I got to the camp my buddies from MO wanted me to secure by 6pm, got set up and had an hour before shooting hours ended to go sit next to a meadow that dropped steeply into a waterhole below. Nothing showed. But it was good to get out. Back to camp, eat a cold sammich of smoked turkey, cheese, and mustard on flat bread. Yum! To bed and it is ON tomorrow.
I got up at 4:20 am anxious to be after the elk. I expected to see more good sign and hopefully an elk or 3. To start off I wanted to go to an area I had dropped into next to a 5x5 bull earlier this summer. The elk had torn up a steep section of mountainside coming up from a lower meadow at 10,200' up to my spot at 10,450' and the area was covered in elk poo the weekend before. Of course, in the dark I went further than intended, took longer than planned, and snagged an arrow off my quiver along the way.....never found it. I lost alot of gear on this trip, developed a hole in my pants pocket I didn't detect soon enough. Nothing important or expensive, some mouth calls and windicator, but it still sux to lose stuff. Luckily found my GPS after it slid out undetected.
Nothing came up from the meadow so about 10am I decided to grab my game cam nearby and take it to a place at 10,100' below. On the way found some new spots that looked good but the amount of fresh sign had dropped back to pre-opener levels. Looked like there were maybe 6-8 elk running around instead of dozens the weekend before. After I got the trail cam set up I hunted my way back. Found a pile of elk nuggets that was all but still steaming.....set up, called, raked, did all I could think of....sat quiet for an hour......nothing. This continued many times over 7 days.
As I got up to 10,450' and started hunting back up a drainage with meadows that had alot of (now) old sign, the sky opened up with rain, hail, wind, and thunder. I could not see from my location how big the storm was back to the NW, but decided it was time to assume the worst and head to safety. I hate me some mtn lightening....scares me silly. Not much else out there does. Of course by the time I got to where I felt more secure in the timber and could see the storm was broken up and blue sky was coming back, the wind was a mess and I was ready for a cold beer. So back to camp.
The weather continued to worsen that afternoon and after recurring bouts of wind, rain and hail I went to bed by 7:30 pm only to listen to it rain all night. I didn't even get out of bed until 9am on Sunday. No reason to be out in that stuff. Late start......got out and was anxious to see super fresh sign after the storms washed away all the old stuff. No luck. The elk had mostly disappeared. Only a few singles milling around randomly were in evidence. This sux.
To add to the fun, my right rear tire on my Tacoma decided to develop a slow leak. I could not find it to plug it. I have a compressor so I just kept topping it off every other day. The weather turned dry, blue bird days, lots of gusty crazy wind, and it turned from cold, wet and super great sneaking conditions to walking on rice crispies everywhere you went. My boots were creating dust plumes......and way too much noise. No set up was worth a damn more than 10 mins before the wind switched and screwed things up. It would die down nicely about 7pm which gave you about an hour of good hunting conditions each day. Great.
Still no elk have been seen. Heard. Very few fresh tracks and virtually no fresh elk poo....just a bit hear and there and mostly not super fresh. By Tuesday I was seriously considering the 4 hour drive east to home and see the family. I had hoped to be doing so to bring home elk meat for the freezer......no luck. But my MO boys were set to arrive Thursday about 10 am so I stuck it out.
The boys arrived and we had a good time setting up their mega glamping mansion tent. 10X40 giving them 400 sq ft of dry and windproof sleeping, cooking, gear drying space. Much nicer than my 10x10 tent but I like going small and easy. They go full bore with home made meals frozen in the coolers for each day. They cooked big ass ribeyes, taters, mushrooms, and onions while I spent another fruitless evening hunt over a waterhole thinking 4 days of super dry would drive the elk to water. Nope. But that ribeye and taters with mushrooms and onions was Da BOMB after several days of less than 1500 cals per day. I knew my belt was tighter. Lost about 5-7 lbs during the week out there.
