Under the general topic of being careful what we wish for, the subject of the day is snowfall in Colorado’s mountains as it pertains to the recently concluded second split of the big game hunting season.
Everyone has memorized the hunter mantra about needing snow for optimum success. But how much is too much?
Certainly the 2 to 3 feet that blanketed a broad swath of the northern mountains qualified in the latter category. A Saturday tour through the country north and west of Vail, where snow piled up deep and travel proved difficult on forest roads, revealed only a fraction of the normal turnout and even fewer deer and elk in the bag.
But in those parts of the west and southwest where snowfall was moderate – just enough to get animals moving and provide good tracking – phone wires hummed with news from happy hunters.
In Gunnison, area wildlife manager J Wenum spoke of game processing firms turning customers away because of overload.
“We had a lot of snow early, through September, and it pushed a lot of deer down to lower elevation and made elk hunting easier for those who wanted to get off the beaten path,” Wenum observed.
Wenum noted that does and fawns had moved close to winter range, while bucks still staged in the transition zone where bands of aspen blend with conifers and sagebrush.
“Later, we had sporadic snow – just the right amount that made hunting good but not so bad that it hindered the ability to get around.”
Wenum’s observations echoed through the halls of Old World Meats in Grand Junction, one of the region’s largest game processors.
“We’re up about 20 percent from last year. It’s really good,” Rick Nehm said. “The weather was the difference.”
The same hunter fortune was reflected in the rapid pulse at Rocky Mountain Meats in Denver, where a carcass decorated every available hook and owner Steve Bobitsky proclaimed a 20 to 25 percent boost in business.
But such was not the case across a broad area where snow piled up deep, turning a hike on uneven terrain into an athletic event.
“Normally, these places are full of hunters. Now they’re empty, or maybe just one vehicle,” district wildlife manager Bill Andree said, waving an arm toward what in another season might have been a popular hunter campground. “I think the snow kept a lot of people out of the woods. Also, a lot of hunters from the Front Range leave after the first weekend, saying they’ll be back for the second. But they never do.”
This second split, a nine-day period covering two weekends, attracts more participants than any other and generally forms a litmus for the entire season.
On Saturday, Andree was making a sweep along the Muddy Pass road north of Interstate 70, roughly between Vail and Wolcott, an area favored by deer hunters in its lower reaches, elk enthusiasts farther up. Deep snow that made going tough even for vehicles equipped with chains generally kept hunters out of the high camps and nudged animals on their seasonal march downhill.
At a place where a broad ridge commanded a stunning view of the Gore Range, a group of eight Denver-area hunters provided a ringing testimony to the perils of hunting too high.
“This is the worst we’ve done here in 11 years,” said Highlands Ranch resident Lisle Gates, whose modest 3-point buck was the only head in camp.
Farther west, where snow tapered off to a few inches, Ron Velarde, manager of the Division of Wildlife’s Northwest Region, reported good success for deer and fair for elk, particularly for those hunters in the Flat Tops who endured through the snow.
Tom Spezze, Velarde’s counterpart in the southwest, noted exceptionally brisk hunter activity.
“I’ve talked to all four of my area managers and they’ve seen a lot of animals, particularly deer but also some pretty good bulls,” said Spezze, who gauged the first hunt period as about average and the second as a little above.
Weather doubtlessly will play a lead role in the remaining hunt segments, the full-blown Nov. 4-10 period and the more restricted Nov. 15-19 finale.
It’s never too late to make a wish.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
