DEC 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 12

Elk Hunting in a Colorado Snowstorm
November is one of my favorite
times of the year because it
represents fall, cool weather,
and the start of big game hunting
season. This year I met one of my
sons, Austin, up at our cabin in the
mountains of Northern Colorado
for elk rifle season #2. If you are
not familiar with Colorado elk
seasons, they are typically one
weeklong, (except for bow season
which is almost a full month), so
you really have to make the most
of your week. This year was going
be exceptionally difficult for my
son as he was only able to make
it up for a Weds-Saturday hunt.
No worries I thought, I will go up
early and scout our usual hunting
areas of our land and the national
forest behind our cabin and make
us a good plan for the time we
had to hunt together. I had been
watching the weather forecasts
and it looked perfect. We should
have slight snow on the ground
when I get there and we will have
more snow coming in, which usually
really gets the elk moving and
fresh power to track the animals.
Three days before my son arrived,
I got to our cabin and just
as I thought, we had about 4-6
inches of snow on the ground. I
unpacked our gear and went out
in the woods for an evening hunt.
Within 20 minutes into my hike in
the national forest lands, I started
seeing fresh elk sign. Lots of elk
sign, fresh tracks and fresh droppings.
I was getting pretty excited
when I approached the first of our
many favorite hunting areas, the
elk sign was even more abundant.
New plan, I thought to myself. I
am not going to continue to scout
this area, the elk are here, and I
don’t want to give them a reason
to leave. My plan was to quietly
slip in and hunt the front edge of
this area until my son arrives and
hopefully get an elk even before
he arrives.
That first afternoon scout was a
fairly short one as I am not going
to lie, it was during the World
Series, and I really wanted to
watch the Astros beat the Phillies.
The next morning, I hiked
into my stand well before daylight
and watch the woods come alive
with first light. However, no elk in
sight and after three hours sitting
in the freezing temperatures, this
now Florida thin-blooded body
was too cold to sit any longer, so I
slipped out quietly. The afternoon
hunt was a beautiful weather
hunt as it warmed up, but no elk
movement.
For day three, I decided to
not slip out into my spot in the
dark but instead decided to wait
until first light and still hunt to
my stand. Within 10 minutes of
moving very slowly through the
woods and after climbing a small
ridge, I spotted a cow elk about
50 years away moving in my direction.
I slowly dropped to the
ground and realized I am completely
exposed by the white snow
and no cover between her and
me. She didn’t see me and continued
to eat on the dead grasses
sticking up through the snow and
I could see there were several
more elk behind her. When she
got about 25 yards in front of me,
she did the funniest double-take
and literally jump back 2 steps
when she saw something that
didn’t seem right, me. The wind
was blowing into my face, so
she couldn’t smell this thing she
couldn’t identify and since I didn’t
move, she starred at me for what
seemed like 10 minutes trying to
figure out what I was. When she
finally couldn’t identify if this was
a real threat or not, she decided
to simply move on as two more
cows had moved up to her and
they too were waiting for her next
move. Since I really couldn’t move
during this stare down, I could
now look back in the direction
they came from, and I see a bigger
elk coming my way and I can see
antlers. I thought to myself, this
is awesome! I am going to get a
bull even before my son gets here
and I can then focus on helping
him get one. My heart was racing
as he moved closer through the
trees, and I could see now that he
was only a spike bull, which is not
a legal bull to take. So, I watched
him take almost the same path
as the cow and that brought him
within 30 years in front of me. I
kept hoping that there were more
elk to follow as well but after
waiting a good half hour, that
was it, just a small group with
three cows and one bull. I made
it to the same stand I had hunted
the night before, but nothing else
moved past. That afternoon, I
still hunted to the same stand on
the edge of our hunting area but
again despite all of the fresh sign,
I didn’t see anything and headed
to the airport to pick up Austin. I
was thinking that tomorrow the
snow should be moving in, and we
could hunt some ground blinds I
set up or could still hunt further
into the forest and perhaps find
other small groups or a big herd.
That night the snow started and
when we walked out the cabin a
good hour plus before first light,
it was snowing really hard. I left
him at a ground blind I set up for
him and I made it to my ground
blind well before it started getting
light. Our plan was to stay
put for this first morning together
and see if we can get some of the
elk to come past one of us. The
temperatures had dropped to the
low 20s and it was hard to remain
warm and still in this now
blowing snowstorm. We met up
after about 3.5 hours with nothing
being seen and we noticed no
fresh tracks in the new snow either.
We hiked back to the cabin
120 The BLUES The BLUES 121