Summitthunting
Well-known member
I have been telling my nephew for the past few years that I would take him on a backpack archery elk hunt when he was ready. Well last March, on his 16th birthday, he called me and said he was ready to do it. He had bought a bow the previous year and assured me he would be shooting better than me by September. Little did I know this was true! He drew an either sex deer tag and we both would purchase either sex elk tags. The months passed quickly and I drove down to Durango and picked him up on Sep 4th. We drove up a horrible two track that night and camped at 11,430ft. Luckily my nephew wanted to sleep in the back of the Tahoe because we experienced a high altitude lightening storm around 2am. I replayed the hunttalk lightening threads over and over in my mind as I laid there in the truck waiting for the next bolt. The next morning we hiked some gorgeous country and saw plenty of elk but we came to the conclusion that we couldn't pack an elk out of the areas they were in. The weather forecast also prompted us on our way with a 80% chance of thunderstorms.
On our way out we managed to get two flat tires and had to get his mom to come pick us up and take us to Big O in Durango. We had three truck drive past us while we were waiting for her. None of them stopped and asked us if we needed help. Gotta love Colorado hospitality.
After spending half of Friday between the tire shop and retrieving the vehicle we headed to another area looking for deer. We loaded our packs and started up the trail at 3pm. Not a quarter mile up the trail we saw a doe bed down and the stalk was on. We bumped her once but were able to close the distance to thirty yards. My nephew made a great shot and had his first big game animal with a bow!
We took everything back to the truck and headed back to Durango to process her. We hung her off of their car port and got her de-boned and on ice. Saturday morning we cut and packaged roasts, steaks and stew/chili meat. Now it was Saturday afternoon and our backpack hunt had very little backpacking so far. We decided to head up the same trail he had shot the deer on. We had camp set up three miles from the trailhead by 5pm and started hunting into another drainage. As we hunted our way back towards camp we spotted a single cow in a small meadow. I snuck up to a large tree that was forty-two yards from her. She probably heard my heart trying to beat out of my chest. I leaned out to take the shot and she took off. I stopped here with a bleat, and released my first arrow at a big game animal. She dropped within sight and I had my first big game animal with a bow!
We started cutting at 7:30pm, had all the meat boned, bagged and back to camp by 9:30pm. We decided to pack out that night due to the high temps. First load was at the truck at 11pm, last load came in at 1:15am. By the time we made it back to Durango and iced her down it was 3:30am. Sore and swollen are the best words to describe how I felt the next morning. It was a great week spent with my nephew. We had alot of great conversations about life, hunting and school. I hope to share many more camps with him and look forward to my boys joining us in a few years.
On our way out we managed to get two flat tires and had to get his mom to come pick us up and take us to Big O in Durango. We had three truck drive past us while we were waiting for her. None of them stopped and asked us if we needed help. Gotta love Colorado hospitality.
After spending half of Friday between the tire shop and retrieving the vehicle we headed to another area looking for deer. We loaded our packs and started up the trail at 3pm. Not a quarter mile up the trail we saw a doe bed down and the stalk was on. We bumped her once but were able to close the distance to thirty yards. My nephew made a great shot and had his first big game animal with a bow!
We took everything back to the truck and headed back to Durango to process her. We hung her off of their car port and got her de-boned and on ice. Saturday morning we cut and packaged roasts, steaks and stew/chili meat. Now it was Saturday afternoon and our backpack hunt had very little backpacking so far. We decided to head up the same trail he had shot the deer on. We had camp set up three miles from the trailhead by 5pm and started hunting into another drainage. As we hunted our way back towards camp we spotted a single cow in a small meadow. I snuck up to a large tree that was forty-two yards from her. She probably heard my heart trying to beat out of my chest. I leaned out to take the shot and she took off. I stopped here with a bleat, and released my first arrow at a big game animal. She dropped within sight and I had my first big game animal with a bow!
We started cutting at 7:30pm, had all the meat boned, bagged and back to camp by 9:30pm. We decided to pack out that night due to the high temps. First load was at the truck at 11pm, last load came in at 1:15am. By the time we made it back to Durango and iced her down it was 3:30am. Sore and swollen are the best words to describe how I felt the next morning. It was a great week spent with my nephew. We had alot of great conversations about life, hunting and school. I hope to share many more camps with him and look forward to my boys joining us in a few years.
Sorry about the pics, they were oriented properly on the computer when posted.
