I moved to Colorado in 1976 and soon after arriving one of my new neighbors invited me to join him and his buddies on an elk hunt in southern Colorado. I bought a Remington 700 ADL 30-06 and an over-the-counter bull tag. I was ready to go.
On opening morning, they put the rookie (me) where they thought the elk would run then they swept through the dark timber. I sat where they told me to sit for about half an hour and all of a sudden about two dozen cow elk ran through the meadow in front of me. With my heart pumping and my body charged with Adrenalin, I held my rifle poised and ready, waiting for the first set of antlers. But there weren�t any.
Then I heard a close shot just to the left of where I was sitting and the guy who fired that shot started cussing. I waited for a few minutes, hoping that a bull would straggle past but nothing moved and all I could hear was that guy�s continued cussing and moaning. I walked in the direction of his vociferations, maybe a hundred yards, to talk to him and see what was going on. He was lamenting that he had just missed a shot at the bull of a lifetime. He assured me that it was a genuine 7x7 royal elk and he had missed his chance.
About that time the rest of the guys emerged from the timber and asked where the dead elk was laying. I stood there not knowing what to say and the guy who missed the shot �fessed up and pointed in the direction of where the bull had run into the timber. I told them about the cows and pointed to where they ran. Several of them had cow tags and they decided that if we spent the entire day tracking them in the snow, maybe by sunset we might find them again.
Into the dark timber we went. We formed a line and tried to stay in visual contact with each other. It was easy to follow the tracks of a couple dozen elk in 6� of new snow. After about an hour I managed to step into a hole up to my calf. The hole was filled with water which ran inside my boot. I stopped to remove the boot and wring out the sock while the rest of the line kept moving forward. By the time that I got my boot back on, the others were well ahead of me.
I tried to catch up but couldn�t. The elk tracks were spreading out in different directions and I followed what looked like the biggest bunch. As I walked I came to a place where the ground was fairly clear of snow and debris. So I started doing the whole Daniel Boone thing, creeping through the woods quiet and slow.
I was having a great time when I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze and watched as the heads and backs of several elk slowly passed through a window of light in the timber. I realized that if I had my rifle pointed at the next opening in the timber they might walk right through that opening and give me a shot. I got into a kneeling position, chambered a round, aimed my rifle at the next opening and waited.
The first cow slowly walked into the opening and casually exited it. Her path had been only about forty yards from me. Had it been a bull I would have filled my tag. I sat there and watched several more cows and calves walk in front of me, while my knees were beginning to go numb.
Then all Hell broke loose. They must have caught my scent and suddenly there were flashes of movement all around me. Elk were crashing through the trees and bushes in every direction, it was noisy and confusing. I just stayed put and waited hoping for that bull to show himself.
Then a cow burst through the bushes about thirty yards away, running straight towards me. She was in a hurry to get away from whatever had spooked her and was in no mood to stop for crouching inanimate objects like me. She ran right at me. I didn�t have a cow tag, but she was about to run over me. I pointed the rifle at her chest and hoped that if I shot her, her momentum wouldn�t result in her crushing me. It�s amazing how fast your mind works when you�re excited. She realized what I was and she came to a skidding halt so close to me that she kicked debris onto my boots.
She reared up like a horse and for an instant she was suspended in air right above me. I stared into those feet and legs and imagined her opening my skull with those sharp hooves. My rifle was still pointed at her chest but I realized that if I shot her it wouldn�t change anything. I was resigned to my fate. At that instant, with her body suspended right above me and about to stomp me like a bug on an anvil, she was as big as an elephant and the largest elk in the world.
She whirled like a cat in mid-air, and hit the ground running in another direction, without touching a hair on my head.
I didn�t get an elk on that trip but I came home with the memory of a moment fixed in time that I will never forget.
KC
