Our 2016 Colorado DIY archery recap

[Old School]

Well the 2016 elk archery season is in the books so to speak and I wanted to do a recap here of our hunt. I\'m sure not a professional photographer or a journalist, but here it goes...

Intro:

This past year my sons and I started getting ready for our Colorado elk bowhunt. This prep included but was not limited to: joining several forums, buying books, calls, signing up for web classes, watching DVD\'s, etc... I\'ve killed 2 bulls on guided hunts with a rifle (Idaho and Montana) but was 0 for 2 on DIY Colorado archery hunts. I was seriously hoping to change that to 1 for 3 after this season.

The hunt:
The much anticipated day was finally here, all 3 of us were giddy with excitement. After church Sunday night, we left for Colorado on Sept 11th at 11:00PM. The 15 hour drive was all that was standing between us and elk camp, so...we drove straight thru. Its the best time to see Kansas on 1-70 anyway (1AM-7AM)


Monday morning - the mountains were finally in the front window as we approached Denver. Seeing this causes an automatic reflex which pushes the accelerator down a little further to the floor.

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We arrived and stopped at the local grocery/mercantile store and bought our licenses and some last minute supplies and supper. The boys were beyond excited and couldn\'t wait to get down the road to camp and get setup. We were only an hour away.



We pulled into \"Spot A\" and there was a popup camper already setup. No big deal, we will just move a couple miles down the road to Spots \"B,C,D or E\". We back out and drive down the road, turn onto the forest road and proceed a mile south. No way, 2 campers also in Spot B. Well, looks like we keep driving a couple hundred yards to \"C\". The road begins getting pretty washed out at this point and we round the corner to see 3 more campsites setup at Spot C and D. Time to reassess the situation. We talk briefly about setting up camp here, but there are 3 campsites and about 6 vehicles there - not my idea of an elk adventure with the boys. We backup and drive 5 miles further down the road heading back east - we find tents or campers at spots \"E\" and \"F\". We shake our heads and turn around and head back to the main road. Off the main road I had also noticed a green gate blocking an old forest service road - no motor vehicles, just bikes, foot traffic or horses is allowed. No flat land there though - we would have to pack our camp (and we packed like a bunch of teen girls going on a road trip) about 150 yards uphill to a semi-flat clearing.
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[Old School]

We walk back 2 miles on the closed road and the country looks a little different than it did on Google Earth, but looks promising. We head back and start unloading. It\'s dark by the time we get unloaded. Now to setup the tent, etc... A couple hunters walk out at dark, one is muzzleloading for cow elk and the other is archery hunting deer. They\'ve been in there a few days and say they haven\'t seen much...

We finish our setup and eat a quick bite before bed. The night passes quickly as we anticipate the first morning hunt. The alarm goes off and we reach outside the tent to pull the buddy heater in and get it lit. Ahhhh, warmth. We eat a cliff bar for breakfast put on our packs, grab our bows and start heading down the trail. We realize we should have left earlier, lesson learned and we won\'t mess up tomorrow morning. We peel off the trail a little earlier than we planned since it was almost shooting light. We walk up a small (by western standards) slope and there is a nice bowl in front of us to the west its just light enough to shoot now - it just looks like it should hold elk. After several contact bugles, there is no response... We walk the edge and see a small mulie buck, but thats it - no elk sign at all.

Back to the trail and further in we go - bumping into a different muzzleloader hunter about 2 miles down the trail. That morning we walked about 4 miles back in and saw 3 mulies and 1 hunter, but no elk and no fresh elk sign, there was lots of human foot sign and some bike tire tracks in the dirt - we got the feeling that this had been hunted hard the first 2 weeks. We walked the 4 miles back to camp around noon - swirling winds were not our friend.

We took a nap, ate some lunch and got ready to go back out that night we decided to hunt east of our camp - maybe less hunters. We didn\'t see anything that night - and there wasn\'t much sign either. We decided that we would hunt a meadow we nicknamed \"longhorn\" the next morning. That night we drove the roads casting out location bugles and we heard nothing at all.

