It Has Begun

Virtual Elk Hunt

Opening Weekend

August 25/26, 2007

Unit 18, Colorado

Bow hunters couldn’t have been cursed with worse weather. It was hot (in the 70s) and not a cloud could be found in the sky. The sun was relentless, making it feel warmer than it really was. The ONLY good hunting opportunities came at dawn. The full moon is on the way and the elk will be most active at night. On top of all this bad news it was quiet. Not an elk sound to be heard all weekend. What should we expect? It’s till summer time. I’ve never seen it so green in Colorado in August. All that green will help the elk go into winter with a bit more food to nibble on come December. It has been a banner year for plants and grasses. The elk have had a LOT of high quality food to eat all summer.

My weekend was full of a LOT of hiking and a few minutes of hunting. Two things held true today. One the wind always blows downhill in the mornings and that was a huge benefit for me. Second, the velvet is coming off. You know what that means. When the elk shed their velvet the rut is on. They will polish those hardened antlers with a dark brown or reddish brown tree depending on their environment. The results will be a strong set of headgear to take them into competition later in September and early October.

Destination Wheeler Basin ñ the most remote part of the Arapaho Creek valley that there is.

Like I mentioned in the scouting pages there is a 6x6 at the top of every creek valley in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. That has held true for many years and there is a good reason why. It’s the most difficult hunting you can do. The terrain beats you up and the weather leaves you dehydrated, cold and tired. That’s why the elk live longer back in there. Only the hard and strong survive in the wilderness.

I came across this lush creek valley provided by melting snow from a large drift on the North Slope. Amazing how one drift provided such a lush environment for what appears to have been there forever.

Only a few times in my years of chasing elk have I come across such a defined trail system. Despite the heavy growth this trail was fresh and used often. It leads to the creek. I headed up into the opening, which was full of willows and tall plants. I had smelled elk, seen fresh prints but no fresh droppings. But who could find fresh scat in those tall plants? I paused often and heard movement in the willows but they were maybe six to eight feet tall and I couldn’t see anything. Once my Dad and I snuck so close to an elk in the willows the only thing that stood between us was a thick willow bush. We could both hear each other move and when the elk had enough it just disappeared. Willows are a great place to find elk all year long, depending on the elevation.

Anyone who says it was a dry year in the mountains of central Colorado are liars. These plants grew over three feet tall and you can see where the elk have been walking through. The elk eat the tops of these plants.

Are these new raspberries? I’m not certain but I do know this plant has a lot of thorns.

I stopped to glass the area because the sign was so fresh. I looked up and found this very old tree begging me to climb it. I bet the views would have been worth it too. The tree must have been 100 feet tall and several hundred years old. Oh, the stories it could tell if it could speak!

Dark timber begs me to visit. I can’t resist. This is where big bulls live.

Old tree scrapes. These are the types of trees elk shed their velvet on. It also helps polish them to a dark brown. Signs showed this was home to a big bull for many, many years.

An elk bed in the dark timber where it was cool thanks to a nearby creek.

These are the places where big elk live. It has all the ingredients for them. Dark timber, a small water source, lots of fresh plants and grasses, solitude and safety. The whole area may have only been 15-20 acres in all. You don’t need to find a huge alpine meadow to find elk. What you want is to find these small, lush places early in the season when big elk are still in summer mode.

More dark timber surrounding a lush meadow with a creek in it. IF you can find this on a map good for you. They are almost always overlooked or not even on a map. Aerial maps are best to find these tiny areas. You have to visit them to see if they are active. This area had enough fresh sign to convince me a nice bull was nearby. I kept the down sloping wind in my face. That elk bed was behind me and to my left.

I walked around the small meadow into more dark timber on the other side and found another elk bed. The beds weren’t fresh but the evidence was there that this was where generations of big elk lived.

Another very lush meadow just before the hill gave way to a very steep tight decline.

A tight alpine rocky slope still in full bloom with yellow flowers. I was certain I would find an elk feeding in this area. As I’ve seen before with big elk the sun can push them into hiding. A full moon is coming and they had all night to eat. The sun promised to be hot and there was no hope for clouds or an afternoon rain all weekend. On one occasion I observed a bull feeding in a place like this. As soon as the sun shown on his feeding area he stopped eating and moved to a shaded area to bed and rechew his food. The sun seems to have the same effect on big bulls and vampires.

Heading back to the willows after circling far enough around so I could get the wind directly in my face. I wanted to come in at a higher elevation. As the valley warms up the winds will become shifty and blow back uphill and swirl. I had to circle back to see if what I heard in the willows was possibly an elk. This is a potential wallow for later in the season. Seeps like this seem to be abundant around 10,000 feet.

Ah ha! A fresh bed. It doesn’t get any fresher than this. When I had smelled elk earlier in the willows I was not far from this spot. Though the tall grasses, plants and willows prevented me from seeing this. The smell of fresh dirt and elk was abundant. I was close. I could see his tracks led him down the slope from here. But where I heard the noises came from the middle of the willows slightly above this spot.

With the wind still in my favor I looked up to where I heard some noises in the willows only to see antlers coming my way. I should note I had made some very soft cow mews from the fresh elk bed. Very soft and very quiet mews. When you are in the willows you never really know how close you might be. I was about 10 yards away and never knew the bull was there. Until I saw the antlers that is. He remained quiet except for his movement walking through the willows.

This was the view from my bow cam. As you can see I have no shot and with such thick cover between us the best I could hope for was for him to spook to a nearby open area. But instead he turned and crashed away. About five steps is all it took for him to be long gone. In fact after those steps I heard nothing and saw nothing. Just like that he vanished. Either into the dark timber in the background or he could have possibly fish hooked around me into the dark timber behind where I just came from. All that hiking for two seconds of pure adrenaline. I tried to find where he went with no luck. I wish I had a photo of the look on his face when he realized I wasn’t a willow. He almost turned inside out to get away from me. You can barely tell in this photo but he is a 6x6. The sixth tine on his left antler is very small. He had tall antlers, which have been recently cleaned, from his velvet. Though he will still spend more time polishing them to a darker finish.

This was the closest I’ve ever been on opening day. The weather and nearly full moon were against me and the remainder of the weekend was quiet to say the least. Like usual the elk sign was my guide. I had mixed feelings about it until I found that fresh bed. As long as you follow the evidence you’ll eventually run into elk. As I walked around the rest of the day I could see signs from last year’s activities in the fall. I saw where a bachelor set of bulls stopped just inside some dark timber bordering a small meadow. It appeared they were just there a day or two before heading further down the mountain. Last fall we were lucky to have a good amount of snow. The migration started early last year. This year seems very warm compared to last year.

I don’t know if I have the energy for this hike again next week. Being Labor Day weekend I will try to get out during the week instead. The waves of humans in the high country will surely alter the elk routine.

I hope you have enjoyed the photos. It was a wonderful weekend to be out in elk country.