During our early years of hunting there were always a lot of elk on Clear Creek above Pioneerville. The area was not easy to hunt because of the steep hills and thick brush. Over the years, several wildfires had gone through the canyon causing a heavy growth of underbrush. We were familiar with the area and knew elk could be found anywhere. About halfway up Clear Creek was a large flat with some big ponderosa pines that somehow survived the massive logging onslaught. This flat had plenty of room to park the trailer house and put up a tent and whatever else we would need for a few days. This year: 1971, the group consisted of Harry, Bud, LeRoy, Kevin, and I. At the last minute, Bud brought along a friend he worked with and was in the same church ward by the name of Clayne Olson. LeRoy brought his two horses to use for packing out the elk that we were supposed to shoot. The horses were small and no trouble caring for, a little hay, a little grain and some water was all they required to be happy. The trailer house and the lean-to were set up by one of the large pine trees to be used to tie ropes to. Five of us could sleep in the trailer house by a little crowding. Clayne mentioned brought a large tent for Bud and himself to sleep in for a couple of days.
The time of year was October, so it was not too Cold yet. A large campfire was built at night to take the chill off the night air after the sun went down. We turned in early the first night to get plenty of rest. We Planned on a hard walk the next day. Sleeping has never been too good the first night, but we rested some anyway.
Morning came early. We Were up as Soon as the alarm clock went to ringing. We usually lay there for a few minutes, getting in the mood to get up. Having a good breakfast of ham and eggs would give us the strength we needed to get up the hill. We fixed sandwiches for lunch because we would be a long way from camp by noontime. Everyone had to carry a flashlight and a canteen of water. There was not any water on top of the mountain. LeRoy, Harry, Kevin, and I headed up the hill behind camp following the ridges as much as possible to make the journey easier. There were some large aspen groves on top of the main ridge, since they are a favorite hiding spot for elk, during the day. They like to bed down there after feeding all night. Bud and Clayne took off on their own, in a different direction to cover more hunting area. We planned to meet back at camp in the afternoon. Later in the morning Clayne went back to camp leaving Bud to hunt alone. We made it to the top of the main ridge without seeing an elk of any kind. Right in front of us was a large grove of aspen trees in all their splendid colors.
Just as we started into it, elk came running out in all directions. A herd of cows and calves were bedded down there, as we had hoped. A large yearling calf came past me, which I promptly shot. I heard the other guys shooting also but I had to take care of my elk first, before going to see what they had shot. The calf was cleaned out and hung over a down tree to help with the cooling Process. I then went looking for the others, especially Kevin. Kevin was wandering around in circles Looking for tracks of a cow at which he had shot. He thought he saw her fall when he shot the first time. I found a Piece of leg bone that was freshly blown from a cow’s front leg, but we could not find a track of her at all. In the meantime, Harry and LeRoy had wounded another cow, which was hobbling up the main ridge in front of them. They did not want to Lose her trail, so they were hot after her. One of them had hit her high on the front leg so she was not going to die too fast. On the top of the main ridge, they finally caught up with her and broke the other front leg. She was headed downhill in the direction of camp so they kept her moving as far as she would go. Bud caught up with them about that time and was helping to move her along. Finally, the cow wore out and fell against a log fall and let them know she was not going any farther. They finished her, but she had gone quite a long way towards camp, which sure helped in getting her off the hill.
Kevin and I caught up with them about this time. They had moved fast in the chase. The cow was cleaned out and propped open so the air could help in cooling her out. The cow was about a half a mile up the hill from the main road. There was nothing else to do but go to camp for the way back up the hill was very steep, so we were taking our time with the horses. The elk sure was not going anywhere anyway.
We were to the elk when one of the horses stepped into a ground nest of yellow jackets. Bees were coming out everywhere. The horses were hopping around trying to get away from them when one caught a bee with its tail and sent it like a dart to Harry. The stinger stuck in his eye lid and down he went. He got up looking for whoever had hit him with a stick. He then realized he had the business end of the bee stuck in his eye. Harry swore up and down that Bud had hit him with a club the way it felt. He sure had a sore eye the rest of the trip. After much running and swatting we managed to get away from the bees without anyone else getting stung. On up the hill we went to get the elk. She was cut in half then each piece was loaded on a horse. We went around the bees on the way back down. We had had enough of them.
The horses packed their load off the hill and camped in decent shape. By the time she was skinned out and bagged up it was too late to go after the calf that day. He would be all right overnight. The day had been a long one. Everyone was Completely worn Out and we knew we would need to climb that same hill the first thing in the morning. A g○○d supper was fixed then it was off to bed early. We did not even take the time to play our usual game of Pinochle, which is how tired we were.
