My first elk hunt, lessons learned and general rambling.

[pdk25]

I just got back from a trad elk hunt with my friends, Bryan Bolding and Dave Sisamis, and figured I would make a brief post with some gear info, and some details of the hunt, although the timeline is a little dicey as I wasn't keeping a log.  Maybe some of the info will be useful to someone.  I know that Rob Tattoo had a very informative post on his recent elk hunt. I will say that nobody dropped the string on an elk, but there were multiple sightings and great experiences.

I was able to stash away 2 weeks of vacation for this hunt, and arrived in southern Colorado 2 Fridays ago.  I was eagerly anticipating this hunt, but had come down with a head cold of some sort, with lots of fatigue, which I knew wasn't a good thing.  I met up with some nice folks from Oklahoma and hunted with them on Friday evening while waiting for Dave and Bryan to arrive later that same day. The area that we were hunting was public land, and had received a lot of pressure the first 2 weeks of the season.  One of the hunters had taken a nice cow the previous day, and we didn't have any luck.  We returned to the camp, and Bryan and Dave had arrived, and we made plans to hit a local mountain the following morning, where we knew that another crew from Oklahoma had great success the first week of the season.  

We started up the logging road toward the peak and I was shortly doubled over, gasping for air.  I never really experienced anything like this.  My legs really never got tired on this hunt, because the altitude was by far the limiting factor for me, although my head cold and congestion may have contributed to this somewhat.  We saw lots of grouse that morning, but unfortunately, we didn't see any elk or fresh sign that morning.  We regrouped and hunted a nearby creek drainage in the afternoon with similar luck.  It seems that the hunting pressure had changed things a little bit compared to the previous 2 weeks, and given that and the fact that there was an influx of muzzleloader hunters in the woods, we decided to head to a remote area that Bryan had been to 2 years ago and had seen lots of elk.  We were very optimistic and excited to get there and get into some elk.

[Charlie Lamb]

Bring it bro!

[pdk25]

I apologize in advance, but this will be posted kinda a little at a time, so bear with me.

Bryan was only able to hunt the first week do to work obligations, so we loaded up our pack with enough gear for a 7 day hunt and started the steep ascent, with multiple switchbacks, that took us up to around 12,300 feet.  Here is what we looked like before starting the hike, relatively fresh.  

ME
 

Dave
 

Bryan
 

I think that all of our packs were around 70#, but obviously Dave had his gear packed more compactly, something that I need to get better at.

[awbowman]

I developed a sinus infection when I went to CO a few years ago.  Whatever you do, do no take an antihistamine!  My nose bled so bad for the next seven days that I felt like I couldn't go 50' without gasping for breathe.  I ended up hunting only 3 out of the seven days.  Just felt miserable the rest of the trip and just couldn't have packed an elk out.

[pdk25]

The hike up was tough, but you just had to accept that you had to stop to catch your breath frequently, and really wasn't any worse than we expected.  We got to the crest after seeing spectacular views and eating service berries along the way, and opened up into beautiful meadows that we planned on setting up camp in.

Unfortunately, it didn't take us long to realize that we weren't the first people that had made he trip.  Multiple campsites from the previous 2 weeks were seen, some of which had a substantial amount of garbage.  One site had at least 6 or 7 empty smart water bottles left behind, and multiple wrappers from capri sun drinks, as well as a broken lead rope for horses.  One site had partially burned mountain house wrappers.  We moved a little further down the trail to an area with less garbage and set up camp.  We were all a little disheartened by this, but were hopeful that seeing some elk would make up for it.  After talking to some locals, it seems like hunters from the Amish community hunt this area, and are notorious for leaving rubbish behind, although  certainly cannon prove who the scumbags were that left the garbage in this seemingly pristine area.  I only know that they arrived on horseback.  I stuffed my murderous thoughts into the back of my head, and hoped for the best.  Around 9-10 o'clock pm, my sleep was disturbed by an elk chuckling within a couple hundred yards of camp, so my adrenaline did not allow for much sleep that night.  We heard the chuckling again near morning in a nearby drainage, but never were able to catch site of the elk, and the wind wasn't doing up any favors, being atypically out of the north in the morning and with it taking a while for the sunlight to warm things up enough to put the thermals in our favor.

