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With no time to scout, I went up the day before the season, got out my shiny new spotting scope and started glassing some empty hillsides. An hour before dark the elk started to appear like ants. I lost track of the bulls, I counted somewhere between 8-12. I took some terrible pictures through the spotter with my camera phone and came up with a plan. It was a 3.5 mile hike to get to the hillside where the elk were feeding and looking across the 3.5 miles, it looked doable…almost easy! The plan was set. I would start hiking at 3:30AM to get in position at first light on the hillside to intercept a bull.

A mile in I hit a canyon, down 400 feet and straight back up, then another…and another. I should have looked at the map instead of trusting my eyes when I scanned the country between the road and the elk. At 6AM I hit the bottom of the mountain, 700 feet up and ¼ mile to go. The grass was still wet and the hillside was steep, which pretty much soaked me from chest down.

Thirty minutes later it was shoot time and I was in sneak mode, hugging the dark timber and glassing the open meadows. All summer I had told myself “once you find the elk, SLOW DOWN!” I was doing my best to go slow and be patient, neither of which are my strong suits! I look ahead 100 yards and see tan, FREEZE!

The cows start feeding toward me being led by an absolute horse of a cow elk! I had a decision to make and I needed to make it quickly. I thought to myself, do I shoot this cow and kill my first elk with a bow 8 minutes into my hunt? I have my arrow nocked and the cow ranged at 27 yards. I decided it was too early and there was too much action to fill my tag on a cow. I crawled farther into the sliver of trees in hopes that the elk would feed past me and not blow out ahead of me, taking the other elk with them. I decided my best chance of going undetected was to cross through the sliver of trees to the other side and let the elk pass as I glass the open meadows.

On the other side I glassed up in the rocks 200 yards above and see 2 bulls working their way down the hill. As I sat, coming up with a game plan to intercept the 2 bulls, I saw another brown flash 100 yards ahead, another bull! I hadn’t touched a call yet, knowing I was better off not giving away my location. The bull, a small 5x5 was working his way toward me, 50 yards and closing. We were both on the edge of the trees but there was a little bend in the tree line and I was on one side and he was on the other. I peaked around the corner and saw his legs 20 yards ahead. If I stayed put he wouldn’t clear the trees until he was 5 yards away. I made the decision to back up 20 yards and wait.

My heart was pounding as I peered below the fur tree waiting for a leg to appear. Patience…more patience…ok enough. I couldn’t sit still any longer. I started to walk back toward the bend to see what happened and to my right, through the trees something moved. A bull, 15 yards away moved slowly toward the dark timber. Where did he come from? How did he not see me? How did I not see him! Ok, back to work…

Over the years I have had plenty of chances and all of those chances ended with me doing something dumb and costing myself a shot. I felt good about the fact that I had done everything the right way. I realize it doesn’t always work out the way I want and even when everything goes right, that doesn’t end with a blood trail.

I had 3 different shot chances on bulls within 40 yards of me and none of them knew I was there. Should I have shot that cow at first light? No way, I had almost killed a bull in the first 45 minutes of opening day! I made the decision to drop into the dark timber and work my way that direction, knowing if I side hilled across the mountain, the wind would be favorable. I immediately found an elk highway that led to a heck of a wallow. It was actually two wallows that spanned 20 yards. The grass was laid down, the water was muddy, and the tree trunks were covered in splattered mud. I can’t wait to get up there this summer and put a camera on that wallow. The videos should be outstanding. I splashed around a little and raked some trees while bugling, but nothing was biting so I slowly and not so quietly moved through the thick timber. The smell of elk was in the air and I bumped a couple animals that I never saw. It was too dark and too noisy to hunt, and I told myself to leave that place alone the rest of the trip.

I spent the rest of the day covering ground and being fairly disappointed. At one point I came to a thick willow patch and as I stood contemplating whether to go through it or around it, I heard an animal making its way through the willows. It was 50 yards away making an absolute racket trying to work through the snarl of willow branches. I moved to the left 10 yards and waited. The sound got closer and louder. The only thing that could make this kind of noise was a big bull trying to get his rack through the willows. Pretty soon I could see the willows shaking as the animal worked its way toward me. It reminded me of Jurassic Park when the trees would shake as the T-Rex came toward them.

When the last willow bush started to shake, I drew my bow and settled my pin on the opening 10 yards away. A huge bull popped his head out of the willows, shook, and looked around. He was enormous…and black! Son of a! I let my bow down and he looked at me. He was an awnry range bull and in no mood to deal with me, so I slowly backed up until he looked away and continued my hunt. What a rush!

I saw lots of tracks in that general area, but after making a huge loop back to the truck, I didn’t see another elk track! 12 miles, a bunch of cattle, a herd of sheep, and 10 elk later, I was exhausted. I packed it up and headed home, knowing I had a month to hunt and time off work if I needed it.

Disclaimer...I am leery of posting scenic pics, especially showing landscape so there might possibly be a landscape picture or 2 that aren't from that immediate area! I got the idea from Randy Newberg on a podcast. He's super sneaky!

