Chris Janson has spent enough time chasing elk through the Colorado mountains that he figured he had the whole thing pretty well dialed in.
Turns out, the elk had other plans.
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The country music star recently returned from a successful elk hunt in Colorado, where he’s been making annual trips for the past six years. And while he ultimately came home with a beautiful bull, the hunt didn’t exactly go according to plan.
Usually, Janson said, he’s able to fill his tag within the first day or two. This time, he figured he’d knock out the hunting early and spend the rest of the trip relaxing on the water.
But one thing about chasing big game — it’ll humble you real fast.
“I went in a little cocky,” Janson told OutKick OutDoors. “I went in a little bit like, ‘I got this, and I’ll get this done, and I’ll get an elk the first day, and then just fish the rest of the trip.’ But it didn’t happen that way.”
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Instead, Janson and his hunting buddies spent the week trekking through the high country, encountering elk but struggling to get everything to come together.
He suspects the unusually dry weather played a role. With little rain in the area, Janson said, the elk weren’t behaving quite the way he’d come to expect during the September rut, when bulls are typically more active and vocal.
“We were up in the high country a lot and just had a lot of opportunities that just didn’t come together right at the last little bit,” he explained.
And as the days wore on, so did his patience.
“I take hunting so damn serious that I’m almost not even fun to be around sometimes whenever it’s not going my way,” Janson admitted. “That’s the hunter spirit in me. I hate to lose, and so I just want to get out there and get it done.”
Hey, at least he’s self-aware.
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With their trip winding down and no elk to show for it, Janson and his group decided to change their strategy. After spending most of the week hunting at higher elevations, they headed for lower ground.
And with just 30 minutes to spare, Janson finally got his bull.
“We’d hunted high all week and hunted semi-high and then ended up being in the low country where we probably should have been from the very beginning,” he said. “But that’s hunting.”
Of course, chasing elk through the mountains is an entirely different animal than sitting in a tree stand waiting for a whitetail to wander by (not that there’s anything wrong with that, by the way). It’s a physically demanding pursuit that can involve miles of hiking, steep climbs and some pretty unforgiving terrain.
And Janson isn’t exactly spending his free time in the gym preparing for it.
“I’m not really a training kind of guy. I don’t work out,” he said. “But I call that my workout for the year because it’s all on foot, of course, and you’re just climbing here and you’re climbing there, and you walk mile after mile after mile.”
He said mental toughness is just as important as physical conditioning, especially when an elk is bugling a few hundred yards away and the only thing standing between you and that opportunity is another brutal climb.
Some hunters might decide the trek isn’t worth it. But if you want it badly enough…
“I’ll climb over any rock, crevice, mountain, river. It doesn’t matter,” Janson said. “If it gets the mission done, then I’m into it.”
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For Janson, the exhausting week in the mountains was worth it.
“Nice bull, and I’ve already eaten about half of it,” he said. “And it’s been really good.”
So much for all that fishing he was going to do, though.
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