Semi-Live CO 1st Rifle Elk

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WKR
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Travel with a butcher and a taxidermist, makes it way easier lol. Good luck to your team. Hiking in the am. We'll see how it goes.
 
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chippewawarrior
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Milwaukee, WI
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chippewawarrior
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Milwaukee, WI
Where to begin? I'll start with two days before the Colorado 1st rifle season, Wednesday October 11th, 2017. We picked up my daughter, Leia, from school at approximately 3pm. This was to be her first elk hunt. She recently completed her hunter safety course, and was eager to tag along. Leia has been with me since I took her along turkey hunting when she was just 6. For the past 2 years she has participated in the mentored hunts available here in Wisconsin. While she has not yet connected with a big game animal, squirrels be warned, Leia has filled our crock pot several times with those tasty morsels. She trained for this hunt and was fully prepared to carry 30lbs. as far as humanly possible.

After a few stops, we were on the road and headed to Clark, CO for our elk hunt.
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More gas station shenanigans...

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McDonalds in Steamboat Springs...

Let me say that while there were some hunters where we ultimately hunted, I don't feel like I am giving away any trade secrets. I am a novice elk hunter at best, and with the amount of public land in GMU 14, I feel like the location was a large part of our adventure. Not to mention, you can derive where I was by the signs in my photos. If anyone has any objections to this, we did not see a single elk during this hunt. There was no secret hunting location. I'm sure there were elk there somewhere as we saw what I would call fresh sign, however we never caught up with them. Back to the story...

We drove straight through from Milwaukee, WI, with the obligatory stops for gas. We arrived at our destination at approximately noon on Thursday.
 
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chippewawarrior
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Final pack weights for our group were, me @ 50lbs. (carrying a Kifaru Bikini High Camp), Tony (the brother-in-law, sporting a Kifaru G1 Longhunter hauler with a mishmash of Hill People Gear bags and a Guide Lid) @ 53lbs., and Leia @ 24lbs. (toting a kids Osprey pack). Our plan was to pack into Three Island Lake, and scout it out on Friday followed by the beginning of the hunt on Saturday. Also, two pilot friends of mine were to meet us at the lake on Friday to hunt as well.

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Pics of our hike in...

I should mention that I quickly figured out that I forgot my watch and never attached the upper strap to my gun bearer, so I was already in problem solving mode and we had just begun! In addition, I had switched out my insoles to my boots prior to leaving, because I had a bit of bad luck by breaking my toe ,but I never tried them on. You can guess what happened right? Yep, they were way too tight. Luckily, I had some tennis shoes that I took the insoles from and those served me just fine for the duration of the hunt. The plot thickens...
 
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chippewawarrior
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The hike took about 3 hours, and we got settled in for the night...
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We found a relatively flat bench about 100yds off the trail, and over the required 440yds from the lake. The area was beautiful to say the least. The best part was shortly after dark we had elk walking within 50yds of camp! Tony went the route of the tarp, and I brought my Cimarron with a Kifaru Parastove (box stove) to keep the little one warm & dry. The system worked great, however I think I'll trade out for a small stove as the para seemed just a tad small for the size of the Cimarron...
 
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chippewawarrior
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Friday brought us some more gorgeous weather, and we scouted while awaiting the arrival of my friends.
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I found two sets of elk tracks in the snow right by camp. They were headed down the mountain. We also found a few different sets of fresh tracks around the area. I have to say the terrain is steep, but there were several spots I felt were accessible to hunt.
 
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chippewawarrior
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Our friends arrived on schedule, we helped them make camp, cooked supper, shot the shit over an open fire, and went to bed anticipating the Saturday opener...
 
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chippewawarrior
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Saturday morning brought us cloudy skies and much colder temperatures then we had experienced the past day and a half. Leia was slow to get up mainly due to the temperature, and I didn't fire up the stove because I wanted to get to my lookout before light. That was my first poor choice of the trip. I planned on eating breakfast on the side of the mountain. I quickly figured out her tolerance to the cold was vastly different to mine, and she needs to eat something warm to get going. Lastly, she somehow lost my Kuiu merino wool beanie so I gave her my stocking cap to keep her head warm. I did eat breakfast while on my perch, but my head definitely got cold in the wind. The morning hunt was uneventful, Leia was miserably cold, and to top it off it began to snow about 9:30am.

I got her back to camp and she promptly climbed into her sleeping bag to try to warm up. I figured out she didn't layer up properly before heading out in the morning, so that was part of the problem as well. Between the stove, a warm breakfast and a warm Nalgene bottle in her bag we got her squared away. She perked up just fine...
 
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chippewawarrior
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We tried to get a weather report, but according to what we checked not one weather app reported we were getting snow at all. The others in my party reported no new sign of elk, and in fact they said there was a bunch of fresh sign at lower elevations. After 3 hours of hunting and 3 hours of snow, I was out voted and it was decided that were we going to pull camp and head down towards the trailhead where my friends saw more "fresh" sign. I did not want to leave. I knew there were elk around there somewhere, we just had to put more time in. We had barely scratched the surface of the area, and no other hunters had come down that trail. We had that area to ourselves. I don't know why they had such a bug to move, but I wasn't going to argue too much as the weather was shitty and I wanted to hunt.

The only reason I backed off staying was the morning forecast for Sunday was even colder, 10° or so. Now mind you, I felt like I brought enough equipment (for myself and Leia) to handle those types of temperatures, but I was really worried about her. She had a synthetic 15° Big Agnes women's bag with an Exped Downmat and a Kifaru (Apex) Woobie that I could wrap around her like a burrito if need be... Let me tell you it was needed later. Not to mention she had enough layers too, combined with the stove I felt that would be enough. The problem was she had struggled for the morning hunt, how would she handle it even colder? Reluctantly, I packed us both up and we headed down...
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I will be back there again...
 
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chippewawarrior
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I couldn't believe that my friends were willing to leave after less than 24 hours up the mountain? I have to say, going down was so much easier than going up even with the weight. As we made our way down, we walked out of the snow and into the sun. It was surreal, it was like flicking a light switch. One minute it was snowing, and 100yds later the snow had stopped and there was very little anywhere. We quickly stashed our heavy packs and began hunting again. I used my Kifaru guide lid as a daypack. We were also searching for a spot to set up camp...
 
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sounds like a good trip and one your daughter will remember for ever.Maybe try strategically placed chem. hand warmers for her next time
 
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