Don't you love packing out an Elk?

Quite often, we read about hunters looking for advice on where to hunt, wanting to hike in several miles from the road, seeking out a quality backcountry experience. I'm all for that, and yet to those that are inexperienced, I find myself wondering if they are truly up to the task of packing out their Elk from these backcountry hell holes far from where they parked?
It reminds me of my early years hunting here in Colorado. Often, I'd find myself a couple miles from the road, topped out on a ridge looking down on some mighty fine habitat. Then, I'd think if I dropped down in that drainage and shot one, am I tough enough to get it out on my back? (NOPE!) So, I'd have to take a pass.
I haven't even shot an Elk since I was 62. I haven't forgotten about that endeavor, as I was in some rough country, at 11,700' elevation, with about 6" snow. I shot a Bull at 3:30pm, quartered it, buried the meat in the snow, and took off for the trailhead. I got home that night at 8pm, and uploaded the kill location on my computer topo program. I knew I had a project! I found a way to get an ATV within 1.2 miles of the Elk. Even that took me 2 hours to ride the ATV 3 miles on a stock trail It was rough, slow going with plenty of downed timber. I took off for the Elk with my packframe. This country is so steep and full of blowdowns, that it was easier to walk around the arc of a bowl, than to take a straight line heading for the Elk. If I had, I'd have had a steep downgrade and then a long steep climb back up. Even so, I had some climbing to do. So, it took me 1.2 miles one way, and 6 trips to haul it out. That figures to 7.2 miles of total loaded packing, and 14.4 miles of total walking. Then it was two trips in and out on the ATV getting the meat home. I think I'm in pretty good shape, and am wholly acclimated to the altitude, as I live at 8500' and am up high from Spring through Fall on our horses. My neck vertebrae were screwed up from that pack out for a couple months. I like to bring it up in my memory banks, but will never do that again!
I'll bet the readers also have some "fun" (?) stories of their pack outs? I don't mean to discourage new hunters here, but I have to say, sometimes I read the posts of new hunters, and wonder if they have a clue on what it's like to pack a camp in several miles, shoot an Elk on high, steep slopes, and then realize what they've gotten themselves into? You'll find out what you're made of, that's for sure.

I'm not in shape and have a bad back so I'm pretty aware that I'm not packing out anything as much as it seems like a noble and romantic thing to do. I wish I could do it believe me, but I'll probably need a pack animal if I ever head out for elk. Hell, half the time I'm deer hunting I try to park downhill from my spot just to have an easy drag.

Maybe a word of advice to the greenhorn rolleyes, get your 120 lb wife to pack out your elk. A disclaimer, she's tougher than a fair number of dudes I know.....

Back before the days of gps and computerized mapping software, all we had were forest service travel maps and topo maps we had to piece together. We had maps of the majority of the country we were hunting, and my buddy killed an elk down in a hole that was on one of our maps. We proceeded to pack it out about 2 miles up the hill the way we came in, through the blowdown and hell brush. Took the better part of 2 days. A few years after that I finally got maps of the other side and saw a road about 1/4 mile up the hill from where he killed that elk. Sure would have liked to have that information when we packed out that bull!

Never had the experience you had, but I've packed out a number of elk and can't say that it's a "fun" chore but I can say that's it's all enjoyable and apart of the ride. Years ago a buddy and I were just getting going for a afternoon hunt, we were making our way down a ridge and crossed a creek only to meet another hunter that was covered in sweat and obviously hurting to keep air in his lungs. We greeted him with congratulations after noticing his blood covered arms and he welcomed the break to tell his story on filling his archery tag on a very respectable bull mid morning. He was a older gentleman, alone and struggling to make time and get the bull packed in, my buddy and I looked at each other and without saying a word we were in agreement that he needed our help. He didn't live anywhere near there and we are both residents and could always make it back in a short drive, so it wasn't a big deal to lose one afternoon. We informed him that we would help, he tried to argue and didn't like that we were giving up a afternoon but his argument fell on deaf ears. (We are both fairly young and hard headed.) After following him around a mile to the downed elk we went to work, helping him finish out quartering and bagging everything. We then strapped down our packs and started the work hauling it out, funny thing is we made it back to his truck, unloaded and was returning to get the last haul when we met him again, still on his first trip! After everything was said and done the gentlemen invited us back to his camp for a cold one. No argument out of us this time! We ended up going back and enjoying a few cold brews and camp fire, swapped numbers and email address and went about our way. Again, that was several years ago and to this day we keep in contact and whenever we can we grab a beer when we are in each others neck of the woods.

A trio of "memory makers" from 2016. I'm getting too old for this chit.

One foolish nighttime trip with all our production gear over five miles of footballs hidden in knee-high grass. How we exited without serious injury (other than to cameras) is a mystery.


Two day extraction I won't soon forget.


Day and a half extraction where I only got in on the last day of it.


If nothing else, these images of Type 2 fun will serve me well next year as I sit in my rocker, sipping coffee, spinning yarns of what used to be.

6 trips over blow-down.. Ya, that would mark, rather scar, a memory.

I've had mix results. All worth a laugh around the fire future years simply to repeat the process the next day, if I was so... skilled.

From a cake walk to a "naked and afraid" episode, figuratively speaking.

My favorite was a darn simple doe. Shot her in an ice coated snow gulch and found it was the slide of near death down and a long ass attempt getting back onto the ice slicked closed road only some 50 yards above. It was flat out UGLY! Whole? no chance... Half? Still no chance... Quartered? Ya... Amazing! This simple doe tops my memory as numero Uno.... Oh... only 2 miles from the truck, and I was able to sit on the doe on one of those roll-up sleds... I sled almost all the way back to the truck.

I mostly hunt solo, and will be 59 this fall. I don't pack a skillet. So I don't hunt where I can't pack out solo. If I get hurt packing out it lasts a long time, and can interfere w future hunts. I too have passed on shots because of the potential extraction. Packing quarters still feels like a privilege!

I'm new to elk hunting, and assuming that I was in shape for a 46 year old ('14), I found out very quickly that I wasn't after the first load from my first bull. Living on the east coast, where 99%+ people here know nothing about packing elk, I tell people that it is most misery I've ever been through, but I can't wait to do it again. Like finishing a marathon. It's brutal, yet most rewarding from such an accomplishment. I will never forget the last load (3rd) to the truck, and looking down at my boots just trying to get one boot to actually pass the other.
Fast forward two years ('16), 25lbs lighter, much much better shape, and it wasn't that bad.
I tell people that if they want to get in shape and lose weight, plan two elk hunts. After the first, you WILL get in shape before the next!

Only three easy pack outs here.

First was a cow maybe 200 yards up to the truck in 6 inches of snow.

Second was a bull .6 miles off the interstate. (Don't tell anyone but that's where I was parked)

Third was 990 yards according to the GPS downhill to the truck.

Definitely the best memories are under a heavy packframe.

At 81 1/2 years Dillion made a 374 yard shot at probably 30 degree angle 1 shot kill. It was a steep up hill pack out. All worth it. Today Dillion is 82! Happy Birthday! His first elk also!

Congratulations Dillion!!!! Beautiful Bull. Happy Birthday

Had my first two real pack outs this year. My bull was 4 miles one way on good trail, luckily had my brother and hunting partner to share the load. Took us 2 trips total. Second was a cow my partner shot, about 3 miles all downhill in just a skiff of snow. He had hauled out the straps and trim the evening before and we split the rest in one trip the next day. It was painful but a type of pain that really let's you feel like you are alive. Nothing better than unloading your pack the last time at the pickup. Packing elk: good for the mind, body and freezer.

This is one of my all time favorite hunting pics. This is from my first elk kill. A big cow with my bow. I was in about 2 miles. Im on the left and my buddy on the far right almost didn't make it out! It was his first trip out with us and he was just deer hunting. He told me that night if that's what it took to kill a elk he was out on elk hunting. Haha

Love seeing the "grandpas" still at it. That's my hope and plan if and when I get there.

I just cannot ever seem to kill an elk near a road. I have had some rough pack outs, but one of the worst was an elk calf I shot on the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico. I packed that thing off the west side of Sierra Blanca Peak and I was feeling a little like a mountain man traversing that country. Packing an elk on your back is no joke, but it sure feels good after you finish the job!

I do love packing out elk! It's a sure sign of success! However, I agree it is a grueling and painful experience. One can prepare as much as they like (which I do) but regardless you're never fully prepared. I look back though on my last trip and spending 2 1/2 days doing nothing but packing out my partner and I's elk is just as satisfying, if not more, than the fact that I killed one. This is the same guy that on trip prior to this one tore his ACL while we packed out his elk. It was an experience the two of us shared that will never be forgotten and the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) are part of the experience that brings us back. Yes, you absolutely have to factor in the haul out but don't let that deter you from the opportunity to live that dream. Know what you're getting into ahead of time, prepare for it, know your limitations, and go get it.

Taught my kids it is part of the hunt.

Way to go Dillon, that is inspirational....I'd like to kill a dandy bull 15 years from now and let my 7 grandsons sherpa.

I flat out hate horses...until there is an elk on the ground five miles from the road, then they are worth their weight in gold.

Hunting in Colorado one year someone killed an elk and went back to camp to fetch the horses. There, in our camp, were two men making themselves at home. They wanted to use our horses and were actually kind of surly about it. They were told that we were using them to pack out an elk and that after we were done they could rent them from us, they were also told that our packing job would probably take the rest of the day. The idea of renting didn't appeal to them and that was fine with us.

Hunting the same area years later a kid killed his first elk, a raghorn, a couple hundred yards from our camp, we ran into them on our way back for the evening. It was a grandfather taking his two grandsons on their first elk hunt. They couldn't have been nicer folks and we offered to let them use the horses to pack their elk back to their camp. The next day a bottle of good scotch was sitting on the fire ring in our camp.