Low Density, High Hopes

[trb]

In May, I was notified that I had beaten the odds and drawn a limited late season bull tag. I would be the only non-resident tag holder. Although I have held a couple good limited tags before, they have always been reissued mid season, such as last year’s mountain goat hunt. This was unquestionably the best tag I’ve ever drawn. The reason I point this out, is that one of the things I enjoy most about hunting is the months-long anticipation, which in turn inspires learning about the finer details of an often new area. This hunt would consume the background of my thoughts for many months.

Although in my 20s I spent a significant amount of time working the river systems of this state, including living there briefly, this was a specific area I had only ever passed through. I have been applying for it for a few years because of the appeal of exploring it, and the season’s line up with my Thanksgiving break from school/work. However, I didn’t anticipate drawing it for another decade, so I was going into the summer pretty blind. What I did know of the area was that (unlike Colorado) neither private land elk sanctuaries nor competing hunting pressure would have any influence on my ability to get the most out of the tag. It was simply a matter of learning the area well enough to find elk, and then, getting close.

I returned my Colorado bull tag to focus on this hunt, and filled the rest of my calendar with brief trips tagging along on others’ hunts, with this tag being my singular focus of the year for myself. No pressure…

Stick with me…it might take me a day or two to wrap this up.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Hope that's not your blood, but either way it looks like we have an interesting story incoming. I hope your typing skills are much faster than mine.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

You have our attention

 

[rjthehunter]

Here for it!!!

 

[Potsie]

Cut to the stickers!!!

 

[trb]

Scouting

Eager to get there and bridge the gap between e-scouting and the real world, I wrangled a good friend to join me on a 3 day scouting trip in June shortly after my spring bear hunt. Here is a photo summary of our brief but very enjoyable trip.






Awesome reptiles


About stepped on this fawn




Sego lilly




Swallowtail on Penstemon



Bear tracks

Columbine

Although this unit is over 300 square miles, and we put quite a few miles on our boots and my truck, all the elk (4 bulls in 3 days) we saw were within about 3 miles of each other. In the summer, this is low density elk country on the edge of high density elk mecca. In the later season, their dispersal can be notoriously challenging to pattern. Without revealing too much, I’ll say that there was some shocking terrain that I saw evidence of, and was told on good authority, held elk year round. It was great to put eyes on a lot of country I had only previously looked at on maps. I learned a ton about the access points to the copious public land at my fingertips. It also gave me a good reference for elk maturity/growth that otherwise would only have been theoretical.




The most valuable aspect of my trip was the contact I made with the area’s biologist, as well as a local land management agency contact. Both were extremely generous with their time and helpful with their insight. It’s priceless to be able to have local stewards of our public lands offer their expertise before an unfamiliar undertaking such as this, and I remain extremely grateful to them both.

 

[trb]

The In Between

Some summer recreating




A buddy’s fruitless, wet, but fun, muzzleloader elk hunt


A double top secret goat hunt



Normalizing the sourcing of our nightly dinner fare, our first family hunt


Helping a friend on his first big game hunt

 

[trb]

The Hunt

Back in my day, when my teacher slapped a movie in the VCR for the class, we were stoked. Seems like kids these days consume so much media that the “class movie” has lost its luster. Damn kids. Anyway, 2 hours later, after my class had nearly knocked the door off its hinges for Thanksgiving break, I hit the road.

After a season filled with amazing time in the mountains and with friends, I was thoroughly ready for a week alone. I had 9 days blocked off and I was excited to try and make my unusual luxury of time count.

I made it about 7 hours before pulling off on some BLM road for a few hours of sleep. I finished the drive in the morning, albeit a bit delayed pushing through some icy conditions leftover from the preceding week’s storm. I gassed up in town, and suddenly, finally, and thankfully I was hunting.

 

[trb]

Day 1

Due to the road delays, I hit the parking area of my first spot shortly after sunrise. One of the eccentricities of this unit that took some adjusting to is that glassing vantages were either enormous with long distance glassing into thicker cover, or lower vantages with immediate closer range opportunity. Not a lot in between. This was one of the latter as I wanted to get hunting ASAP. All looked good, but nothing was seen. My main takeaway from stepping foot in the unit for the first time since June was that I appreciated the recent snow coverage both for the tracking, and more importantly how quiet its melting had made the ground. This would prove critical later on.



I left after a couple hours to set up camp for the week. I drove some roads to check their conditions (muddy), and finally settled on a private pull off for an old corral on the edge of a sage brush meadow.


With an uncertain forecast for the next day, I decided to head uphill to an area I was concerned might not be accessible if the roads got worse. Although I saw nothing that evening either, I couldn’t completely write the area off for two reasons. First I could hear hound/lion hunters in the area that I assumed would keep elk in cover, and second, I found couple day old sign in the mud and snow that elevated this area to the top of my list.




A promising end to day one. But mostly, I was just thrilled to finally be hunting.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Even though I already know the ending to this one, I look forward to trb hunt recaps generally more than any others. Keep it coming…