2011 Colorado Elk Hunt

[Doug Treat]

Great story John.  I didn't get this good of an account from you at base camp.  What's up with that?  :^)

[John Scifres]

I'm not intentionally dragging this out but 3 kids in at least 2 activities each take some tradgang time away from me.

Tuesday, 9/6/11:

We awoke at 5:00 am to rain.  I'm not afraid of hunting in rain but it can make a long, elkless day even longer.  And Tuesday was long, and it was elkless  :(

We decided to give Darren's Mountain a break and headed south to a small alpine lake.  The area below the lake was mostly meadows and they were torn up with elk sign.  Fresh crap, tracks and a busted up pine tree showed at least some of it was bull-sheet.  (BTW, Darren and I are marketing elk crap as the newest aphrodisiac.  It's also a great camo makeup.  So a slick campaign will launch our new "Bull Sheet" line of Viagra competitor and male cosmetics.  Look for it in 2012.)

Back to hunting.  We tried a couple calling sequences but the rain and wind drowned us out, literally.  

The size of the bed next to the trashed tree had us dreaming of giant bulls in this godforsaken hell-hole so we tried a screaming, bugling tree smacking sequence trying to wake up King-Kong.  It didn't work.

By 10:00 we were done.  On the way back to camp we came across a trio of puddle-ducks.  They tempted us even more than "Camp Meat"  Several days of pasta and rice washed down with bags of tuna make a man hungry for fresh meat.  But, alas, ethics and Federal law saved their little souls.  Plus they flushed pretty quickly  

Back at camp, we discovered a small lake under Darren's tent.  We built a fire and kept it big to try to dry things out.  The rain returned in its full vigor and we retreated to our respective shelters for a while.  In the end, that was horrible so we stood in the rain, as close to the fire as our plastic ponchos would allow.  Thankfully, the rain slacked up enough to get me out to a nearby meadow for an evening sit.  Darren stayed at camp and dried his home out.  I saw no elk but Darren reported that "Camp Meat" returned and tried to get into our food bags so he had to chase her off.

The rain stayed sporadic through the evening but we were able to get relatively dry and relatively comfortable for sleeping.

Tomorrow we hunt the morning but pack into base camp in the afternoon.  That's a 5.5 mile trip with the first 2 miles bushwhacking.  Looking forward to it  

[Cyclic-Rivers]

   

[John Scifres]

Here's a few more pics from earlier days.

These are the meadows I watched on Tuesday evening.

   

Here's the top of Darren's Mountain.

   

   

The trail split down to Camp 2 after the 11 miles day on Sunday.

   

 

Pretty.

   

[Pat B]

Looks like lots of the evergreen trees there are dieing also like they are in the San Juan Mountains. I noticed a big difference from when I was out there in '06.
  I credible country ain't it John?

[Bel007]

Keep it coming John.    

[BobinTN]

Hey John,
Great write up of the hunt.  You haven't  mentioned me and Tim.  I guess it is not time yet.  I did run across these two male models grazing in a meadow though.

 

[John Scifres]

Soon, Bob, soon.  Don't want to steal your thunder though so feel free to post your first couple day's experience if you like.

Pat, from what I understand, this area is the epicenter of the beetle kill.  There are lots of young trees in the wake of the dieoff to replenish the forest though.  The elk still like it though.

One thing related to the dead trees and our trip though.  We found this old camp which was great but I deduced why it had not been used in several years.  Everything nearby is dead.  After I had this epiphany, I worried about a sudden death by falling tree a bit.  But there are worse places to die and I be willing to venture that my chances of falling out of bed and cracking open my head are greater in the grand scheme.  Certainly my daily 52 mile commute around the lesser known Indianapolis Motor Speedway called I-465 is more dangerous.  Still...

[fnshtr]

I'm anxious to hear the rest of the story! Missed you guys this year... but am already planning next year's hunt!!

Wayne

[John Scifres]

Wednesday, 9/7/11:

We awake to no rain.  Yes.  But it was still really gray and foreboding.  We worked our way up to Darren's Mountain close to where we had called the elk on Monday.  As we got close to where we had called, we tried several sequences but got no response.  We eased our way around the mountain but nothing ever showed.  It spit rain every once in a while but no showers like the day before.  Still, it was disheatening to be in the midst of a lot of fresh elk sign and have nothing respond.  We were still using fairly aggressive cow calls but my doubts about the rut timing were beginning to creep in.  We rarely had bulls bugling and only a few times was I sure they were answering us.  We knew bulls were with cows but they seemed to be lesser bulls just kind of tending the herds until the real action started up.  Still we persisted.

As we got about halfway around, we decided to see if there was a path lower down that would allow us some easier travel to basecamp.  Damn that was a mistake.  The lower we got, the tougher it got.  At times we were going up and down so much around deadfall and marshes that I thought we would never get out of there.  Eventually we did though and that pretty much ended our morning hunt.

Back to camp for a little rest and then the pack in to base camp to see some fresh faces and some new country.  We knew we would not get to spend a whole lot of time with the other guys since they were just getting there and we were on the downhill side of our hunt.  But we still had 2 full hunting days left and were still optimistic.

The bushwhacking part of our pack was not as bad as we thought but it was still a relief to hit a trail again.  We arrived into base camp tired but happy and did not have the energy or really the time to get a hunt in that evening.  A nice conversation with Doug Treat, our host rounded out the day.  The next day a couple more guys, Tim Antoine and Bob Brundage were to arrive.  By the end of the weeek, 4 more were going to be there.  Here's base camp in a beautiful meadow full of moose and other critters.

