Above all else, be prepared to enjoy yourself.
Otherwise...
Be prepared for the work. (It sounds like you have a good plan.)
Take it easy for the first day or two. (Getting there early and taking some time to scout or just enjoy the area helps.)
Don't forget your first aid kit, and have a good emergency plan in place.
Make sure you are prepared to buy and transport legal feed for your mules, if the local conditions (dry year? noxious weed outbreak?) and local regulations (public land?) mandate certified weed-free hay, etc.
Have a plan for your blades. Elk hides, especially when covered in mud, urine, and feces during the rut, will ruin a knife edge faster than most people believe. I only carry two knives on most hunts (a little, usually half-dull pocket knife, and a good hunting knife). But I always have mucho backup in camp, plus sharpeners and/or spare blades. There are also
at least two bone saws available, with multiple spare blades. (Multiple hunters, and each of us brings
at least one bone saw.)
Generally, the hide on the belly and rump will be the dirtiest, and the hide on the neck will be the toughest to cut (if necessary -- it's often 3/4" to 1" thick!).
Since I have to return to camp for my packframe, anyway, the knives that I carry are only meant for a basic gutting / field dressing. When I go for the pack frame, I can grab the bone saw(s) (or cordless sawzall
), other knives and/or sharpeners, and whatever else may be needed. I have been carrying a Piranta knife with replaceable 'scalpel' blades for the last two years, but I consider a blade change without pliers to be too risky with bloody hands - especially if I'm alone. So even the Piranta is a one-blade-only affair in my mind.
And...
Definitely carry some binos, even in the trees.
I missed this guy a few years back. I was taking the pictures (about 20 feet apart) so my wife would have a better idea of the terrain and how lighting conditions make it difficult to see anything in the trees, even with snow on the ground.
And, of course, they turned out to be
perfect examples when I was showing her the photos after the hunt.
I was with another hunter when I took the photos, and he never saw this bull, either.
Approximately what the naked eye saw:
What some different auto-light-balance in the camera and post-hunt color/contrast tweaks brought out in the second photo:
Had I 'glassed, I may have seen him. With the naked eye... total air ball.
Just for the sake of putting the photos in context... that was at right around 9860 ft asl, just after coming down from a 10,040 ft peak. We hadn't seen anything above about 9,400 ft on that hike, and the far edge of the trees pictured is the top of the tree line in that area. Beyond those trees, you get 6" tall sagebrush, if that.
It's about 125-150 yards to the bull and 75-100 yards to "no man's land".