[pdk25]

We continued hunting the high ground the rest of the day, but found fresh boot tracks and signs of littering.  Bryan eventually ran into a compound hunter from Kansas who informed Bryan, between breaks to spit tobacco juice on the ground, that he had found this area last year and that members of his group were hunting the nearby drainages and had covered most of them in the last 2 days.  They would be there the entire week.  Perfect, hunting the drainages with the wind at their backs just to cover ground and pushing the elk out of the area.  This, combined with someone camping in the meadow with a dog that was barking or being screamed at all night really ruined what we expected to be remote back country experience.  We packed up the next morning and headed back to the area that we started the hunt, essentially having lost 2 days of hunting from travel/hiking. At least Bryan was able to talk to another hunter from that group and let him know how easy it was to track the group by following the trail of gum wrappers, nutter butter cookie and nature valley granola wrappers.  You would have expected the 'hunter' to be more contrite than he was.

[centaur]

Sounds like a real bunch of slobs in that country. Sorry that your experience was less than sterling.

[pdk25]

awbowman, I had some trouble with a bloody nose too, but I think it was from the dry air.  I started smearing petroleum jelly in my nose and the problem went away.

centaur, it definitely left a bad taste in our mouths, but it didn't ruin the hunt.  There were some good experiences to be had.

[pdk25]

Pardon me, but I always have trouble following a straight path when telling a story.

Just a note on some of the prep for the hunt.  I had surgery on my shoulder and knee in November of last year, and my knee had been acting up on and off since then.  To the tune of putting on 40# of fat.  I took a little too long to get started training for the hunt, but lost around 25# in the 3 months leading up to the hunt and another 5-10 during the hunt.  My fitness really wasn't too much of an issue I don't believe, but I plan on starting next year's hunt around 10 pounds lighter with a better body composition.  I just was cutting back on calories and hiking with a pack 5 or 6 days a week with weights that ranged from 45-80# and covering 2-6 miles at a time and hitting as many steep seasonal creek beds as I could in this relatively flat country.  I was a little concerned about a stone bruise on my heal, but that didn't seem to be a problem.  My knee brace gave me all of the lateral stability that I needed.  I will say that I will have a different pair of shoes for next year.  I used a pair of danner pronghorns.  Very nice boots, but I have a relatively narrow ankle/hindfoot but I am fairly wide at the ball of the foot.  These boots were loose at the hindfoot.  It didn't bother me training at home, but when sidehilling you really notice the lack of stability when they are loose there.

I can't really comment completely on the training for Bryan and Dave, other than a few things.  Bryan was greatly limited on his training because of severe plantar fasciitis.  He was saved because he has some amazing lungs, possibly from his history as a runner.  Dave came into the hunt by far in the best shape of the bunch, having started training immediately after last years elk hunt.  His waist size was down to frigging 28", and he was fairly ripped.

Bryan lives in Colorado Springs, but Dave and I are flatlanders.  We both started taking Diamox 2 days before the hunt, and for a total of 7 days.  Neither of us experienced any headaches or signs of Altitude Sickness, and I plan to use that regimen every year that I go.

[pdk25]

Some more random issues.  I drove my Nissan Altima to Colorado to save on gas money, plus I am not sure that my beat up farm truck would have been reliable for that long of a trip.  I will definitely have a different vehicle for next years trip.  My Altima has treated me well, having had hogs and deer in the trunk, rear seat, passenger seat, and occasionally draped across my lap.  It has gone places that it definitely should not have been, but nothing close to what it experiences on some of these forest roads.  I got a slow leak in one of the tires from parking on a sharp rock, but consider myself very fortunate to not have been stranded from a rock poking a hole in the drain pan.  There is simply inadequate ground clearance in this vehicle.