 

 

[huntnmuleys]

i wanna register a complaint here!  a while back someone asked if you were telling this tale sssslllloooowww to keep us on the edge of our seats, and you said no, you were just to busy to get it all on here!  im SERIOUSLY starting to question this lol!!  cant wait to read more..

[John Scifres]

Thursday, 9/8/11:

We slept in today.  The area we were in was home to a couple other camps and one outfitter.  Muzzlelader season was to start on Saturday and a few folks were already coming in.  No big deal as there is lots of country and plenty of room to separate.  Base camp was at 9500 feet or so and we knew the elk we had seen were all over 10,000 so up we were going to go.  Darren and I met Tim and Bob as they came in to camp.  Doug had to head home for a few days so we would not see him again until Saturday.

After lunch, we headed up the mountain to hunt some meadows up top and a drainage that pretty much ended in the meadow we were camped.  The hike up was about 1.5 miles and 600 feet of elevation.  Our bodies were used to the work by now so it wasn't terrible at all  

Up top, there was a hiking trail that went north and south, following the mountain spine basically above the creek valley we had hunted in the whole week.  We headed north until we got to the bowl at the head of the drainage we were going to hunt that evening.  We came across some decent sign but not as much as we had seen earlier in the week.  

A few blind calling sequences with light cow calls escalating to more plaintive estrous calls and a whimpy bugles didn't get us aything in response.  We came across likely bedding areas with steaming fresh elk crap thoughout but no live elk to be seen.  As we worked our way down, our chances grew slimmer in our minds since we were dropping below the 10,000 feet mark and entering the easy access zone from below.  

The elk did not seem to be hitting the meadows near the creek since all the vegetation up high was so lush.  In the end, we worked our way down near the meadows below and slowly called our way back up the drain.  Nothing showed.  We covered 5.6 miles in total and felt like we worked hard but I think we stuck with aggressive calling too long when the elk weren't ready for it.  

At any rate, we were happy with our effort and decided that the final day would be Friday and we would get a hotel and good meal on Saturday before heading home on Sunday.

Back at camp, we found no one at home.  Obviously Bob and Tim decided to hunt that evening.  As dark settled in, we built a fire, ate dinner and hung out.  An hour after dark, we decided either Bob and Tim were lost, had been eaten by a mountain lion or were trailing an elk.

[igiveup]

john if you could let me know how the terra 60 worked out for ya.  i have the same pack that i hope to use on an elk hunt in the future.  so far it has only seen use in the smokey mountain backcountry on flyfishing trips.  looking forward to the rest of the story.  thanks brad

[John Scifres]

I like the Terra 60. Quality made and forces you to prioritize.  I always took too much stuff with a bigger pack.  It doesn't have the greatest suspension and I wouldn't carry more than 60 pounds with it but it does a good job at what I use it for.

[John Scifres]

By the time we had seriously considered calling out a rescue party for Tim and Bob, we saw first one, then two headlamps bobbing across the meadow.  Tim went straight to his tipi but Bob quickly reported the "I got a 5x5!"  Handshakes and backslaps abounded and then Tim and Bob told the story.  I'll try my version which goes something like this.  

The hunters headed north of where Darren and I had worked the evwening out and were cowcalling and bugling a bit I think.  One of them hears what they think is a bugle and then they answer.  Across a meadow comes a bull's mating call.  Tim sets up as the caller with Bob somewhere between the bull and Tim.  Tim had a cow head decoy after some hangups last year and he used it to good advantage.

[John Scifres]

I guess Tim had spent considerable time learning to call too since he got the bull really worked up.  He rushed the caller, blwoing right by Bob at some point but he didn't get a glimpse of the decoy.  Tim had to call him back until he saw the head and then he committed to coming in until he noticed it was just a head and then he retreated.  This apprently put him in Bob's range and a 10 yard shot was presented.  Bob made good and the bull blasted to the edge of the meadow.

Bob and Tim convened a committee on tracking and eventually walked straight to the dead bull.  Bob has some pics of the recovery tat I seem to have misplaced.  Maybe you can add them Bob???

Here's what I have.

The cow head.

 

The processing with the happy (?) hunter  

 

And the caller with the decoy.

 

[Over&Under]

Great bull there and love the story so far John, well done!

Hope you guys get some action of your own soon!

[snakebit40]

Congrats!!!        

[NO SIGHTS]

Awesome guys!!
Look at the last picture! that bull is looking right at the camera!! he looks alive, kinda sent chills up my spine.

[The Night Stalker]

After getting the bull to respond to a location bugle, I cow called sparingly. We were set up with Bob in front and I back on a ridge were I could call then move my position. When I spotted the bull on the edge of the clearing, he was definately looking for the location of the calls. I sunk slowly to a little ditch and crawled up to position myself directly behind the decoy. As a last resort, I cow called with a estrous wine with a hot coaxer mouth call. The bull ran directly at me, he covered so much ground in just a few seconds. He ran by Bob at 6 yards and I saw his rack coming over the knoll as I was kneeling behind the decoy. I had to hurry but he only offered me a frontal shot at less than 10yards. Also, from my up hill position, Bob would be down range of my shot. The bull looked confused, he could not figue out where the rest of the cow was so he ran a short distance down the hill and stopped again to take a second look. He was then in position for Bob to get a 10yard shot. He as probably only 15 yards from me but I could only see the upper third of his body and I still had Bob down range. The Bull ran off and I cow called to him. He stopped on the edge of the field about 40yards. I still did not know if Bob made the shot. After walking down the hill, Bob told me that he had put it behind the shoulder. We waiting for a bit then found part of Bob's wood shaft. After a while and Bob's confidence in the shot, we started to trail him. As we trailed him, I heard noisy wet respirations coming from the direction so we back out and waited about another half hour. We went back and walked right to him. I think he went about 50yards.