"Big Country"

[Hatchie Dawg]

I cant seem to let go of my desire to chase backcountry elk out west. The thought of it is almost always on my mind and I don't think there is a day that goes by when elk hunting does not occupy a part of my consciousness in some way. I am wound up with it and will even go so far as to say I am in the midst of some mid-life crisis centered around a large member of the deer species. It's crazy.

Pat and I again looked at a first rifle hunt in the high alpine unit we hunted our last trip to CO. We didn't need much in the way of equipment as we were set in that area from the previous trip. I did finally work up a reload and dialed in an A-Bolt .280 I purchased over a year ago for my next western trip. It took a bit of time but I got the gun shooting right and felt comfortable to 350-400 yards. I accepted this 4 shot group which was under and inch even with the flyer

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One thing that I vowed to do was get in better shape and with a few bumps along the road I did so with great results. I hate running and I replaced that with aerobics and low weight/ high repetition weight lifting classes at the local Gold's Gym. It was a little embarrassing at first as I was often the only male in the class and I don't really have much rhythm for some of the aerobics stuff but with the mountains on my mind I put up with all the crap and for months did two to four classes a week. By trip time my body looked better and functioned better than it had in a mighty long time and I gained a high level of confidence that I could handle the mountains better than I had in the past. Mental comfort is so important for one of these hunts and fitness plays such a vital role in my confidence that I cannot sing the praises enough for these classes and instructors. They will kick your butt and make you better if you will suck it up and follow the program.

I must here say another word about my hunting partner and neighbor Pat. In reality I need a partner to accomplish this trip. The hunt area is high, steep, rugged and unforgiving. Anyone can draw a tag for this unit with 0 preference points every year, and the hunt has a relatively high success rate at about 33% but few people hunt our corner of the unit because of the features described above. In his middle forties Pat has been willing to take on the challenge and expense of this hunt twice and I thank him or that. Willing participants are few and far between around here. Bill Gardner of Antero Llamas told me to pick my elk hunting partners by how well they suffer. It is good advice. Pat will hunker down and get the job done regardless of the effort and discomfort. I've said before he is as solid as the Lord makes any more and stand by that now.

With the greatest of expectations early October arrived and we loaded for the trip. We bogged down in St Louis at rush hour due to some poor planning.

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We hammered on down the road however, hurtling through the widest point in the universe, otherwise known as Kansas, making the Front Range just before dark. It was beautiful.


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Untitled by hatchied, on Flickr

A side comment here on the trip out. There is a certain brotherhood of the road if you will. We left on the Tuesday morning prior to the opener on Saturday, but you would already see other rigs from other eastern states headed west for their own hunts. Waves and knowing nods were exchanged as the vehicles passed each other back and forth along I-70 which becomes a hunt artery of sorts, funneling men west to their respective destinations. I've not spoken to a single one of those men but nevertheless feel like we share some common bond. It's one of those quiet, small things that make the fabric of the experience, and one that I'm glad is there.

We made Salida by 11 or so, got a room at the Day's Inn and the next morning ate at the same pancake house we had been to the last trip. We met Bill at 7a to pick up the Llamas. This year it would be Chancho and Bunny. Now Bunny is a young male, but Bill explained that's what happens when a woman names a llama.

Bill and Chancho

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Pat and Bunny

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The llama stuff returned to memory quickly and we were soon on our way over the continental divide through Monarch Pass.

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Untitled by hatchied, on Flickr






Made it to our hunt area and organized at the trailhead while waiting to check into the hotel

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Thursday am we headed into the mountains with threatening rain. About two hours into the hike the rain started and didn't let up the rest of the day.


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Untitled by hatchied, on Flickr

The climb up to 11600' was largely uneventful and went more quickly than the last hunt. We managed to pitch the tents and get the camp set without getting too much wet. The damn fog was terrible and really hampered glassing/scouting the remainder of Thursday and all of Friday.