Wed morning - we got up way early and headed out. We were bugling every so often when we hit some predetermined \"elky\" spots, and nothing was answering us...
Finally we hear a bugle coming from the meadow way down below us (roughly 1,000\' down) - it sure sounds like a hunter, but oh well, we were heading that way anyways, so we drop off the edge and start heading downhill fast in the dark.

We are scooting down this slope and hear the bugle again, I\'m pretty sure its a hunter at this point, but we\'re still heading down there anyways. If its a hunter, we will make our way up the opposite slope (north facing and hopefully find elk there). We get down to the bottom and its full of cattle and there is no elk sign anywhere and no visible hunters either, so we head up the steep north facing slope. We stop a couple times along the way up and just listen - nothing. We get about 2/3rds of the way up and stop and setup and do some cold calling. We stayed put for about 45 minutes and then proceeded to side hill the entire face of that northern slope - no elk and no elk sign, i was very surprised, but not discouraged, they had to be in here somewhere. Actually, no they weren\'t there - they were somewhere far far away from all these people. We dropped back down into this long running meadow along the creek - cattle everywhere, but no elk droppings or sign. We then spot 2 hunters about 300 yards away on the opposing slope. Yuck! We hunt another slope and head back to camp as its approaching noon. We bushwhack our way through 2 miles of terrible nasty deadfall and jump 2 elk, never saw them, but they busted out about 20 yards in front of us.

Wed PM - we hunt atop one of the passes where there were several trails - a hail storm moves in and nails us pretty good. All we got that night was wet - no elk and didn\'t hear any either... we walked about a mile back to camp and hung our soaked clothes up to dry. It was raining pretty good and I woke up about 3:00 and shut my alarm off - wasn\'t going out in the rain. Well, when we awoke at 7:00 it was a bright bluebird day - storm had finally blew through and it was gorgeous. We packed up quick and drove about 5 miles north to another spot we had scouted via Google Earth this summer. It was a steep Western facing slope with a mixture of pines and aspen and it was nasty and steep.

 

[Old School]

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We hunt up the slope mid morning and we find a bunch of moose sign and plenty of deer sign as well, we are thinking \"surely there have got to be some elk in here somewhere\". We hunt up the slope and sidehill and the thermals start switching in some places - we decide we better back out and come back EARLY tomorrow morning. Back to camp for some Ravioli and applesauce. Luke (my 15 year old) took care of cooking the lunches and did a great job. I could go take a short nap while he made lunch. The afternoon winds were strong and blew dust everywhere - not what we had expected.

Thr night we hunt across the road - it looks big and vast, and there are no spots for people to camp (Except one and it has a camper in it). We walk back in on a foot trail and bump into a couple white face red hereford bulls right on the trail and they aren\'t interested in moving - so we drop off 50 yards down into the bottom and get around them. We walk a couple miles back and decide to hunt this small clearing that has some aspens in it and a small creek.
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We sit there for the evening and see and hear nothing...this is getting old... we head back in the dark and our headlights catch some eyes on the hillside - maybe an elk??? Nope a big white faced hereford bull is eyeing us. We head up the hill and take a detour back to the truck. When we get there we meet 2 other hunters who have been hunting the area for 17 years - they comment about usually hearing bugles all night long and they have yet to hear one...at least I wasn\'t the only one experiencing this. They say they cannot believe the number of hunters here this year and ask how I found out about this place and why I came there? I told them that I had just done a bunch of map research and that this place looked good to me. We drive the roads casting out locator bugles again that night - and get no responses. Something simply isn\'t right. I may not be an even average caller, but something should be talking by now. (at least I think so)