It was now 2pm and I headed back to the sliver of trees to glass and listen for elk. Once I got up there it was quiet, with the only sounds being some distant thunder. I slowly worked my way around the edges of the meadows, making sure to play the wind as the distant thunder became not so distant. Pretty soon the thermals were gusts and the rain was becoming an issue. Having heard too many stories about people getting hit by lightning and falling trees I quickly found a place in the trees to hunker down and wait out the storm. The weather in Colorado never ceases to amaze me. In a matter of minutes the day turned from 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, to 40 degrees, and black as night with the biggest rain drops you’ve ever seen coming in sideways!

As I sat there watching the trees above me sway back and forth, wearing everything I had, which consisted of only my sitka rain coat and a merino long sleeve shirt, I remember thinking to myself, “What the EFF am I doing here?” The thunder was deafening and the trees reminded me of the videos you see of palm trees being bent over by hurricanes. I had been smart enough to make sure there were no snags in the little grove of trees I found.

A few minutes later the clouds broke and the wind stopped. The temperature climbed 20 degrees and the storm was a distant memory. As I sat watching the grass glisten in the sun, a rainbow appeared in the distance with the most vivid colors I have ever seen. My mood changed and my gloomy outlook became optimistic. I imagined all those elk felt exactly the way I did, just 5 minutes ago being cold and wet, huddled under some trees, but now waiting to get out and stretch their legs and bask in the sun.

I watched a coyote work his way toward me from 100 yards out. Like many people, when I see a coyote, it doesn’t matter what I’m hunting, it becomes a coyote hunt. I nocked an arrow and at 50 yards I decided things were getting serious. The coyote went behind a little hill, and was quickly forgotten when I heard a cow mew 200 yards away! I threw out a bugle and immediately 2 bulls bugled back, one of them 200 yards down the hill and the other a few hundred yards further. I bugled back and he was definitely closer as he answered back. He was heading my way. One more bugle and I was crashing down the steep hill trying to cut the distance from where he heard me bugle. Hunting by myself has the disadvantage of not being able to put a shooter between the caller and the bull, so I hoped to get 50 to 100 yards closer than my last bugling location in hopes that he would walk right into me, thinking the bull was still farther up the hill.

As I sat there waiting I heard a cow mew 100 yards to my left. I started to worry that he was going to slide over to her and it took everything I had not to touch my calls. 30 seconds turned into 2 minutes and I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided to stick with the bugle and as I started to bugle he cut me off. I bugled again and he cut me off again! He was pissed and he was close! He couldn’t have been more than 50 yards away. My right leg was shaking so bad I was wondering if I should kneel down! I looked down to see it vibrating and I remember smiling knowing how lucky I was to be experiencing that moment in time.

ElkNut1

As I looked back toward camp a cow elk walked through an opening 100 yards above my camp site. I turned and headed for the truck. I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to get to the elk without having to bushwack 3-4 miles. I ended up finding a foot trail that got me close, but of course the last ¼ mile was straight up a hill. I guess it’s better to go up the hill empty, than loaded down, but coming down a steep grade with a heavy pack is no picnic either.

It ended up taking 3 trips to get the bull off the mountain and the butcher weighed the meat along with the head and horns at 297 pounds. The head and horns with the 2 front shoulders was significantly lighter than the other 2 loads, so I figured I maxed out around 110 pounds on the 2 loads that consisted of trim meat and rear quarters.

The weather was in the upper 60s, but I managed to save all the meat. Hanging it without bags the first night made a huge difference I believe. The next morning it had a thick “crust” and was cool to the touch. I tried to trim some fat off the hind quarters to save some weight, but my havalon would barely cut through the crust that had formed. My kifaru pack did a great job, but the bikini frame struggled on the two heavy loads so Santa Clause brought me a new Kifaru hunter frame for Christmas!

nice bull !!

I think that was Jaquomo walking past....you found his honey hole!

Leaving the bone in? Actually leaving the bone in prevents the meat around it from cooling down faster. Not sure a day would make any difference but a few days, that meat near the bone might sour especially if the hide was left on.

Best of Luck, Jeff

Paul is correct, bone in quarters will cool slower than completely boned meat. Surface area is what allows quicker cooler. Where you can run into problems with boned out meat is if you put big chunks of meat together into a meat sack, the middle part won't cool quickly. Smaller bag fulls hanging will cool best.

Boning out only makes sense to me on the hind quarters, the fronts are thin enough that they'll cool quick. You can alway cut the meat away from the femur and hip and prop it open with a couple sticks to cool while hanging. I've done this and it definitely helps.

BTW Great story! Nothing fuels the fire like success stories in the off season.

As far as being in shape I think I'm just dumb enough to do it. It's not a bravado deal, "how few loads can I haul this elk out", its more of a "I have to hike up that mountain how many times?!?" I workout year round, mostly weight lifting but I'll start doing scouting trips and hikes to get ready. I'm lucky to stay in shape and am able to get in hunting shape while hunting for the most part.

Thanks and Congrats!