I wanted to bring this back up and let everyone know how the trip went. Also thank everyone again who helped with advice and encouragement. Sorry it has taken so long but I haven't had too much free time since the season ended.
Sometime late summer the game plan started to change. Due to vacation conflicts and some other unforeseen circumstances, 2 members of the party couldn't leave until 3 days after we were leaving. Also since they both had deer tags, they were going to hunt a different area about 3-4 miles from us. Same trailhead though. So before we even left, the party was down to 3. We had already made our mind up to go without stock and decided to just stick to the plan.
Then were rear ended in Denver on the way there. We had just stopped in traffic and a girl hit us doing about 50mph. Ended up being 5 vehicles involved. Everyone including the young lady and her friend that hit us was Ok. My truck was not. We could tell it would probably be totaled as the frame was bent. After losing over a day in Denver getting everything straight from the wreck and a rental we could hunt with, we hit the road again. Now instead of hiking in the morning before the season opened, we would be hiking our way in on opening morning. I didn't think this was a big deal because we still had 7 full days to hunt. I was wrong because the elk just about completely stopped bugling after the second day and the area we were hunting wasn't as easy to glass as I thought it would be. Had we been in there the day before, I think we would have had a much better chance. We ended up just over 3 miles from the trailhead with our first camp and were into elk pretty quick. Had a bull come in about 150yds(I guess) and stop. He was just across a pretty nasty drop on another ridge. We could hear his horns hitting limbs as he paced back and forth. It was just too thick to see him. A cow came up to about 10 steps behind us while calling the bull. I don't know how she didn't smell us and blow out. Had another bull answer me 30-40 times the next day and come in pretty close. My buddy, who was out in front of me said he had to be less than 50 yds from him the last time he bugled. Again, he could hear him walking but couldn't see him for all the dead fall. We hoped he would come in closer to the top of the ridge which was more open with some shooting lanes. I think he came in just under us and got our scent as the thermals had not switched yet. Rain and fog really set in that evening and all of the next day. The elk had also quit bugling. Day 4 had us split up watching some small meadows only seeing a few cows and does. Day 5 we moved another 2-3 miles over to plan B but still only about 4.5 from the trailhead. Day 6 we found a small heard with a bull feeding into the timber to bed. Decided to wait them out that evening but it was after dark before they made their move. Should have killed him the next morning but I'm an idiot who needs to be a little more patient. Long story short, I blew it before daylight. We made the hike out the 8th morning after not hearing any bugling or spotting anything.
We didn't see any grizzlies or wolves but tracks from both. Had a huge bear track on top of our tracks the day after the rain only about a 1/4 mile from camp. Also heard a wolf one night just up the ridge from us.
Bringing this tag back home really hit me hard. It took me a couple weeks to even start to talk about it. I guess because I looked forward to it so much and worked my ass off for 8 months. I didn't even realize how much I learned on this hunt until I sat down one day and started making notes of everything that went wrong and why. I never doubted it but I now can see how hunting the same area for elk is a huge advantage. Again want to thank everyone for your thoughts and comments, so Thank You! And I promise I will be after them again somewhere this fall.
