It reads like you are going back in and setting up a spike camp. Much as I wanted to do that, camping along the gravel access road and being back for a hot meal every night seemed like a better idea. Doing that what worked very well for me was figuring what the the other guys in the area were doing and not doing that. Most of those guys were horse guys and the horse trails started lower down the mountain. Elk don't like people and would head for the rougher canyons when they were pressured. I would get up real early in the morning and drive a few miles up the mountain and climb a hill no horse would go up. That way I could get two or three ridges back in before first light and could be between the canyon and the horse guys coming up every morning. I saw more elk when I hunted them more like deer back home and hunted security cover and travel fingers of heavy cover. Deer around here move a few hundred yards. Elk out there go a lot longer distance when spooked and they move down the mountain every night, so new elk would be in the area every morning that weather or other hunters pushed them.
