we,( Frank, Ron and I, )had planed to back-pack to and walk down into the rather remote Colorado canyon, that was layed out like the center tine on a huge three tine fork, the upper end backed into a rocky mountain cliff face, the lower three tines or canyons spread out into a series of long meadows in the bottom of shallow canyons with side canyons , but the mid and upper canyons extended for about 6-7 miles as they rose slowly into our hunt area,and got narrower and steeper in most of their length as the altitude increased, and made a good location to still hunt the aspen and conifer slopes , for ELK,
(we all had both bull elk and mule deer licenses but had made a bargain not to shoot mule deer until the last 4 days of the hunt unless the deer was really exceptional)
for many months, we had been doing the research and planing, we selected the canyon on the topo maps and after talking with the local biologist several times.
we had hunted the next canyon to the east the year before and talked to the local game warden about hunting the canyon late last season.
all our maps showed it was a good 3-4 hour walk from the nearest logging road a truck could get access to and after asking questions it seemed like the locals and outfitters in the area avoided going into that particular canyon as it was (NOT HORSE or MULE FRIENDLY, due to numerous small cliffs, and rocky areas, and steep stream banks and thick brush, shale slopes etc.)
we knew we would need to travel light because you don,t expect to cover ground easily in steep canyons with a heavy back-pack if your even partly sane , and while we would need to stay a few days and carry everything we needed into and out of that canyon we expected to have almost pristine and uncrowded hunting with far better than average game populations due to the fact that there were several bordering canyons that had far easier access, but even those canyons were lightly hunted due to the steep terrain and potential difficulty and time required involved with packing out any game that was shot.
I selected my 270 win falling block ruger #1 loaded with 150 grain speer bullets over 56 grains of imr 4831 powder as my rifle
as I knew it was going to be a rather difficult area to hunt due to the distances required and potential loads we would carry. (and that load in that rifle produced 3/4" 5 shot 100 yard, groups off the bench rest)
We parked the truck a couple dozen yards off the logging road that was used to access the area and locked it up, put a note on the dash that said "we were visiting the next campsite and come on over" and the three of us loaded up our packs and took GPS and compass readings and started into the area at about 1pm the day before hunting season, so we could camp, in the lower end of the canyon and not disturb game farther up the canyon we intended to hunt but still be several hours away from any logging roads come sun light on opening day of elk season.
All of us were well seasoned ELK hunters but we were also FLORIDA guys used to considerably less altitude, and all of us were at least marginally effected with altitude sickness, (as we were every year for several day on the start of each hunt) so we only planed on covering about 4 miles the first evening and afternoon before setting up camp. we were reasonably prepared for almost any weather conditions but that night it snowed almost non-stop, we woke up to find we were under 12"-18" of snow over out lean-to shelters, and sleeping bags, and it was still snowing lightly but the temperature was a reasonable 20F-25F as we woke up and there were deer and ELK tracks almost everywhere we glassed on the canyon slopes. a hurried discussion had one guy suggest there was no real point in going any further from the road as the conditions would make getting back out less than favorable, we were camped in the lower end of our targeted canyon, but not quite as far up into the canyon as we had planed to be at that time. , and the tracks seemed to indicate there was a good game population in the area. naturally as it was opening day we heard distant rifle shots and car sounds in the far distance (its amazing how far some sounds carry on cold crisp mornings).
We compromised a bit on our original plan and decided to hunt slowly with out back-packs and repacked camp in the packs but to be observant of both the area and weather. we split up and I took the far slope and the two other guys took the canyon floor and the near side slope as we traveled slowly up canyon, still hunting slowly thru the aspen and conifer, doe deer were frequently watching us move by or doing that up hill ,pogo stick bounce , routine for a few yards ,,then walking as they sensed we had zero interest in them.
noon found us about 1/2 mile up-canyon and yet to see any legal ELK but we had seen a few cow elk.
we decided to take comfortable seats and just glass the area looking for movement.
the temperature had warmed up to the point that the snow was starting to melt a bit but it was hardly going to melt away.
we hunted the rest of the day still hunting, then stopping and glassing but never seeing any really legal or outstanding ELK worth shooting this far from a road.
the next day the temps rose and mud was mixed with the snow that was still fairly deep in the shaded areas but melting off in the open areas and that made comfortable camping rather difficult, as we were traveling light, and sleeping under plastic tarp lean-tos
we didn,t want to get wet and then have to sleep in freezing conditions at night or get caught in the rain if temps rose.
we continued up the canyon glassing and still hunting, the next day but to our surprise ELK were hard to find in what should at least to our minds have been a great place for elk TO AVOID, HUNT PRESSURE, on the next day at breakfast we decided to still hunt and glass back out of the current canyon and slowly make out way back to the truck, figuring that perhaps we just were not where the ELK hid out like we expected them too.(all three of us felt tired and a bit depressed as we had worked hard, we felt like crap due to lingering altitude sickness, and generally felt stupid because we were not seeing any shoot-able 4 point or better ELK)
but as always what you think about an area or plan is subject to change!, as we got back to about the area that we camped in the first night we started seeing small groups of ELK, at about 10am I saw a group of about 6-7 cows on the far canyon slope. and FRANK, saw them but there was no bull, Ron was on that slope, but the elk passed several hundred yards below him.
we saw several more groups of 3-4 cow elk and a few mule deer but it was not until almost 5PM when it was getting toward evening that
Ron spotted a nice 4x5 and shot it (at about 170 yards with his 358 win loaded with 250 grain speer bullets) the ELK spun and ran a few yards then staggered and fell, and slid on the mixed snow and mud for a couple dozen yards before slamming into a couple young aspen and lodging in place. It took us several hours to bone out the Elk and pack the meat in the gallon zip loc bags in snow banks to cool off , it took two more return trips down into that location to get out the rest of Rons ELk, and I thought (grinning)we might decide to shoot FRANK when he shot a really nice mule deer, (with his 357 mag revolver) on one of the return trips,(he shot the deer thru the liver and lungs with a 158 grain soft point over a stiff load of blue dot powder, the deer ran only a few dozen yards before piling up)
further increasing the pack-out loads.
(but it was only about 1/2 mile from the truck so we let it go)but what really pissed off the guys was when I shot a nice 4x4 mule deer,with my 270 win, ruger single shot, less than 300 yards from a road access point, they all swore I planed that deer , shooting location, and wanted to know why we had to walk miles into the canyon if I knew how to shoot deer 300 yards from the road) I told them,it was because I didn,t want to work hard packing it out and THEY knew that I was worried about being shot if I dropped a deer down in some damn canyon....I reminded them of where THEY had shot their game and just got silly grins
(we all had both bull elk and mule deer licenses but had made a bargain not to shoot mule deer until the last 4 days of the hunt unless the deer was really exceptional)
for many months, we had been doing the research and planing, we selected the canyon on the topo maps and after talking with the local biologist several times.
we had hunted the next canyon to the east the year before and talked to the local game warden about hunting the canyon late last season.
all our maps showed it was a good 3-4 hour walk from the nearest logging road a truck could get access to and after asking questions it seemed like the locals and outfitters in the area avoided going into that particular canyon as it was (NOT HORSE or MULE FRIENDLY, due to numerous small cliffs, and rocky areas, and steep stream banks and thick brush, shale slopes etc.)
we knew we would need to travel light because you don,t expect to cover ground easily in steep canyons with a heavy back-pack if your even partly sane , and while we would need to stay a few days and carry everything we needed into and out of that canyon we expected to have almost pristine and uncrowded hunting with far better than average game populations due to the fact that there were several bordering canyons that had far easier access, but even those canyons were lightly hunted due to the steep terrain and potential difficulty and time required involved with packing out any game that was shot.
I selected my 270 win falling block ruger #1 loaded with 150 grain speer bullets over 56 grains of imr 4831 powder as my rifle
as I knew it was going to be a rather difficult area to hunt due to the distances required and potential loads we would carry. (and that load in that rifle produced 3/4" 5 shot 100 yard, groups off the bench rest)
We parked the truck a couple dozen yards off the logging road that was used to access the area and locked it up, put a note on the dash that said "we were visiting the next campsite and come on over" and the three of us loaded up our packs and took GPS and compass readings and started into the area at about 1pm the day before hunting season, so we could camp, in the lower end of the canyon and not disturb game farther up the canyon we intended to hunt but still be several hours away from any logging roads come sun light on opening day of elk season.
