Montana elk and mule deer hunt recap

Long read but a somewhat recap of my Montana mule deer and elk hunt.
Long story but I met a guy on a mule deer hunt in Montana back in 2013 and he said if I ever wanted to come back and hunt elk with him to hit him up. Started putting in for points and me and my son drew a combo tag this year.
I thought we were going to be renting a cabin and going into the national forest but we ended up staying at his dads house and hunting the national forest with several of his buddies, all were
Cool as shite! Drove 2000miles from La-mt with my son and covered 7-10 miles a day for 8 days (they mostly slipped/still hunted all day with no glassing) my son shot a muley at 125yd and I killed mine at 50yd we didn’t see any elk but 2 were killed using that strategy while we were there and they were at 60-100yd range and all while still hunting and no sitting on meadows.
This dude has more horns than cabelas and does it somewhat unconventional so I couldn’t argue with him!!
I brought a gallon of gumbo, an fried oysters, shrimp and fish as well as hog head cheese and boudin so I got invited to go back!! Fingers crossed we draw in 2027.
For anyone thinking of going out west just know you may walk 80miles in a week and not see an elk even with local that has hunted there for 30yrs but one thing I can guarantee you is that you will not say is “I over trained for this “.
I ran a Marathon and a 50k this year and I plan to be in better shape next time!!
Of the whole trip my highlight was seeing my son shoot a deer and then having several of the guys who I had never met before tell me what a great kid “21yr” old he was. I told him how lucky we were to be a couple of coon-asses living the dream I had read in outdoor life as a kid