Last Minute Trip
The Colorado stars seemed to align to make this trip happen. I was way too busy, had no travel to the Rockies and I certainly wasn’t training to be ready like I had the previous year. But, I got an invite from Hodge, aka the Billy Goat, to join Glessner and his boys from North Carolina at his camp and that made it all possible. ‘Bring your bow, your boots, and your clothes and let’s go’. I’d only met Hodge for a few days the previous year, but he treated “us Pennsylvania boys” like we’d been friends for decades. Its rare to meet anyone like that these days. But, its no surprise he’s a wrestler. That fraternity is strong.
I still felt way too busy at work and was pretty anxious about leaving my wife for this amount of time with 3 young kids plus a baby. But, the Grandparents helped out and my wife was ultimately the one who pushed me to do this. She’s the best. So, it was game on. Step 1, was getting a cortisone shot in my bad knee that crippled me on the mountain last year. Then, I trained my ass off for a month to cram and get ready. It was good to have an aggressive goal.
Camp
We stepped into a much different experience than last year. First, we flew versus driving 28 hours. This changed the packing strategy, but we made it work. Then, we also prepped differently and started on a 24-hour regiment of Aspirin / Ibuprofen 800’s to combat the Acute Mountain Syndrome aka altitude sickness. Last year, we got so sick that we were totally incapacitated on the first night…… we were disoriented, vomiting and had the most intense headache I’ve ever experienced. We were camping at 10,300 ft, so this was no joke. Looking back, I think we were close to pulmonary edema - which can actually be a significant medical emergency and life threatening. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous this would happen again this year, but we made it through the night and acclimated within a couple days.
Camp itself was also an enormous upgrade. Last year we had an old canvas wall tent from the 1970’s which served us well. But, the problem was our overnight Camp Buddy propane heater was made for a duck blind not elk camp. Hodge had wood burners in both his camps and they were roomy. We also had a full blown camp kitchen area and a huge cooking setup. We had some gourmet camp meals - bear stew, elk sausage, etc. Grouse made for some tasty camps snacks and of course we had coolers full of Colorado’s finest craft brews. It was high-class hunting.
The Carolina boys that Hodge grew up with were awesome. We never met these guys prior to the hunt, but after a couple beers and couple stories, the group just meshed. They were good Southern dudes that liked to hunt for sure. I would venture to stay that I could get along with anyone that wants the hard word and experience of chasing elk the way we do it. You pretty much have to be cut from the same cloth. And after spending 9 days in camp together, you come out with lifelong friends.
The Hunt
When we arrived at camp, Hodge had been there for a week already and had been hunting and scouting and had many bulls located. We were hunting a new area, but this gave us a huge head start because we were into elk immediately. An by immediately, I mean we found ourselves in a bugle fest with a couple bulls before it got daylight on the first morning. My coffee was still too hot to drink and we came close to tagging out. Of course, that didn’t happen, but it was the most intense elk experience I’ve ever seen and we had them 80 yards from us going absolutely NUTS. The hunt was off to a great start.
The Best and Worst of Hunting
After our first day with Hodge, Glessner and I had the training wheels off and were on our own. About mid-week we went out for a morning hunt into an area dubbed as the Champagne Room. This was the coveted breeding ground were all the rut action went down last year. And though the prime rut was another 1-2 weeks away, the big bulls were establishing their order. That morning we set up with a dry setup and started calling. Almost immediately we had a bull grunting aggressively below us so we made a move. We called, he answered and we moved in again. I’m typically a little more conservative in my hunting style, but I learned enough watching Hodge to know you need to get aggressive or go home. So, I wailed on the bugle, closed distance and made a ruckus that triggered this big bull to come charging down through the woods looking for a fight. Within seconds I had the biggest animal I’ve ever seen in wild within about 10 yards of my broadhead and he wasn’t slowing down. He flanked me to the meadow and Glessner stopped him with a cow call just to allow a perfectly broadside 20 yards shot. I delivered what I thought to be a perfect lung shot, but my arrow hit a rib and only got about 1/4 way in. the bull dropped to the ground immediately, but within a few seconds recovered to his feet to run up the hill. About 70 yards up the hill, the bull toppled over again and this time laid down for 20-30 seconds. This was it. I thought I had my trophy bull and was overcome with adrenaline. But, this story doesn’t end well. He miraculously made it back to his feet and within seconds was running away and vanished into the timber. I couldn’t believe my eyes and was stunned. It was simply unreal. We ended up waiting for an hour, but my optimism was still pretty high after watching him crash twice. This quickly waned as we tracked him for the next 11 hours by sparse blood and his hoof print. We put everything we had into this track, but I failed on the recovery. I went out the next 3 days and relentlessly searched and searched and searched, but nothing.
Quite simply, it was the most intense amazing hunting experience followed up with the most gut-wrenching disappointment of my entire hunting career. I was physically ill for days and it was hard to get back out there. I’ve replayed it a million times in my head and I still don’t understand. But, I cant forget how awesome that 10-15 minutes were when that bull was committing to the bugle. It was an adrenaline rush few will encounter and there is no doubt that experience changed me forever.
Packouts
The one thing we didn’t experience last year was someone actually getting an elk. Trapper Brad from NC was the first to actually harvest a cow he killed on Day 4 back in the mountains. I give him a ton of credit - he went back in and stayed in by himself for a couple days. When he came back, he had a cow down and quartered out and ready for the team pack out. He was a few miles in, but having 6 guys with frame packs made the pack out reasonable and we got back around midnight.
We worked up quite the appetite, so when we got back to camp, we ate elk steaks for the next hour. Most of them were cooked right on a rock slab int the fire. We just seared team quickly on each side and DONE. It was like eating Rocky Mountain Sushi. Simply amazing. We also pan fried some up with the special flour. Needless to say we ate good that night and slept well.
After the last day of the hunt, we all went into local town to grab showers, laundry, beers and souvenirs for the kids. Everyone, but Hodge. He stayed back. . We had a pretty awesome afternoon and enjoyed the town scene. We made it back to camp after dark that evening, but Hodge still wasn’t there. When he rolled up the old dirt road beeping his horn around 10 pm, we all knew what it meant. It was celebration time for another elk, but also impending work that would quickly sober us up. And sober up we did. The pack out was maybe 3 miles in, but again we made quick work of it. This was good, because we flew out in the morning.
Get on my level
Hodge sent us all a video of him bugling and calling before the trip and simply told us to “get on my level.” We made a ton of progress up the learning curve from last year and I called in my first bull to bow range. But, we were still far where we need to be to consistently harvest an elk on public land with a OTC tag. Though, after hunting with Hodge and this crew for the week, the bar and expectation has been set. As an eastern hunter that gets 8-9 days each year and starting from ground zero is challenging. Podcast and reading can only get you so far. Experience is key, unless you have someone to set the bar. if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t know what was even possible with calling elk. Hell, I’d still be pushing a Hoochie Mama and wondering when a big bull elk would wonder in! But, I watched and learned and took meticulous mental notes all week long and learned what it takes to consistently harvest an archery elk each year. It’s up to me not to do what it takes in the off season to make this happen next year. And I am already counting down the days…
