950s -" we had an 8-hour ride on horseback, with about two-dozen mules packing in all our food, gear, and supplies. The country was breathtaking, especially when we reached the top of Shoshone pass and got our first look down into the Thorofare Valley, an area loaded with elk, mule deer, wolves, and grizzly bears, but very few hunters.

We spent 7 days chasing elk up and down mountains, and we had close encounters with nice bulls every day. I hunted with a young guy from Georgia named Cary Zech. Our host, Jeff Krueger of Wyoming Expeditions (Wyomingexpeditions.com; 678-953-2026), was another fanatical Georgia hunter who bought the camp in 2007. It was the first bow hunt for elk for Cary, and my first bow hunt ever, and we quickly realized this was the toughest and most exhilarating thing either of us had ever done.

Above: Guides T.J. Redder and Jason Fales packing saddle bags for the ride in from the Deer Creek trailhead. Preparing for an elk hunt in the Thorofare is like preparing for a military expedition.