Elk Hunt!

Dave · August 30, 2013, 06:13:33 AM

Quote from: Semp on August 29, 2013, 07:50:06 PM
Going from sea level to 9200 ft, hiking and packing weight? Good luck, Dave. You are right to worry about that altitude. It takes a while to get acclimated. The air is thin and your lungs will burn.

Semp, that is the main thing I'm concerned about - the altitude. I had overexerted (and I believe dehydrated) myself once out there 15 years ago and suffered because of it.

We'll be taking our time with the hike out (Thursday) and the Muzzleloading season doesn't start tip Saturday, so there is no rush.
I'm hiking now with 50 to 55 and will probably pack 55 to 60. We are going to spend about 15 hrs in Vail (one night), which I believe is about 8,000 ft. I'm hoping that will help just a little.

Pat, i hear you with "wait till you have to pack out an elk." I'm just hoping that's a problem I get to deal with! (And you know they never die running back towards camp).

Okanagan · September 10, 2013, 12:07:35 AM

Good luck on your hunt! I think you and Dante are taking off day after tomorrow. Hope the bulls are bugling themselves into insanity for Dante. Have a great trip in every way.

KySongDog · September 10, 2013, 05:44:28 AM

Yep. Have a great time, Dave! It's going to be an adventure for sure. Wish I was tagging along. Bring back lots of pics too!

Dave · September 10, 2013, 05:53:42 AM

Thanks! Picking up Dante today from school at 3 and it's on!!! (Well, almost on as we have a short little drive first).
I also need to jettison a little weight out of my pack - and may just have to make a run out after a few days to grab whatever I leave back.

HuntnCarve · September 10, 2013, 06:34:06 AM

Have a safe trip guys. Hope you have a wonderful "Successful" trip.

Dave

coyote101 · September 10, 2013, 07:12:15 AM

Quote from: HuntnCarve on September 10, 2013, 06:34:06 AM
Have a safe trip guys. Hope you have a wonderful "Successful" trip.

Dave

That pretty much sums it up.

Pat

Hawks Feather · September 10, 2013, 08:45:00 AM

Enjoy the hunt and we will all be waiting for an update when you get back.

Jerry

Dave · September 20, 2013, 08:37:16 AM

Well we got back last night.
No time to post much more than my nephew shot a cow (archery) and Dante and I did get into several rutting bulls, but weren't able to get put one on the ground.
Just some REALLY memorable hunts and moments! Will try and post some over the weekend, with some pics.

FinsnFur · September 20, 2013, 09:09:14 PM

Glad ya's make it back safely Dave. The time together out weighs all. I cant wait to hear some of the stories.

Okanagan · September 20, 2013, 11:22:29 PM

Sounds like you had a great time. Yes, we want to hear the stories. My grandsons and I had lots of fun camping and cooking and trying for elk even though we didn't get anything but grouse the first foray of the season. This forum has folks who enjoy that part of life. I learn as much or more from the animals that evade us as I do from the ones we get, so throw in what you saw and heard, how you tried to exploit that and how each plan for a stalk, call, etc. turned out.

possumal · September 21, 2013, 09:02:16 AM

Sounds like you had some quality time with the youngsters. That's the main thing. The cow elk with the bow is a trophy any way you figure it. Glad all are back safe and in good spirits.

Dave · September 23, 2013, 07:07:54 PM

Day 1
We hiked in. Much more weight than we had thought. I was over 60 lbs, Dante over 30, Daniel (my nephew) around 50, and Jeff over 70.
We were finally trudging up the last hill (Added over a gallon H2O to my pack for the final ascent as water is scarce around the area I wanted to camp), and Jeff wanted to drop roughly 30 lbs 1/2 way up the hill and go back down once camp was set up. We took out what we thought we didn't immediately need (food and some clothing for me and Dante - Jeff and Dan both left their bows along with some food - a very BIG mistake!!!).
We trekked the final 1/2 mile and found a place to set up camp (around noon to 1). Had the tents up and I went towards the trail back to our gear to see a nice 6x6 feeding 35-40 yards away. I told the guys to grab their bows, "a real nice bull is right there!!!" "We left them down the hill." Lucky for them I wasn't holding a bat. Dante's muzzleloader season was still two days away, so I grabbed the camcorder and got this video.

The show was over, so we hoofed it back down the hill and hauled up the rest of the gear just before a good soaking rainfall.
Dante, Dan and I did manage to get out that evening, but didn't hear or see anything (Dan hunted and Dante and I tagged along).
End Day 1 exhausted.

coyote101 · September 23, 2013, 07:36:27 PM

Wow! How cool is that!

Keep the story and pictures coming.

Pat

Dave · September 23, 2013, 07:43:15 PM

Here's a video of the last leg of our hike in to see the size of our packs.
I'll try to post smaller clips going forward.

FinsnFur · September 23, 2013, 09:36:54 PM

Boy you guys were loading down like the infantry going in, weren't ya?

Cool videos. I've never seen so many Birch trees in my life...wow.

Okanagan · September 23, 2013, 11:13:28 PM

Interesting read and what a beautiful bull you had in camp. Love the shape of his rack.

FWIW I can't imagine getting more than arm's length from my bow or firearm during an open season until after my tag was notched. Astounding! We've had big mule deer bucks and a black bear walk through camp while we were eating lunch or cooking breakfast. No criticism intended, just different policies probably from different experiences. We had two bull moose stroll through within 40 feet of our campfire ring and since we didn't notice them, one of them grunted to get our attention. My partner had a moose tag and shot it.

