Colorado Trip Report

[RockChucker30]

Departure Day:

This year I rented a car for the drive out. I started out Thursday Sept 18 at about 6:30 pm. The drive is around 1500 miles each way, and takes 22-23 hrs. I rented a Ford Fusion with unlimited mileage for what I thought was a very reasonable price. I said goodbyes, checked the gear list 100 times (obsessively), and headed out. I drove until 11:30 or so and slept in the car at a rest stop somewhere in Illinois.

Day 1:

The alarm woke me at 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30. I finally got up - exhausted. Guzzle some coffee and drive. Ford Fusions are nice, but not for a 6' 3" guy trying to sleep. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, then SW Colorado. I arrived at my destination around 1 am.

Day 2:

Breakfast, some talk, gear packing. Around noon Kevin and I head to the trailhead. I'm going to the area I hunted and explored two years ago. The plan is for me to hunt and for Kevin to scout for rifle season and to give his pack goats a good workout.

The trail gains around 2000 ft in 2 miles or so. The gain is hard on me, always. Even after I acclimate a bit gain is hard and slow.

It's hard on the goats too.....I don't feel so bad. I'm carrying more weight, and they live at 7500.

 

[RockChucker30]

Have to fix pics....

 

[RockChucker30]

Poser, they can each do about 40 lbs if they're in good shape.

No love on the pics....tried chrome and explorer, am copying the IMG code direct from photobucket. Maybe pics are too big or something?

 

[RockChucker30]

Three old goats

 

[RockChucker30]

We were close to the end of our elevation gain and Kevin was ranging ahead of the goats and I who were winded. I rounded a switchback to find Kevin squatting in the trail mouthing "ELK" and holding his arms above his head indicating BULL.

I dropped my pack, tried to catch my breath, and grabbed a mouth call and my bugle, then eased ahead about 30 yards. I could see the bull through the timber about 75-80 yards away. I gave him a couple soft cow mews and he bugled at me, so I hit him back with some excited mews. He started coming.

He's a really good bull, obviously mature and either a really big five or a nice six. He gets to about 55 yards and hangs up. He knows he should be seeing elk from this location and he doesn't.

I know my only real chance to pull him in to trigger him. I introduce a threat, turning behind me and chuckling, then giving some more excited mews. This tells the bull that there is another bull behind the cow playing tug-of-war, trying to pull her back to him.

He's very interested. He bugles. I intensify the threat, throwing out chuckles, short screams, huffs, distressed cow sounds. It's too much for this bull in this mood. He backs off and disappears into the timber. I hear him give demanding bugles with chuckles, growling at the end. He's rounding up his herd, and doing it with language that means COME HERE NOW!!!

I sneak after him, following a bench, then up and over two small ridges and depressions. A satellite bull comes into my cow calling up to 50 yards but he's behind some trees and I have no shot.

The bull finally turns and I'm offered a shot for a split second at 55 yards, but he's hard quartered away and moving. I pass. I should have given him a nervous grunt to see if he would've stopped broadside.

The satellite moves off after the main herd which is now gaining elevation at a rate much faster than I can. It's getting late and we still have over a mile and a half to go, so I head back and meet up with Kevin.

In elk this early! The week looks to be stellar.

We arrive at our destination and make camp.

 

[RockChucker30]

Day Three:

The next morning I awake to rain. I get up, throw on the raingear, make coffee, and am thankful for goretex socks and waterproof backpacks. I climb up the ridge behind camp to a creek crossing I found two years before and arrowed a bull from. There is very little fresh sign this high. It's a terrific ambush point, but they aren't using it.

Daypack mode

 

[RockChucker30]

I mosey back to camp and meet up with Kevin and the goats. Paradox Packs make great pillows....ask Kevin.

THE GREAT GOAT ESCAPE

So goats have minds of their own. I decided to make a large loop down to the bench where we bumped into elk the day before, then up to the trail and back to camp after dark. Kevin wanted to take the goats across the creek and up to a couple vantage points to scout some new territory. We parted ways and he started down the trail to the crossing with Koko and Pelli.

