Netherman's 2025 Hunting Season

[Netherman]

I've been getting less feedback on these over the years (maybe the questions are getting harder/more nuanced), but I still enjoy writing them and plan to give the full journal to the kids one day. So buckle up...


The theme of 2025 is time. I can’t believe it’s February and I’m finally getting around to starting my hunt recap for a September hunt. Life with two working parents a 4- and 2-year-old sure is busy. I don’t think we’d be able to do it and I’d certainly not be able to hunt a week long trip without my mom’s help. She’s a mom’s mom and even though she’ll never read this I can’t thank her enough. This year I decided to spend my CO elk points ahead of 2028 D-Day on a September muzzy tag. After that we’ll be headed to KS for an archery whitetail hunt with my buddy, his dad, and dad’s friend.

CO Muzzy Elk

Day 0/1 (Scouting Day)

My brother lives in Dever and is getting married the end of September so the plan will be to drive out and leave my truck at his place then drive it back with the family after the wedding. Got the kids ready for school and started the drive. Best part of WFH is WFC (work from car) as we’ve started doing that the past few years to save the vacation on a travel day. With the midday start we opted to stop and sleep. My buddy is really high on motel 8s since we stopped at a nice one on a previous trip. This one brought him down to reality but was mostly clean and we got a few hours of sleep. The next morning we had a slight detour to drop off some wedding stuff my mom was sending my brother then off to the hunt unit.

We got to our hunt until late morning so decided to do a bit of a road trip then head to a high point I’d e-scouted to do some longish range glassing and truck camp for the night. It was raining when we got there so I rigged my tarp to the back of the truck and we loaded packs for “scout mode” and got the back of the truck set for sleeping. While working on that we met “Texas Chris” who also had a CO muzzy tag and had basically the same plan as us except he was going to pack in rather than the “glass and decide” plan that we had made. Bit of a bummer to see other hunters in “our” spot, but that’s public and based on our conversation seemed like as good an “intruder” you could ask for.

Still raining we started our hike in to the high point for an evening glass. Between the rain and the fog we weren’t going to accomplish much. With no better plan we set the tarp, and ate our preheated boil meals (way cooler than a mtn house), and watched the fog roll in and out hoping for a window. We stayed until dark having only seen TX Chris hiking and some other hunters over a mile away sitting on a ridge. With the weather report calling for more rain and fog we decided we’d go for a walkabout in the morning and look and listen.

Lessons Learned: Sleep is important and stopping on the ride out put us in a good spot to start the hunt. In the past I’ve started in a “hole” because we marathon drove without sleep and unhealthy amounts of caffeine. For me it seems good sleep, limiting caffeine, and managing initial physical exertion is the key to ensuring I don’t have altitude issues.

Questions: Not sure what we could have done to be more effective on our scouting day with the fog and rain. Would we have been better off hiking around looking for sign and listening for bugles?

 

[Netherman]

Day 2

Since the truck was high and we wanted to listen we started our hike a half hour before sunrise. We were mostly on trail hiking and saw some “this year” rubs but nothing dripping, no elk, and no bugles. We finished our loop back to the truck and decided to bail on this area and try a new drainage. We got to the new are midday and the sun popped out which was super nice. We hiked another loop looking and listening. We saw old sign and moose, but no elk up high. One of the lakes we walked by had the prettiest trout I’ve ever seen. I made sure to drop a pin and have fishing there on my to-do list with the kids next time we visit my brother.

Maybe we were too high 10.5k-11.5k? There was a wetter looking willow section around 10k so we decided to walk listen and glass around there for the evening. We found another moose and another hunter, but no elk. We did hear a bugle from up towards the road, but only heard it once and not entirely sure it wasn’t a hunter bugling into our bottom from the road.

Walking back in the dark the rain turned into snow. Thinking to myself that snow was better than wet caused the snow to turn into sleet. EH, I was already wet anyway. The weather was supposed to start getting better tomorrow so we planned to hike to the glassing point we’d picked in this drainage. Hopefully we’d be able to “let our eyes do the walking”.

Lessons Learned: Continually I learn how much of a grind elk hunting is, that “they are where you find them”, and that we needed to keep looking.

Questions: N/A

Day 3

We woke up to more sleet, snow, and fog, but with a forecast of better weather we decided to get high to try glass and listening. We got the DST setup, put all our layers on, and listened to the wind and glassed on the occasional clear patch without success. Freezing out we decided to do some hiking lower into the drainage and look for sign. We found some fresher looking sign and then heard a bugle above us. We started heading that way until we saw two hunters on the ridge line making the same sound… Whelp, back to our drainage hike. We wrapped around the “mountain”, saw more fresher sign but no elk sounds or viewing. By the end of the day we were on the back side and found a tasty looking willow meadow so decided to finish the evening there. We saw a fox dig a hole which kept things interesting, but still no elk. 30 min or so before last light we saw another hunter up on the ridge glassing into “our” bottom. On our walk back to the truck we saw TX Chris’s truck parked at the trailhead. Wonder if he’s the guy we saw on the ridge?

