First elk hunt planning thread

[nirvanafan]

I finally made the plunge this year and plan on going elk hunting! I've been talking about it in my head, with my wife, and with friends, for a few years now. It's always been a dream of mine. I grew up (and still live) in NY. I'm not talking New York City, but, actually upstate. I'm pretty sure there are more whitetails in the "town" I grew up in than people. We still don't have a traffic light and it was a big deal when we got a gas station. My driveway was 1/4 mile long. I grew up outdoors hunting, fishing, playing in the creek, camping, hiking, etc. Enough about me though....

So, I put in for the draw in unit 65, first rifle season. June 1st can't come soon enough! The plan is to do a DIY backpack hunt. I've done hours and hours of research. It seems that draw odds are pretty good for non-residents and the success rate isn't half bad either. Side note: The Colorado Parks and Wildlife website has so much information on it, make sure to use it. The success rate may be skewed by all the private land in unit 64 though. Either way, it should be a fun trip. I traded PMs with a person here that helped me confirm that the spots that I picked out should put me into elk because they're fairly close (but not too close) to an outfitter's drop camp. Once I find out if I have drawn, I'll wait a few weeks and then call the local biologists and wardens to find out some details about the exact area I plan on hunting.

Right now, a non-hunting buddy says he will go out with me. He's been a friend for a long time (~25 years) and wants to experience the adventure. Hopefully he'll actually be able to come when the time comes. If not, is going solo as a first timer a crazy idea? Hiking, camping, driving and the "normal" stuff doesn't seem like an issue. The drive is going to suck, but, I'd rather avoid flying. The plan is to make the 29 hour drive out there a couple days before the season starts. We'll casually hike into camp, set it up, and have the next day for scouting a bit and getting acclimated to the elevation. I currently live at about 500' and hunt at my parent's place at 1200'. So... there's a huge difference between elevation at home and elevation where I'll be hunting in CO. I take at least one hiking trip to the Adirondacks every year with some buddies and hike/camp for a few days, but, we only get up to about 5000'. Hopefully we acclimate quickly. We'll leave after the season is over, or before if successful, and drive back to NY. Hopefully we'll have a couple coolers full of meat.

A couple questions....
1. How many quarts of cooler space should I plan for? Will two 100 qt coolers be enough for a fully boned out elk? I can't take any bones back into NY.

2. Does anybody know of any places to buy dry ice in or near Ouray? Montrose? Denver (as a last resort)?

3. If I happen to tag out early and we have a couple days to spare, are there any cool things to do around the area? Checking out the hot springs would probably be cool. There is some sort of dinosaur museum or something in Fruita.

4. How traversable, in general, are the roads in the first rifle season? I plan to ask the local wardens this question too. I've got a 4x4 truck. We get plenty of snow where I'm from (~100 inches a year), and, I'm used to driving in it, but I assume chains are a good idea?

I think that's all the questions, for now. June 1st, and then October, can't come soon enough!

 

[Felix40]

Good luck man. I have been hunting 65 during late archery several times but never first rifle. I did live in Montrose when I was a kid though.

1. Two 100 qt coolers will certainly hold a deboned elk.

2. IMO if you are using two 100 qt coolers there won't be any need for dry ice that time of year unless you just want it. Just fill them to the top with ice before you head home. If you do want dry ice you can get it at any City Market in Montrose. Montrose is a pretty good size town so you should be able to get anything you need there at walmart or one of the sporting goods stores (They used to have a Jeans Westerner but maybe it is out of business now. Not really sure.)

3. If you are lucky enough to tag out early there are only really two things that would interest me much. First is find more elk and explore a couple other areas for future trips. Second would be fishing some of the small lakes around there since you get a "free" fishing license. Fruita is a little further than I would go to look at the dinosaur museum but they do have a rodeo there every tuesday night so maybe you could get a twofer.

4. Last part of archery season the roads are pretty good. Chains are probably smart but all the roads I've been on are well maintained for ranchers and folks with cabins up there.

P.S. Ouray is pronounced (Your-ray) in case you ask for directions from anyone while you are there.

 

[dsclowers]

Hey,

I live in Montrose now. There is a City Market on the south end of town that has dry ice. Ouray, Ridgeway, and Telluride don't have big grocery stores so they come to Montrose and need dry ice to keep their stuff cold on the way back. The Forest Service roads in Unit 65 are well maintained. I've only lived here for 3 years but the weather hasn't been to bad during first rifle season. This past year was sunny and warm but the year before was snowy and cold. Nothing that a 4wd truck couldn't handle.