Pelli is a good goat. Koko is a little headstrong. Pelli crossed the creek fine, but Koko said no way. The trail and crossing are steep, rocky, and a bit sketchy so it's not a place you want a rodeo. Kevin decided that since he and the one goat were on the other side of the creek that Koko would follow if they started to walk away.

It didn't work. Koko ran back toward camp. He was bleating loudly, obviously in a panic. Figuring to find him at camp or grazing in the meadow in a couple hours, we went about our way.

I stillhunted the bench toward where elk were spotted without seeing anything but some fresh sign. Kevin scouted around and then made his way back to camp to meet up with Koko. Only there was no Koko. He texted me, so I started back to camp on the trail a bit early to look for him.

We didn't find him. I know horses and mules can backtrack, so I thought maybe Koko was back at the trailhead. I was almost right. Koko was in jail.

Alpine goats have a tremendous ability to follow trails. If they've been on a trail before they can follow it whether raining, under snow, etc. They've been tested and found that a goat could travel a trail one time, then follow the same trail unassisted as long as three years later.

Koko went back to the trailhead, finding nobody at the truck, he started home. Along the way he stopped for a snack in a lady's yard. She didn't appreciate the 200 lb animal wearing a dog collar eating her landscaping and called the police. The police were obviously outgunned by Koko and so called a local woman who owns goats. Koko was in the slammer.

Wondering where Koko was, Kevin packed up and headed back to the trailhead. Strapping the goat pack saddle onto his pack.. (O the irony! :lol: )

Facebook rescued Koko the next day. Social media is useful for many things, including finding runaway crime spree pack goats. Koko went home and had some sweet feed.

 

[RockChucker30]

I finished the day in intermittent rain watching the meadow near camp.

Forgot to mention the nice muley above camp.

 

[RockChucker30]

Day Four: (Monday)

I awoke to rain. Put on the raingear, put on the goretex socks, thankful for waterproof pack....repeat. Rain gets old after a while.

I stillhunted through the meadow at the first gray streaks of light, moving silently but for the pitters and pops of rain hitting my gear. I eased past the resident mule deer buck "Spikey", who is dumber than a box of rocks. I should've taken a picture of him.

Still hunting for me is more like a series of stands. I move silently and very, very slowly from one good spot to another. I eased up to the side of a big pine and stood there for 2-3 minutes looking and listening. Nothing. I take a half step forward and a cow explodes from the other side of the tree. She'd been watching me for several minutes, trying to decide what I was. She figured it out before I detected her. I would've been packing her out that day if it'd gone down differently.

I bombed further down the bench to get the wind in my favor and then dropped 200 ft elevation to still hunt back toward camp through the thickest of the elk sign I'd seen so far.

Along the way not a 1/4 mile from where we'd seen elk on the way in I found the reason they could stay in this area. Water where there isn't supposed to be water.

 

[RockChucker30]

It's been a wet summer.

Normally there isn't water on these benches. Because there is elk seem to be much less concentrated. Cow sign is scattered from the dark timber down into the deadfall aspen meadows. Sign from the herd is drying up. They've moved, and I'm hunting a small very scattered population of cows. It's warm, and they aren't bugling.

I decide to check out the other side of the ridge I'm on. I gain 800 ft and drop down on the other side to glass.

More rain.

 

[RockChucker30]

The view alone is worth the climb.

 

[RockChucker30]

It's a good thing the views are nice, because the only game spotted is 23 bighorn sheep. Still, pretty darn cool.

I cross back over the saddle and hipflex my way through deadfall, checking out some high benches. I'm still trying to relocate the herd.

Finding nothing I drop below camp and glass till dark.

 

[RockChucker30]

Poser, the goats stick very close to you. They're like really big silent vegetarian dogs that follow your every step. They get really upset if you leave them alone.

So yeah there are cougars and bears out there, but the goats are always with you. Rifle hunting that's not a problem. Archery it could be.

For rifle I think it may actually help. They cover your scent, and give animals a four legged critter to look at instead of you.

 

[RockChucker30]

Day Five: Do or die

I need to relocate a huntable number of elk. Sign is drying up and is very sporadic and scattered. I start the morning by pushing farther along the bench than I have, covering holes in the map. There are only a few places the herd couldv'e gone without rappelling and I'm marking spots off the list.

