So far it's been tough

[Ed B.]

We have pretty much abandoned Hermosa creek wilderness. Waaay too steep. Stuck on hunting logging roads. Wasting a day debating on next spot.
I hope you all are having better luck.
Not complaining, just updating.
Good news though is altitude has not been a problem at all. Walked with a 60 pound pack about a mile down a logging road and back up.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

`any weather that high up?

 

[Ed B.]

`any weather that high up?

Nothing severe. Went to bed with calm wind. At some point it got pretty breezy and rain. It's been raining on and off.
Sitting in Durango trying to figure out a new plan. Really sunny and then really rainy.

 

[Gerald]

I always say if you're not finding them, go higher. I like to keep gaining elevation in new and unfamiliar units until I eventually find the elk. Glass as much as you can from as many high points as you can and above all else.. just keep hunting. Keep being out there in good looking elk country and maybe they'll finally show up at the spot you're at on their 5 day loop or after being pushed out of another area by other hunters. Best of luck to you guys I know how it feels to have a tough elk hunt and remember the wonderfully rewarding feeling I got when I finally found a lone bull on the last day of my hunt and tagged the only elk I seen that whole week! ha dont forget elk country is also some of the most beautiful country we have in america... enjoy your time out there

 

[Ed B.]

Well, we're home. Had a great time in the mountains! Heard some bugeling pretty close on 3 occasions. close enough to knock an arrow. Never seen any of them.
I think I seen 2 elk but they were in the thick and running away. I think I learned enough to feel even more confident on the next trip, at least with how to find them. When and how to make a play will be another hurdle.
With All the help I've received from the pros on this site I will share what little I absolutely learned from my experience.
FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR RIGS PAINT, DO NOT BELIEVE THAT SCOTCH CREEK TRAIL IN COLORADO 74 IS MEANT FOR A TRUCK. IT IS NOT A SHORT CUT FROM HERMOSA CREEK TO RICO. IF YOU DO NOT HEED MY WARNING, WHILE YOU'RE ON YOUR 3HR JOURNEY LOOK FOR RED PAINT ON ALL THE BROKEN STIFF LIMBS ON ALL THE OVERHANGING BRUSH. THAT WOULD BE MINE. LOL
ALMOST FORGOT. BETTER HAVE GROUND CLEARANCE.

 

[Timr245]

Glad to hear you had an overall good experience. I too being an easterner got a lesson on what the forest service deems a road in Colorado vs what the forest service says is a road where I live haha. My truck is a garage queen so I’d never even consider driving it on 95% of them roads, luckily that year I had my sxs to shave some of the foot travel down.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

That's the way all my trucks got thier pinstriping,service and forest roads.
They say if your truck doesn't have wilderness pinstriping you ain't huntin'!
Glad you had a good "experience"

 

[JimP]

There are a lot of those kinds of roads here in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana...etc that are more like tunnels than actual roads. That oak brush gets so thick that you would need a tank to actually get through it.

 

[mallardsx2]

I went up a jeep trail a few years ago with a side by side. I have no clue how anyone could have driven even a jeep up that trail. lol

There were parts and pieces from every make and model lying around the trail. It was a shame to see so much junk lying in the woods....

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I know the road he is referring to and above the campgrounds it is a sxs, quad or motorcycle road only. I used to run it in my small Toyota PU and in places it was too big.

 

[Catahoula12]

Haha! All my trucks, quads in all my years in Az had pinstriping be it from catsclaw, palo verde, mesquite to the numerous cacti. Colorado roads (some) can be hell as well but only been back to my home state for 4 years now. 30 in Az. Ed B. sounds like you had quite the experience. Best to you on your future big game hunts.

 

[JimP]

I used to go fishing to a reservoir in Utah that was up a very rough road. At the bottom and start of the road was a sign that the Forest Service had place that said "JEEP ROAD" and under that someone had taken some paint and put "THAT AIN'T NO SH177". If you had a long wheel base truck you could make it but odds were that you would punch a hole in your oil pan and I saw evidence of that when we went up it and followed a trail of oil to the reservoir where a Chevy truck was parked with a hole in it's oil pan. We would go up it in a Chevy Blazer or short wheel base vehicles. This was around 35 years ago.

A few years ago I was hunting deer in the area and decided to head up to that reservoir on my ATV. They had changed the road a little so nothing looked familiar. It used to start in a meadow, well that meadow is now part of the main road with a large graveled turn around. As I traveled up the road I wondered if I was on the same road until I got to a steep portion which did look familiar. A short ways later I was at the reservoir. The Forest Service had gone in and made a very good road out of that Jeep Road. Now any 4x4 could drive up it and have no problems doing so. Well, it also reflected that everyone could now drive up it. There was quite a bit of trash at the small campground with a huge fire pit.

My little great fishing spot was now open to the world and it showed it.

 

[taskswap]

I went up a jeep trail a few years ago with a side by side. I have no clue how anyone could have driven even a jeep up that trail. lol

There were parts and pieces from every make and model lying around the trail. It was a shame to see so much junk lying in the woods....

I wish I had taken a picture of this... but on that last trip my buddy and I took off-roading, we were coming down a steep rocky road (basically a riverbed you were allowed to drive down). I was out spotting my friend, calling out clearances as he picked his way down the rocks. I saw a flash of silver and looked down and saw a lug nut. Huh. Picked it up because I'm thrifty like that.

Look back up. Spot some more. Step back, another glint. Look down. Huhhhh. A second lug nut. What are the odds, right next to the first, right? And gee it looks just like the first one. I pick it up, too. Can you tell where this is going?

Long story short, guys, I pulled out five lug nuts and four sockets of assorted sizes all together in a pile, and let me tell you a story about SOMEBODY having a terrible, horrible, no-good VERY BAD DAY.

 

[taskswap]

I found them in one of my hunting-gear bags when I was putting stuff away for the winter, if anybody wants a chuckle. I can't even imagine the conversation after they dropped all this...