It's tough to not be winded when climbing mountains. Elevation always makes it hard to breathe when climbing no matter how good of shape your in. Sounds like you've got a good head start though for an enjoyable elk hunt Shawn. I would also try to add some long distance running if it's not in your plan that will help a lot to control breathing and heart rate. It's tough to do with bad knees but it's doable if you build slowly. I've ran some long distances in my day with bad knees. First couple days in the mountains are always tough but being in shape allows you to bounce back very quickly. Good luck!
I've had a bad knee for 15 years now so it's manageable and actually the more I run the better it gets opposed to what some experience, after a few weeks the knee soreness is gone too. Prior to tweaking my knee I was doing up to 7k during the week depending on how much time I had that day. My goal is to be back to least at the 7k mark and then be able to do a hill climb with an 50+lb pack.
When I was in a groove I had a schedule something like this:
Day 1: stretch, long run, stretch
Day 2: stretch, short run (1mi), weights for 30-50 minutes (upper body), core focus 5 minutes,stretch
Day 3: stretch, short run (1mi) with sprints and walking, weights for 30-50 minutes (lower body), stretch
Day 4: rest
Day 5: stretch, long run
Day 6: In the past this would be short run and weights but now it will be hill climb with weight pack, core focus 5 minutes, stretch
Day 7: stretch, short run (1mi), weights for 30-50 minutes (upper body & lower body), core focus 5 minutes, stretch
I may change it up more this time depending where I think I will need the work to manage the altitude.