I forgot, I found a dog lost back there on Tues or Weds. Got the owners' number off the collar.....the dog would not come with me even after I fed her some meat stick. She was old and broke down, confused, and lacked energy. They lost her the Monday before from their camp up the hill. I texted the owner and helped him look for her where I had seen her hanging out but she was gone. I figure she had wandered off to die...he did too. Sad.
A forest fire jumped up to our north about 20 miles away on Monday or Tuesday. By Friday the smoke smell was stinking up the air in our area. Nothing about pine fire smells good......unlike oak, or just about any other wood. Nasty. Scary to see also. I hunting Friday morning going to retrieve my camera down at 10,100'. Found a Fourrunner with MS tags parked down there at the end of a hellacious 4 mile road. If it rained his butt was gonna be back there awhile. Got the cam and NOTHING after 48 hours back in the area I expected was the place the elk had fled for safety from all the grouse hunters blasting shotguns on Labor Day and the archery hunters stinking up the woods. Nope. Nada. Nothing. The theme was getting tough to take mentally after so many months and miles of preparation. My GPS has over 32 miles logged since August 27th and many times I have it turned off in areas I already know to save battery. I know I logged that much and probably more scouting since June. Here I was looking at sign indicating maybe 6 elk were running around where it looked like a herd or two had been a week before. In an area I had always had opportunities and seen lots of elk. I was mentally suffering and my body was pretty beat up as well.
After the boys from MO arrived it turned off colder. Ice formed every night. I remember Thurs morning hunting over a water hole and having dozens of crows show up for a drink. After 9 am I got up to check my camera down below and hunt the skid trails and saw the 1/4" of ice on the waterhole that kept the crows from getting their drink. Friday night my water froze in my water bladder so that I could not get a sip of water until after it thawed enough around 8:30 am. That suked. I was hunting a new area Sat. morning with my good buddy from MO, David. Looked good. Had some fresh tracks and poo....but no elk were seen, heard or found. Needed a hardhat as the squirrel near me was a world champion pine nut cutter and about nailed me many times. It was like pine cone rain for 10-15 mins at a time. Damn squirrels. Damn grouse. Damn ELK!
I packed up and headed home Sat. afternoon. My wife was taking our kids to RMNP on Sunday and I wanted to spend the day with them. It was hard leaving my buddies and the elk-less woods. But I will be back this Friday for one more weekend of chasing around hoping to find a elk to deflate.
I hope your season goes better than mine. Had alot of fun but it is rare for me to be skunked on finding elk and having a chance to harvest one. That is tough. Tag soup is threatening.....and I have a double serving working with a cow and bull tag each.
I leave you with an 8/13 pic of the waterhole herd that I never saw again.........
Another night I was sitting down below my trail cam in an area with a bunch of trails that converge.....a funnel. I heard some noise coming from downwind along one trail and thought to myself.....self.....no self respecting elk would come to me from downwind.....although many many elk have done just that to me over the years. So I look and see a couple grouse toodling down the trail then up the branch going uphill from me. I range the lead bird at 30 yards.....a bit long for me on a grouse but what the hell. So when his buddy pops into the spot I let the string drop and the grouse jumps up and flops about and I think WOW........I popped that grouse. Then he goes back to pecking and walking on up the trail. I see my arrow in the dirt right there so I missed him by an inch or less.
I go to retrieve my arrow leaving my bow. DUMB. I got within 10 yards of that bird before he ran off then flew to roost. I coulda popped him at close range. I'm a dummy. But it sure was Fun!
G
They left a few of my items at camp, a silnylon tarp we had over the shitter to keep off the weather, maps, and sundries. I quickly grabbed them and headed to another campsite closer to the primary hunting areas they recommended. I set up the tarp, laid out my mattress and sleeping bag, checked the marks on the maps, then geared up and headed out.
I got to the spot they had consistently seen a 4x4 bull messing around this week at about 6pm. Wind was good. I set up on a rock with some trees for backdrop on the north side of an upper drainage that had some small meadows running through. I was facing a short but thick north facing slope hoping the bull would work his way down to my area.
About 7:15 I heard a bull raking a dead tree just in front and above me about 80 yards or less away. My heart rate jumped. It was on!
