Trailblazer
11-11-2007, 04:56 PM
I returned from my first Colorado elk hunt last night and, yes, the elk won! I went with two friends who are serious hunters and who were primarily deer hunting but knew the country and have killed about 45 elk between them over the years. One had a cow tag. There were four of us neophyte elk hunters and we all had cow tags. Joe, my partner on the expedition, is a hunter but has a different style. The other two neophytes are self described "babes in the woods". I soon found out all three are afraid of heights, afraid of the dark and afraid to get out of sight of the road and they weren't bashful about telling me so.
It was a tough season for everybody! We talked to many locals who knew the country and elk hunting that didn't see an elk! The experienced elk hunter in our party didn't see an elk. The local radio station reported on how lousy the season was! The problem was the weather. As is normal it had snowed on the high country a couple weeks before we got there and the snow and cold had pushed the deer and elk down off the mountain. We got there three days early to look around and most of the snow was gone and it was warming. There was a high pressure parked over the Great Basin and it continued to get warmer through the season. The deer and elk gradually filtered back up the mountain. Temps hung at 45 degrees or so at the top and it was almost T-shirt weather. The elk went almost completely nocturnal. They were feeding on top of the mountain at night and going deep into the canyons by day.
I finally saw three cows and two calves in a little meadow at the foot of a steep little ridge on Wednesday evening. I didn't want to kill one of those big critters down in the canyon but there didn't seem to be much choice. And once I saw them I couldn't resist going down there. The map told me it was 1000' lower down there and one horizontal mile from the road. The 1000' elevation change happened in a half mile. I figured I was good for two trips down and back-not enough to haul a whole cow out so I had to have help! I told my partners that if I killed one down there that there would be free meat and they could have whatever they could carry out. They weren't to interested and told me to just carry what I could and leave the rest. I said "Homie don't play that tune!" If I kill it I take it all. The coyotes and crows will get no free handouts from me! They finally agreed to attempt it.
In the morning Joe went with me to the end of the ridge to wait for my signal to come down. Down I went! That is one steep little ridge and when I got about two thirds of the way down I realized I couldn't do this to Joe. He is tall and slender and lightly built. We were at 8000' and he has mild asthma and was having trouble walking up little hills without a load. I am also tall and skinny but I am blessed with the skeletal structure and constitution of a mule. I decided I would have to kill a calf because I figured I could haul a calf out in two trips by myself. I kept going and found that the ridge ended in rimrock about 200' above the canyon floor. I was hungry so I sat down there to have a bite and survey the situation. I could cut back to my left across a steep loose hillside to the head of the canyon. It is one of those hillsides where everything is loose and sliding and you kind of ski to the bottom. No problem for me but I was still worried about Joe coming down and it would be nice to find a better way to get back up above the rimrock. I couldn't see to my right because of the timber. As I sat there two hunters came out of the head of the canyon to my left and worked down in front of me. They must have come up through the private land down the canyon. Most of these canyons are landlocked by private land that controls the lower canyons. I waited a while to see if they pushed anything out. Nothing appeared and they continued to my right. At that point I decided the negatives out weighed the positives and gave it up. I figured the hunters would alert everything and push whatever was there further into the timber. I still thought I had a good chance to find something but the time and energy cost would be higher and I didn't have either to burn. When I got back up Joe told me he was about to come down because he heard four shots and thought it might be me.
My ego had a tough time accepting the fact that I gave the idea up but I think it was the wise thing to do. That evening we saw about 30 cows and calves in the headlights grazing on the private land along the highway after total dark.
It was a good trip and we had a ball looking at deer. It is a limited draw area and 22" to 24" 4x4's are a dime a dozen. A lot of the deer are almost totally indifferent to humans-even the bucks. Joe would periodically get down and depressed about not getting an elk but I kept telling him, "Here we are in the Colorado mountains hunting elk. What could be better than this?" I love to hunt and I got to hunt for 7 days! The state of Colorado does owe me an elk though!
It was a tough season for everybody! We talked to many locals who knew the country and elk hunting that didn't see an elk! The experienced elk hunter in our party didn't see an elk. The local radio station reported on how lousy the season was! The problem was the weather. As is normal it had snowed on the high country a couple weeks before we got there and the snow and cold had pushed the deer and elk down off the mountain. We got there three days early to look around and most of the snow was gone and it was warming. There was a high pressure parked over the Great Basin and it continued to get warmer through the season. The deer and elk gradually filtered back up the mountain. Temps hung at 45 degrees or so at the top and it was almost T-shirt weather. The elk went almost completely nocturnal. They were feeding on top of the mountain at night and going deep into the canyons by day.
I finally saw three cows and two calves in a little meadow at the foot of a steep little ridge on Wednesday evening. I didn't want to kill one of those big critters down in the canyon but there didn't seem to be much choice. And once I saw them I couldn't resist going down there. The map told me it was 1000' lower down there and one horizontal mile from the road. The 1000' elevation change happened in a half mile. I figured I was good for two trips down and back-not enough to haul a whole cow out so I had to have help! I told my partners that if I killed one down there that there would be free meat and they could have whatever they could carry out. They weren't to interested and told me to just carry what I could and leave the rest. I said "Homie don't play that tune!" If I kill it I take it all. The coyotes and crows will get no free handouts from me! They finally agreed to attempt it.
In the morning Joe went with me to the end of the ridge to wait for my signal to come down. Down I went! That is one steep little ridge and when I got about two thirds of the way down I realized I couldn't do this to Joe. He is tall and slender and lightly built. We were at 8000' and he has mild asthma and was having trouble walking up little hills without a load. I am also tall and skinny but I am blessed with the skeletal structure and constitution of a mule. I decided I would have to kill a calf because I figured I could haul a calf out in two trips by myself. I kept going and found that the ridge ended in rimrock about 200' above the canyon floor. I was hungry so I sat down there to have a bite and survey the situation. I could cut back to my left across a steep loose hillside to the head of the canyon. It is one of those hillsides where everything is loose and sliding and you kind of ski to the bottom. No problem for me but I was still worried about Joe coming down and it would be nice to find a better way to get back up above the rimrock. I couldn't see to my right because of the timber. As I sat there two hunters came out of the head of the canyon to my left and worked down in front of me. They must have come up through the private land down the canyon. Most of these canyons are landlocked by private land that controls the lower canyons. I waited a while to see if they pushed anything out. Nothing appeared and they continued to my right. At that point I decided the negatives out weighed the positives and gave it up. I figured the hunters would alert everything and push whatever was there further into the timber. I still thought I had a good chance to find something but the time and energy cost would be higher and I didn't have either to burn. When I got back up Joe told me he was about to come down because he heard four shots and thought it might be me.
My ego had a tough time accepting the fact that I gave the idea up but I think it was the wise thing to do. That evening we saw about 30 cows and calves in the headlights grazing on the private land along the highway after total dark.
It was a good trip and we had a ball looking at deer. It is a limited draw area and 22" to 24" 4x4's are a dime a dozen. A lot of the deer are almost totally indifferent to humans-even the bucks. Joe would periodically get down and depressed about not getting an elk but I kept telling him, "Here we are in the Colorado mountains hunting elk. What could be better than this?" I love to hunt and I got to hunt for 7 days! The state of Colorado does owe me an elk though!