If you get done early check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park which is about 10 minutes out side of Montrose. It is an amazing place. https://www.nps.gov/blca/index.htm

As Felix mentioned, there is a lot of good fishing in the area, especially if you fly fish for trout. Lots of lakes too,

The dinosaur museum in Fruita in interesting but I wouldn't make a special trip for it. It is good for kids. Lots of mountain bike riding near Fruita though. Lots of areas to explore and cool small towns like Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, Lake City. Drive the million dollar highway south out of Ouray for some pucker factor -- narrow, winding road with no guard rails and 500+ foot drop off. The hot springs pool in Ouray is awesome.

Good luck and have fun. Let me know if you have any questions.

Doug

 

[Redmech]

I hope you do well. I'm working and planning my first elk hunt on first rifle as well. I plan to follow your thread and look forward to it materializing.

 

[Pow]

Hopefully, your friend can make it. When I'm solo, I tend to be way more conservative and slow moving. If someone is there to press the button on your spot, that helps a lot.

 

[AdamW]

Keep us updated man. Lots of fun planning all the details ain't it!?

 

[nirvanafan]

Thanks for the answers guys! I really appreciate it.

Hopefully my friend can make it. It will be nice to have a human pack mule. It will be really nice to hunt with someone. Especially since I've never done it before. I'm sure it will be a great help to have someone there to help out with the stuff so I don't have to do it all myself.

Planning is definitely fun. I wish I lived closer, or had more vacation time. I'd love to go out there and scout the area a bit first. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen this year.

I'll keep this thread updated. Once I find out if I drew the tag, I'll add a gear list, plan of attack, etc.

 

[mallard833]

Hopefully you draw and good luck with your hunt! I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. Planning my first elk hunt with a buddy who will be meeting me in CO. He'll be coming from CA. We applied in for first rifle tags in 75. I will be doing the solo drive from NY to CO to meet him there about five days before the season so we can do some scouting and check out some areas that we have researched before opening day.
I live in the Northern part of the Catskills.

 

[nirvanafan]

Nice. Good luck in 75. 5 days of scouting and getting acclimated is awesome. It's going to be a long drive out. What is it going to take you? 32 hours? If my buddy goes with me, we'll drive it pretty much straight, taking ~4 hour shifts. If I drive myself, it will take a couple days.

I'm from the Rochester/Finger Lakes area.

 

[mallard833]

google maps says 31 hours for me...not sure how long it will take me by myself. I'm guessing two-thee days.

 

[nirvanafan]

Yeah, I was planning on leaving after work, drive for 5 hours, then pull a couple 12 or 13 hour days to make it the rest of the way. If I have to drive myself that is.

 

[claybreaker]

NF, good luck on your draw, if you don't draw it doesn't mean you can't going hunting as CO as OTC tags for the 2nd and 3rd seasons.

What I'm going to say can't be be said strong enough, you might think your good with this but if you do this it will enable to hunt more while your there, enjoy your hunt so much more and may make the difference between a hunt that you get to harvest on or not. And you may not completely understand this if you have not hiked in those mountains. But you must be or get into very good physical shape. I couldn't believe the difference in how hard it was my first year hunting in the Rockies coming from E TN. Between 1) the altitude, 2) the distance you need to travel, 3) the inclines that seem to never end it will most likely be the hardest hunting you have ever done.

That said, for me it has been most unique hunting, the most rewarding, the most adventurous hunting. The friend I went with the first time told me before we went that elk hunting can addicting, I questioned that, I had forgot that he had said that until I was writing this, he was right.

 

[nirvanafan]

Ohhhh, I'm definitely not in good enough shape right now. It's going to kick my butt and be the hardest hunt I've ever done. No doubt about that. The altitude is going to bother me. Other than trying to spend a couple days out there before hand, there's nothing I can do. I don't get enough time off of work to get out there any sooner. If my buddy does not go, I can try to get out there a day earlier, but that's about it. The distance I will be traveling each day doesn't bother me right now. When I go on my hiking/camping trips to the Adirondacks now, three or four 8-10 mile days in a row is pretty normal.

