Colorado Elk and Bear Hunt wrap up.

Well I have just returned from my Colorado Elk and Bear hunt, and although I failed to fill either tag I had a wonderful time and had encounters with both species. One encounter with a 7x7 Bull elk at less than 30 meters will forever be burned into my memory. So where do I start, well I was hunting with a good friend James Hardesty and his partner Dana Davison and another friend of theirs Bobby Mead. I had driven from Denver to a pre arranged pick up point when I First met Bobby, he was the only other person in a car park at a trail head outside a small northern Colorado town waiting for James to pick us up. I introduced myself and pretty much knew right away we would get along. James arrived shortly after and once the hand shakes and greetings were over and done with we drove a few miles up the trail to where James and Dana had set up camp.

Elk Camp, consisting of two wall tents one for sleeping the other for camp kitchen.

  Camp was luxurious by Australian standards, it consisted of two wall tents, one for sleeping the other as camp kitchen and dining room, and a toilet tent, both tents were heated. Dana had a full kitchen set up complete with a gas oven, which I might add she used to great effect and kept us extremely well fed. James had a camp bed set up for me and literally all I had to do was roll out my sleeping bag and get changed ready to hunt.

It was about this time that James warned me about the altitude we were at and let me know he had a bottle of oxygen in camp should I need it at any stage, a very prudent warning considering we were camped at just on 10,000ft and the camp across the road had evacuated a member with altitude sickness that very morning. Fortunately I did not need the oxygen at all, but I will say it did take me a good 4-5 days to become reasonably well acclimatised to the altitude. I will admit that I was struggling with any kind of uphill exertion for the first few days and did have a slight headache that only went away after the 3rd day, and a persistent cough that lasted the whole trip. Altitude sickness is no joke and can affect anyone no matter how fit or well prepared you think you are, and next time I go I will try and spend 3-4 days in camp preseason just to acclimatise fully before hunting.

Some of the surrounding peaks with elevations exceeding 12,000ft. 

We started off the hunt with an afternoon of glassing from a nearby vantage point and were rewarded with sightings of a few Elk, a couple of Mule Deer and a very large Black Bear. right on sunset James let go some bugles and was answered  by a lone Bull bugling from deep in the canyon below, and numerous Cows in a nearby Aspen grove. I managed a couple of short videos of the distant Elk and we were able to determine they were all Cows, however we believed there was an unseen Bull with them.

Cow Elk.

The red arrow points to where the Cow Elk in the video is.

Once the sun had set we walked back to camp where Dana had a wonderful dinner waiting for us to tuck into. One of the other affects of altitude is a decrease in appetite and I struggled to eat but forced myself to knowing I would need the energy for the following days. After dinner we relaxed in the dining tent for a while just chatting before retiring to bed. I managed to get some half reasonable sleep considering my cough, something that did not start to resolve itself for quite a few days.

The following morning James and Dana had to leave camp for the day to attend to some business, leaving Bobby and myself to hunt together. We hunted the ridges close to camp and glassed over some of the country we had observed the previous evening in an attempt to relocate the Bear. We were unsuccessful in relocating him and only saw a lone Bull elk on a distant ridge, and we watched as he was spooked by a group of hunters above him that were totally unaware he was there, and a few Mule Deer, so Bobby tried some Elk cow calls and was successful in calling in another hunter, but no Elk. So after that we headed back to camp for some lunch and a nap before James returned later in the afternoon. 

Mule Deer Doe bedded in a thicket.

That afternoon we returned to the same spot as the previous evening and attempted to locate the Elk we had seen the day before but they were nowhere to bee seen, our thinking was the group of hunters we had seen spook the lone Bull had pushed them deeper into the canyon and they had yet to feed up out of it. We returned to camp just on sunset with a plan for the following morning, however the weather took a turn and brought some extremely strong winds overnight. We were woken numerous times during the night to the sound of  trees crashing down near camp. 

Morning saw little let up and we decided to stay put and glass from the open ridge tops and try and locate animals to chase later on in the day once the wind let up,rather than risk a tree falling on us. However this remained the pattern for the next two days with the wind howling and keeping the Elk quiet and holed up deep in the canyons out of the wind. The day was spent processing the meat from an Elk James had shot the day before I arrived, and I was quite surprised at the difference in size of the hooves compared to a Sambar Deer. Dana made some great mince meat and steaks that we had for dinner that evening with thee rest being packaged and frozen.

Elk have huge hooves in comparison to a Sambar Deer.

Elk Legs ready to process and package.

