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4 October 2007

2007 Colorado Archery Elk Hunt - A Quick Recap, Days 7-10

Posted by Darrell under: Elk; Colorado; Hunting Stories .

Day 7 - The three of us made our way back up the mountain that our guide had taken us to on day 3. Billy and I called in a giant bull. I never saw it because of where I was sitting and where he came in from. But, apparently, he got to within 30 to 40 yards. He was fired up! Billy got to watch him for several minutes but never got a good shot either. He had a 60 yard downhill shot but decided against taking it. It was a great day and we returned well after dark without elk.

Day 8 - We decided to try a new area where some guys that had left the previous day told us they had been seeing lots of elk. I split off from Jeff and Billy and followed a horse trail for about 3 miles. I then took a game trail off of it and started working my way up the mountains. At around 8 am, I watched a large herd of elk run across the top of a distant mountain. I decided to head in that direction. I hiked as hard and fast as I could and made it to that spot just after 4pm. I was over a mile and a half away from where I’d watched these elk from and 3,000 vertical feet higher! I took the picture on this post from the spot where the elk came through. Anyway, there were bulls bugling and I called a couple in to within 20 yards. However, they were in such dense brush, I couldn’t get a shot at them. Talk about frustrating and exciting at the same time! I started working my way towards a bull that was down the mountain from me. I could never get close enough for a shot - although we were sure singing real pretty together.

About this time I realized that I would probably need to spend the night on the mountain as there wasn’t time to get off before dark. The hillside I was on was way too steep to hike down and my only way off the mountain was to hike back up about 500 feet higher and then take a game trail (same one I came across on) across the steep slope to the opposite side which wasn’t so steep. Mind you, though, this was still way too steep for a horse.

About this time I got one of those really dumb ideas and ended up sliding down the mountain about 50 feet or so on my buttocks and backpack. Well after that 50 feet there wasn’t any way back up because it was literally too steep to climb. So I covered about 500 feet (in 40 and 50 feet sections) on my backside! Amazingly, I made it back out to the horse trail just a little after dark and didn’t have to spend the night on the mountain, afterall. I would not, however, recommend sliding your way off of steep mountains. It is dangerous and dumb, but fortunately I lived to write about it.

Day 9 - We went back to Hell. Those crazy bulls that were stacked up in the deep ravine were calling to us both figuratively and literally. So we headed back down. This was one of my most interesting days hunting - ever. The bulls, literally, taunted us all day. Early on, I called in one pretty close, but we could never get a shot through the thick stuff. Several times we worked Bulls, only to have the wind shift and spook them. For several hours we found ourselves trying to stalk bulls that were singing to each other. Whenever we’d close to within 100 yards or so, they’d go silent and we’d assume that we spooked them. As soon as we were well away, they’d all start singing again. Amazing, yes! But it gets better.

We wanted elk meat so all of us were willing to shoot a cow if the opportunity arose. During this entire day of hunting we never actually saw an elk, even though we were surrounded by them for most of the day. As dusk approached and the rained poured down, we decided to work our way up out of the gorge (which is a multi hour process) and try to make it back to our truck before dark. We figured that there was a good chance that the road we had driven in on would be washed away or otherwise impassable so it might be good to get a look at while there was still light.

We finally, completely exhausted, made our way back to the truck. There is a chance that we were simply delirious from exhaustion, but our truck stunk. It smelled like elk and you could smell it from a good 30 feet away. I’m talking take your breath away stink, like several elk had urinated on the truck and then rubbed all over it. We thought maybe some other hunters had dumped a bottle of scent on it as a joke, but no one else was dumb enough to be out there.

We loaded all of our equipment in the truck while taking very short breaths. Billy and Jeff were already in the cab and I was just entering when Jeff started cussing and hollering. This beautiful cow elk was standing right there in front of the truck - less than 80 yards away. She stood their completely broadside just staring at our truck for the 3 or 4 minutes that it took me to gather up my bow, arrows, and release (as these had all been packed away).

Just as I started to step away from the truck and into the timber she bolted and never looked back. We all realized at that time that, without any doubt, we had been duped. The elk had been toying with us all day and this was our final humiliation.

What an awesome day! Unless you are a hunter, you’ll never understand how cool it can be to be completely outwitted by your prey. It doesn’t get much better.

Day 10 - We departed for home. Billy was extremely anxious to return home and see his wife and infant son. Fortunately for Jeff and I, he fell asleep so we were able to take the more scenic route. Billy woke up in time to find us a few hours out of the way, but he did get to eat a really good lunch at the Ore house restaraunt in Santa Fe with us. On our way home we spotted what had to be a B&C antelope. 

I’m now looking at antelope hunts in New Mexico.

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