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Untitled by hatchied, on Flickr



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Notice the tent ceiling and the water. We spent a good bit of time hunkered in the tents

to be continued

HD






_________________
"We base our hopes upon a willingness to go to hard to get at places, to work hard, to freeze if need be, to rise early and stay late... We hunt and we hunt hard, often when the chances are poor. In that way we get a few occasionally." ODHA

 

[Hatchie Dawg]

I will admit a weakness here in that the weather really started to get to us. The fog just sat on us dampening everything including our spirits. We did however find some very fresh sign and the weather was supposed to clear for the opener on Saturday. Before daylight opening morning I awoke to the sound of bugling bulls all around us. I took little time for pictures, but we were in them bigger than heck. We had three solid buglers around us in three different basins. In the basin where we found the fresh sign on Friday, we finally spotted the elk and had a nice herd bull and about 12 cows within striking distance.

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Untitled by hatchied, on Flickr


The reports from CO had actually been poor this year with lots of water and food giving the elk lots of options to just kinda hunker down and lay low with little movement. The consensus was that if you found elk, play it safe and try your best not to booger them out. This was wearing on my mind as we watched the herd bull and waited for thermals to change from down drafting to up drafting as the sun reached the herd's basin. We would be coming down from above and needed the wind right. All morning the three bulls kept hammering away. I really never thought I would hear anything like it on public ground. The sound is otherworldly and comes at you from all directions at once. It is visceral wildness incarnate, and I am thankful the elk are still there to sound out their challenge, and I am thankful I got to sit in the middle of it all for a while.

About 11:00am in a nearer meadow a satellite bull showed himself. Pat, and I ranged him at 500 yards but he was coming towards us. Pat, a turkey hunter at heart, immediately realized this was a young bull out cruising for cows and that we could get him. I was still worried about the wind which was at that shifty moment when it was going back and forth. The young bull appeared to be in the same basin as the herd and I was reluctant to take a chance on spooking the herd bull but checking the puffer agreed to give it a try. We were going to set Pat out front in dark timber and I was going to call from the rear. Just dropping into the basin would close the distance by 200yards or more. As we descended I got 2 down going drafts on the puffer and backed us out. That was a mistake. We learned that afternoon the young bull actually had a ridge between himself and the herd. We could have boogered him without spooking the main body of elk.

As the thermals shifted we tucked into the meadow at the point the elk had been feeding that morning. As the sun set on our first day the bull bugled in the trees but did not come out into the open. We hiked back to camp in the dark with high spirits still surrounded by elk and many options. The second day however would change things.

Sunday we awoke to high winds, dense fog and pelletized snow. There was no bugling and little opportunity to glass. We could see almost nothing but when we did see "our meadow" the elk were no where to be found. Everything was quiet in the mountains except for the howling wind and increasing rounds of thunder. Let me tell you thunder is a whole different experience at 11,600'. It literally cracks the atmosphere and and you pause for a moment and look around to make sure you are still there. We lost most of that day to the weather. Pat and I got out in the pm but didn't see anything. I will share here that I actually got turned around on my foray and if not for the GPS I would have spent the night out somewhere. The snow was falling fast enough to fill my tracks and it even made reading the GPS difficult. I couldn't get the thought out of my mind that if the GPS went down, and it was getting wet, that I would be in trouble. I was so turned around that I was even arguing with the GPS unit and panicked a little bit. I took some time studied the map and unit and finally made it back to the trail. I have not shared this with my wife. Here is a pic at the low point when I made it back to camp. If I looked scared, it is because I still was.

Before I get scolded, I had a compass and a map along with the GPS.

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We made the only fire of the trip that night to warm up and dry out

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Pat cooking lunch before the pm hunt

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Me prior to getting turned around

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Happy to get in the tent

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[kansasdad]

That turned around feeling is the worst! Great adventure and nice accounting of the trip so far.