Fresh mince for hamburgers that evening.

 On the second day of wind we took the opportunity to head into town and refill some gas cylinders and dispose of some camp rubbish in the dumpsters provided by the forest service, we ate lunch in a local cafe with a great big "Hunters Welcome" sign out the front, something I had never seen before but was very common in Colorado during Elk season. 

The windy day plan that didn't happen.

After two days of constant gale force wind the temperature dropped and the wind stopped overnight and we could hear Bull Elk bugling during the night. We put our previous plan into action and hiked down from the top of the mountain into the canyon looking for Bull Elk. We managed to get a fairly half hearted reply from one lone bull but that was it. Half way down we encountered a bunch of Grouse, and Bobby quickly put an arrow in one for the pot back at camp, James then showed us how best to clean them ready to eat. Essentially one places the grouse on its back, stands on the wings and pulls up on its feet, this separates the entrails from the meat leaving a relatively clean carcass.

   Field dressing a Grouse.

Once done with the Grouse dressing we continued on with our stalk and at about the halfway point we pulled up on a ridge for a break where James and Bobby promptly had a nap.

James and Bobby having a Nana nap.

After an hour or so we continued down the mountain and shortly after we bumped into another hunter that was coming up from the bottom to retrieve his Elk carcass from a previous day. This guy was a machine, he had climbed about 3000 vertical feet at the point we saw him and he was not sweating or out of breath at all!!! He was perfectly able to carry out a conversation without showing any signs of exertion, we bid him good luck and went on out way. We made the bottom of the canyon and were following the stream towards our exit point when we spotted a storm front approaching. With that in mind we climbed a few hundred feet out of the bottom of the canyon and found shelter on the edge of an old water channel called the "Chinamans Ditch". I have encountered a few of these ditches in the Victorian high country, where old miners have attempted to divert water for sluices or other mining related activities. Anyway we sheltered on the lip of teh ditch while the storm blew over, we had wind, rain and sleet then hail. Luckily I had brought my "Moroka30" Pack Jacket and was very impressed with its performance in the conditions as blocked out the wind and I stayed warm and dry. 

Sheltering from the storm.

Once the storm had passed we continued on our way along the canyon bottom to our exit point and in one particularly thick area we encountered some Moose sign. Shortly after that we crossed the creek and made our way along a small flat before climbing over a saddle and dropping into a large clearing where James had stashed a Quad bike. James and Bobby took the Quad bike back to camp to get the ATV and I stayed with the backs and Bows. I got my stove out and made a cuppa while taking in the surrounds and resting up, it had been a very long hike, even though most of it was downhill my legs were feeling it and I was happy to sit and relax. 

The saddle we climbed out over from the clearing, it doesn't look much but I assure you it was hard going.

Sitting in the Meadow with the gear.

James returned about an hour later and we loaded up the gear and headed back to camp, arriving just on dark. As usual Dana had a massive dinner waiting for us and we quickly devoured it along with a couple of bottles of water. Sleep came easily that night though I did hear a couple of Bull Elk bugling at different times. In the morning we headed off to hunt a ridge behind camp where James had taken a Bull a day before I arrived. The hunt involved a climb down a rock face above a lake then hunting along a ridge to a rocky outcrop where we would glass and bugle from. The climb down was relatively easy but it also meant we would have to climb back up. We reached the rocky outcrop and began calling only to have our calls answered by another group of hunters lower down the face. Oh well that's the joys of public land hunting I guess. We located the spot where James had taken his Bull but there was little of the carcass remaining, the Bears had seen to that. We moved to an adjacent ridge and glassed for the remainder of the morning with no luck. I took the opportunity to take some photos and video of a couple of Squirrels before beginning the climb back out. The climb was a little difficult but the view more than took your mind off the exertion.

The view from the ridge.

The rocky climb back out from the ridge, the lake is hidden by trees.

The lake and the climb back out behind.

Squirrel.

After the mornings unsuccessful hunt we decided to try a different area in the afternoon and went to a valley we had not been in yet. We located a good vantage point and began glassing, taking note of some wallows lower in the valley. We had not seen anything after about half an hour so James bugled and was immediately answered by what sounded like a huge bull. We moved to get above the animal and James began a bugling battle with the Bull to get him to approach. We constantly moved to get in a dominant position above the Bull and James Bugled to get him to in a position where either Bobby or myself could get a shot. James told me where to stand and dropped back about 100 yards and began raking a tree with a branch. The Bull went crazy and I could hear him crashing through the pines getting closer. He finally showed himself about 40 yards from me a massive 7x7 in a clearing looking past me to where James was raking and bugling, I could smell him and see the snot dripping from his nose it was such an incredible sight. There was a large log between me and him at 20 yards that he had to cross to get to James and I watched as he approached, unable to draw my bow as he was looking at me. 

