congrats
can you tell us more about how you set up your elk hunt?
Early last spring myself and 4 others decided to put in for 1st rifle in Col. 14 Oct to 18 Oct were the dates. We put in as a group to up our chances, at a good unit for draw odds and overall success. If one person gets drawn in yur group everyone does, although you go off the lowest point total for anyone member. Lucky for us we all had 0 points. We had about a 25% chance to get drawn for 1st rifle and wouldnt ya know we got it, Along the way we picked up a 6th guy who just wanted to go and had a bear tag.
We ended up getting an AirBnb in the center of the unit.(would not do that in the future). 4 of us drove my truck out with a 14ft enclosed dual axl trailer with everyones gear, the other 2 guys flew out and rented a jeep. We left on wednesday morning and got there 28 hrs later, so we had 2 full days to scout the unit. We ended up hunting in pairs and covered way more ground that way. I should mention 2 of the guys had hunted this unit in 2021 and had some familiarity with this unit. In the future I would do a drop camp at one of the many trail head campsites and spike camp back in the wilderness. We had to drive 45 minutes pretty much every morning and then hike in 2-7 miles to get to the "good" spots, LOTS of time wasted in my opinion. The cool thing was everyone saw Elk at some point. The unit we were hunting was very rugged and it actually dumped a foot of snow the day we got there. All the elk we saw were between 9,000 and 10,000 ft right below the snow line. I also had a bear tag and saw no bears, lol. We did see a million mule deer and of course they weren't in season until 2nd rifle.
Overall had a blast and LEARNED a ton, it is a unit we want to go back to. I think overall we spent just under $2,000 per person with all costs added up.
