Even before moving to Colorado I was invited to join Dan and Cory on their annual elk hunting trip. Around April each year they put in for first season rifle tags in an area Southwest of Carbondale, unit 43. This year they each got an A tag, which is good for any sex elk (cow or bull), along with the 3rd in the group, their friend Josh.
We left on a Friday at sunrise, I on my motorcycle riding from Boulder, and the others in Dan’s truck driving from Arvada. I had wanted to ride to cover the mountains and take the opportunity to ride the approximately 20 miles of dirt roads leading toward the hunting camp. The weather this year was mild with lows in the 40s and highs in the low 70s.
From 93 South, I took highway 6 up Clear Creek canyon which was a great early morning ride. At one point along the way I saw a high-line slackline stretched between two peaks, with a person out in the middle! From Clear Creek I took I-70 West to Glenwood Springs. Having left early, the traffic was moderate and weather clear, but chilly on the bike. The other guys were ahead of me and decided to wait in Glenwood Springs in order to complete the dirt road section together. From Glenwood the ride was great. Vibrant colors still remained on some of the aspen and an overall feel of fall was all around.
Camp is about 2.5 miles from the end of the road. We parked our vehicles and hiked up the trail to their spot at 11,000 feet where we spent four nights. We stayed in Dan’s teepee and had a relaxing initial 3 days, hunting in the morning and early evening and chilling at camp during the day. The weather remained mild even at elevation with only a few brief showers in the afternoon. Despite the mild weather we still kept the wood stove (Ti !) burning each evening and had some good time to talk. Though we did go out each evening to hunt, I was hoping no-one actually got an animal in the evening as it would make for a very long night dressing out the animal after dark.
Spirits remained positive after the first 3 days, despite a bit of a blunder opening morning. That morning, Dan and Josh had heard clear nearby elk calls. Cory and I spotted a herd of elk running down valley from their location and later we learned Dan and Josh had been in the middle of 3 groups, and spooked them all after hearing the calls but continuing to hike until upwind of the animals, having wrongly assumed the calls were hunters since they were so frequent.
Monday morning I was with Dan, heading to the head of the valley. We hiked slowly crossing meadows, quietly glassing the areas. As it grew lighter I hung back 50 yards or so glassing areas we had passed through. Suddenly Dan turned, signaled to zip my lips, and crept forward again. I dropped my pack and made my way over. A minute later he shot a cow.
It took us about 45 minutes to find the animal, it had run down into a depression about 50 yards from where it was shot. They are really very difficult to see when down, their color matching the surrounding grass and rock. We radioed Josh and Cory and once they both arrived we began to quarter and dress out the animal. This was my first time helping to process a big game animal and it was a very unique and somewhat emotional experience. I’m very glad to have participated. There is a lot of skill and experience required to do the job quickly and efficiently. Among us, Cory has significantly more experience than the others, and it was nice to get some instruction along the way.
Dan took his shot around 7:15am, and by 1pm we were hiking the 2 miles back to camp with our packs loaded with meat. After a break at camp we continued to the truck to get the meat on ice in the coolers and then hiked back up to camp for the night, arriving around 5:30pm. It was a long but very satisfying day. That evening I remarked how it had been a while since I had a long, laborious but productive day like the one we just had.
The following morning we packed up camp and were back at the vehicles around 10am. I had another great ride out and we stopped for hearty burgers for lunch at 19th St Diner in Carbondale before splitting up for the drive home. I had a relaxed start with a nap by the river at the nearby No Name rest area before the full ride home.
The following day we met again at Cory’s Dad’s house. He has a full butcher setup in his basement having been a professional butcher for some time. The guys are all pretty into doing the processing themselves, I think for financial and principled reasons. It’s a lot of work. About 35 hours of labor, and for me, perhaps not the best use of my time. In retrospect though, it’s nice to have done it once to get the end to end understanding of the process of getting meat.
2024 Elk Cow
166 lbs packed to the truck
Dan
6 stew
15 lean ground
Josh
3 flank
2 lean ground
19 ground with fat
Jon
3 lean ground
20 ground with fat
Cory
3 flank
17 lean ground
Summary
37 lbs lean ground = 37 packages
33.3 lbs ground pre fat = 39 packages
82 lbs stew, flank, raw ground total
35 lbs jerky total
6 backstraps and 2 tenderloins each
Jerky recipe:
Need ~3 daysMeat:
• 10 lbsSeasoning:
• 3 tbsp onion powder
• 3 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp fresh ground black pepperMarinade:
• 2 large jalapeño peppers
• 3 habanero peppers
• 2 cups full sodium soy sauce
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed Orange juice
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
• 2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakesTopping:
• ~2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakesDirections:
• Trim all fat
• Freeze 1 hour to firm
• Slice ~3/16” thick against grain
• Mix “seasoning” into shaker and season both sides
• Layer meat in a container
• Refrigerate 4-8 hours
• Mix marinade ingredients, except fresh and dry peppers
• Blend fresh and dry peppers in blender with ~1/4 cup of marinade warm
• Add blended peppers to marinade and mix
• Pour marinade into baking dish over meat and massage (I use two 9×13 inch glass baking dishes)
• Refrigerate 24+ hours
• Layer in smoker (leaving marinade behind, discard after)
• Sprinkle “topping” (additional pepper flakes) over top side of meat to taste
• Smoke at 170F for ~6 hours (until dry)
• Remove thinner, more dry pieces as you go after about 4 hours
• May take longer or require finishing in dehydrator
• Cut into smaller strips if desired
