Winter Elk Hunt Unit 79 – 2011
Many roads are closed to Jeeps this time of year. Once the chains were on the Jeep, we were cutting through 18 inches of snow without any problem, and I am sure we could have tackled any snowmobile trail the law would have allowed.
Not having 4WD really served to rule out a good chunk of our hunting unit. Outside the frame of the banner picture to the left is an abrupt elevation change above which most of our planned hunting grounds lie (pic lost to the bots). It was another 1000 feet and 5-7 miles from this point, so we were quite limited given the abbreviated winter days. Better planning and an earlier season next year.
Emerson hunted with his 74 year old communist Russian made Mosin Nagant M91/30, which we call a Russian 7.62 (ballistically comparable to a .308). Emerson has a new thumbhole stock and he can do as well with that under 300 yards as any scoped rifle
True to my goofy luck, we saw beautiful trophy deer while carrying elk tags. I also tend to see beautiful elk while carrying deer tags. Hmmmm? The solitude during this trip was profound. You don’t realize how much noise occupies your life until you get deep in the wilderness where it cannot reach you.
It was a trip full of challenges to say the least. Before even pulling out, we realized the main pole to my army tent was broken, so we re-packed the trailer for a motel stay in South Fork, CO. That set us back about 7 hours. We were fortunate enough to find a room once we arrived, but we had to commit to a 4 night stay. Maybe it is for the best as it was pretty damn cold there the first two days.
On the way there, the cargo carrier blew off my trailer outside Fairplay in 70 mph winds. We could not even pick it up without turning ourselves into a human sail, so we had to leave it. On one of our fishing trips this spring, I’ll be sure to walk the property of that landowner to pick up trash and make up for the cargo carrier which may be in Salida by now. I don’t know what else we could have done.
Our first day of hunting, we got royally stuck on the Jeep road into the national forest just above town. We got about a mile beyond where the road switches from being plowed to just graded. Graded ╥looks╙ plowed, but as the locals will tell you, graded is done for the benefit of snowmobiles. -First time, I have been up here with this much snow, so it was a painful lesson. Emerson and I dug, pushed, dug, and pushed, and got the Jeep about 20 yards back down the mountain before we threw the towel in and hiked out on our snowshoes. We finally met up with a mountain lion hunt guide on a snowcat who pulled us out. It was then that we learned that 4WD Jeep had been, for the duration of the trip, only 2WD. The unsticking of the Jeep was 5 hours I did not want to soon repeat. Klaus, a really cool mechanic we found in town, restored the 4WD and put us back in business in time for our final day, but not having 4WD ruled out a good chunk of our unit. 
The spot where we got stuck had fresh elk tracks and a pretty good vantage.Emerson and I hiked back up to the spot on the second night and concealed ourselves hoping the herd would return as the sun went down (-fat-frickin chance with all the swearing I did there just a few hours before). -And! We figured if we got something there, dragging it would be a downhill affair, something you need to consider when your transportation options are limited and there is this much snow on the ground. Emerson has a great sense of humor about these things.When hunting we are of course trying to be quiet, but he makes a point of trying to make me crack up in whisper form. He’ll let several quiet minutes pass and then lean in for a bear hug telling me, “c’mon, let’s bond”. Of course, I cracked up when he did this. He made light of the whole day, and despite all that happened we had a good time.If nothing else, we got lots of exercise.-Several long hikes with a full pack. I was asleep by 7PM the second night.Emerson stayed up and read his book on his new Kindle.
We met some great folks, and as Emerson will tell you, we always meet nice folks while out hunting. -Aaron the mountain lion guide whom we bumped into twice out in the middle of nowhere. -Desi the former 4-term Rio Grande County Sheriff who was the first to take a crack at pulling us out. -Klaus the mechanic, whose shop was a log cabin. Klaus did a great job.
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