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Author Topic: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt  (Read 7118 times)

Offline Pathfinder101

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Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« on: October 26, 2022, 01:04:19 PM »
FAIR WARNING:  This is going to be a long post.  I know a lot of people have considered booking a Drop Camp for elk, and I know Colorado gets discussed a lot due to availability of tags.  I am writing my story in detail, for those of you who are considering doing a hunt like this.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2022, 01:05:33 PM »
I realized in a panic that I had forgotten to log back on.  I am a teacher, had a classroom full of students and had forgotten to jump back on my computer and log into IDFG’s online tag system to “get in line” for my elk tag.  I was 10 minutes late.  As the bell rang, jogging my memory, I ran to my desktop and clicked back in.  Sequence number 24-jillion-and-something… Oh Crap…
For the next 8 hours I kept the screen open, watching tags disappear.  At 4 PM I had to leave for a staff meeting, so I dejectedly logged out of the system with 4,000 people still in front of me in line.  All the tags in any area I was familiar with were already gone anyway. 
I turned 50 this year, and had been saving for the last couple of years for a guided elk hunt.  I took these things as a sign from the 8lb, 6 oz Baby Jesus that it was time for me to start looking around at states where I could draw an elk tag and possibly go with an outfitter.  I knew with the money I had squirreled away and the points I had that I probably was not looking at any “big bull” hunts.  Tentatively, with my hat in my hand, I went to my wife to discuss the possibility of booking a guide for my 50th birthday.  She looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“You want to go elk hunting and not take Little Pathfinder?” She asked. 
She was right.  He had just gotten big enough and old enough last year for me to take him on his first elk hunt.  It wouldn’t be right for me to leave him at home.  Of course, I couldn’t afford for both of us to go on a guided hunt, so I started looking around.  Immediately, I thought I had my problem solved.  Colorado had OTC and 0 point elk tags and holy cow, the number of dudes that would sell you a drop camp for a couple thou was almost uncountable!
Sounded great until I started cruising internet forums and learning about these “drop camps”.  Turns out; many of them sucked.  Most of the comments were roughly the same: “Guy rode us a couple of miles up a trail and dropped us off at some wall tent that looked like a hobo camp.  Walked around for 5 days and didn’t see an elk.  Camp was close to a highway and the area was swarmed by hunters, etc…etc…”
I am a member of the Hunt and Fish Pro Membership Sweepstakes (they draw a guided hunt every 10 days) and had just received a letter from the founder Mike Deming.  The letter had mentioned that if any member was planning to do a guided hunt to contact him since he had a lot of experience in the industry and could offer advice and recommendations.  I decided to get his perspective, so I called and explained my situation.
The first thing he told me was that, yes; Colorado was overrun with drop camp “Outfitters” that would gladly sell you a $2000 horseback ride to a tent in the middle of “No Elk”.  He suggested that I call a buddy of his, Trent Daves.  Trent is well known for his mule deer and mountain lion hunts, but does quietly offer a very limited number of elk drop camps in the San Juan Mountains.  A couple of phone calls later and I was booked for a first season rifle elk drop camp hunt starting in mid-October.  We had to draw the tags, but Little Pathfinder and I drew them easily with 0 points.  I didn’t tell LP about the hunt yet.
The day before my birthday, Mamma pulled LP aside and showed him the hunt.  “This is what you and I are getting Dad for his birthday.”  He was speechless when he found out that he was going too.  Colorado, horses, wall tent, elk tags… missing a week of school…
Over the next 3 months I must have fielded a hundred questions about our upcoming hunt.  Most of them boiled down to one answer, “I don’t really know.  We’ll find out when we get there.”
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2022, 01:06:22 PM »
Finally, October 13th arrived.  The instant we were both sprung from school, we piled into the truck for the 14 ½ hour drive to Dolores, Colorado.  It would have been nice to take a day to get there, but we were already pushing it to take a week off (luckily, LP had conferences, so he was only going to miss 3 days and a cross country meet- I had gotten a grumpy note for my administration when I turned in my leave form basically saying “don’t do this again”…), so we pulled an all-nighter to get there in time.  LP has his driver’s permit, so I let him drive for a couple of hours for the practice.  We pulled into Dolores at 7am and texted Trent.  He met us in town shortly.
We followed his truck and horse trailer for almost an hour outside of Dolores to the trail head where we met the wrangler Chase and started getting the horses saddled and gear packed. 
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2022, 01:07:42 PM »
Little Pathfinder loves horses.  I grew up with a couple but don’t ride much.  We don’t have property for one, but he has friends that have horses, so he has ridden quite a bit.  I was glad of this as we got saddled and mounted up.  The trail looked steep, even though we were only going in a little over 3 miles.  The horses were calm and looked strong though; well cared for animals.  More about the horses later. 
While we saddled and loaded, we got to visit with a couple of the other guys doing Trent’s drop camps.  We were the only ones that weren’t “repeat customers”.  The two themes of conversation seemed to be; this isn’t a “regular” drop camp, Trent works hard to put you into the elk. And, how did you guys find out about this camp?
Trent took a few minutes to point out a few places on the map (OnX pins he had sent me earlier) and make sure I understood them and to make sure that we had those things that get excitedly forgotten in the heat of the moment (ammo, orange, license, tags…).  We also discussed the quality of bulls in our part of the unit.  They had been seeing bulls during the archery season and knew there were a couple of smaller 6x6s, a 5x5 and a couple of raghorns running back and forth between the drainages that we would be able to get to and the ones we couldn’t.  Trent dropped a pin on a basin that was only a mile away from our camp.  “Hmmm, lots of contour lines there” I thought to myself.  That’s ok, I am used to contour lines…
Soon we were headed up the mountain.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2022, 01:09:00 PM »
It probably goes without saying that the scenery was spectacular.  Rugged snow-covered peaks surrounded us.  We forded icy mountain streams.  The trail dipped in and out of small parks and dense timber.  At a point, the trail split.  Trent headed to the “lower” camp with a couple of guys and Chase led Little Pathfinder and me to the “upper” camp. 
« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 07:18:01 AM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2022, 01:15:01 PM »
Tagging along for this story!