Lessons Learned: DST made life in the rocky ridge bearable (mostly).

Questions: Is there something better I could do from a finding elk standpoint? I felt like the glassing wasn’t very effective and also wonder if the weather suppressed the bugling as well.

 

[Netherman]

Quality glassing conditions out here

Son’s monster truck made the weight cut for this trip.

 

[Netherman]

Fog rolling in and out made glassing tough/futile

 

[Netherman]

Day 4

Feeling rundown we slept until gray light and listened from a few high points close to the truck. Hearing nothing but seeing some of the freshest sign we’ve seen in the drainage we decided to drive down to a lower access point and hike in from below. As we got closer to the access point we found a county road that was marked private. Not sure whether that was true of false we drove closer to town, got cell signal, and found out it was private. Bummer. Still interested in the area we drove back up top to pack in for the evening and following day. On our way in we bumped into TX Chris driving out. He said he’d packed in on the ridge top and that he hadn’t heard any bugles either and was going to try and access from the bottom. We saved him the detective work and wished him luck. By noon the weather had broke and was actually sunny. It was a nice change to pack in without rain, snow, or fog. We found and set our spike camp about halfway between the top and bottom then set off to find the elk. As we circled around the E face of the mountain was littered with legacy mining claims. It was a PIA working our way around them. We did find a few dilapidated cabins that must have been old claims that returned to public at some point.

Down near the bottom we found more similarly aged sign. There was a lot of tasty looking willow down the bottom of the drainage but it was so drawn out, with limited visibility, and without a single spot of heave feeding sign it felt like a dart throw to sit it. (also I don’t go out west to hunt things whitetail style). we decided to start at the lowest point in the bottom of the drainage and work our way up and hopefully hear, see, or at least bump an elk. With the thermals falling we crept up the valley. Eventually we bumped two cow elk but never saw or heard more elk. We kept moving up, but never saw or heard more elk. In the darkness we hiked up to our spike camp ate a dehydrated meal (wasn’t horrible after the long day). I bugled with no response before bed. Around midnight I got up and tried to bugle again. I got a response this time, but sounded like a pack of wolves (deeper than coyotes) rather than elk. I’m guessing someone had a bunch of dogs in the town below as I don’t think would be wolves in our area of CO (yet…).



Lessons Learned: Just riding the struggle bus at this point/ Not sure if haven’t found them or if they’re just quite due to weather.

Questions: How impactful is the weather on bugle activity? This has been my first September hunt with this much rain, sleet, and snow.

 

[Ready2Rut]

Thanks for the write up. Not qualified to anwer any questions but I like the photos and lessons learned. Wasn't familiar with the DST but that looks like a really nifty piece of kit for backpack hunts.

 

[Netherman]

Day 5

Woke up and headed to a high point to listen. As we entered gray light I bugled again. No elk but the dogs went wild again. With no location sounds we hiked the valley again looking for fresher sign or even better an elk standing in a track. By 10 we hadn’t seen or heard anything so decided to take some words of wisdom from Toby Keith’s should have been a cowboy (head west young man).

We went back to our spike camp, packed up, and headed back to the truck. We ran into town got an outstanding burrito then drove to plan D or E or whatever the F plan we are on. The trailhead went into two different drainages. With limited time we decided to split up and hope to double our chances of seeing or hearing them. Lots of recreation hikers on this trail. I always make a point to answer questions and be as friendly as possible to non-hunters and for the most part was met with smiles and good luck wishes and only one or two side eyes. Eventually I made it to the creek I wanted to walk up. I got up to a promising looking meadow with some fresh(ish) elk sign. It was still midday so I decided to sit for a bit and then start creeping up to the head of the drainage.

As evening approached so did the rain clouds and I had the pleasure of riding out a rain, hail, and lightning storm. I stayed mostly dry under a medium height pine in the bulk of the forest. Once the rain stopped, I set off creeping up the drain. Soon after, I got an inreach message that there were elk on the ridge above me. with two hours left I needed to get after it. I hammered up the ½ mile 1000’ climb in half an hour (my body still hurts thinking about it). At tree line I slowed down and crept along glassing for a herd. I covered the entire side my friend could see from across the valley without seeing an elk. I bugled but didn’t get a response. At this point they either dropped down into the timber or flipped over the top. Without any calling the timber would be a tough go so I opted to check the glassable alpine bowl I had planned to creep. As I flipped over the top I bumped into 6 cows inside 100 yards, but no bulls. They eventually figured me out and spooked over the top into some thick timber.

