Well the epic 2014 Wyoming and Colorado Elk trip is in the books.
It didn't start well. My hunting partner (AKA Sherpa) lost all his gear en route the SLC airport.
Dealing with the airlines cost me two of the precious remaining days of archery season but it worked out when they delivered rifles, boots, and packs to the top of Green Mountain Wyoming.
There were a couple of close encounters during my two good days of archery but more importantly we trained the Swarovski 20X60 spotter on about 15 bulls in three spots two nights before the rifle opening. Two of the bulls were absolute toads nick named Thor and Zeus by my partner and I. The final day of archery brought 30 knots of wind and fog so the bulls remained hidden. Four-thirty on October first found us dropping into a draw basically alone, while most of our 399 hunting partners pounded the mountain to the North West.
After at least two scope-chasing drills with large bulls, and a short-winded dash along the ridge, I chose to take a respectable 5X6 as my first bull, after 7, mostly archery, cows. Not a monster by any means but respectable with 40" spread, 45" beams, and bases a bit larger than my wrists.
The next week found us in Medicine Bow N.F. chasing a cow elk. To make a long story short, we saw lots of bucks, private land bulls, tons of moose and no cows. The high point was initiating a search and hiking in while searching for a lost elderly lady who spent the night on Medicine Bow Peak with temps down to 18 degrees. Most importantly she was found by hunters and was just fine.
Our hunt wrapped up in Colorado's unit 23. Although we have hunted the unit several times we have only scored on small bulls and cows. Ten minutes after sunrise my partner took his best bull to date and I took a smaller club horned 4X5 with down-turned brow tines. Three days of elk packing in a snow storm and a couple of days spent mentoring some first time hunters to elk and our season was done.
2014 will go down as an incredible elk season with three opening day bulls and a lot of good will shared.
It didn't start well. My hunting partner (AKA Sherpa) lost all his gear en route the SLC airport.
Dealing with the airlines cost me two of the precious remaining days of archery season but it worked out when they delivered rifles, boots, and packs to the top of Green Mountain Wyoming.
There were a couple of close encounters during my two good days of archery but more importantly we trained the Swarovski 20X60 spotter on about 15 bulls in three spots two nights before the rifle opening. Two of the bulls were absolute toads nick named Thor and Zeus by my partner and I. The final day of archery brought 30 knots of wind and fog so the bulls remained hidden. Four-thirty on October first found us dropping into a draw basically alone, while most of our 399 hunting partners pounded the mountain to the North West.
After at least two scope-chasing drills with large bulls, and a short-winded dash along the ridge, I chose to take a respectable 5X6 as my first bull, after 7, mostly archery, cows. Not a monster by any means but respectable with 40" spread, 45" beams, and bases a bit larger than my wrists.
The next week found us in Medicine Bow N.F. chasing a cow elk. To make a long story short, we saw lots of bucks, private land bulls, tons of moose and no cows. The high point was initiating a search and hiking in while searching for a lost elderly lady who spent the night on Medicine Bow Peak with temps down to 18 degrees. Most importantly she was found by hunters and was just fine.
Our hunt wrapped up in Colorado's unit 23. Although we have hunted the unit several times we have only scored on small bulls and cows. Ten minutes after sunrise my partner took his best bull to date and I took a smaller club horned 4X5 with down-turned brow tines. Three days of elk packing in a snow storm and a couple of days spent mentoring some first time hunters to elk and our season was done.
2014 will go down as an incredible elk season with three opening day bulls and a lot of good will shared.
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