No Shortcuts in the Mountains
When hunting season starts to shine over the horizon I frantically start to plan my year and make sure my ducks are in a row. I also reminisce on the previous years and remember all of the times and stories I have to go with each year passing. One of those stories I wanted to share was an archery elk hunt in 2013*. To preface this story, this area was the first place I hunted in Colorado after moving out and the only form of scouting we did was when we went out and hunted which we had been doing so for 2 or 3 years at that point so everyone was familiar with the area.
It was the 2013 archery elk season and we had hiked in a good bit into this wilderness area to a spot we found, which was honey hole for elk the rifle season before. We figured there was no way we were hiking off of this mountain without our packs weighed down with and elk. The day before the season started we glassed a pair of bulls 600 yards from camp along the canyon wall, which had everyone freaking out like kids on Christmas. We figured tomorrow was going to be a turkey shoot. Opening morning came around and we immediately watched one of the same bulls on that canyon wall for a few minutes until he headed down into the timber for the day. We immediately hiked up to where we watched those bulls for the past day and hung out for the evening with no luck. The next came and went with no success again with those elk nothing more than a memory as they didn’t show the next day. We decided to make another couple mile hike up the mountain to check out an area we had never been.
Up to this point it had been raining every day so we were a bit discouraged and wet but optimistic to what we may find in this new area we had only scouted using online maps. After a full morning and afternoon of hiking we finally reached the new area, which to us at the time looked like a gold mine, a wide-open area for glassing with multiple water sources. Of course the rain rolled in as it has every day so I busted out my survival blanket and tied it off to some trees to stay dry while the other two walked ahead to check the area out more. The rain passed and we each picked a water hole to set up on and wait for the elk to come in on a string. Hours went by, the sun began to drop, and we needed to make a decision on when and how we were going to get back to camp. We had two options. Option one was to head back the way we came which would take a few hours and we wouldn’t get back to camp until late. Option Two was to head straight down a draw, which was less than a mile from camp, which appeared easy enough but we couldn’t really tell what lied ahead as the timber was really thick. The three of us took a vote and down the draw we headed.
This draw was wide open and gently slopping as far as we could tell up until that thick line of trees. It had rained that day so everything was still wet and slippery. We walked on down this draw and it started to get steeper and steeper. We were all a bit worried but figured it had to flatten out a bit at some point because we never seen any cliffs on the topos or satellite images. The fun started when we made it into the trees. It started to get so steep we had to hold one tree, let go and drop, and catch the next tree so we would slide all of the way down this draw. We were too far in at this point to climb back up and the thought of being stuck in this draw for the night hungry and wet started to look like a reality as the sun started to set and it became darker and darker. One of the guys slipped twisted his ankle and broke his quiver starting to make a bleak situation even worse. We regained ourselves, for the most part didn’t really care at that point how we did it but we wanted to get to camp. We ended up sliding our way down at some points sliding and jumping off of small drop offs to finally reach the main drainage floor. That night, tired and wet, we managed to get enough energy to start a small fire, make our dinners, and crash out only to sleep in the next morning sore and demoralized. The trip ended with us dropping down in elevation to chase deer for 2 days and throwing in the towel a day early so we could slip and slide our woreout selves off of the mountain. Moral of the story, there are no shortcuts in the mountains.
When hunting season starts to shine over the horizon I frantically start to plan my year and make sure my ducks are in a row. I also reminisce on the previous years and remember all of the times and stories I have to go with each year passing. One of those stories I wanted to share was an archery elk hunt in 2013*. To preface this story, this area was the first place I hunted in Colorado after moving out and the only form of scouting we did was when we went out and hunted which we had been doing so for 2 or 3 years at that point so everyone was familiar with the area.
It was the 2013 archery elk season and we had hiked in a good bit into this wilderness area to a spot we found, which was honey hole for elk the rifle season before. We figured there was no way we were hiking off of this mountain without our packs weighed down with and elk. The day before the season started we glassed a pair of bulls 600 yards from camp along the canyon wall, which had everyone freaking out like kids on Christmas. We figured tomorrow was going to be a turkey shoot. Opening morning came around and we immediately watched one of the same bulls on that canyon wall for a few minutes until he headed down into the timber for the day. We immediately hiked up to where we watched those bulls for the past day and hung out for the evening with no luck. The next came and went with no success again with those elk nothing more than a memory as they didn’t show the next day. We decided to make another couple mile hike up the mountain to check out an area we had never been.
Up to this point it had been raining every day so we were a bit discouraged and wet but optimistic to what we may find in this new area we had only scouted using online maps. After a full morning and afternoon of hiking we finally reached the new area, which to us at the time looked like a gold mine, a wide-open area for glassing with multiple water sources. Of course the rain rolled in as it has every day so I busted out my survival blanket and tied it off to some trees to stay dry while the other two walked ahead to check the area out more. The rain passed and we each picked a water hole to set up on and wait for the elk to come in on a string. Hours went by, the sun began to drop, and we needed to make a decision on when and how we were going to get back to camp. We had two options. Option one was to head back the way we came which would take a few hours and we wouldn’t get back to camp until late. Option Two was to head straight down a draw, which was less than a mile from camp, which appeared easy enough but we couldn’t really tell what lied ahead as the timber was really thick. The three of us took a vote and down the draw we headed.
This draw was wide open and gently slopping as far as we could tell up until that thick line of trees. It had rained that day so everything was still wet and slippery. We walked on down this draw and it started to get steeper and steeper. We were all a bit worried but figured it had to flatten out a bit at some point because we never seen any cliffs on the topos or satellite images. The fun started when we made it into the trees. It started to get so steep we had to hold one tree, let go and drop, and catch the next tree so we would slide all of the way down this draw. We were too far in at this point to climb back up and the thought of being stuck in this draw for the night hungry and wet started to look like a reality as the sun started to set and it became darker and darker. One of the guys slipped twisted his ankle and broke his quiver starting to make a bleak situation even worse. We regained ourselves, for the most part didn’t really care at that point how we did it but we wanted to get to camp. We ended up sliding our way down at some points sliding and jumping off of small drop offs to finally reach the main drainage floor. That night, tired and wet, we managed to get enough energy to start a small fire, make our dinners, and crash out only to sleep in the next morning sore and demoralized. The trip ended with us dropping down in elevation to chase deer for 2 days and throwing in the towel a day early so we could slip and slide our woreout selves off of the mountain. Moral of the story, there are no shortcuts in the mountains.
Last edited:
