I just returned from a hunting trip out west that I’ve been on in my dreams for years. Hunting an elk with a bow is something I’ve always wanted to do. A few buddies and I recently drove out to Sulphur Springs, Colorado to do just this.
We hiked into where we would set up base camp (no guides, all public land) on the first day out there. The weather was nice and cool and we heard bulls bugling. It was an awesome sound! Amazing. One of my buddies actually got close enough to let an arrow fly and bring down a 5×5 bull. What a sight! We figured we were all in for a great hunt.
Elk like it to stay cold once it gets cold. We hit a warm spell in Colorado. Just our luck. The weather was too warm the rest of the hunt and we never heard or saw another bull. We did see a bear finishing up the carcass of our field-dressed elk. That was a little dicey.
I guess after this experience hunting an elk with a bow will continue to be in my dreams, until it works out to hunt them again. One thing that fishing as a pro has taught me, which hunting reinforces, is that things don’t always go as planned.