Nothing. I spent half the day hipflexing over deadfall and crawling through chest high weeds and grass in aspen openings. Perfect elk habitat. Nothing.

I need a move. I pack up camp. I load up on water, because there isn't any where I'm going. I'm going up.

The plan is to head straight to the top of the ridge. I'm at 9800', ridgetop is 11200'+. It gains 1400" in a half mile.

I stopped by the kill site of my bull from 2012. Mother nature uses everything. From glorious animal to bleached bones in a couple seasons.

I paid my respects, said my thanks, and moved on.

 

[RockChucker30]

CLIMB!!! I kept telling myself. I hate false summits. They get your hopes up only to kill them.

But the view got better.

Finally I top out.

 

[RockChucker30]

Beautiful area. It's a dark timber ridge with a lot of blowdown that's started growing back. There is elk feed, bedding cover, everything they could want. But again, I'm only finding scattered sign of a few cows. My grand plan was to relocate the herd and camp on them. I'm not finding them.

But the views! Man elk hunting is good for the soul.

I waited till near dark glassing and listening. No bugles. No sightings. I bailed.

I descended 3200 feet over 3-4 miles back to the trailhead in 1:59 with full gear. My goal was under 2 hrs. Yes, I'm both anal enough and competitive enough to time it.

Day 6:

I spent the night on a futon, then strategy meeting the next morning. Midmorning I started hiking into an area I'd covered in 2012. It's lower and has a lot of aspens.

I hiked up 2.5-3 miles with 2000' of vert in just under 2 hours. I pitched the tent in what is affectionately known as "elk pee camp".

I made a wide loop up into the aspens, checked out a couple wallows, and went to lead pipe cinch pinch point that elk absolutely would HAVE to travel through if they were using the area. Nothing.

No elk sign fresher than a month (or longer).

Absolutely nothing! I couldn't believe it. I bailed.

2000+ foot descent in 51 minutes. I trail ran all but the cliffy technical parts with full gear and bow in hand. I was acclimated and feeling good by this point.

Day 7:

To bed at 10:300 or 11, up at 4 to drive to the next trailhead. Park and start the 2000' climb. Everything around there begins with a 2000' climb.

Miss a turn at the top, backtrack a half mile, find the ridge I need to be on, glass............ELK! A cow leading a medium size 5 point in a meadow across the drainage. Another bull! a smallish but legal 4 pt.

I bail off the ridge, crawl up the creekbank on the other side to get the wind in my favor, then duck walk, bend over, crawl, knee walk, and crawl some more up through the thick oak brush.

I've got to be within 150 yards of where I last saw the elk. It's now nearly 9 am and the winds are very swirly. The oak brush is frustratingly loud. Having made a mistake earlier in the week being too aggressive with elk, I now try the passive approach.

I bed down for the day in some mature oak brush. I nap, watch the sky, and wait for the temps to drop and the wind to stabilize.

That afternoon I staked out a wonderful funnel in the end of the meadow the elk had left earlier that morning. I had great cover, several trails entering the meadow within bow range, even bushes that were at convenient 5 yard intervals. A perfect ambush point.

 

[RockChucker30]

The best laid plans of mice and men....nothing showed. I waited till dark, no bugles.

I spent the night in the spot I spent the day, surrounded by these....\

Black bear poop is impressive. I mean really, some of them look like the bear just finished off a hippo. Fortunately they were filled with oak brush acorns, not elk hunters.

The next morning I was still hunting the edge of the meadow, then through the meadow along a large bench that runs for a mile or more. Scattered openings with mingled oak brush. An archers dream. I covered the entire bench by 10 am. Nothing.

That's it, time to pack out and go home.

I humped back up the ridge and met up with Kevin. We chatted and plotted, relived the trip, took a few pack photos, then headed out.

I started driving Saturday morning and slept in the front seat that night somewhere in Kansas for 3.5 hrs at a rest stop. I got up, drank a gallon of coffee at IHOP, and drove on home. I arrived around 7 pm.

 

[WMAn]

If on a rifle hunt is there any advantage to the goats over a dog?

 

[tickweed]

great story.

 

[duckriver]

Bro that is awesome! Its on my bucket list maybe we can go together sometime.