Virgin elk hunter...

[HTNFSH]

Hey fellas, this is my first year of elk hunting after 5 years of much anticipation. As of right now I'm 70 miles east of Kansas City and can start picturing the mountains in my mind's eye. I was wondering when the excitement was going to hit me and I still have 11 and a half hours of driving to do before I pick up my hunting partner.

I have visited some ski areas in Colorado but ive never made the drive myself so to me, this is a completely new experience. The two of us are hiking in and spiking camp in that will also be a new experience for me as well.

I will be writing up a journal upon my return but still keep some posts here to share with you guys as a first timer.


Paul is keeping me company on cd while my drive is going by however I wish I was already there.

[Triplebhunters]

We leave Thursday night, till the end. It's going to be a good year.
Hunt hard, and enjoy Mother Nature.

[Bowhunter]

I will leave monday morning about 5am. I can't wait. You will really start to get excited when you start to get into the mountains.

[HTNFSH]

So am was rolling down 86 toward Colorado Springs thinking, these rolling hills are nice but where are the mountains? I happen to drive through a small town and found myself at 6700ft. Huh...kinda snuck up on me. Saw just two herds of speed goats but very cool.

I am not even to the good stuff yet.

[bnsafe]

lol, you will fall in love with it. I used to live close to Columbia mo so know what your feeling. good luck.

[twinkieman]

Looking forward to your reaction when you get to the "good stuff". Paul is always in our CD player as well. Good luck and have a great trip!

[HTNFSH]

So yesterday I decided a drive out to the to the trailhead so that we wouldn't waste time by getting lost on the day of. You guys that live out here want to adopt? I trade some good stuff for a permanent place to stay or at least enough space I can put up a small cabin.

I saw all the major ski towns on my drive. Not a lot of words can describe how I felt about what saw.

Anyway, I also scouted the trail into the area we are hunting. I had to see how rough the initial ascent will be. ( no pack) All I could about on the way back down was how to lighten my pack and taking some extra high calorie food. True be told I will be hating life the first 1hr of our hunt.

For me the journey is just as important as the destination so I welcome the challenges ahead.

On a side note we found out that we'll be dealing a lot more pressure that we thought. Including a prostaff/recording crew. That's Otc public though. At least we know ahead and hopefully make some smart moves to use the pressure to our advantage. We figure 30 people in an area of 36 square miles

[Lefty]

,,,,,,On a side note we found out that we'll be dealing a lot more pressure that we thought. Including a prostaff/recording crew.

Have a great hunt !
Take advantage of the way others hunt

[HTNFSH]

Well I have been back for a few days now and already miss the mountains. We thought that we would get away from other hunters by going in the hard way but that was not the case.

Despite my $600 tag soup, my first elk trip was invaluable. I packed in 9-10 days worth of food and gear for my wilderness hunt. It took us a couple of days to get a lay of the land and even find a few elk. Unfortunately when we got a plan together to go after them, a local outfitter had already pushed them completely out of the area with their horse hunters. By the 7th evening the rain moved past annoying to potentially hazardous and nothing could be dried out. At that point we decided to call the trip early by a day and head out.

Lesson 1, don't wait a day after spotting elk to come up with a plan, just go after them.

Lesson 2, I won't do another backpack style hunt without horses or do a drop/ truck camp instead. With a serious threat of rain, being stuck in a small tent is no fun. I want have a real base camp to work from then spike from it if necessary.

Lesson 3, Boots, boots, boots. Don't skimp here. I spent nearly 300.00 on meindels and they never got wet inside. Hiking shoes, midheight boots are useless for the hunting we encountered.

Lesson 4. Rain gear, better have some good stuff and expect it to last just one elk season. Cabelas spacerain, jacket worked great. Pants were shredded by the end of the week. It wasn't just rain but wet vegetation that you can get soaked from.

Some other observations. We camped at 8800 and found most of the elk sign from 9400 and up. Same place as all the bear sign. The elk we did spot seemed to be hovering from 95-9700. Wondered if the bears pushed out the elk or the people before getting after it. 90% of the sign we found was 1-2 weeks old.

[BrentLaBere]

"Lesson 1, don't wait a day after spotting elk to come up with a plan, just go after them."

Especially if they are bugling!!! this is on my list as well.

[BRazz]

"Lesson 1, don't wait a day after spotting elk to come up with a plan, just go after them."

Especially if they are bugling!!! this is on my list as well.

Yep, mine too!