Writing this, I don't even know where to start, I am so blessed to have had this opportunity to head out west and go hunting. My wife and I were in Colorado from August 30th to September 11th. She was able to work remotely from my Mother-in-laws and I went on what was one of the hardest and amazing hunts I've ever experienced. I went bow hunting for Elk in the Arapaho National Forests.
I began scouting areas in Colorado in July close to where my Mother-in-law lives. I figured that if I chose a spot close to family, I wouldn't be completely helpless if something went incredibly wrong, or right. -Plus, the food is always amazing (thank you Barb)
I chose to hunt the September Archery season for a few reasons.
1. I wanted the challenge of bow hunting, coupled with the "rutting season".
2. Colorado's Archery Elk Season is Sept 2-30 and offers hunters the opportunity to hunt any unit that's also an OTC (over-the-counter) unit.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has a complete course on their website about hunting in Colorado, and I highly encourage anyone who wants to hunt in Colorado to take a look at it. It'll lead to some awesome resources including this amazing tool. The Big Game Hunting Atlas. (Other western states offer these too)
This became very handy because the area I had scouted in July, became a closed area due to wildfires a week before my trip was scheduled to begin.
I learned so many things on this trip, and many won't make it into this post. It might not be good,but here's what I have for advice to anyone curious about a hunting trip into Colorado.
Lesson One: Scout As Many Places As You Can in a Unit.
Or, (if you license allows) Scout a few units.
Much to my wife's confusion, digitally scouting maps is almost something of a hobby. I love to look at Satellite Imaging and Topographic Maps to find the next best hunting and fishing spot. So lucky for me, I wasn't too lost when Colorado closed roads and sections of forest to allow firefighters the space they needed. I was able to choose other spots very quickly. -Plus, we had arrived 2 days before the season opened. That offered me just enough time to put some boots on the trail and take a look around.
Lesson Two: Training (Don't Stop)
My wife and I live in Moorhead, MN. There isn't a hill in sight around here but, I was still able to prep my feet and legs for the 12 miles a day of hiking I'd be doing. I did this by loading up my pack with 61 lbs of weights and going out "walking". (I also look SUPER homeless) I marched around parks and hit the flood dikes many times to prepare my feet and legs for the beating they were about to take. For reference, my pack only weighed about 28 lbs fully loaded with my daily amount of gear, water, and food needed for hunting.
The lesson for me here is quite dumb. My mistake is that I stopped training with the pack after we visited in July. I put my scouting miles in and was very happy about how everything held up, and basically stopped training. Along comes September and after the third day of hunting, my knees were KILLING me. Especially the right one. I remember wondering if I was seriously going to tear something. I dug out my med-kit, took two of the ten pain-killers I packed, and hobbled around for the rest of the day. I made it back to camp an hour after dark that night. Thankfully with some stretches and icing from a cooler pack, the pain was tolerable. Maybe like a 2.5 out of 10.
Lesson Three: Keep Your Head Down
I didn't read or hear a lot of encouragement while I was planning.
"There's a lot of hunters out there"
"That's a hard hunt"
"No one hunts alone out there"
"All the elk head onto private land"
"Hunter success rate of 8%"
I actually chose a unit in Colorado with the second highest numbers of hunters. I knew this going into it and I knew it wasn't really a bad thing. Most of the time that means there's plenty of elk as well. This unit in particular had no shortage of land and trails. I only encountered another hunter in the woods twice. As the saying goes, most hunters only hunt a mile from the road and most only hunt on weekends. Technically, in the woods, I bumped into more elk than hunters.
Lesson Four: Assume it's an Elk
I actually had three close encounters with elk in this unit at two different hunting spots. Opening day I set off into an area I had scouted and was keeping an eye out for any really fresh elk sign when I noticed some scat on the ground. I poked at it with my trekking pole, noting indeed that this was some fresh poop. Questioning whether this was small moose or elk droppings, a cow elk appeared out of nowhere and scurried up the ridge in front of me like a squirrel would a tree. Although I didn't have a shot, I was more than stoked to have been close enough to.
