Re: Some pics of my Colorado trip
Elk Story...Part 1
Elk Hunt 2011
Sorry for the delay in getting the story out about my hunt in Colorado. The trip sure had its ups and downs.
There were 6 of us on this trip; me, my dad, my brother-in-law Harvey Lee, my former brother-in-law Bob Brown, Bob’s son Jason, and Bob’s son-in-law Ray Armstrong.
Man, I was excited about this trip. This was my 3rd trip west to hunt elk but it was the first time I have had the opportunity go with my dad and see all the places he and his hunting buddies described to me since I was a little kid. Even if I had not been able to hunt, that would have made the trip for me. We left around 5 o’clock Friday afternoon, from Hernando, and drove straight through to Montrose, Colorado. It took around 22-23 hours. Not too bad a trip if you have enough folks to take a turn at the wheel.
We were only a few hours from Montrose when Bob received a call from the fellow that leased us the hunting area. The guy told Bob that “the other group” was still out there hunting on the ranch we leased. Well, I am not going to go into great detail about this part, but there was not supposed to be another group on the ranch as Bob had been told that we had the ranch for the duration of bow season. It turned into a big ordeal. To make a long story slightly less long, the guys hunting the ranch told us not to bother hunting that area as there were no elk on the ranch and not even any cover other than 40 acres of scrub oak. So, we were forced to form a Plan B and then switch to it.
We found out that the interlopers were right and the ranch was indeed a lost cause so we set about finding other places to hunt. My dad and Bob had hunted this general area quite a few times so they showed us around. My dad took us to Ridgeway and then around toward Mt. Sneffels. Dad and his hunting buddies had camped and hunted that area many times. There were quite a few bow hunters and campers in that area. It was very steep and rugged country. This fat boy was glad the place was 2 hours from where we were staying. I did not want to climb those hills. We drove around through other parts of the Uncompahgre National Forest until we found some elk. Unfortunately, those elk were about 3000 feet above the road.
We spent Sunday and Monday looking for hunting areas instead of hunting elk. No one was very happy about fighting the crowds on public land but, we really had no choice if we wanted to save the trip. Since daddy wasn’t hunting he stayed in town a good bit and the rest of us grouped up to look for a specific area to hunt. Harvey and I stayed together and looked and Bob, Ray, and Jason stayed together. My plan was to try to find a trail that would take me up high while Harvey skirted the side of the mountain. Bob’s group basically hunted from the truck and listened from the roads for a bugle and then would head toward the elk. If you have ever turkey hunted the national forests in Mississippi you have seen folks doing this very same thing.
Tuesday morning was our first real hunt. Harvey and I headed up a trail from the main road just before daylight. We discovered that the trail went to a campsite and seemed to dead end. Harvey decided to side hill around and I started looking for a trail up the mountain. If you have never been in to a western state hunting you might not know why I needed a trail to follow. Well, its a lot different from Upper Sardis for sure. The trouble isn’t so much the hills as it is the timber. Things are great as long as you are in aspens or open pines but those things never seem to last long. It seems that you can only walk a couple hundred yards without encountering dark timber and blow downs. The blow downs look a lot like a tornado has been through the area except the trees are laid down pretty much whole. They crisscross over the top of each other like someone dumped out a box of toothpicks. It is a mess and is pretty much impenetrable. At least while trying to hunt quietly, so I was looking for a trail.
Just as there was enough light to see without a flashlight, I found a cattle trail that headed more or less up the mountain. And, I mean up the mountain. Our GPS said the elevation at the truck was about 9400 feet. Where I stopped climbing the mountain the GPS said 11000 feet. That doesn’t seem like much until you actually climb it a few times. There’s a distinct lack of oxygen up that high. I could only climb a few steps at a time before I had to stop. It is a hard way to hunt for sure. Your breathing, if you push it, keeps you from being able to hear very well. And, when you are elk hunting, a lot of the thrill comes from hearing their bugles. So, to hear you must walk slowly….especially if you are fat.
I moved up through a few small meadows that were hidden in the timber and eventually made my way to where the cows were heading, a meadow of about 10-15 acres way up high. I saw more elk sign the higher I climbed. There wasn’t much activity on the lower meadows I guess it took me about 1 1/2 hours of climbing to reach the large upper meadow. I had only been moving up the meadows edge about 200 yards when I saw 3 elk moving from my right to the left side of the opening. It was a cow with a nearly grown calf and a pretty good bull. He looked to be a medium sized 5x5. The bull never looked my way at all and seemed intent on following the cow out of the meadow. They were about 175 yards from me when they moved out of sight. I was stoked! I could hear other bulls bugling on either side of the meadow farther up so I kept climbing.
I reached an open area that seemed like a really good crossing just above where the 3 elk had crossed earlier so I stopped to rest awhile. I pulled out one of Luckydawg’s turkey calls and bugled back at a distant bull. By this time, the bugling seemed to be calming down as I was hearing fewer and they seemed to be longer apart. I didn’t get a response so I decided to climb up as high as I could to take in the view and see if I could get up to the snow. I gave up at the end of the meadow at about 11,000 feet.
The view was beyond my means of description. I could see over the mountain pass between me and Mt. Sneffels. I could even see Chimney Rock. If you have ever watched the original “True Grit” with John Wayne you have seen this rock too. I would have been content to sit there all day if an elk hadn’t bugled right down below, in the same area where I had rested and called from just an hour or so before! I couldn’t see the elk so I decided to call. I pulled out my converted Luckydawg call and laid out a squealing bugle I hoped sounded like a young bull. After a minute or two the bull below me let out a chuckle. It is a hard sound to describe but it does sort of sound like someone chuckling. I decided to move down to him. I had moved a couple hundred yards down the hill when another bull sounded off right where I had just been sitting! I immediately answered him with a squealing bugle of my own. It seemed like half an hour had elapsed before I heard anything from either bull, but likely only 3 or 4 minutes had passed. The bull above me bugled again, he had moved 50-75 yards to my right which was away from the meadow. I nocked an arrow and eased off into the woods with him.
The timber up there was fairly open and in some places you could see 75-100 yards so I was moving really slowly hoping to see the bull passing above me. He bugled occasionally as I angled my way up to him. I hit a trail that paralleled the direction the elk was moving and slipped along as quietly as I could below and behind him. I hadn’t heard a bugle for a few minutes when I stopped to really look around closely. I stood really still for quite awhile before deciding to move on along the trail. It was the wrong decision. The bull had been standing about 60 yards above and slightly in front of me. He saw me move and trotted off slowly. The wind was blowing perfectly for my approach so he hadn’t smelled me and he really didn’t seem that alarmed. He bugled again about 5 minutes later. He had put about a ¼ mile between us. I cannot catch up with an elk that wants some yonder when we are at 11000 feet. It just ain’t a fair race.
I decided to back out of there and give him some room since he didn’t seem too scared and was still bugling. I eased back out to the meadow and made my way down to where the other elk had bugled. That elk had also moved off into the dark timber. I thought I heard a chuckle or two and maybe a weak bugle from that area. It was about lunch time so I decided to head down to Harvey and see what he had found.
It turns out Harvey hadn’t seen anything but other hunters. He said those guys were walking around the side of the mountain bugling and cow calling constantly. He said it was like a public land turkey hunt. We decided to go look for Bob and his group. It turns out that Bob, Ray, and Jason had gotten on a huge bull on a mountainside they described as slightly steeper than straight up. They had the bull within 80 yards for several minutes but never shot. Jason and Ray later set up a target at the same range and angle and had no trouble sticking it using a hold between their 40 and 50 yard pins. So, everyone, except Harvey, saw an elk on Tuesday.