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The VERY Shortened Elk Hunt

I was supposed to spend 10 days in Colorado chasing elk, but due to work and the two hurricanes I was only able to spend 3 full days. I wasn't about to miss out completely, so I flew up on Thursday and flew back tonight...

Well guys... I'm back and long story short, it was rough. Between Friday morning and Sunday night I put 23.4 miles on my Danner Pronghorns between 9,400ft and 11,000 in elevation. I was extremely happy with physical preparation... which made the hunt very enjoyable. I saw rain, hail, sleet and lots of elk poo and tracks but I didn't see or hear a single elk. The elk were doing all their rutting after dark and lots of the locals said that this area (in the last couple of years) has had an almost silent rut. The muzzleloader hunters pushed the elk into some of the most remote locations and down onto the private ranches. After I left, I talked to one of the guys that I was with up there (they are still in Colorado) and they ran into a guide that had finished up with all of his customers and told them exactly where to go and gave them his contact info if they needed anything. Too bad we didn't have that info last thursday. It was a really cool 3 days none the less. I stalked to well within bow range of a mule deer that would go somewhere in the 180's and I had a camera malfunction. We shot and ate several grouse and saw some incredible country

But the coolest/scariest part of the hunt was the moutain lion...

We set up to call in an area that had some really dark timber with lots of really fresh elk sign. We began calling and I was watching a cow moose that was bedded down below us. She was looking our direction when I saw a flicker of something about 150 yard out and perpendicular to the moose, but I looked and couldn't see anything. When I looked back at her she was looking in the direction of the flash that I had seen. About 10 seconds later I saw ears from behind a fallen tree and I whispered "coyote" to my buddy who was about 10 yards up from me. At this point the "coyote" was about 70 yard out going parallel to the line of me and my two buddies. Shortly after I noticed the tan color and 4' long tail. My first thought was "this is pretty cool, he's gonna sneak past when he doesn't see the any elk that are making the noises." Then in a split second he went into the stalk mode, hung a right, and absolutely silenty jumped from fallen tree to fallen tree until he was 25 yards. He had already gone past me was staring my buddy eye to eye. It was a little unnerving and I came to full draw with my new 100gr GrizzTrick pointed down range and had my 20 yard pin between his eyes at the top of his head. Trey stood up and yelled "HEY!" and the cat got down like he was going to charge, as I was about to let the Allegiance loose he yelled again and the cat turned slightly before heading off into the timber... again completely silently. It was truly a rush, and a really cool experience. I'm extremely thankful that it turned out the way it did, had he come from behind us, it could have been bad. Walking in and out of the woods in the dark had a little different feeling about it after that.

Anyway, I wish I had more time but here are a few pics. I think I'm heading south to do some hurricane stuff tomorrow, but I should only be gone for a week or two.