While business was a little slow Saturday at the Silver City game check station, the elk harvest rate already has soared well beyond 2008.

According to information from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, hunters checked more elk in the first two weekends at the station northwest of Helena than in all of 2008 - 91 in the first two weekends compared to 77 for all of last year.

By noon Saturday, though, not one of the hunters who passed through the station was taking home an elk, or a mule deer or even a whitetail.

"This weather isn't helping much," noted Jenny Sika, an FWP biologist, as she stood outside under sunny skies with a biting wind.

The warm weather and clear skies are forecast to last until Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. However, previous storms have dropped quite a bit of snow into the high country, with the Lewis and Clark National Forest issuing a warning to hunters in the Little Belt Mountains that they could encounter up to five feet of snow in places.

Dave Cunningham, the forest's public information officer, said in a press release that hunters and others hiking cross-country probably will encounter hard frozen snow in the mornings that could melt later in the day. That means while it may be easy to travel in the early hours, it can be difficult to walk or drive through snow in the afternoon when the melting turns it into the consistency of mashed potatoes.

Hunters checking in at the Silver Creek station Saturday did have plenty of stories to tell. One man, who declined to give his name, showed pictures he took of a wolverine, an animal so secretive that it's rarely seen. At least three other hunters reported seeing a wolf, and Jessica Wigen, 11, was pretty excited about a moose she came upon with her family.

"It was huge and it was a girl, a really old girl," Wigen said, her eyes as wide as saucers. "It looked like she was running from the wolves; we saw wolf tracks."

More than 1,200 hunters have passed through the game check station so far this year, including 722 on opening weekend. Along with the 91 elk, they've taken 21 mule deer and five whitetail deer, which is down slightly from the previous year.

Finally, around 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Chad Newman of Helena pulled his truck into the check station with a nice sized spike bull in the back and a broad grin on his face.

Newman told how he had just started hunting shortly after daybreak when he saw something ahead of him that looked like brown grass. As he peered through his spotting scope, he realized it was a young elk.

"When I went up there this morning, I didn't think I'd see anything," Newman said. "I went up the hill and I was just really surprised - pleasantly surprised."

He put the sneak on the elk, thinking that at any moment it would see him and run. But he got to within 60 to 80 yards, took his shot, and the elk fell.

And after Sika finished taking measurements and other data, Newman got back in the truck and drove home to fix some fresh tenderloin for dinner.

Reporter Eve Byron:

447-4076 or eve.byron@helenair.com