A little more about the hunt:
Hunting was more difficult than we expected. Most of the elk were in heavy timber. We were expecting (perhaps naively) to find them more in the open and close the road...easy peasy! That was not the case. We had to work for our elk. We think there was just enough hunting pressure during the previous archery and muzzle loader seasons to force them into the timber. Timbered elk are never easy to hunt and almost always difficult to pack out. Perhaps we should have been more picky about the location she shot the elk (closer to a road) but then we may have not got one...or got a smaller one.
Was the hunt worth 26 preference points? Probably not. It was a great hunt, but when my wife and I asked ourselves at the end of the hunt if it was worth 26 preference points we both concluded about half that number would be about right. One of the problems with needing so many preference points is that people tend to be "oldish" when they get a tag. We talked to a guide who worked the area, and he said the average hunter age was 62. My wife is 66 and a lady with a tag in the nearby campground was 68. That combined with the fact that big elk are difficult to pack any distance makes this a more difficult hunt than someone might expect.
So if you are accumulating preference points be prepared for a great hunt, but unless you get one close to the road it will probably be more difficult than you expect. Be prepared for hard work.