[pdk25]

I know that the timeline is going to get a little sketchy, but I figure we hunted Saturday, hiked in to the remote area Sunday, hunted there Monday, hiked out of their Tuesday, and started hunting in a large drainage area on Wednesday further south in Colorado (the same area that we hunted before heading to the remote area).  

Maybe Dave will chime in when I make a mistake. I think that we may have not hunted Wednesday morning to recover from the trip down the mountain.  It rained while we were up there, and on the way down it was very difficult to tell what was the trail and what was runoff.  We got split up, and at times you had to follow horse tracks to know that you were on the right trail.  Unfortunately, both Dave and I ended up veering off onto game trails which took us out of our way.  I backtracked and got back on the trail, but Dave wound up being in some thick country with decent elk sign and a close up bear sighting, and came out further down the mountain.  He powered his way back to the car uphill but was paying for it the next day.

We hunted Wednesday evening with Dave and I heading to the south end of a drainage, and Bryan coming to meet us from the adjacent drainage.  When we got to the top, we slowly came down through some dark timber and were trying to get a little lower to anticipate the evening thermals.  We heard Bryan give a cow call, and Dave gave a cow call to let him know that we were there.  Bryan heard a bugle in the distance further up the drainage in response to the cow calls, and when we joined up, he gave a bugle. (Bryan is very good at bugling and chuckling, and I basically suck at all calling but plan to remedy that by next year).

Bryan had barely finished bugling when it sounded like a stampede.  Elk were pouring over the top of the hill, coming from the drainage that Bryan had slowly worked on his way to the top.  We didn't see them, but Bryan and Dave were nice enough to tell me to get into the cover of small pine trees closer to the elk, and they held back to make some calls.  From where I had heard the elk, and where Dave and Bryan setup, it seemed like the cows would cross downhill of me toward them.  I looked through the binocs through the tree between me and the cows and saw nothing, so I tried to get in a good position for a downhill shot.

I never saw the elk, but apparently a cow had circled uphill of me and was 30 yards broadside before they winded me, and made their way back where they came from.  Crap.  I guess I just wasn't alert enough.  Dave said he clearly saw the cow, and was just waiting for me to drill her.

It wasn't over yet, though.  We still had a bugling battle between Bryan, a mature bull, and a Satellite bull, with the mature bull heading our way, and us running out of daylight.

[pdk25]

Dave and I went into a strip of cover as the bull made it's way toward us ever so slowly.  It was getting close to too late to shoot when a muzzleloader shot rang out from a couple hundred yards away.  I nearly browned my britches, then remembered an orange clad hunter that was making his way across the drainage as Dave and I made our way up.  Our hearts kind of sank, but that is a risk when hunting public land.  We met up with the hunter the following morning, and he made a clean miss on the bull.  It can be tough shooting when you are out of breath and using iron sights, which is the law in Colorado.

[frassettor]

[pdk25]

It was an exciting experience, but Dave's back was starting to act up, and by the next morning, he was so bad that he didn't go out for the morning hunt.  Anyone that knows Dave knows that he needs to be near on his deathbed to not be hunting, so we knew he was in a lot of pain.  Bryan and I went out Thursday morning, while Dave took my car to find the only chiropractor in the area.  He had a rib out of place, as well has his hip.  Most likely from side-hilling with a heavy pack.  Hard to train for that.  He got an adjustment later on that afternoon, which allowed him to grit his teeth and bear it, but he was far from fine, and was hoping that it was just soreness that would get better.

Bryan and I made it up to the head of the drainage that morning and had some good entertainment, but no elk activity.  We got up on a hill and saw a couple compound hunters come in from a different direction and split up, with one going just a couple hundred yards from us up the adjacent hill.  We had been hearing a lot of turkeys on the roost on that hill, and surmised that they were going to go after one.  We had a good time, with Bryan talking turkey, while the hunter tried to pin us down but never locating us.  It was amazing how close they came to us in this big country.  On top of that, here comes an older guy in orange up the hill that walks right to the tree that the other guy is at!  We see him throw his arms up in surprise when he sees the hunter.  What are the odds?  This whole time Bryan is turkey calling as we try not to laugh too hard, as they scan the hillside for us.  Then the guy in orange starts nearly yelling into a walkie-talkie trying to direct someone to where he was at.  Apparently his son was hunting the area and got lost.  Pretty much ruined the morning hunt for elk, but was very entertaining.  Shortly after, the compound hunter that had gone on further returned with the orange clad muzzleloader hunter from the night before.  He spotted us, and we headed down for a brief chat.  Nice folks that were local Colorado residents, and this is how we were certain that the muzzleloader hunter missed his shot the previous evening.