Friday morning - we get up early with anticipation of seeing or hearing an elk this morning. We grab our packs and bows and head to the truck. After the short 5 mile drive, we have arrived and we are ahead of schedule. With a spring in our step, we head through the low meadow and to the aspens and pines. Morning light breaks and we have yet to cut any fresh sign or see or hear anything. We drop down into a steep ravine, cross the creek at the bottom and head up the other side - we are heading to an aspen patch that I believe should be good. We hunt through it and see nothing and hear nothing - then we hear the grunt of a bull moose down behind us in that creek bottom. We sidehill along the aspens for about 600 yards and he is following along in the bottom grunting and getting a lot closer. We stop for a breath and look up ahead and see 2 hunters making their way up the hill. We go up and chat with them. 2 nice guys from Georgia who had hunted this the past 2 years. We talk while the bull continues grunting and coming up toward us. We are thinking we may be put in a self defense situation here shortly. They head up hill and we continue circling around and drop off into some nasty stuff - cliffs and steep gullies - they said there was a mountain lion spotted in there last year - oh well, between my boys and I, we are all armed, we press ahead, but see nothing - back to camp again around noon and we are wore out.

 

[Old School]

Friday night we hunt about a mile north of camp - and 30 minutes before dark a muzzleloader shot rings out about 500 yards behind us. A couple minutes later and brush starts crashing behind us - I\'m thinking, here comes an elk - finally!!! Wrong! About a 150\" mulie comes running out into the meadow - pretty neat, but I\'m still looking for elk. We sit that night and hear no elk and see no elk. We ride our bikes back in the dark and get to camp. My son says - dad we\'ve got to do something different in the morning, no matter where we go or now far back we go, we aren\'t finding any elk or elk sign, we just keep bumping into hunters. Out of the mouths of babes...

We decide that we will hunt a north facing slope that is right by the road. There is a long meadow (about 1/4 mile long and 500 yards across) that runs from the road back to this north facing slope. Once again, we turn off the heater and set it outside - anticipating a good hunt in the morning. We wake up and get our usual - cliff bar and water for breakfast and head to the truck. We\'ve made our way through the meadow and are up through an aspen opening and its still 30 minutes before legal shooting time. We all decide to sit down for 5 minutes and listen - and once again, we hear nothing. Up and walking we go through the normal deadfall for the area. We may be flatlanders, but we learned this - if you see a north facing slope and its all green - great, it will be an easier walk. It its green and grey mixed - deadfall city!!

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We\'ve covered a lot of ground - sidehilling this slope from west to east. We are occasionally cow calling as we are breaking so many branches crawling through the tangle of deadfall - we sounded like 3 circus elephants I\'m sure. We\'ve been working along this slope for about an hour when I hear some branches breaking up in front of us. We stop and listen, it\'s just an occasional branch, but I tell the boys - thats an elk or moose, not sure which. We try to move quieter (almost impossible) and we\'ve only gone about 30 yards when the most lovely thing we\'ve heard for a week breaks the silence - a looooud bugle aimed right at us. Oh my, what do we do now? I set the boys up in front of me 30 yards and drop back - its soo thick I cannot see them. I let out a couple cow calls and I can hear the bull just walking up the hill in front of us. He could care less about my cow calls and just continued on his path to the top. I bugled at him and he just kept walking (only a little faster) still couldn\'t see him, only hearing branches. By now, he is about 150 yards above us and almost to the top. I grab a big dead branch and begin raking and thrashing a pine. All of a sudden, here he comes crashing down the hill on a run. Still cant see him, only hearing him coming. I\'m thinking \"He\'s going to run over my boys\" - it sounded like he was coming right at them. He went right past (we never saw him) and I tried cow calling and bugling to get him to talk. He got down below us (but was cross wind, not down wind) and then just up and disappeared. I went up to my boys 5 minutes later and they were quite excited, but said they never saw him, only heard him go by in front of them. I asked which direction he went (east or west) and they couldn\'t tell either, it was like he tiptoed through that junk and didn\'t give us any directional clue where he went.

