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Joined: Jun 2012
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Anyone had any success here this year especially in the West Elk Creek Gorge area?

What's the weather like out there? How much, if any, snow has fallen in the higher elevations?

My brother and I are backpacking in this Friday to the area to get away from the crouds on the east rim. Any info from anyone about what is going on would be greatly appriciated.

wshep

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About 4 inches fell Thusday but the elk stayed high above 10,200. Everyone was telling me the elk were still at high elevations.

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The weather is beautiful.


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The West Elk Wilderness produced for us again, as usual. We went three for three on cow elk. We had backpacked in about seven miles but shot the elk closer than that. That's the 3rd year in a row that elk have been in the same area. So next year we'll probably backpack in a shorter distance.

I thought that they might be found at high altitude so I climbed up into a little hollow at about 11,200' on opening morning. They had been there. I saw nine beds in the snow that had frozen solid so they were at least 1 1/2 days old but who knows how much older they were. They had probably hidden up there during the first and second season but all the tracks were leading down from there by the time that I got there. I saw six more frozen beds at 10,400' and tracks were going in every direction.

Ryan saw a nice bull on Saturday at about 9,600' elevation but couldn't get a decent shot, so he shot a cow, about 5 1/2 miles from the trailhead. It was pretty obvious that our camp seven miles in, was in the wrong location so on Sunday afternoon we moved camp. Along the way, Jason and I shot two cows out of a small herd that was lounging around in a small meadow as we came around a bend in the trail at about 4 1/4 miles from the trailhead.

We carried out most of the camp in backpacks on Monday morning. We had a rented horse boarded at a ranch near the trailhead and used her to go back in for the elk and the rest of our camp. We were done by Wednesday afternoon. The weather was fairly mild for elk hunting.

KC



Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.





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KC.Entirely difernt story along the Anthracites. In 10 days we saw 8 elk. I never saw a hair. Forage was good at 10,500 and that is where the cows were seen. Down lower, grazing leases has stripped the entire area bare, down to dirt almost.

Crystal Creek, Little Pass and Pass creek were devoid of elk.The last day, I cut about 1/2 dozen tracks over closer to the Castles after that snow, but they were long gone by day break.

Tenderfoot outfitters took about 6 bulls the 1st season and two cows, one bull and one cow the 2nd season. Thier drop camps took zero. The bull was killed all the way up on Storm Pass at 12,000 ft.

I sent a couple NR over towards that honey hole I told you about,but they never got into it.

This was the 1st year in many that I did not see any elk or kill on einrifle season,but admit I was hunted out by the last day and my health kept me from hunting as hard as I wanted to.Good thing I put a cow inthe freezer during ML season. 6 hunters and one cow was tagged.

Last edited by saddlesore; 11/11/12.

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KC:

Congratulations on another successful West Elk season.

Happy Veteran's Day. Thanks again for your service.


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Originally Posted by plainview
KC:

Happy Veteran's Day. Thanks again for your service.


plainview:

Thank you. It was an honor to serve.

KC



Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.





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Vince:

We hunted that honey hole on Sunday morning but they had moved down near private property. All of our elk and those that a few other people had taken were within a mile of private property.

KC



Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.





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Glad to hear you found the Elk. When we were there it did seem the Elk were below 10,000.

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KC. We talked to Tom Evans and another rancher and they both said most of the elk were near the valley floor eating in those hay fields at night.Tom Evans owns all the land up against the NF below Swampy Pass trail head. He owned Tenderfoot Outfitters for a few years after Steve Pike sold it.

Last edited by saddlesore; 11/11/12.

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Thanks KC, saddlesore, bwinters, and everyone else for the information and tips. My time in the West Elk Creek Gorge was unfortunately short but the Elk were right where you said they would be. It made for an interesting time.

1st weekend of 3rd rifle I was by myself and took KC's advice and hiked over to Buck Hollow. I ran into some people on hourse back that were camped at the rainbow lake trail at the bottom of the gorge and hunting the hollow. I made my way up onto the ridge and started hunting down the N side in the steep timber. Just before dusk I spooked 2 Cows out of their beds. Scared the crap out of me. I camped in Buck Hollow and due to time contraint I hiked out the next day.

The 2nd weekend of 3rd rifle I had my brother with me who flew up from Texas to help out. I changed the plan because I was pretty sure that he would't be able to handle the hike to and from Buck Hollow so we camped on the E side of South Baldy around 11,600 along a creek on Thur night. The plan was to move around S Baldy in a counter clockwise fasion staying between 11,000 and 10,000 ft. As we got into the steep stuff on the W side of baldy my brother slipped in the fresh snow and slid about 50 yds down the mountain twisting his knee. Fortunately it was not a serious injury but, after doing some real honset looking at the situation he admited that he would be hard pressed to make it out just caring the gear we brought it. We had to call it quits. As we were making our way back we droped down a little lower to some less steep terain and came across a lot of elk tracks. Fresh sign everywhere. Just crushed me and him to have to quit when we had a fresh trail to follow.

On the way home we almost ran over an Elk standing in the middle of Hwy 50. He'd been shot in the belly, you could see the blood around the wound and his tounge hanging out of his mouth but there wasn't much we could do except report it. I did consider how long it would take to get him in the truck if I shot him right there but he made up my mind for me and took off like a drunk after the bar closed.

Already looking forward to next year and if my brother gets hurt this time I'm going to leave him for the cyotes.

Last edited by wshep820; 11/19/12.
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