I crept quickly forward about 15 yards next to a tree on the edge of the meadow and stared down the timber looking for anything to tell me where he was. I tried to cow call but forgot I had a chew in and immediately locked up my Carlton cow call. Now I was anxious as I had no way to draw the bull down, I had lost my darn diaphram calls when a pocket developed a hole earlier on my 7 day trip.
I tried to stay patient and trust he would pop out close by. I knew there was a larger meadow opening downwind of me and prayed he did not decide to take that route and wind me. His fresh tracks were into the lightly timbered area above that meadow that connected it to another larger higher meadow.
I waited. I watched. I listened until my ears bled. Nothing.
I lost light and it was time to stumble a mile back to camp and have some MH Teriyaki Chicken...not bad.
Sleeping out under a tarp is an experience. No windblock other than my backpack of clothes. It got down to 28F but I stayed plenty warm with a fleece headmask over my head and my 18F bag.
4:30 am came way too soon. Without a tent there was no way to warm up to get dressed so I just sucked it up and struggled into my clothes. I was warmed up quicly. Some OJ and Starbucks mocha energy drink and I was ready.
I crept downhill this time to try an area my buddies had seen another bull using and had seen the bull cruising the ridge looking down a steep timbered slope into a drainage with a meadow. I kept the wind off my right shoulder as I dropped down the drainage in the dark then crept up the steep slope at the far east end above the creek canyon. I stopped and waited for light.
As soon as it got light enough I confirmed my location and made a plan to move west staying to the north side so the wind was taking my scent down and to my right to the drop off. I spent 3 hours waiting, watching, doing some light cow calls, raking trees, waiting some more. On my way out I did not see any encouraging fresh sign. It had hailed hard up there on Weds night so any old tracks were washed out or clearly old. Nothing new. Not looking good.
By this point it was time to pull down camp (took all of 20 minutes or less) then hunt back to my trail cams to pull them for the season. It was noon now so chances of an elk encounter were slim, but it has happened to me before so I had my bow and was watchful. They run all over in the rut and the rut should be really close now.
Nothing on the cams. That was a big disappointment because the areas I put them in were remote, had heavily used historic trails, and had fresh sign when I hung the cams.
The damn elk had moved out to other parts and I had no idea where. Frustrating.
I went back into an area I newly scouted this year, again, looked rutty as can be, old historic well worn elk trails, lots of fresh rubs, on was a 5" around pine that was 12' tall, the bull had stripped all but the top 4" clean of bark and limbs. Then he twisted and broke it off about 6" from the ground. I guess his antlers got locked up in the tree and he had to break it over to get free. Big bull no doubt.
But not much fresh sign. Looked like a lone bull was in the area from some 3 day old poo and his bed on the edge of a small meadow. A day old or more track here and there. Not enough to get excited about coming back to focus here.
So I will drive back next Friday and try the 4x4's high drainage again. That had the most sign that was fresh. It was also the only close elk encounter I've had in 10 days of hunting up there, with the only elk seen so far this year being the 5x5 at 25 yards in mid August........I guess I'm a dumbass to stay on this place. My buddies reported multiple bull elk encounters this past week where I saw none the week before. So they are there....of course my buddies were hunting on cow ML tags.
One more weekend and probably 2-3 hunts left for me.
Forecast is for snow and the radio said up to 3-6" in the central mountains is expected.
Hoping that gets the elk moving, bugling, rutting, and I can follow tracks to the world's most blind, deaf, and dumb elk who is attracted to the scent of stinky desperate human.
Good luck to all who are closing out the season in CO this weekend!
Not a chance. A foot of snow in Sept. won't move elk 10'. They're probably sighing for relief, 'finally the the weather is getting near comfortable'.
sigh......
That same system hit us too saturday morning. Started off as rain, then a mix and then snow. It was our last day to hunt as it was, so we threw in the towel and decided to pack up a day early and head home.
How far were you from the Solar Creek fire? Was this the fire you spoke about?
