Dad's 3rd season CO elk

Calif_Mike

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Sorry for taking so long to get to this. Its a small bull, but a big story.

Dad and I left Modesto at about 6:30 AM on Halloween morning on our way to our annual elk hunting trip in Colorado. Spent the nite in Kayenta, AZ then made the final couple hours to Cortez, CO the next morning. The scenery is always spectacular on the way.
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Trip there was pretty uneventful other then taking a rock to the brand new windshield on my truck  in Fresno. We hit town, picked up last minute supplies, water and then headed up the mountain to the same area we hunt every year above Dunton. There had been a pretty decent storm during the 2nd season but there were only traces of snow left at 10,000 ft where we camp.
We had camp setup in about 3 hours and just before dark I headed over to the west of camp where I can watch several large meadows way in the back country to see if any elk were moving about. They weren't. Shortly after dark it started to snow and we got about 4 inches that nite, however Wednesday dawned nice and clear. The season didn't open until Saturday so we had plenty of time to find the elk. I spent the mornings and evenings watching the meadows in the back country and spent the days walking into several meadows I had found on Google and wanted to see if they had potential. We had to find new places to hunt again this year since the Forest Service continues to close access roads to all of our old spots. One of the meadows we checked out had a large population of ermine, a type of weasel that is pure white in the winter. We stood there and watched them for quite some time. We didn't see any elk until Thursday afternoon when we were driving along and my dad looks over and sees 9 elk out in the middle of the hillside at 3 in the afternoon. At least we saw something but they were on the move and wouldn't be there come the opener. This is the hill the elk were on but they were gone by the time I took the pic.
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By Friday nite we had settled on our hunting spots and were ready to hunt and were starting to get used to the elevation. We hit the bags early with plans to get up at 4AM. We were rudely awoken at 2:30 AM with the front wall of our tent and one sidewall being blown in by a screaming wind and snow storm. We got up and made the repairs but quickly realized the hunting opening morning would be a total bust so decided to sleep in and see what the afternoon brought. The afternoon wasn?t much better, we sat our spots but the elk didn't move. Sunday it snowed most of the day and we sat our spots again in the morning but without seeing anything. Sunday evening I was going to sit the meadow where my ex-wife shot her elk last year and let dad go on to his spot. But when I got out of the truck, I looked up on the hill above my usual spot and there was a large herd of elk in it. We figured I should sit my normal spot. I did, but we didn't see anything other than a set of elk tracks from an elk that had walked completely around the tree I sit against.
Monday morning it was snowing again but starting to break up some. Temps were in the teens. About 7:30 I hadn't seen anything and was starting to question whether we would see any animals this year when a rifle shot broke me from my grumping. The shot was quickly followed by a radio call of ?Bull Down!? from my dad. I worked my way over to where he was sitting, not easy in 15 inches of snow and wearing 20 lbs of clothing at 10,000 feet. Here is the view from where my dad was sitting. The bull was back in the aspens at the back of the picture, a little over 200 yards away.
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We formulated a plan that dad would stay in his spot and I would walk out to the truck, move it down the road and carry the pack frame and sled into where the elk was. Then dad would come down to the elk. The pack out would be longer but mostly downhill rather than a very steep uphill going out the other way. When I finally got to the elk, a smallish 5x5, I noted he was the smallest of the now 5 elk we have taken but still questioned the sanity of elk hunting, knowing the next several hours of pain I was about to go through. Dad came down and we took pics.
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We worked on gutting, skinning, quartering and boning out the remaining meat and loading it onto our sled. We had a total of six bags and somewhere around 200 lbs. We cut the horns off and removed the ivories and then the trip back to the truck began. We were able to do all the flat and downhill in one trip but once we started the last uphill to the truck we had to break everything into 3 loads. At 3:30 PM the last load was in the truck, dad had pulled the trigger at 7:30 AM. It snowed on and off all day.
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We got to camp and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one, then hung the quarters from the meat pole. We slept the sleep of the dead that nite, which isn't easy at that elevation. We took Tuesday morning off and went to town for breakfast and showers and hunted that evening. It got a little chilly Wednesday, 2 degrees F. I began sitting in dad?s spot as there were more tracks at his location but didn't see anything that morning or evening, other than a coyote trying to get to the elk carcass but being driven off by the ravens. Dad kept me company. You can see he is bundled up for the cold.
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Thursday morning was warmer, 6 degrees F. We were sitting the same spot again and I began to have the realization that the six bags of meat from dad?s elk were now frozen solid and there would be no way to bone out the quarters to make the load smaller so we were going to need 4 very large ice chests to get it home. If I shot a cow elk that I had a tag for, we would have to go to town to buy more ice chests and I wasn?t so sure we would be able to get it all home. I told dad about my concern but he wasn?t sure we should call it done yet. Shortly after that I heard an elk coming down the hill to my left so I got ready and out pops a great big bull at 50 yards. I have a cow tag. The bull stands around for a few minutes then walks down the drainage below us and starts up the hill toward us. At 20 feet he crests the hill and realizes those two bushes might not be bushes. He looks us over long enough for me to count his 6x6 frame and notice one of his tines had a corkscrew to it, then bails back down the hill. He ran about 40 yards, stopped and looked back at us again, then wandered off. He was a bull of most hunters? dreams and I had him 20 feet from me! He was by far the biggest bull dad and I ever had an opportunity at. I looked at dad, who was sitting there with his mouth opened, and I told him that is something neither of us would ever forget and that is the perfect way to end a trip. With that we got up and headed back to the truck.
We spent the rest of the day breaking down camp as much as possible so we would only have a few hours work in the morning. We relived the big bull a dozen times or more. More than once one of us would just start laughing, the other one knew why. What an amazing trip. We closed out the 2011 elk trip 3 ? days early, the first time we had ever done that, but we were both more than thrilled. With that our trip came to an end.
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Great story of events and pictures too Mike, tell your dad I said Congrats on the Bull....good eating there for sure.

Brian
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Nice story, That will be a good eating bull, Hope you guy enjoy the meat as much as you enjoyed the hunt. Looks like a great area to hunt.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
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Thanks guys. It was a great hunt like all of the ones we go on. The meat is greatly appreciated and I eat off our elk for an entire year.
 

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