2020 Elk Scouting

The boys and I were able to sneak away and do a bit of scouting last week. It was good to get back into the high country and start getting my head back into the game. Since it always takes that first trip or two to get me dialed in I thought I’d share a couple of my general notes, hopefully they’ll help somebody out.

For starters, unless you’ve been living on the moon you probably know Colorado is in the middle of a massive drought and we currently have four major forest-fires burning across the western part of the state. These are BIG wildfires that I’m sure are going to displace A LOT of hunters. Do your homework and make sure your good ‘ol hunting camp is going to be open for business this year, you may find yourself scrambling if you’re not paying attention. Also a reminder that many of the closures extend for miles surrounding the actual fire. If in doubt check with the Forest Service in your hunting area. Here’s also a link to the Colorado Parks & Wildlife page which lists what licenses are eligible for a refund due to fire conditions.

Along those same lines, campfires will certainly be a no-go during archery season. The state has issued a state wide fire ban, so plan accordingly. These fire bans will likely not be lifted until the snow flies. Also a reminder, I never travel back-country roads without a chainsaw or some other means of clearing the trail. It’s easy to forget what a mess the beetle kill has left our state in, and downed trees blocking the road are not at all uncommon.

We were up early (mid-August) and the mosquitoes were plentiful and hungry! They typically get knocked back with a hard frost prior to the season opener, but if our current heat wave holds I’d recommend having some type of plan in place for those buggers. I’ve found the single use wipes from Deep Wood Off are great to have in your pack. They take up no room and are a godsend when the mosquitoes are thick and you forgot your normal bottle of bug dope. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Woods-Insect-Repellent-Towelettes/dp/B0009EXM3E

Navigation. While I’m a big fan of the onX hunt App (https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt-app) there is still no replacing an actual paper map. A couple benefits that paper maps have over technology: the most obvious being your batteries will run out and the device will fail. I’ve found phone batteries are always in short supply in the back-country, so being able to conserve your phone’s battery while navigating is a big plus. It’s also nice to be able to mark up a map with notes as you go-along and again onX lets you take notes and pics but sometimes simpler is better. I will also likely use the services of mytopo.com this year (https://www.mytopo.com/index.cfm) as the area we are hunting would require us to carry multiple USGS 7.5 minute series topo maps. This a great resource if you find yourself in the same boat.

The crew and I are excited to get back to our old stomping grounds this year. We were disappointed to find out we didn’t draw our usual tags but there’s also something to be said for exploring some new (and old) country. It’s easy to become complacent and just go through the motions of years’ past, but it’s definitely more invigorating peaking over that previously unexplored ridge line just to see what’s on the other side. Hope everyone has been getting out to do a little scouting, getting those bows dialed in (don’t forget to test those broadheads!), meal plans put together, last minute gear checks (my Thermarest had a hole in it and was flat within an hour, glad I caught that before season)! We’re getting close enough to start counting down the days, good luck to everyone this fall!