The sun had not even thought about coming up the next morning when the alarm clock started clanging away. There was a lot of work to do to get my calf off the hill, so we got right up. I had breakfast fixed for all of us in a brief time, while the others fixed lunches for the back packs. We would be out all day and never know what may happen while getting to the elk. By going up the road above where the guys finished off the cow, there was a long ridge that was not too steep which would take us to the main ridge the easiest. We still waited for full daylight before starting up the hill. We wanted to be able to shoot another elk if we had the chance. It took us about an hour to reach the main ridge, but we were still quite a long way from the calf.
Just as we topped over to the other side, we heard an animal start running down through the brush. We happened to walk right to where an elk had been laying down all night. From the tracks we could tell it had a broken leg. There were some blood spots in the place She had been bedded down. We were sure it was the same cow that Kevin had hit the day before. She went down through such a heavy patch of trees and brush we could not even follow her. We felt bad about not being able to finish her off, but sometimes this happens. On down the ridge we went, looking for the markers I had made so we could find the calf. I had a roll of toilet paper with me the day before and thought that would be a g○○d way to leave a trail to see. I started at the elk and hung squares of paper on twigs and bushes clear across the main ridge. This was a great Way to mark a trail out on a mountain top. The white paper showed up well in the green Trees. We followed the paper squares right to the elk. He was all right except the flies had found him too. We cut off all the fly eggs we could find before they could hatch. We still had problems later because all the eggs were hard to find. I had put a lot of black pepper on the exposed meat but that still did not deter the little pests despite what the experts say.
After surveying the situation of how to get the elk back to camp without the horses, I had an idea of my own. We were located straight above camp, so if we go off the hill right there. We Should come out at camp or close. Kevin and I would take him down while the other guys went on hunting. The hill was steep and there were lots of chaparral bushes and grease wood brush to go over and through. With much tugging and pulling, we managed to get to camp. We missed coming out at camp by a little, but we had to make some detours coming down because of the thick brush in places. Kevin and I skinned him out, cut him in quarters and threw each quarter in the creek which ran past the camp. I took a rag and brush to him to try and get off all the fly eggs we may have missed before. I hoped the cold water would kill any larvae that had hatched also. The day before we had made racks across the creek to lay the cow on and we had made it large enough for the calf, also at the time. After we bagged him up in clean tight sacks, we spread him on the racks. Each day I would un-sack each quarter to look for hatched eggs and everyday there would be some there. The affected area was cut off, which was trash anyway but we still did not want the bugs on the meat.
Kevin and I had done our job that day so there was nothing else to do but wait for the rest of the guys to come back to camp. They finally came stumbling into camp about dark, dead tired. They had covered a lot of ground. No one had any more shooting that day, but Bud had seen some elk over in the next ridge. I cooked a large supper that night, everyone was hungry as bears, and they ate everything but the dishes. The evening was spent sitting around the campfire spinning yarns and enjoying the beautiful evening. We stayed up Longer than usual that night. We were going to have a day of rest the next day. Bud and Clayne’s wives were to come to the camp sometime before noon for a picnic lunch with us. The next morning no one was up early since we were not going hunting anyway. It felt good to sleep in a little extra, for a change. Harry always gets up early and can always manage to make enough noise deliberately to wake everyone up. Soon the camp was stirring with people and so I had to get up also. The sleeping bag really felt good. For breakfast, the main menu was for pancakes with ham and eggs on the side. It took a lot to fill everyone up. The guy’s wives came to camp before noon as planned. Bud’s wife fixed a large pot of chili enough for our lunch at noon and our evening meal. We ate on it for two days and enjoyed every bit of it. Clayne left with the women, because of the poor hunting. Bud would move his gear in with us in the trailer house. We would make room for him. We hunted for several more days then decided it was time to head for home. We had two elk to take care of and it had been a good hunt. The weather had been warm, and it was time to get the meat home. We were still having trouble with the flies, and we did not want the meat to spoil because of them. Early the next morning, the camp was torn apart to be packed up for the trip home. We wanted to get home before the afternoon. The trip home would only take an hour or so. When all the camping gear was put away and the dishes washed and, in their place, we Planned to get together that afternoon to cut up the elk to get it in the freezer. It all turned out to be good eating, but we earned every bit of it. We decided since there were quite a few elk in the Clear Creek area that we would plan to go back to the same place again next year if all is well.