<\/p>\n
Sometimes luck is on your side, and the same is true for wildlife.<\/p>\n
That was the case for an young cow elk rescued April 18 from a mine shaft in the Rio Grande National Forest near Creede.<\/p>\n
In moment of serendipity that day, hiker Chere Waters decided to visit the old mine shaft off the Bachelor Loop Road she had visited years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what it was, but something was drawing me to go up there,\u201d Waters said, according to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife press release.<\/p>\n
Her internal compass led her and a friend a mile up a hillside directly to the mine shaft, then curiosity kicked in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the scariest thing, it\u2019s at the edge of some trees, so it\u2019s hard to see,\u201d Waters told CPW.<\/p>\n
After tossing a rock in to get a sense of its depth, she belly crawled to the edge as her friend holding her feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked in and see this animal in there. I was so surprised, I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Waters, a 34-year resident of Creede.<\/p>\n
They called the Mineral County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and two hours later, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers Brent Woodward and Jeremy Gallegos arrived, along with sheriff\u2019s personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got the call, I was told that a deer was stuck in a hole,\u201d Woodward said. \u201cBut they thought the shaft was only about 10 feet deep. When I got there I could see it was an elk and it was probably 30 feet down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elk\u2019s tracks could be seen at the edge of the hole.<\/p>\n
The 250-pound elk was darted with a tranquilizer by Woodward from above. Using a winch from one of the trucks, Terry Wetherill, Mineral County Emergency Search and Rescue manager, was lowered into the hole to place straps around the animal.<\/p>\n
Wildlife officers occasionally are called to rescue deer and elk from fences, but pulling one out of a mine shaft was a first for the area, said CPW spokesman Joe Lewandowski.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you will see old bones at the bottom of a mine shaft,\u201d he said, but in this case destiny brought a timely rescue.<\/p>\n
The elk was slowly pulled out, and its condition described as \u201cpretty beat up.\u201d The elk had been in the shaft two or three days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing those ladies saw it,\u201d Woodward said.<\/p>\n
Back on the surface, the officers examined its condition. No broken bones or injuries could be detected, said CPW spokesman Joe Lewandowski.<\/p>\n
Then Gallegos administered a drug that reverses the tranquilizer effects. It took a few minutes for it to stand up on shaky legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she stood up, she moved a few yards, turned and looked at us for a few seconds and then turned and trotted away. It was great that we could get her out alive,\u201d Woodward said.<\/p>\n