Keep the story going!

KySongDog · September 24, 2013, 05:28:20 AM

That was a nice bull! I had to smile a little at the story about leaving the bow behind. I learned the hard way a very long time ago to never go anywhere without my gun or bow. You just never know when you are going to be presented an opportunity.

At deer camp many years ago, I was sitting in the outhouse (which was strategically placed downwind in the woods) with the door open to get a little fresh air when a huge buck walked no more than 30 yards away. Unfortunately, a roll of toilet paper does not make a very effective weapon.

I remember one time when my brother in law was sitting in a lawn chair around the camp fire with his rifle in his lap when a seven pointer walked too close to camp. He dropped it without getting out of the chair. You just never know.

Dave · September 24, 2013, 06:41:11 AM

Quote from: Okanagan on September 23, 2013, 11:13:28 PM

FWIW I can't imagine getting more than arm's length from my bow or firearm during an open season until after my tag was notched.

Haha! I hear ya now.
After shedding their extra weight, Dan caught up to Dante and I - I kind of told him the same that he shouldn't have left his bow back there. And then just to drive the point home, the bull appeared out of thin air (very, very thin air as you will find out in day 2!)! Oh well. We all learned a lesson there.

possumal · September 24, 2013, 12:22:39 PM

Great video, Dave. Sharing that kind of thing with the boys is good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Dave · September 26, 2013, 09:14:41 AM

Ok I have a few ~~minutes~~ hours to write up Day 2 (Friday).
Got up around 4:30 after rolling around ALL night without much sleep. Dante wanted to tag along with Dan and I headed out with Jeff. Our camp was at roughly 9,900 ft and we made our way to an open meadow above 10,000 by 8 am (you know where I'm going with this, don't you - Jeff's never hunted above 2,000 ft and had made a few comments like "Out of all of us here, I'm the last guy that will be getting lost" and how he can put his body through anything, etc., blah blah blah).

400/500 yards across this meadow I see a bull sort of moving downhill, going right to left. We were only visible from our chest to our head as we were tucked behind a small hillock on our end of the meadow. He stopped and somehow seemed to be staring at us. I put my hands above my head to simulate ears and backed away 70 yards towards some dark timber lining the edge of the meadow, cow chirping as I moved. He liked it! Jeff was stuck in the meadow, behind the hillock and I could see the bull moving towards him pretty quickly, and swinging below, to his left to try and grab a little scent.
Jeff couldn't see the bull, so I was pointing below him and Jeff followed my signals and was aligned perfectly. The bull closed the distance to 150 yards. He kept coming - 70 yards, then 60, 50, 40. I continued mewing. 30 yards and the tips of his antlers were now visible to Jeff!

Here's a clip on our setup

WAIT!

Remember that 10,200 feet above sea level?

The air is thin.

Vertigo!

Oh noo, it's ME! - not Jeff!

I had to drop to one knee.

My head was spinning as I dropped to both knees and put both hands on the ground as I was trying to stay up.

Jeff was looking back at me now and I raised my right hand to say I'm ok and tried to control my breathing.

But I wasn't ok. I couldn't even hold myself up on all fours and flopped to the ground, almost unconscious.

5 seconds later I heard the chafing sound of gore-tex rubbing together as I couldn't even lift my head, but knew it was not elk coming in, but Jeff running towards me.
He rolled me over on my back and had my knees bent up (he wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but thought that was the thing to do). I was able to get my hands over my eyes and try and release all thoughts and just focused on breathing. Five more seconds past, and I was able to get out, "Did you get him?"

"F*** no, I thought you were having a heart attack!"

"Ahhhhhhh" was all I could get out.

I laid there for what seemed like an hour with the world spinning. I was finally able to then get back on all fours, got sick several times, let another 1/2 hour go by and then felt pretty good. We headed back to camp fro some healing time that we both needed (Jeff had a nasty blister and what he called turf toe that impaired him the entire time out there)

Spent most of the afternoon around camp. Around 2 pm four hunters rode by on horses toward an area I was staying out of in hopes of hunting it with Dante for the muzzleloader opening Saturday morning. 3:30 rolled around and it was time for us to get rolling also. Dante, Jeff and I went downhill where there's air to breathe, and tried to get Jeff set up in our honey hole. Heard a few distant bugles - possibly one of the horseback hunters, but maybe not - either way, nothing close enough to go after. The only thing we did call in was a hunter.

End day 2.

I didn't like all the pressure, and scent, that we were all putting on the area. Besides the four of us, there were the four horsemen, and then another camp with two hunters in it. That was the only encounter I had with another hunter the entire trip, but I know they were out there.

Our water situation improved a hundred fold. During Dan's hunt, they (Dan and Dante) found a wallow in the middle of a meadow above our camp. Dan followed the small seep uphill to an area where it appeared to be coming out a few rocks. I had read in an elk magazine about water "situations" and passed this on to Dan and Dante. Well Dante grabbed a wide, thin rock and gouged out a small hole, and dammed up the backside of it, creating a 2 gallon sized reservoir. We hit this daily to refill our water bladders and saved us about a 2 hour round trip venture we would've needed to make every day for water.

Here's a clip on the water hole.