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2022, 01:15:13 PM »
On the way up the mountain, our wrangler Chase (who doubles as an elk guide for guided hunters) quietly oriented me to the unit. 
“Go to that basin that Trent showed you” He said “You sit there long enough and you’ll kill a bull”
The ride up the mountain was steep, but enjoyable.  LP and I both noted that the whole string of horses performed as good as they looked.   Before too long we pulled into a wide meadow (in Colorado they call them “parks”) that had a wall tent set up for us, stocked with a stove, wood, water, cots, an axe (no saws were allowed in the Wilderness Area we were hunting), a lantern and Jetboil Stove with plenty of cooking fuel (we had been told to pack dehydrated meals to save on weight).  I had planned to get camp set up, then go for a short scout that night.  Chase made sure we were settled in, showed us on the map where he would be sitting at first light if it were him (not the basin we discussed. He said we would not be able to navigate there in the dark because of the terrain), and took off down the mountain with the string of horses.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 07:17:33 AM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2022, 01:15:48 PM »
I started unpacking our gear and food and LP took a necessary trip into the woodline.  When he came back, his eyes were wide and slightly concerned.
“Dad, I’m out of breath…”
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2022, 01:16:40 PM »
It wasn’t like I hadn’t considered the elevation.  I had seen the number on our map.  But when you are sitting in your living room at 1,000 ft elevation and you see a number like 10,200 ft (the elevation of our camp), it’s just a number.  Unless you have access to an area over 10,000 ft to train, there isn’t really anything that you can do except get in shape, and expect for it to suck.  I have done a little mountain climbing before (years ago), so I guess in the back of my mind I knew what we would be in for altitude-wise.  Or maybe I thought that it wouldn’t be much different than our 7,000 ft Idaho elk camp.  I’m not sure what I thought, but I know that up to that point I had not fully considered how much the elevation would affect our ability to move.  Little Pathfinder is a Cross Country runner, plays baseball and stays in shape all year long.  He’s not used to being “out of breath”, especially not after walking 50 yards to pee behind a tree.  He sat down on his cot.
“I don’t feel so good.” He said
Shoot.  Altitude sickness.  I hadn’t even thought about that.  I remembered reading that young, lean people are more susceptible to altitude sickness than us old, fat guys.  That seemed to be holding true.  I figured some of the problem was that we had pulled an all-nighter to get here, and we were definitely dehydrated, hungry and exhausted.  I made us a Mountainhouse and forced him to pound two bottles of water before bed.  Our evening pre-scouting trip was cancelled.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2022, 01:19:03 PM »
The next morning came way too early.  I sat up on my cot and nearly threw up.  I had it now too.  I recognized that nauseous altitude sickness feeling from when I climbed Mount Adams.  LP and I were both in rough shape as we literally choked down some oatmeal and water before hitting the trail. 
Our intended glassing point was only a mile up the trail.  I had allowed for a little over an hour to get to the point that Chase had suggested. I now realized that required us to climb to 12,000 feet.  We got there, but it took a lot longer than I had anticipated.  At the start of the hike, I tried covering 100 meters (I always keep my Army pace-count whenever I hike – just an old habit) before stopping to rest.  By the time we reached our glassing point, we were trying to make it 25 steps before being forced to stop and gulp air. It was nearly full daylight by the time we could see the drainage we planned to glass.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2022, 01:19:50 PM »
We set up and glassed until 10 am, occasionally throwing a locater bugle or a couple of cow calls down the canyon as Chase had suggested.  When he had come up the mountain the week before to set up our camp, he had seen elk still rutting, bugling and keeping harems.  Our calls drew no responses.  At 10, we packed up our gear and pointed ourselves in the direction of “the basin”.  Because of how we had positioned ourselves, the hike would be nearly all downhill.  I figured we would make it there by around noon.