 

[Hatchie Dawg]

Spirits were still overall pretty high. The snow would be a good thing and make for easier tracking etc. However, everything changed the next day. In reality we lost the elk after Sunday and never really got back on them good. It took all of Monday to realize we had lost contact. Pat actually hunted a new basin and I went back to the original meadow. From our different places, I saw two cows up on our camp ridge and Pat heard a bugle back towards camp. We returned after dark but realized a herd had moved through about 100 yards from the tents....kinda sucks. Tuesday we made our second mistake in that Pat glassed a bull and 3 cows about 2 miles and 1500' below us. The place was further away from our trailhead and we had a disagreement over whether or not we should give them a try. Pat wanted no part of it. I understand his point of view but I look at this as our second big mistake of the trip, one on Pat and one on me, so I guess it evens out. We opted to hunt back down the basin towards town. There were elk there. We had heard them but not seen them. Tuesday evening we got on good sign and bivied without pitching the tents. It was a spectacular night and sleeping under the stars raised my spirits a bit. I could smell elk pee in the meadow I hunted but nothing showed.

Here is our bivy. I slept in a deer trail



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Pat deployed a hammock

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We hunted the area Wednesday but came up short. We were going home empty handed.

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I will admit that I go to Colorado to kill elk and it is hard for me to look at the trip as anything but a failure. The mindset is a weakness of mine but I can't help being me. It is what it is. Time had to pass before I could write about the hunt. I have to force myself to look at the good side and the things we learned and accomplished and they are there for sure, but the bottom line still gnaws at me. Elk hunting is the hardest thing that I do physically and mentally. I don't use a guide. I hunt on foot in a part of a designated wilderness that most avoid and my success rate believe it or not is actually higher than average for CO, even including the ranch and guided hunts. But, I am not as sure of myself as I once was. I can try as hard as I can try and still come up empty. Again it is what it is and I have to accept that or move on to something else.

On the way down that last evening my mind was running and I was mulling the thought that maybe this was too tough for me and I needed to find another way. Maybe a guide was needed or maybe someplace flatter or not quite so backcountry. Now I am a bit sentimental. One only has to look at the drivel I've put on this board over the years to realize that. I am a little superstitious and even believe in signs regarding the outdoors. I would be better served just looking at the cold hard facts, then analyze and calculate, but I can't seem to do that. As we reached the trailhead and the truck, my mind was made up. I was not going to take this trip again. I needed something easier, something with better odds. Maybe I could take a guided hunt every few years instead of the hunt on my own just about every year. Maybe I could find some ranch hunt that I could afford. As we dumped loads and unsaddled the stock, I opened the truck door, stuck in the key and turned on the radio. At that moment an 80s song was getting to the chorus line. " In a big country.... dreams stay with you... Like a lover's voice... fires the mountainside... Stay alive" It was hokey, but I sat and listened as Big Country hammered out the lyrics to their only big hit, fate or chance as you will have it, hitting me in my soft spot.

Right then and there deep down I decided to go back. I will take my "sign" and all my weaknesses and return to the those mountains and my little spot in the rugged Rockies. I will chase those bulls in my own way and do the best that I can do in the hopes it will be enough. I will take the failure or the success made of my own effort, the good and the bad. It is elk hunting. It is what it is and I am what I am.

Those are the cold hard facts.


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HD


_________________
"We base our hopes upon a willingness to go to hard to get at places, to work hard, to freeze if need be, to rise early and stay late... We hunt and we hunt hard, often when the chances are poor. In that way we get a few occasionally." ODHA

 

[JLS]

Nice write up and some good pictures. The trip is only a failure if you don't learn from it. Some of my most frustrating hunts have created the best memories and made me a better person and hunter.

 

[noharleyyet]

Wordsmithed pic accompanied storytelling at it's finest right there. Excellent share.

 

[ashersdad]

One of the finest write-ups I've read. I felt like I was there. I think we all know the feeling of coming home empty handed. Regardless, the memories of the hunt are with us for a lifetime. Elk or no elk, to me you had a successful hunt. Thank you for sharing.