The following day I was slipping into a north facing slope when I came across a puddle of elk pee. I was able to tell the direction of the elks heading by it's tracks, so I knocked an arrow and followed quietly. I had been on the elk's trail for a couple hundred yards when a huge, bellerin', knock-out bugle erupted from the trail in front of me. For some reason I was not convinced that what I heard was actually an elk. I grabbed my call, and bugled back to test the waters...Silence...
After a few seconds, I stood up straight, stretching out all 5'8"of me so that I might be able to peek down the game trail and hopefully not see another hunter. I didn't. In fact, looking right back at me was a massive bull elk. I ducked back down and attached my release for my bow. I couldn't hear anything besides the sound of my heart pounding, which was, of course, deafening. I could only see the bull's antlers, twisting and swiveling. I'm sure the bull was listening carefully and wondering what his next move would be. I drew my bow back, sighted my first pin, and began to rise from the crouched position I was in. I was fully prepared to put an arrow right down it's thoracic opening if the shot was still there. The bull, waiting no longer, bolted down wind before I was able to stand.
Aside from my reoccurring dreams, I never saw that bull again.
The last encounter was a cow quartering toward me at 60 yards. (Thank You, Robby) We had a short stare-down and she trotted off. The shot would have been impossible. But, it had just snowed four inches and I was easily able to follow her tracks. I determined her general heading, looked at the map on my phone and tried to cut her off at a clearing to try another shot. It never happened. I was truly amazed by her instinct to stay downwind of me. She, never, ever, allowed me the opportunity out from under her nose. If the wind switched, she moved, always putting herself a safe distance away, in thick cover. In the end, I crossed three ridges and put on three miles alone trying to get a shot. It was a blast, but it was very, very tiresome.
Lesson Five: Other Hunters Are Awesome
Everyone I ran into was super helpful with my questions, happy to be outdoors, and excited to be hunting . One guy actually hunted with me for Labor-Day weekend, and even gave me his old rangefinder! That was Robby.
Robby drove all the way from Denver early one morning and arrived just at daybreak. We exchanged hellos' and intros' and I talked about the bull I had seen just the day before. He shared about the same amount of excitement about the encounter as I did! Eventually we made our way down the trail, talking about our packs, other hunting gear, the terrain, and stopped once to put some serious stalking on some noisy elk in the brush. All that rustling, to our amusement, only ended up being squirrels. Robby basically took me under his wing, setting me up for shooter opportunities and calling for me. He wanted me to fill my tag just as much as I did. I could probably write an entire blog-post on the genuine character of Robby, and I probably will.
Lesson Six: Plan All You Can, Pack It Just In Case
Two things. First, I hate over-packing. Second, I definitely won't make this mistake again.
I had looked at the weather patterns for the last 10 years and I was fairly confident that I wouldn't need snow gear. Well, It sleeted for one full day, snowed 7" one morning, and hit a low overnight temp of 19 degrees twice. Bring your waterproof boots, gators and wool underwear just in case. It's the mountains, they don't follow weather patterns despite locals repeatedly telling me "it never snows in September".
Also, I'm not sure how, but I broke a string on my bow drawing it back to check string clearance when I was fully geared up. This took one full day out of my hunt to run into Denver to get fixed. The archery shop highly recommends that anyone who has a bow, get a set of strings to keep as a spare. Any archery shop would have a bow-press, but they won't have your particular strings on the shelf. I was extremely lucky, (kind of a trend) they had a set that would work with some "stretching".
They charged about $200 for the emergency fix.
Fun Facts:
These are the other purchases I had to make for the hunt.
Tag: $680 Non-Resident Either Sex Elk Tag (I choose an Over-The-Counter Unit for Simplicity)
Pack: ALPS OutdoorsZ Commander + Pack Bag (I actually got a refurbished one off Amazon)
Water Bladder: Generic 2 Liter pack for $17.09 off Amazon (I'd recommend 3 Liter)
Side Note: The only camouflage clothing I owned before this was a down duck hunting jacket and a cotton hoodie. Like, What? Is this even a hobby? Who am I?
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