DEC 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 12

Elk Hunting in a

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