 

[idnative1948]

Very fine and honest write-up. Congrats.

 

[elk_hunter]

Man, great story for sure. You guys had one helluva trip with great memories! Thanks for sharing the photos and the highs and lows of your trip!

 

[Gerald Martin]

Excellent write up! You had a successful hunt. It just takes going back and putting those lessons to use on your next hunt to realize it when you kill a bull. If elk hunting were only about killing something you'd pay a rancher to shoot one of his beef cows.

 

[sluggo6850]

Thanks for the great write up and pics. You may not have brought an elk home, but you brought great memories and knowledge. Who knows next year just might be the magical year. You definitely won't know if you don't go back. Good luck, and thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[David Keenan]

Great write up. I to can relate to some of this. I was in Co third week this year. 3 miles from camp up very high and one of those alpine thunderstorms hit me on the first day with a dusting of snow. Then on day two a second storm hit off and on all day. Putting down over a foot of snow by Monday morning. Then ice, the cold ,wind and fog. Will I go back ? Hell yea !!!

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Excellent words and pictures.

You experienced it all (almost) and discovered many positive memories.

I have experienced more than one very early 'kills' and probably missed several more hunt memories.

It will be that much sweeter ........

 

[hike2hunt]

Great right up...there's up and coming outdoorsman that wish they had a story like that. Nothing can take away time in the woods, especially the mental toughness it builds for our future endeavors.

 

[havgunwilltravel]

Great write up, and probably a read that every prospective first time self guided wilderness elk hunter needs to read. Admitting that you could have done things differently to create a better outcome is a big step in the right direction and shows that you are thinking about how to change and adjust your hunting to create opportunities from the encounters with elk that you have.
If you could i would head straight back in there next season, same hunt, and hunt the same location with the knowledge you have and be prepared to make it happen on any encounter you get. I am sure you are knocking on the door to regularly punching that tag on these western adventures. As for being passive when you encounter elk, i hear it all the time when guys say you must hang back and wait for the perfect encounter, well i am a big believer in creating opportunities from each and every encounter if there is the slightest chance to make it happen cover ground fast and get into position asap as there are so many variables that can come into play the longer you sit back and wait for the perfect scenario.
I believe in signs in the outdoors as well to give you an indication of how things are going and I'm glad your sticking to the mountains, there is no place like them.

 

[1_pointer]

Wordsmithed pic accompanied storytelling at it's finest right there. Excellent share.

Exactly!

To the OP, as someone who struggled with elk in big country, actually in most all country, keep at it! It will work out sometime and make it all that more awesome. Like you brought up, the mental part of the hunt is the hardest and the hardest one to prepare for.

 

[WestT]

Thank you so much for your story! I truly enjoyed!!!

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Great read... You are definitely on ur way too figuring "it" out...
Matt

 

[Festus]

I cant seem to let go of my desire to chase backcountry elk out west. The thought of it is almost always on my mind and I don't think there is a day that goes by when elk hunting does not occupy a part of my consciousness in some way. I am wound up with it and will even go so far as to say I am in the midst of some mid-life crisis centered around a large member of the deer species. It's crazy.

^^YES, this^^
I am totally eat up with it as well!!!

Great write up! Thanks for sharing!
It's a long learning curve when you live so far from those remote places...

After 6 or 7 years, we are starting to get better with 2 out of 3 archery kills the last couple years. Also, finding ourselves in elk more often and more regularly.
It is mostly the close encounters that are the subject of my nearly constant daydreams all year long. What went wrong? What went right? what would I do different if I could?...........Why don't I live out West?!?

 

[MtnWest]

Great write up man. Like others said, felt like I was right there with you. Keep at it, you're doing it right! Don't give up and please don't go guided

It would be such a letdown after doing it yourself. I'd rather hunt sterile ground on my own than kill a 400" bull that all I did was follow behind the hunter (guide) and pull the trigger when told to do so.