OTC 2 rifle Unit 53 Colroado

[Tjudeburton]

Hey everyone! I am planning next year's OTC elk hunt already. I have found myself stuck on unit 53. I'm not looking for any waypoints or anything. I'm curious about hunter numbers. We plan to park off of Virginia creek rd and hiking in on Through Line Trail 8860. We will hike up and hunt along the North fork Gunnison River. We will stay south of Big sand Mountain and north of Tater Heap glassing every drainage we can. If we can't seem to locate elk we will hike in a little further past Three Knobs to the willow creek area.

Has anyone done a similar hunt? Did you run into very many people back in the wilderness? I know there will be some people.. But we hope to get away from as many as we can. This area seems like it has a great habitat to hold elk. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Bambistew]

Have you looked at the harvest stats? You can get an idea of hunting pressure.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

It can be tough to find parking on Smith Fork during archery and the OTC seasons. There are usually 4-5 horse trailers at the lower lot before the private road to the ranch and then some more + a bunch of wall tents in sink creek.

Also "we will hike in a little further past Three Knobs to the willow creek area"... no you won't.

 

[ChrisAU]

How many people in the party? I won't say you can't hike into the Willow Creek area by staying on the trail. I'd wager there will be a dozen or more people doing just that during any given OTC season. But getting an elk back would be the fun part.

 

[Tjudeburton]

I have looked at the harvest stats and hunter stats. They seem to be in line with most OTC units I've hunted. There will be 3 or 4 of us. We have pulled elk out of the Cliffs of unit 65 northeast our Ouray.. I didn't think anything could be worse than that!

Does this trail become impassable with snow? or just overloaded with folk. We usually spend most of our time back in wilderness areas and bivy camp. We are just new to this one.