All of us were well seasoned ELK hunters but we were also FLORIDA guys used to considerably less altitude, and all of us were at least marginally effected with altitude sickness, (as we were every year for several day on the start of each hunt) so we only planed on covering about 4 miles the first evening and afternoon before setting up camp. we were reasonably prepared for almost any weather conditions but that night it snowed almost non-stop, we woke up to find we were under 12"-18" of snow over out lean-to shelters, and sleeping bags, and it was still snowing lightly but the temperature was a reasonable 20F-25F as we woke up and there were deer and ELK tracks almost everywhere we glassed on the canyon slopes. a hurried discussion had one guy suggest there was no real point in going any further from the road as the conditions would make getting back out less than favorable, we were camped in the lower end of our targeted canyon, but not quite as far up into the canyon as we had planed to be at that time. , and the tracks seemed to indicate there was a good game population in the area. naturally as it was opening day we heard distant rifle shots and car sounds in the far distance (its amazing how far some sounds carry on cold crisp mornings).
We compromised a bit on our original plan and decided to hunt slowly with out back-packs and repacked camp in the packs but to be observant of both the area and weather. we split up and I took the far slope and the two other guys took the canyon floor and the near side slope as we traveled slowly up canyon, still hunting slowly thru the aspen and conifer, doe deer were frequently watching us move by or doing that up hill ,pogo stick bounce , routine for a few yards ,,then walking as they sensed we had zero interest in them.
noon found us about 1/2 mile up-canyon and yet to see any legal ELK but we had seen a few cow elk.
we decided to take comfortable seats and just glass the area looking for movement.
the temperature had warmed up to the point that the snow was starting to melt a bit but it was hardly going to melt away.
we hunted the rest of the day still hunting, then stopping and glassing but never seeing any really legal or outstanding ELK worth shooting this far from a road.
the next day the temps rose and mud was mixed with the snow that was still fairly deep in the shaded areas but melting off in the open areas and that made comfortable camping rather difficult, as we were traveling light, and sleeping under plastic tarp lean-tos
we didn,t want to get wet and then have to sleep in freezing conditions at night or get caught in the rain if temps rose.
we continued up the canyon glassing and still hunting, the next day but to our surprise ELK were hard to find in what should at least to our minds have been a great place for elk TO AVOID, HUNT PRESSURE, on the next day at breakfast we decided to still hunt and glass back out of the current canyon and slowly make out way back to the truck, figuring that perhaps we just were not where the ELK hid out like we expected them too.(all three of us felt tired and a bit depressed as we had worked hard, we felt like crap due to lingering altitude sickness, and generally felt stupid because we were not seeing any shoot-able 4 point or better ELK)
but as always what you think about an area or plan is subject to change!, as we got back to about the area that we camped in the first night we started seeing small groups of ELK, at about 10am I saw a group of about 6-7 cows on the far canyon slope. and FRANK, saw them but there was no bull, Ron was on that slope, but the elk passed several hundred yards below him.
we saw several more groups of 3-4 cow elk and a few mule deer but it was not until almost 5PM when it was getting toward evening that
Ron spotted a nice 4x5 and shot it (at about 170 yards with his 358 win loaded with 250 grain speer bullets) the ELK spun and ran a few yards then staggered and fell, and slid on the mixed snow and mud for a couple dozen yards before slamming into a couple young aspen and lodging in place. It took us several hours to bone out the Elk and pack the meat in the gallon zip loc bags in snow banks to cool off , it took two more return trips down into that location to get out the rest of Rons ELk, and I thought (grinning)we might decide to shoot FRANK when he shot a really nice mule deer, (with his 357 mag revolver) on one of the return trips,(he shot the deer thru the liver and lungs with a 158 grain soft point over a stiff load of blue dot powder, the deer ran only a few dozen yards before piling up)
(but it was only about 1/2 mile from the truck so we let it go)but what really pissed off the guys was when I shot a nice 4x4 mule deer,with my 270 win, ruger single shot, less than 300 yards from a road access point, they all swore I planed that deer , shooting location, and wanted to know why we had to walk miles into the canyon if I knew how to shoot deer 300 yards from the road) I told them,it was because I didn,t want to work hard packing it out and THEY knew that I was worried about being shot if I dropped a deer down in some damn canyon....I reminded them of where THEY had shot their game and just got silly grins