Bowhunter witnesses woodknocking behavior outside the town of Burns witnessed in Eagle County, Colorado

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Monday August 31 2009 was the 3rd day of Colorado's archery elk season. The day before I was hunting a familiar ridge and noticed a remote looking hanging valley across from the ridge I was hunting and decided that if I didn't get into any elk that afternoon I would try to get into the hanging valley early the next morning. Monday morning I started out before light. By 6:30 I was climbing up a steep elk trail through a patch of very thick forest. I remember thinking that I had never been in this area before despite the fact that I had hunted this unit for over a decade and that this patch of forest was as close to 'old growth' as I had ever seen in central Colorado. I climbed onto a flat swampy and very lush area filled with thickets of brush. I started to feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck and I was sure that I had found the spot where I would have an opportunity at a bull. I could see a fairly large clearing just past the brush with a large wallow in the middle. I set ...