We got up and started slowly walking east - excited that we finally had an encounter granted it took till Saturday, but so what, we\'ve finally found an elk!! We had walked about 100 yards when I spotted a grouse - the boys had a tag, so whammy - Luke nailed it at 20 yards - lunch menu has changed from chicken tortillas to fresh grouse. Oh yeah!
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We finished sidehilling that slope and never picked up his trail or found anymore sign. Back to camp we go - it\'s about 11:00

 

[Old School]

Its Saturday afternoon and my youngest wants to trout fish sometime, so we figure now is as good a time as any. We drive a couple miles down to where our spots \"B,C and D\" were. And spot B is now open - and its right by the creek - decisions, decisions, decisions. We let Levi fish for a couple hours and he catches 4 or 5 brookies. A couple 10 inchers and he is thrilled - he does catch and release since he didn\'t have a stringer...

We head out for the night - we need a shower and warm bed and are going to church Sunday anyways. So we drive an hour away and stay in a missions apt at a church. I had contacted the pastor earlier and he said come stay with us - its a warm bed and shower. Mercy! The simple things in life are so much more appreciated after 6 days in a tent...

We spent the day with them Sunday and actually spent the night Sunday night as well. We just got up extra early (and showered again, just because I could!) we hit the road Monday morning and were back at our spot we wanted to hunt in the morning. It was a spot we had hunted earlier in the week. A meadow on a big north facing slope - only about 300 yards off the road, but it was hidden from the road. We had went back there a couple nights previous and were waiting down by the road for the thermals to change - it took forever before they finally did - and we started hearing bugling up in the meadow, it sounded like a primos bugle tube - they seem to have a distinct and fake sound to them (maybe its just me) The thermals were still bad though so we waited until they switched. Once they did, we busted it up to and through that meadow only to find 2 muzzleloader hunters sitting in a little finger that poked out into the meadow. URGHHHHHH. We were there way before them, we were just waiting for the thermals to switch, they ignored the thermals and just busted up in there and sat down. We did the right thing and just backed out. They came out at dark and we talked - they had hunted there since 1987 and hadn\'t seen it this bad ever - lots of hunters and no elk! Same story over and over. anyway, back to Monday morning now. So we get to the edge of the road and park amidst a small herd of beef cows - urghhh

Up the hill, through the woods and into the meadow. I glass it and its empty. We are working our way along the edge (heading south) and the end of the meadow it turns steep and a beautiful northern facing slope) We work our way along the edge and are almost half way around it when something in the middle of the meadow catches my eye - I get my bino\'s on it and its a bull, but its just seen us. Still not quite shooting time, but it trots towards the northern facing slope. We head that way and go up the slope and sidehill it all the way around. Here\'s a picture of the terrain we are going through.[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->IMG_1326a.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

We then pop over the top into some woods with broken meadows - it just looks aweome, but there are no elk tracks, only people tracks...

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We hunt this back to camp - about a 3 mile walk back - and it looks so good all along the way. We are throwing out an occasional locator bugle and also an occasional cow call. We see and hear nothing and see absolutely no fresh sign. We make the decision that its time to break camp and head somewhere new - we can\'t take much more...

We get back to the truck and dodge the cowpies that are neatly placed all around the truck along with the manure smear all along the side of the truck. Good thing we\'re not city slickers or too concerned with the vehicle... looks a little more rugged now.

We get back to camp and have some chicken tortilla rollups with salsa - that hit the spot. Now to break down camp and pack it to the truck. 3 hours later, camp is broke and the truck is loaded and ready to go somewhere \"new\". The boys are excited, but once I start driving, their excitement turns to exhaustion and they fall asleep while I try to stay awake About an hour and a half later, we are ready to turn off the pavement to a dirt road. The \"spot\" is about 8 miles back on this road, and its a good road, but the washboard on it is so bad you cant go more than 15 miles per hour. 30 minutes later we pull into where \"new\" camp will be...

