I had a good trip

[mr-pirk]

I wanted to say thanks to those who offered prayers for me on my Elk hunting trip.
It was a very good trip, but not an Elk to be seen. I hunted as hard as I ever did but it was the fourth seson of the year that the Elk had been hunted and they hid very well.
We set-up camp at our normal spot first, on the Platue of the Umcompradre national forest and spent a day and a half (we had arrived two days before season) hiking up and down the mountians looking for Elk sign, there was none to be found. I couldn't even find but very little Mule deer sign, the area normally carries a lot of Mule deer.
When we found no Elk sign we moved camp to near Owl Creek pass near the Big Blue Wilderness area of the Umcompradre. I spent the first day of season scouting but I only found a very little, very scattered Elk sign. I hunted hard but the Elk had moved down to the private ground, next year I will try to go durring muzzle-loading season and I may have better results.It was the second general rifle season when I went this year.
I had one close call, I was hunting the walk-in-only area. It is a mixture of Aspen and Spruce. The woods were very thick and full of blown down timber. I had made about a 6 mile hike back into the area, I climbed all the way to the top of the mountian through some very nasty timber to look for Elk. The weather was clear and all sun-shine when I left at about 11:00 am.
About the time I thought it was time to start hunting back toward camp, about 4pm, the weather turned very cloudy and we had snow showers. That meant it got very dark much earlier than I had planned on it doing.
Plus I was much further from camp than I thought I was, I didn't know just how far I had hunted that day till I checked my GPS later
.
I had the choice of trying to find my way back through all the dark timber and risk falling on a spruce limb and maybe getting stabbed or a broke leg or trying to hike down the mountian till I found the forest road or building a fire under a spruce tree and spending the night.
There were a lot of very big bear tracks in the snow in the area I was in, and the coyoties were very thick. I worried that if I chose to stay the night I might fall asleep and let the fire die-out and something might make a meal of me.
There were open medows that seemed to link together in the general direction I figured the road was and by my guess it was only about 2 miles down the mountian to where the road should be. I decided that a long walk in the dark by head-lamp through the open medows and then a 2 mile hike back to camp by the road was the best option.
It was long after dark when I finally made it to camp and my ankle was throbbing but I made it.
At one point I had made up my mind to go through some dark timber to try and make a short-cut. The snow was about 12 inchs deep there but there was some clear ground under the thickest spruce timber. I had made my way back into the dark timber far enough to get out of the deeper snow but I was having to climb over downed log after downed log, I was very worried about slipping and falling on a spruce limb. They are like spring steel when they are dead and seasoned, and they break off to a very sharp point.
I was trying to catch my breath (climbing a 10,000ft altitude is very hard work for a low-lander) after climbing over a bunch of downed timber and I thought to myself "Now this is STUPID" so I made my way back to the open medows and kept hiking down the mountian. It was very tempting to have kept going through the dark timber to cut a mile or so off the hike in the dark, but common sense told me better.
It was a very good trip even though there was no Elk to be found in the area I had the right to hunt. It is always rather awing and soul-sterring to see the beauty God has placed before us in the beauty of his mountians.
You guys will have to load-up and go with me next time.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk

[Tazman]

Glad to hear you made it back safely Bor. Sorry the elk were uncooperative, but that is part of hunting, if it wasn't we would call it shooting!

[Chuck7]

Good to see ya back Mr. Pirk. Sounded very exciting. It sounds like you were by your self on that trip. You must indeed be the adventurist type. Some of us couldn't have managed that 10,000 feet terrain. An elk would have been difficult to manage I do believe. All has been well here.

God bless,
Chuck7

[Leafrivermac]

Good to hear from you Mark, I really enjoyed your post. Sounds like a real good time, meat or no. Prolly the muzzle loading season would be more productive for ya tho.

[MOTOWNHONKEY]

Welcome back Mr. Pink. I'm sure you enjoyed your time in God's creation. I was blessed with a 150 class whitetail while you were away.

[The Rev]

Welcome back brother. You are very blessed for having the opportunity to have gone. Glad you are back safe and sound!!!

[Rebel Hog]

Glad you made it back safe!