I glassed the bowl the rest of the evening, but never saw another elk. I bugled on my way out, but either am the worst caller ever or they elk just aren’t in a talking mood. The hike out was brutal. I was spent from the quick climb, but still had 5 miles to hike out with 2 of them off trail. On the plus side I was on top of the world with the only way to go being down. In keeping with the theme of the trip it started raining on my hike out.

Back at the truck and totally spent we decided to get a hotel for the night in town to dry off, shower, and get some better sleep. On the way to town I pounded a half pound of venison snack sticks and a disgusting amount of taco bell.

Lessons Learned: Energy gels and gummies will always be in my hipbelt pocket. Hiking up to the top I stopped a few times and choked some down. I use them running and can feel a difference then and think they helped me get up top as quickly as I did. When interacting with strangers make a point to put hunters in a good light. The funniest comment I got was a girl telling me she “thought all hunters were drunks and serail killers”. I told her it sounds like she spends too much time watching TV for someone motivated enough to hike a 14er. We both laughed and hopefully got another vote in support of hunting.

Questions: For the love of God why aren’t the elk talking? Or am I just not “in them”?

 

[Netherman]

Day 6

Slept in and decided to pack into the area with elk for the remainder of the trip. We checked a lower trailhead in case we needed it for meat packing and spotted TX Chris’s truck in the lot. Then we spent the rest of the morning hiking in, talking to the granola crowd, and setting up a spike camp. For the evening, I hiked back into the bowl I had seen the elk the night before and my buddy would hike up the mountain and try and get a birds eye view of the area. Didn’t see shit… On the plus side I received the privilege of a steady drizzle the last hour of light that switched to rain for the hike back to camp. As a real plus my friend had seen a group of elk with a bull in it one drainage to the north. With a promising lead for the morning and weeks’ worth of exhaustion sleep came easy.

Lessons Learned: Always put your rain gear on. I’ve often felt like I got just as wet hiking in rain gear vs not putting it on, but I’ll say that’s not true. I was still wet from sweat when I got back to spike camp, but it was the difference between being damp and soaked. A good layering and sleep system solved the damp, but I’m not sure the outcome would have been the same soaked.

Questions: N/A

 

[Netherman]

Creek running thru basin

Spike camp

 

[Netherman]

Day 7

The plan this morning is to get above the head of the drainage so we can glass into it and plan a stalk. We just haven’t been hearing much so are trading proximity for visibility. As the gray light changed to color we heard a bugle down in the basin my friend had seen the elk the night before. We couldn’t see them so assumed they were either in the timber or a smaller basin we couldn’t see into. So, off I went with my friend staying behind to keep an eye out for more elk if things didn’t go well.

I started creeping and bumped into a few mulies but no elk. I bugled and miraculously got a response that sounded like it was in the small basin we had seen from onX. Heading that was I saw another hunter walking up the drainage a few hundred yards below me. He looked a bit like TX Chris. Wild that we kept running into this guy. I continued my hike into that secluded basin and when I flipped over the edge watched as two cow elk disappeared into the timber below. Guess the spot and stalk hunt was now a track and follow. It must have been a decent size group as the trail was easy to follow. Eventually it came to a wet willow meadow, and I lost the track. I bugled to see if I could get a response but no dice. I found some nice-looking dark timber in onX and started a slow creep with some light cow calling hoping for a response.

After two hours of creep-calling I decided to regroup with my friend up high and see if we can glass one up or I’d head back to the small basin and try more creep and call. Nothing from my lookout and with 3ish hours of light left, I began packing up to creep when I get the signal from my friend that he’d spotted elk. Of course they were over a mile away from me. I double timed it over there. Bumping a few deer along the way one of which was a nice buck.

I slowed as I got closer since I only knew the basin they were in. tippy toing in I spotted the bull on the opposite side of a small bowl 250 yards away. With nothing but air between us I froze until he walked out of sight. Then down and up I went trying to cut him off. I dropped my pack in the bottom to be more nimble. Out of breath I reached the top and crept along using pockets of pine as cover. When I felt I was far enough ahead of the bull I got into the pines. As I peered out into the basin a cow barked at me. “shit!”. She was 20 yards in front of me feeding in a patch of willow over her head. I quickly cow called and she looked curiously at me. a few more cows filtered into view, presumably to get a look at the newcomer. Then I saw the bull. He was bunched up with three cows all staring my way. Pinned down I had no options other than to stay frozen and hope they calmed down.

As expected that didn’t work… as they grouped up and got ready to break I cow called again. They all froze looking in my direction again with the bull a couple yards ahead of the cows. Knowing it was now or never I took an offhand shot at 100 yards. The bull didn’t flinch and the herd bolted over into the next drainage. Feeling sick I took the range that I hadn’t bothered to take before and it was a 150 yard shot. I marked the location of the shot and a best guess where the bull was standing, grabbed my pack, then went to look for blood. My friend eventually met me at the shot location and asked what happened. I gave him the cliff notes and we continued looking for blood but never found any. We did find the trail the main herd took down into the drainage so followed that until it was too dark to see. Without blood and an expectation that I shot under the elk we called it and began to figure a way back to camp. The bad news was the 5 mile hike back. On the plus side it was mostly on trail and it didn’t rain, sleet, or snow.