We quickly unload and setup camp - only takes an hour and a half. We\'ve scouted this spot as well so we pick up our bows and packs and hit the trail. It\'s a little over a 2 mile walk on a gentle slope - always like the uhill walk as you\'re leaving camp

we get to the spot in the trail and I tell the boys \"this is where we bail off here and bushwack\" back to that hidden meadow. We enter the trees and within 100 yards we start seeing fresh elk tracks and droppings. Never been so excited to see animal droppings in my life. They were awesome and really had us anticipating some success.

We made our way through some rough blow downs and finally got to the meadow. Here\'s a picture of the boys sitting on the edge of it - waiting to hear or see something.[attachment=1]<!-- ia1 -->IMG_1359a.jpg<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment]

 

[Old School]

This just looked \"right\" soooo different than where we had spent the previous 6 days. it just felt different. 30 minutes before dark the boys see a few mulies walking along the top of the ridge at the far west edge of the meadow. Then \"he\" stepped out. A 5x5 steps out about 250 yards away and starts working his way towards us - no way! Maybe this is when it will finally happen. Then he hits a bench in the middle of the meadow and just works it out around us - closest he gets is 117 yards - and thats about 75 yards out of my range... Picture isnt very good, but I included it anyway.[attachment=2]<!-- ia2 -->IMG_1364a.jpg<!-- ia2 -->[/attachment]

He works his way around a small finger in the meadow and goes south - when he gets down there he cuts loose with a bugle and 2 other bulls start in. We have found the spot as far as we are concerned. There is less than 5 minutes of light left and we aren\'t going to risk blowing them out of there. We wait till dark and start making our way back to camp. The boys are saying \"we should just sleep out here dad\" - I\'m willing to walk 2 miles back to sleep in a tent... We eat a quick bite and hit the sack, anticipating a good morning hunt.

We get up plenty early and get our packs and gear ready. It didn\'t get as cold at night here - that was a blessing. Big difference between 25 degrees and 40 degrees in a tent. Anyway....we head out and uphill towards our meadow. We stop and take a short break at a big rock that we named \"resting rock\" Levi has paced it off and it is roughly 1/3 of the way to the meadow. We hear a distant bugle and can tell its way up there in the meadow - enough resting, we\'ve got to get moving. We make our way on the aspen leaf covered trail and finally get to the point where we bail off down into the deadfalls to get to the meadow. We sit down on the trail and take a short break - its still over 30 minutes till shooting light. The bull cuts loose again - he\'s down in the meadow, although we cannot tell exactly where - we just know he\'s down there somewhere on the south end. We try to quietly get down through the deadfall (and we make lots of noise). We finally are getting close to breaking through the timber and into the meadow, so we shut off our headlamps and go the last 100 yards by moon light - and its bright. We enter the meadow at the exact spot we did last night - pretty good for 3 amateurs.

As soon as we get in the meadow the bull cuts loose with another bugle and its close - like less than 150 yards. Its up around that little finger of pines that juts out into the meadow - just about 75 yards up from where we sat last night and exactly the point the bull went around last night. We try to quietly work the edge of the meadow - I\'m wanting to get to that point and get setup as I think he is working that way. We are almost there when he cuts loose - right on the other side of the point - not even 30 yards away. Wow is all i can say! Never had anything like that happen while hunting. Pack up and go home, we\'ve had our close encounter we\'ve been waiting for - just kidding!

We are out in the meadow about 20 yards because of the downed trees right on the edge - too noisy to walk through. We immediately sit down when he bugles, I cannot believe he is this close - we can\'t see him though. He\'s just on the other side of the finger. I\'m expecting him to come around the end of it anytime - and we\'ve got about 10 minutes till shooting light - urghhh.