The trails in the Northeast are no joke. The trails up here are steep, and we don't use switchbacks. 1k' elevation gain over a mile is a normal thing. 3k' elevation gain on a hike is pretty normal. Car sized boulders, roots, and rock faces are normal. That said, I won't be using trails out there. I expect it to be a tougher hike than what I'm used to. I plan to train at the place where I hunt here in NY. There is about 800' of elevation gain in about 3/4 of a mile. I plan to work my way up to hiking it a couple times a day on the weekends with weight in the pack. I'm still expecting CO to be way harder than anything I've done though.

 

[archer wapiti]

You probably haven't had to test the limits of keeping meat fresh in whitetail country. I never did when I lived there. But as somebody from that country who now lives and hunts the warmer months in the southwest, I found you have a lot more time than you would imagine before you need to get the meat frozen. If you have space for three coolers, throw the third one in. During warm season low elevation hunts, I'll put dry ice in my cooler to keep my wet ice frozen longer. I pack one cooler full of blocks of ice along with about 15 pounds of dry ice. Keep the other coolers empty, then layer ice and meat in the empty coolers, then the one that had the ice in it originally. A hammer or tire iron will make your blocks of ice into cubes. This will get you back to town and more ice if you need it. Once the meat is on ice in the coolers, it's smooth sailing. I wouldn't hesitate leaving meat packed like that in ice in coolers for 7 days, and I'm sure other folks who have gone longer could chime in. That's just all the longer I had to go until I was done butchering. Just keep the water drained daily and the ice replenished as necessary (and once everything cools down to 32 degrees F, this will be infrequent). I'd drive home with the meat in this iced state (no time for fishing with 200 pounds of delicious elk in your vehicle!) and butcher when you get back.

On the other hand, if it's as cool as I might imagine it is up there that time of year, you'll be fine getting the meat to the truck and into coolers without ice until you can get to town and layer ice and meat in coolers. I ran out of cooler space and ice for my first elk, and after it hung in the woods for two days, I ended up putting some well-cooled front quarters in a sleeping bag for insulation and driving 5 hours home. No harm done.

Should you have to take multiple trips to pack out over a couple days and you don't have ice, consider hanging your meat in the shade near the trailhead rather than putting it in a potentially hot vehicle that sits in the sun all day while you go get the next load(s). The nights are wonderfully cool and as long as the sun doesn't get to it during the day, you'll be good for a couple days.

Most of all, good luck!
You're gonna love it, there's nothing like it.

 

[Felix40]

Or just fill the coolers to the top with ice before you start hunting and you wont have to worry about it.

 

[nirvanafan]

I was planning on freezing half or gallon jugs and stuffing them in a cooler before the trip. I've got a big enough freezer in the garage to freeze at least a dozen gallon jugs. I figure if I fill both of them to the brim with ice in town right before I hit the trailhead, there will still be ice in them after 5 days (provided I can try to park out of the sun a bit). Then, buy ice (or dry ice) in town if I shoot one.

 

[archer wapiti]

Sounds good. I would use dry ice to keep your ice solid as you're driving out and parked. It'll all depend on the quality of your coolers and if you can park in the shade for most of the day. Once you're on the road, ice is pretty easy to come by, and stuff doesn't need to be frozen, just really cold.

 

[claybreaker]

Our method of handling meat and getting it home: We take 150 qt coolers (sleeping bag/gear in them going, hopefully meat coming back), you can get the quarters, straps, and tenderloins in one cooler fairly easy with bone in, provided you cut the lower leg off. Hang the meat in camp as long as you can for it to cool, hang so air can circulate around it, and allow any blood to drain. Keep the sun off of it and off all day long. As long as it is staying cool you can let it hang for days. The good thing about being at altitude is that it is normally cooler. When we head home (TN), put the meat in the cooler making sure it wont block the drainage hole, add ice at the first opportunity, then check/add ice at every restroom/fuel stop. The first couple of stops you will have more ice melting than later as the meat has its initial cool down. Drain off the water every chance also.

 

[NYSHUNTER]

Planning the same trip driving from Long Island NY. Hopefully I draw if not will go the OTC route .. Driving the 30 plus hours

 

[dsclowers]

For meat care...I have never had to travel long distances with quarters before so this may be a silly question. Are you planning on processing it yourself when you get back to NY? Or do you have a processor that you like to use back home? There are a couple of great game processors in Montrose that can turn an elk around pretty quick. The guy I go to likes to give the locals a 7 day turn around so he can get the out-of-towners out the door quick (24 - 48 hours, I think). I have no idea if it is better/easier to travel with a blob of deboned meat or small, neat, frozen paper wrapped packages that can be kept cool with dry ice. Maybe someone else on here has experience with that.