Alder bottoms, are usually down in a wet lows area like creak bottom or seep spring. Usually very thick and difficult to navigate through. Compound that with Willow, nettles, or Devils club (Oplopanax horridus) that all grow near each other and that they are always wet, and you now have probably the nastiest place in the world to have to recover an elk from. And it is a good bet that is exactly where they will run to, Lil.