What was an incredibly tedious and thoroughly thought out hunt, turned into a great adventure and the most fun I've ever had (in the woods). I began planning and google earth scouting in March for this trip. We hunted the southern portion of Gunnison National Forest/Grand Mesa National Forest. There was an 18% success rate for archery last year in our particular unit (which is fairly high actually), so we were pumped when we got the job done. This was a non-guided public land backpack hunt. One either sex tag was bought ($660) by my FIL so he was dedicated shooter and I was caller. The original plan was for me to buy a mule deer tag, but I screwed that up by not realizing that the particular unit we hunted was draw only for muley's. We were then hesistant to buy two elk tags knowing the odds were not in our favor and that getting two elk backpacked out with only two guys in the terrain we were in would have been a daunting task, so taking into consideration that this was going to be a learning experience, one tag was the way we went. Getting one out was a hell of a chore that challenged us both mentally and physically, but I wouldnt have changed a thing. I felt like our initiation to Rocky Mountain hunting was complete when we got back to the truck with 150lbs of meat per person at 1am from a 4+ hr hike. It brings a whole knew meaning to the "walking to school 5 miles up hill both ways in the snow" saying.

Blue Mesa Reservoir about an hr from our trailhead

The Hunt- Drove from Louisiana Fri after work at 4pm, slept 3 hrs in between in New Mexico and parked in the mountains off of our trail at about 5:30pm Sat afternoon. Weather was 69 deg., no precipitation at all. Altitude was about 8200ft at the truck, 8500ft at camp.

The range that was hunted. Took this photo sitting on the tailgate right before we hiked in.

We hiked about 1.5 miles in and began searching for a place to hang our food and set up camp as night was approaching. We walked out into an open meadow in the valley that split both of the ranges and we saw movement to our right on the ridge above us at about 100 yards. Three cow elk had walked out and stared in our direction. We froze for a second, slowly lowered our packs and kneeled behind brush as I handed over my range finder to FIL and let out a few cow chirps. The wind was perfect as the sun was going down and the thermals were in our favor so we know they didnt smell us and visibility wasnt great so we were pretty sure we werent busted. Just then, a shooter bull walks out about 30 yds behind, so I continue to call as FIL crawls down the edge of the brushline to get to the left flank of the ridge. After about 5 mins of them feeding/being occupied with the calling, FIL has closed the distance to 50 yds and had a clear range on a cow (53 yds). He draws and pops his arrow off the string. He nocks another arrow and then the bull walks out broadside, completely unaware of his presence. He ranges (45 yds) then draws again and releases. POWWWWW!!! It sounded like he shot a gun....popped bow string. Apparently, he hadnt shot his new broadheads through his bow prior to hiking out and they hit the edge of his rest, pulling the arrow off the string. His arrows were cut too short. The pop shot resulted from it being un-nocked and the nock severed the string upon releasing. He was very lucky he wasnt hurt. This was a problem last yr, and he missed a deer because of it so I was disappointed to say the least that we missed that opportunity on a bull at 45yds the first 2 hrs being in the woods. I was almost as disappointed as he was. Def a low point. It was a critical mistake, and he knew it. We regrouped, took 2 hrs to hang our damn food because all we could find was Aspen's with weak limbs, then set up camp and fell asleep at about midnight. Although we missed an opportunity, we couldnt sleep because of the adrenaline.

Day 1-
We hiked back to truck the next morning and got my bow and made the afternoon hunt near our camp. We saw another bull and two more cows on the adjacent range that afternoon that we put a long stalk on (800 yds) and close the distance to about 120, but were winded and could never get closer. For the remainder of the evening, we hiked about 200 yards above the ridge those elk came in on us the night before and basically sat and deer hunted them. In this pic, you can see a muley about 60 yards from our camp set up.

Our water source for the week

Day 2 (Mon - Kill Day)
We decided to hike the highest point before the sun came up on day 2.

After glassing the entire morning and only seeing one gigantic bear, we decided to hike deeper into the valley and got about 3.2 miles in. We found an awesome water hole that was loaded with elk sign everywhere. We hiked to a slight bench overhang that had a clear shot at 50 yards and were planning on hunting that hole like deer until the sun went down.

After sitting for 30 min, we finally hear the first bugle of the hunt. Loud and proud, about 700-1000 yards away on the opposite side of the valley. You can see the peak through the treeline on the waterhole pic in which the bugle came from. I answered back with a loud bugle and got an immediate response. IT WAS ON!! We packed up and started hiking hard in the direction it was coming from, calling back every 5 mins and continuing to get an immediate response every time. We both ran out of water at the same time so had to take a break to filter more and grab a breather.

This post was edited on 9/29/15 at 6:23 pm