Lessons Learned: Don’t force shots. I’ve “learned” this lesson a few times and think exhaustion and desperation played a big factor in my “now or never” mindset. In hindsight I could have let them nervously move into the timber and got back after them. Along with that thought is another lesson I’ve “learned” a few times about not dropping your pack. It always seems like a good idea, but I’m probably 50/50 on leaving it burning me and can’t think of a time I got burned having it.

Questions: N/A

 

[Netherman]

Day 8

With a Saturday morning flight and a life of pain, I decided to skip the final morning. We slept in, packed out, and drove to my brother’s place in Denver to drop my truck. We got a good dinner, slept in a bed, and my brother drove us to the airport the next morning.

Lessons Learned: I need to do more training and manage my energy thru the hunt. I think the mega climb really took a toll on my body that I never recovered from.

Questions: N/A





Trip and Gear Report

Trip Thoughts: For all the points this hunt took I was pretty disappointed in the amount of calling. Could be weather or just location related, but I had much higher hopes. I need to do more training for the recovery portion of these hunts. I think I did a good job training my lungs and heart but am going to look at doing more back to back big training days to simulate the lack of recovery time on a hunt. Maybe add a big mile weekend backpack trip for “fun”. The bad shot still doesn’t sit well with me. Not sure what to do there beyond self-reflection and trying to be more calculated in those moments. I’ve found on a lot of elk hunts I seem to get “one good chance” I need to work on capitalizing on those chances.

Noteworthy Gear: With all the moisture and wind on this hunt I loved having the tarp. We used it glassing, napping, as an awning on the back of the truck. Sitka dewpoint did everything I need. Lightweight, packable, and never wetted out and kept me from getting soaked. We didn’t have anything torrential, but it’s built a lot of confidence for me in the more arid mountain climates I typically hunt out west. I had a 20” section of pex piping I used to collect water from the small streams. It worked well but think I’ll upgrade from the ½” to ¾” going forward for a little more flow rate.

Disappointing Gear: The tarp made both lists. The one gripe I had is that it seems to absorb water (sil nylon DST). I like the ease of stowing and deployment from the gun bearer but did not like flagging people on the steep sections of trail. I ended up attaching it along the pack frame, but that defeats the ease of access. Argali trekking poles. I have an older set of BD carbon cork poles that I love and couldn’t get over the small hand grips on the Argali sticks. I bought them thinking I’d use the gun rest attachment in a calling setup. I never had a calling set and they were in my pack in the bottom when I took the shot… Maybe I’d have a different opinion if I had used them for a shot, but STRONGLY dislike the small grips. Did I mention that I can’t stand those grips? Not sure why the industry is going this way as the BD carbon corks are the same way. Just gotta hope mine can last me the rest of forever.

Gear to Buy/Consider: I’m still looking for a better rifle carry mouse trap. Something behind the shoulder, but quickly accessible. I tried but didn’t like the EXO option. Still researching, but thinking I’ll give the SG or creative outdoors options a try. I’m semi looking for a different tarp. I love the layout of the DST and center patch but wish it didn’t absorb water and sometimes am bothered by the stretch. Going to look at the DST in silpoly or dyneema. Hopefully that patent runs out already and the dyneema prices come down. 300 for a 10x10 fabric square is wild. Also not sure on the bulk factor of dyneema. We didn’t get conducive weather until mid-week but a pair of 15x binos is at the top of my gear purchase list. I think they’d really help long range glassing on scouting days and looking at stuff is a big part of why I head west to hunt. I’m a buy once cry once kind of guy but thinking I might limit the crying by choosing SLC 15s vs NL 14s.

 

[Netherman]

Old mining cabin?

I think this is what the elk were feeding on above treeline.

Alpine lake with the prettiest brook trout I’ve ever seen.

 

[Netherman]

Two different moose. I’ve got some sweet panoramic pictures, but keeping them off the interwebs.

 

[Geewhiz]

Good write up and fun to follow along. 150 yards off hand is a tough shot, especially in the heat of the moment, although I do not believe you're additional drop in the unaccounted for 50 yards would explain the miss. Regardless, a fun hunt and you got some good action.

 

[Macegl]

Great write up.

Good on you for starting out by thanking your mom, it’s often the family support that makes what we all enjoy actually enjoyable.

As for not getting much for bugles, I wish I knew. There are so many variables, especially with pressured elk. I think in a situation like that when they aren’t talking looking for the most fresh sign is the next best thing.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[elkguide]

Won't next year be awesome!?!?!