2013 CO 1st Rifle Unit 34 Report Looking for feedback.

[tomjoh]

I've been working up the courage to report back. We've been hunting unit 34 Straight North of Glenwood springs and South of the flat tops. We had eight guys with 4 cow tags and 4 bull tags. The snowstorm that came in deterred us from camping very far in and we stayed on coffee pot rd. Thank goodness we did. There was between 12 and 36 inches every where on Friday. Our four wheelers were getting stuck on the main rd by baxter. We ran into one group scouting the road out. They were stuck in a 3 ft drift with a 30 ft trailer behind them.

The report is fairly simple I saw three cows opening morning 900 yards across a ravine. That was it. We found several large groups of elk running downhill into Grizzly. We hunted the opposite side of grizzly and someone spotted two cows from way far away. My theory is that they knew this was going to be more than one big snow. We had snow nearly every day and it seemed the elk went to lower elevation. The problem for my group is they are older and thoroughly enjoy a large comfortable camp. Moving the base camp would have been pretty impossible. Unit 34 is also fairly difficult to get to lower elevations. We would have had to try and come up a completely different road that is very difficult to drive and the whole area is super steep.

I'd like some feedback about what we could have done differently with that kind of weather. We had tag soup for all. I haven't really been able to find reports from other folks in the same area and how they faired.

[Lark Bunting]

As a newbie, I can honestly say that I would much rather complain about the heat in September during archery season than deal with that.

[tomjoh]

I don't know if I would trade the heat for the snow... This group usually gets 2 elk/year. Last year was my first year with them and I saw a few 3x3s. But, hiking through knee to waist deep snow over down timber all day is very exhausting. It would be great to hunt and hear the bugling during archery season.

[Vanish]

Wow, that's crazy! My father hunted up coffee pot in second season and there was only a couple inches of snow.

[tomjoh]

Wow, that's crazy! My father hunted up coffee pot in second season and there was only a couple inches of snow.

How did they do?

[Vanish]

Wow, that's crazy! My father hunted up coffee pot in second season and there was only a couple inches of snow.

How did they do?

Dad was hunting deer (unit next to his house), and never saw any. He said the thick pines were covered in elk tracks, but didn't see any elk either.

[tomjoh]

Just in case anyone is curious. The first rifle season had 0 bulls 9 cows and 0 calves taken. That makes for a whopping 5% success rate.

Hopefully next year is better! I'm bringing snow shoes. It will be interesting if we can run into some of the guys we have seen every year. There is a pretty gnarly trail that lots of folks camp off of and have large trailers on. I can't imagine they made it out until the snow subsided.