Wrong again.  Between the blowdowns and the lack of a continuous trail, 1pm found us in the bottom of a drainage by a stream.  We had come down 3 very steep timbered grades.  LP was still dealing with altitude sickness (I would stop to catch my breath and he would be leaning on a tree gagging).  I figured we had better catch some lunch and a rest.  We stayed until almost 2, and LP, after gagging down some Ramen and water caught a quick nap and said he felt a little better.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 07:16:44 AM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2022, 01:20:53 PM »
The uphill portion to break into the basin was surprisingly, mercifully short (and less steep than we had expected).  As we topped a small, grassy, open finger we looked out into one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery I have ever seen.  Snow capped mountains melted into timbered slopes that gave way to a long, grassy mountain meadow with a sparkling stream running through the center. 
« Last Edit: October 27, 2022, 07:16:10 AM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2022, 01:21:33 PM »
Exhausted and bruised from negotiating deadfalls, we collapsed on the sunny finger between two tall fir trees.  I laid out our glassing gear in easy reach and picked apart the open areas for yellow bodies.  Finding none, I stretched out in the sun to catch a cat nap and wait for the afternoon shadows to form.  Little Pathfinder dropped off the ridge with a roll of toilet paper at a fast clip.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2022, 01:22:17 PM »
I was just starting to doze when I heard a clear, loud bugle from across the basin.  I sat up and looked.  It had come out of the dark, impenetrable timber slope 600 yards across from me.  A few seconds later Little Pathfinder slid in next to me like he just stole 2nd base, wide-eyed. 
“Did you hear that?!” he gasped
LP had spent half the drive to Colorado practicing his bugles and cow calls.  I told him to throw a cow call across the basin.  It was immediately answered with another bugle from the same place.  LP answered with another cow call.
Suddenly, off to our immediate left, from down the canyon (and out of our sight) came another bugle.  This one sounded much closer.  Our view was blocked by several large fir trees.  I realized that having laid out all my glassing gear had created a yard sale that would be impossible to gather up in time to react to what was transpiring.  I grabbed my rifle and binos, LP grabbed his calls and we printed down the finger in the direction of the second bugle, trying to use the fir trees for cover.  We dropped into place next to a large tree and I could see a herd of cows in a small cluster of trees in the park below, next to the stream.  I couldn’t see the bull yet.  He bugled again though, so I knew he was there.  Unfortunately, our sprint had caught the attention of the cows, and they started to run towards the treeline. As I pulled out my bipod legs and got prone, I caught first sight of the bull, bringing up the rear of the harem of 8 cows and calves.  The unit we were hunting in was a 4-point or better unit, and with the naked eye I could see he was legal. I found the cows in my scope and watched each one trot through my field of view.  I estimated them at about 300 yards (yes, I forgot my rangefinder back at my yard-sale-later it turned out that the shot was 325 yards).  As the bull entered my view I whispered for LP to give a cow call.  He did and the lead cow stopped, causing the rest of the line of elk to slow from a gallop to a trot.  The bull entered my scope at a slow trot.  I put the dot on his neck and squeezed.  The bullet sounded a meat-report and he dropped in his tracks.  Only a spine-shot could have dropped him that quick (I found later that I shattered his spine just above his shoulder blade), so after he kicked and rolled over I put another shot into him for reassurance. 
« Last Edit: October 26, 2022, 03:22:03 PM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Offline Pathfinder101

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Re: Pathfinder's Colorado Drop Camp Elk Hunt
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2022, 01:23:30 PM »
After all the hugs and high-fives were done we gathered up our mess and hiked down to the bull.  It took about two steps to realize that the “grassy park” was actually a marsh.  Squishy black mud oozed over our boot tops on every step.  I knew that quartering and keeping the meat clean was going to be a chore.  We were pleased to find him to be 6 points on both sides.  Not a huge bull, but certainly the best we had been told to expect.  I would have been happy with a raghorn, those two extra points were definitely icing on the cake.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2022, 03:23:26 PM by Pathfinder101 »
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.  That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

 


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