Later that evening, Bryan and I tried a different area a few miles away, but didn't see any elk or fresh sign, so we kind of wrote that area off for the rest of the hunt.

[glass76]

I hate seeing litter anywhere....but in the backcountry....give me a break. Thanks for sharing your hunt and keep giving us the details.

[pdk25]

I am having trouble remembering where we hunted Friday morning, but I remember what we did on Friday evening.  We hit a different portion of the mountain that we had hunted the previous Saturday morning, with each of us taking a small drainage and planning to stay low and slow to take advantage of the prevailing winds.  The thermals had everything going up the mountain, and we each individually ditched the plan and headed up high, and hunted our way back down.  I didn't see anything or any fresh sign, Dave saw a lot of nice mule deer, but only Bryan had a tag.  Bryan didn't see anything fresh on the mountain, but from his vantage point he could see through his binoculars a bull and some cows in the drainage that we had hunted the other day. (I will mention here that I only brought 6x binocs, and plan on bringing a better pair of 10x next time, as the differences in our glassing capability was significant).  

Bryan was nearly shaking with excitement when he met us at the car.  We briefly thought about packing up and camping under tarps in the drainage overnight, but decided to head out around 3 am to get deep into the drainage well before daylight and going as quietly as we could with our green lights.

[pdk25]

This takes us to Saturday morning, but I am going to make a few comments on gear before talking about that:

Storms can pop up out of nowhere, so having a tarp to set up until the storm passes by is a very useful item.

Baby wipes are nearly a necessity for this type of hunting, and I would wipe down every morning from the stickiness associated with the sleeping bag.  It I also useful as toilet paper, but I would bring some camp toilet paper as well.

I am usually pretty cheap regarding hunting clothes, but on other people's recommendations picked up some first lite clothing before the hunt.  I got rained out one day 10 days into the hunt, and headed in to town to do laundry that day.  I wore that same pair of pants and shirt for the entire hunt, supplemented at various times by a puffy jacket and vest.  The Kanab pants were comfortable, quiet, and handled the temps that ranged from around 30 to the mid 70's with not troubles and my legs were neither hot nor cold.  I needed only 2 pair of first lite red desert boxers for the trip, and they are 100% merino wool.  I always pack Desitin for trips, because I almost invariably get a rash on my thighs from sweaty hiking.  This is the first time that I did not need to use Desitin and didn't develop a rash, plus the boxers and pants developed no odor that I could detect.  Awesome products that I don't think you can fully appreciate until you try.

I also purchased a quarter-zip Chama shirt from first lite.  The quality was awesome.  If any of you are considering a purchase, it has good sleeve length for those with broad shoulders and is durable.  Hiking up those mountains, you have no choice but to get sweated up.  The quarter zip helps minimize this, and is well worth the added expense IMHO.  Also, when you get to the top and are settling down to glass, the wool does a great job keeping you from freezing while it quickly dries.  I can't say enough about this product.  Some say wool is wool, but I whole-heartedly disagree at this point.

Having a brimmed hat of some sort to block some of the glare is very helpful, particularly at dawn.

Never forget lip balm, lol.  Try to get some with some degree of spf, and it works well as sunblock on the nose as well.

I am sure that I will think of some other things later.

[pdk25]

Another side note.  I drove into town and met a gentleman that had harvested a fine bull in NM.  Here are a couple of pics.  The bull scored 411 an had some freaky mass.

 

 

[pdk25]

Here are some views of the northwest side of the drainage that I hunted.  I will refer to these photos a bit later.

 

 

 

[cacciatore]

Nice story Patrick!