Then it happens - the branches and sticks start snapping as you hear him whirl around and head out - instead of coming around the point, he was cutting through it. He couldn\'t have been but 20 yards away - when he must have seen 3 blobs sitting out in the meadow. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions - so high with anticipation and then totally dejected - this hunt is already over and its not even light yet :-?

We talk about what we ought to do next and we decide to sneak the last 30 yards up to the point so we can at least see around it. Up above the point are new growth aspens out in the meadow. This meadow goes uphill at a pretty good slope - maybe 30 degree. Its got to be 500-600 yards wide. We are sitting there just waiting for a few minutes when a spike pops out of the aspens but then weaves right back in and keeps walking south. He wasn\'t even 25 yards away - oh for him to have been a cow or a calf. But he wasn\'t, he had those spikes sticking out of his head.

We waited about 30 minutes and heard some bugles from the trail - we could tell they were hunters and figured that they had heard what had been occurring right in our laps. I bugled back at them a couple times and here they came... they never popped out into the meadow, and we met them about 2 hours later when we circled back through the meadow and entered back to the north on the trail. They were packing way back in they said. We walked the trail back south and dropped off to enter the meadow again, only this time we entered much further south - like where those bulls were bugling the night before. We went about 400 yards through the thick stuff and low and behold - we stumbled upon 2 wallows not even 100 yards from the meadow.
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We worked our way back out into the meadow and then headed south - the meadow started getting quite a few aspens in it as it rolled off quite quickly to the south. As a matter of fact it drops down into what we called \"The Hole\" at a pretty quick rate. It\'s about a 1,100\' foot drop down and it was a killer going down. And worse coming out [attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->IMG_1399a.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]

 

[Old School]

Oh did we find some good spots for next year.....

An old tree stand stood out from the trees way up above \"The Hole\"- here it is:

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We walked/slid down into \"The Hole\" mercy! my feet were blistered up by the time we finally got down there - who\'s crazy idea was it to drop down in here again? Oh yeah, that would be me, it was my idea. What a dummy! We saw deer sign and lots of bear scat all over that hillside on our way down. There\'s a reason that treestand was up there years ago... Anyway, we saw a couple cool looking snakes down there and Levi found some whopper brookies. He had his mind set on bringing his fishing pole back down in there. No kidding they looked well over a foot long and there were a bunch of them. Found moose, bear, deer and elk tracks down in there. The packout would be tough for us, but we would do it if we had to.

Here\'s a picture from the walk out of \"The Hole\" Levi is daydreaming and I snapped a picture.
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By the time we made it back to camp it was about 2:00 and we were completely whipped. We had finished off all of our water in our packs and all the Gatorade. We crashed for the afternoon after we ate like Kings - oh yeah, Ravioli again! with cookies and applesauce.

 

[Old School]

We were pretty well spent and I could tell we probably only had a day left in us. This is day 8 and I\'m no backcountry hero thats for sure. I\'m a flatlander that does the best I can to get in good shape and get out west every couple years to pursue those big smelly galootes known as the great Wapiti. What a time we\'ve had the past 2 days though - it has almost made up for all the walking we did in the first spot.

We went back to the meadow that night but didn\'t see or hear anything. It was a long walk back to camp. Here\'s a picture of the famed \"resting rock\"
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We ate some soup that night and decided we would head to the wallows first thing in the morning. The boys really wanted to, and I wasn\'t against sitting still anywhere at this point

