My first elk hunt, lessons learned and general rambling.

[pdk25]

That brings us to Tuesday morning, and I am up at 4 am to head to the southeastern crest of the lower drainage.  I get there, and wait for dawn to do some glassing.  It is a beautiful morning, and this is my view for a portion of the other side of the drainage:

 

 

 

[Jerry Jeffer]

Good stuff Pat. Glad you at least had a learning experience. Public land can be a drag at times.

[pdk25]

Around 7:15am, I see a bull and cow on the crest on the opposite side of the drainage.  In the bottom picture, if you see the bald know to the left and see there is a little strip of mixed pine and alder just to the right, the elk were just to the right of that grove.  Too far away, so I just continue glassing, as the elk drop into the timber on the far side.  Maybe 45 minutes later a group of mule deer run from the opposite side down into the drainage, so I know they are spooked by something.  The answer become clear another half hour later, when I see 2 cows and a calf head down into the drainage, and 2 compound hunters emerge on the crest.  I am only using 6 power binocs, but can see that they are beginning to process the meat of the bull that I had seen.  They processed it on the hill to the far right side of the bottom picture.  Nice job on their part.  Wish I could have caught up with them to get the details from their perspective.  I decided to head back to the truck in order to see if I could find the gentleman and congratulate them, but never found them.  I did find 2 locals hauling a mule deer to their truck that had been shot next to the road the previous rainy night.  I am no expert, but to me it was clearly shot with a firearm and they returned the next morning with a compound bow to make it seem legal.  I had no phone number to call, or cell service to report it.  I don't want this to sound so bitter, because I actually had a great time and considered it a learning experience.  It is just very difficult to truly get away from other folks to hunt, it seems.

[pdk25]

I think that is going to be all for tonight.  Will try to finish up tomorrow.

[uglyjake]

Thanks for posting for our enjoyment.

[pdk25]

In the early afternoon on Tuesday, I headed back on the mountain and wound up spooking an elk out of a very small drainage right off of the trail.  It was really just scouting trip, and I got out of their early to head back to the gap for the evening hunt.  I didn't see anything the rest of that day.

[pdk25]

I had hiked around 13 miles the on Tuesday and was getting a little fatigued with the hiking and lack of sleep.  This combined with not setting the alarm clock properly, and I woke up on Wednesday late, at around 5:30am.  I had planned on hitting the large drainage, but didn't have time to get there so I decided to get back up on the mountain.  At least I might run into some grouse.  By the time I got to the trail, I could see to walk without a flashlight, so I eased my way up as quietly as I could, with the wind in my face.  I was looking, but apparently not well enough.  A little more than half way up, I spooked a 4x4.  I was less than 10 yards from him, but couldn't see him because he was behind a small pine tree on my left and as I started to step clear of it he saw me. He ran out to 35-40 and stopped quartering away, but there was brush behind him and me.  In hindsight, I believe that I could have knelt down and had a shot, but I thought that he was probably unsure of what he was running from, so I waited a few seconds and when he took a couple more steps into cover, I eased back behind the pine and gave a couple of cow calls.  No response, and he continued away through the clearing that he was in.  Exciting, but I obviously wasn't alert enough.  Live and learn.  I continued to hunt the mountain the rest of the day, but the only fresh sign that I saw were the tracks from that bull.  I wonder if he was just wandering through, looking for love?  Saw a bunch of grouse, but didn't take any shots since I was really after elk.  I went back to camp, took a quick lunch, and made plans for the afternoon.  I had now spooked 2 elk in that same small drainage, possibly the same elk, but I decided to sit further up the drainage in the evening, into the night, in case elk were making their way to the creek for a drink, and if I didn't see anything, I brought a blanket and planned on sitting into the night to listen for bugling or cow calls, trying to pin them down.  I wound up not seeing anything during daylight, and sat until 3am without hearing any elk activity.  At that point I packed up my gear and headed down the mountain, planning on going to the crest of the drainage before daybreak again.

[pdk25]

So, it is Thursday, and I am climbing back up to the crest of the drainage.  The forecast was for very little wind out of the NE, and by the time it shifts to out of the south, the thermals should be in my favor for that vantage point.  As daylight breaks it is another beautiful view, and I am hoping to catch elk making their way to the timber on the south side of the drainage.  7am comes around, and to my surprise, there is a fairly large herd of elk on the far side again.  This time, they are on the crest just to the left of the largest yellow grove of aspen trees in the previous picture.  I didn't figure to see them back in that area again so soon.  Decision time, as I watch them alternately bed and feed.  As they ease over the hill slowly, I make the decision to head down into the drainage, and over the other side to try to catch up with them.  I get their pretty quickly, with lots of cover between me and the elk, and staying a little down the drainage, as the wind is actually taking my scent down that way. I get over the crest, and try to find them, but I am unsuccessful.  I think that I may have heard them far down the side in the Timber, but don't feel confident that I can quietly get down to them, so I watch and listen in the top of the timber.  I waited until maybe 11am with no sign.  Maybe I should have been more aggressive and called, but I didn't want to do anything to push them out.  I headed back to the car, and back to camp.  I packed up my tent and gear, and planned on going back and hunting the afternoon and sleeping in the drainage to be ready for them early the next morning.  I knew that it was supposed to rain on Friday and Saturday and hate packing up camp in the rain.  By the time I was going to head back to the drainage, it had started raining already and was to foggy to see.  I decided that rather than packing in and setting up in the rain with limited chance of success, it was time to finally head back home, and end my hunt.   I had a great time, with a lot of sighting, but still have an awful lot to learn.

[Matty]

awesome dude. Good you got into them that last day  the later th season gets the better it gets it seems. Nice pictures too, interesting terrain it doesnt look like theres a lot of Beetle kill in that area like there is in MOST of colorado.
you did the right thing by not calling on that last group, If there was a bull he only would have bugled back at you to get youre butt over to them. they arent going to go to you once the heards are established.  A satelite bull might take the leap.
glad you were able to come out and give it a shot...

[pdk25]

Thanks, Matt.  There us plenty of beetle kill, though.  Especially on the mountain.  Lots of people cutting firewood from the dead trees.

[pdk25]

Maybe I will get lucky and get to hunt in a draw unit next year.  Maybe a little less pressure, but I feel fortunate to have seen the elk that I did get to see.  Lots of improvement to make in my game, in any case.

[cacciatore]

Pat,you did everything was possible,so this is been a great success and a heck of an experience.

[pdk25]

Thanks, Felix.  I have to learn how to be productive working the timber on pressured elk.  Both after glassing them and seeing them go in, and when I suspect they may be there.  Around 80% of huntable hours, I think that they are in cover, but you can spend alot of time slowly stalking through timber unsuccesfully.  Anyone with any suggestions or descriptions of what they do would be most welcome.