When he reached the log he put his head down behind it and I took the opportunity to attempt to draw. At the instant I started to draw he lifted his head and caught movement, he spun around and bolted 50 yards. I could no longer see him but he was circling around trying to get down wind of me and unknowingly walking directly to Bobby. I saw Bobby draw and hold and waited for the shot but it never came, the Bull lost his nerve and walked away. Bobby later told us the Bull was obscured by brush at 50 yards and never presented a clear shot. I couldn't believe what had just happened but was still focused on the hunt as there were other bulls bugling around us now too. We had a quick chat about what had happened and what had gone wrong, then started a play on another bull but the falling light beat us in the end. I managed to get some video of a herd of Elk on the opposite face just on last light as we headed back to camp. 

That night back in camp we discussed what had gone wrong in more depth and James concluded it was a gamble trying to dray as I did but he would have done the same, It's not every day you see a 7x7 let alone get to draw on one. That was somewhat comforting however I still felt like I had let him down in not being able to close the deal with the Bull but that's hunting and it's those failures that drive you to succeed. We went to bed to the sound of Bulls screaming on the nearby hillsides. 

Sunset over Camp.

The following morning we left the Elk alone and hunted close to camp for a Mule Deer as James had an either sex tag. I spotted a nice big Buck and James made a stalk but the Buck eluded him, however a big Doe presented a shot and after a short tracking job of 50 yards we were carrying her back to camp. The rest of the morning was spent dealing with the Mule Deer. We welcomed another hunter into camp that afternoon, a friend of James's named Paul. Paul arrived around 3pm and we quickly found we both had a lot in common and got along instantly. Paul got his gear sorted out for the afternoon hunt, and we decided to try for the big bull again from a different ridge. That afternoon was to be my last afternoon in camp as I was leaving the following morning to meet my wife in Los Angeles. 

We made our way down a long ridge bugling as went and soon had a Bull interested and on the way in, we set up and James dropped back to call in the Bull. I could hear the Bull making his way through the pines and brush and finally caught sight of him about 90 yards away in some brush. He moved back and forth below us for quite a few minutes with all 3 of us getting a look at him but he did not present a shot for anyone. Eventually he decided he didn't want to play anymore and quietly left the area. With the light fading and my last chance at an Elk over for teh year we made our way back uphill and along the ridge line back to camp arriving just on dark. As usual Dana had a wonderful meal waiting for us and after stowing our gear we eagerly tucked in. Bobby and myself had a couple of well deserved beers as we were leaving in the morning. 

Dana, James and Paul after dinner.

 I drifted off to sleep that night to the sound of bugling Elk, already planning how I was going to return to hunt Elk again. In the morning Bobby and I packed our gear and said our goodbyes yto the others in camp before heading off. Bobby dropped me in the car park at the end of the trail and then followed me into town where we ate breakfast together in a local dinner. We the said our goodbyes with me heading off back to Denver and then LA, Bobby heading home for a few days before returning to hunt the last week of the season.

Bobby, James and Paul with me in the back on out last morning.

  

That pretty much saw the end of my Elk hunting adventure for 2019, would I do it again? Absolutely in a heartbeat. I would do a few things regarding altitude acclimatisation a little differently, next time but you have to experience that at least once to find out what works best for you, and even then there's no guarantee it will be the same. So the big question I guess is how do Sambar Deer compare to Elk?  Well Elk are Big, light coloured, noisy, herd animals and not shy about asserting their dominance during the rut, they don't appear to care much about how much noise they make and are quite happy to advertise their presence, as long as they don't smell you. They will try and circle down wind of you when you are calling and sneak in the last 50 to 100 yards to see how big of an opponent "you" are before committing to a fight.  I can honestly say I had my opportunities on this trip and had I been hunting with a rifle I would have taken an Elk for sure, do I regret anything? absolutely not, I went, I gained experience, I met great people and I plan on returning as soon as I can.

Thank you, James, Bobby and Paul for sharing the time with me and I hope we can do it all again very soon and lastly Dana, for without your support providing meals and snacks back in camp this adventure would not have been anywhere near as much fun or enjoyable. Returning to camp to a warm and hearty meal is a absolute godsend, Dana you are a Gem!