We sat for about an hour and I told the boys that I thought we should get up and move. We all got up and made our way to the meadow. Instead of heading south though and down towards the hillside leading to \"The Hole\", we made our way uphill through the meadow heading west. We got up to the top of the meadow and it was a nice ridge that broke down steep to the west. We sat down to catch our breath and I asked the boys when they wanted to call it a trip and head out - they said \"today would be fine\" - they weren\'t disappointed in the hunt, they were just spent. I said \"ok\" how about I bugle one last time - and I\'ll bugle down this steep draw. I cut loose with a bugle and low and behold one screamed back at us from waaaaaayyyy down below us. Levi says - did that just give you guys some energy? I said get your stuff and lets bail off here and go get him. Before we could get our packs on and bows picked up, he had bugled twice more. He was way down in the bottom working his way up. The thermals were going to get us for sure. He was a good 800\' below us and its pretty steep down there. We started down and were also trying to sidehill slightly to stay out in front of him so he wouldn\'t catch our scent due to the thermals sucking down and then back towards him. He was busting brush heading uphill and we could hear him. I called to him and he wouldn\'t answer to a cow call. brush kept breaking...I had Levi quickly range a downed log as we thought he was that close. Then it all stopped and he disappeared. I think he caught our scent. Looking back, we should\'ve busted it harder to get way out in front of him. The ridge/backbone was running north to south and he was off the west edge (steep) but down in the bottom the landscape ran uphill as well from the south to the north and he was working his way up that bottom drainage from the south to the north, so he really had the thermals working for him. Should\'ve could\'ve would\'ve. What a way to end our adventure. We dug in our boots and climbed back up to the top - we had dropped almost 500\' to get down to him.

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I left with an education, but also with many questions about what we did wrong on our encounters. I\'m sure that many on this forum would\'ve been successful if they were along. We were not though.

That first bull that I \"raked in\" - what in the world happened? why would he suddenly respond and run down the hill to challenge us, only to to past us never to be seen or heard again? Did he see us or just sense that something was out of place???

What about that bull in the meadow right before light, what could have I done differently there?

And this last bull - I think I know - I should have ran to get way out ahead of him and then tried to drop down to his level - setting my boys up in front of me to get the shot.

All I have to say is this - WHAT AN ADVENTURE! God certainly was good to my boys and I. We had a safe trip and made some terrific memories. In the end, we were flat whipped. But I\'m looking forward to going back - one of these years we will finally connect.

Here\'s our picture after we broke camp and were about to pull out and head for home.

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And one last pic of a spot that we went to mid-day to scout that first week - up about 10,500\'

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Thank you to all on this forum - many helped in their posts and then a few really helped with PM\'s and answering my MANY, MANY questions - you know who you are and I say \"Thank You!\"

Till Next Year,

--Mitch

 

[bowhunter]

Thanks for sharing Mitch. You had a successful hunt. You saw elk and heard close bugles. You created memories with the boys that will never be forgotten. Great job!!! and great story. :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[bnsafe]

awesome hunt mitch. i raked in the bull i killed, came right to it

 

[iccyman001]

Awesome recap!!!! Thanks for sharing you and your boys adventure!!! :upthumb:


Good luck during deer season.

 

[Baby Huey]

Great recap! Glad you enjoyed your time and it had to be special sharing it with your boys.

 

[F M]

Great write up on you and your boys hunt! It sounds to me that you guys probably would have got one if you had found your last spot a couple of days sooner. Thanks for sharing with us. :upthumb:

 

[Zpd307]

thanks for sharing your story!!! like it was said earlier, memories with your boys is priceless!

 

[Ol' Arky]

Great... Glad to hear you and the boys had time together in the high country... :upthumb: :upthumb:

 

[cnelk]

Great job Mitch!

You were successful more ways than you will ever know

As far as what happened with the elk?
Each year is different. This year was a strange one for sure.
Even my \'go to spots\' were dead.

Each encounter with an elk is a learning experience and all we can do is guess and wonder what would be the right decision to do.
But that what make is so addicting!

 

[Billy Goat]

Great play by play, Mitch. I feel like I just went on another elk hunt, and it didnt cost me $2k, and my legs arent sore, either.

fantastic of you to take the boys. I trust thats an education they will never forget. Good on you for letting them fish when thats what they wanted to do.

as much as anything else, I believe it\'s MEMORIES we\'re hunting. You got some. Attaboy.

 

[otcWill]

I enjoyed this, Mitch. You guys are one step closer to success