We just returned from the hunting trip to Colorado. The trip turned out to be a great success, despite none of us filling our tags. Yes, I fully plan on giving you the full travel-log of the trip.
After weeks of planning and packing, we finally loaded up the trailer and the 4-wheelers and hit the road. It took us just a few hours to get to the Camping Spot that we had picked out on our October Scouting Trip. We set up camp and go settled in for the evening. Friday morning we woke up early to do a little more scouting for the trip. We didn't see a single deer all day long. While sitting in camp we had a visit from a couple representatives of the Forest Service. We asked him about the deer situation and he said they were still around, but we just needed to beat the bushes to find them. He gave us a couple different locations where they had been seeing some deer. One of the most entertaining moments of the hunt came when Chris decided to see how tight he could get a zip-tie on his finger and still slip it off. Unfortunately, he got it a little tight and couldn’t get it over his knuckle. He looked at Paul and asked him to get his pocket knife to get the zip-tie off his finger. Paul wasn’t in too much of a hurry until Chris mentioned that his finger was starting to turn purple. It was just a few moments longer until Chris’ finger was free. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures of this event. But we all did have a good laugh. Even Chris!!!!!
Saturday morning we woke up early and hit the mountain. Without success we did some scouting, and decided that we needed to put the feet to the dirt. After doing some climbing and hiking, and maybe even a little more hiking, we came to the top of Hightower Mountain. We took about 15 minutes and scanned over the mountain trying to get a glimpse of a deer. Within a couple minutes we heard something come crashing through the trees towards us. We all grabbed our guns as we thought maybe some deer decided to find us. As we turned in the direction of the sound running towards us, we noticed a cow elk followed by two calves and a small bull elk. They wanted to come across the mountain right where we were at, until they noticed our subtle blaze orange shirts and they decided it was time to make a quick turn. Even though it was exciting to see some beautiful animals running towards us, I think we were all a little disappointed it was not the game we were after. Anyway, we finished out the day hiking around and still did not see any deer.
The next morning we were back out early looking for deer. Because of the lack of success we had the previous day we decided to try a new area. We did scour over the mountain and found a few does and fawns, unfortunately still not what we were trying to find. We tried the back side of the mountain and didn’t see any more deer. However, we did see a huge black bear running down the mountain. In all my years running around the mountains this was the first time I ever saw a bear in the wild. It was truly a beautiful animal, dark black with a tan face. I was just glad that he was not running down the mountain at us, like the elk the previous day.
Monday things didn’t get much better. We once again braved the cold temperatures to see what we could find. (When I say cold, I am referring to the temperature being 12 degrees, until you climb onto the 4-wheeler and face the wind.) We got to our destination and hiked the mountain over again. Still we were unsuccessful. Our days seemed pretty futile; until we ran into one more gentleman that told us he believed all the deer had moved to the lower lands. The next morning we ventured our way into the lower lands to see if we could finally find some deer. We did find some bucks; unfortunately they were all in private lands. So all we could do was watch the deer as they pranced around in safe land.
Wednesday we decided to move camp out of the beautiful mountains of the Grand Mesa National Forest and move it to the Sage Brush and Cedar Trees above DeBeque, Colorado. We figured this would save us more than an hour’s worth of driving time to get to our new area.
We found a few more deer including some small bucks. Of course, since they weren’t the prize we were after, we turned them down. But it was great to finally be seeing some game on public lands. Wednesday and Thursday we must have hiked a good 5-7 miles per day trying to find some more game. We pushed a few deer out into the open, but still didn’t find what we were looking for.
Friday morning found us changing our game plan at the last moment. We decided to try one of the areas we had already hit before, but thought we might try a different approach. We all picked a different mountain and started our climb. As I was about 30 feet from the top of the mountain, Mike comes across the Talk-About and tells us to get to the top of the mountain because he has seen the buck we are after. Paul then comes across and tells us, it has just gone across the top of the next ridge. Once we are all at the top of the mountain we formulated our game plan. Chris said; we have just 10 hours so let’s get busy. It took us just over 20 minutes to get down the mountain and back up the next ridge. Just as we crowned the top we noticed the huge valleys below and thought, he has to be here. We sat down and started glassing the mountain and we noticed some deer running out of one of the ravines below. We thought for certain it was him, but it turned out to be a doe followed by 5 more. We came up with a new plan on how to tackle the area below. We split up each going in our own direction. Mike ran into the deer one more time, but didn’t have a clear shot at him. The 5 of us ran all over the mountains as we tried to get another glimpse and maybe a shot at the deer. Unfortunately, he always seemed to be a few steps ahead of us at all times.
The trip was a huge success! Nope, none of us filled out tags, but we had a great time and really enjoyed the time we spent together. When I was talking about the trip, I mentioned that it was like most other vacations. When you return home you just come back with pictures and the memories you have. I have no regrets, because we at least gave it the proverbial Painter Onion.
After weeks of planning and packing, we finally loaded up the trailer and the 4-wheelers and hit the road. It took us just a few hours to get to the Camping Spot that we had picked out on our October Scouting Trip. We set up camp and go settled in for the evening. Friday morning we woke up early to do a little more scouting for the trip. We didn't see a single deer all day long. While sitting in camp we had a visit from a couple representatives of the Forest Service. We asked him about the deer situation and he said they were still around, but we just needed to beat the bushes to find them. He gave us a couple different locations where they had been seeing some deer. One of the most entertaining moments of the hunt came when Chris decided to see how tight he could get a zip-tie on his finger and still slip it off. Unfortunately, he got it a little tight and couldn’t get it over his knuckle. He looked at Paul and asked him to get his pocket knife to get the zip-tie off his finger. Paul wasn’t in too much of a hurry until Chris mentioned that his finger was starting to turn purple. It was just a few moments longer until Chris’ finger was free. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures of this event. But we all did have a good laugh. Even Chris!!!!!
Saturday morning we woke up early and hit the mountain. Without success we did some scouting, and decided that we needed to put the feet to the dirt. After doing some climbing and hiking, and maybe even a little more hiking, we came to the top of Hightower Mountain. We took about 15 minutes and scanned over the mountain trying to get a glimpse of a deer. Within a couple minutes we heard something come crashing through the trees towards us. We all grabbed our guns as we thought maybe some deer decided to find us. As we turned in the direction of the sound running towards us, we noticed a cow elk followed by two calves and a small bull elk. They wanted to come across the mountain right where we were at, until they noticed our subtle blaze orange shirts and they decided it was time to make a quick turn. Even though it was exciting to see some beautiful animals running towards us, I think we were all a little disappointed it was not the game we were after. Anyway, we finished out the day hiking around and still did not see any deer.
The next morning we were back out early looking for deer. Because of the lack of success we had the previous day we decided to try a new area. We did scour over the mountain and found a few does and fawns, unfortunately still not what we were trying to find. We tried the back side of the mountain and didn’t see any more deer. However, we did see a huge black bear running down the mountain. In all my years running around the mountains this was the first time I ever saw a bear in the wild. It was truly a beautiful animal, dark black with a tan face. I was just glad that he was not running down the mountain at us, like the elk the previous day.
Monday things didn’t get much better. We once again braved the cold temperatures to see what we could find. (When I say cold, I am referring to the temperature being 12 degrees, until you climb onto the 4-wheeler and face the wind.) We got to our destination and hiked the mountain over again. Still we were unsuccessful. Our days seemed pretty futile; until we ran into one more gentleman that told us he believed all the deer had moved to the lower lands. The next morning we ventured our way into the lower lands to see if we could finally find some deer. We did find some bucks; unfortunately they were all in private lands. So all we could do was watch the deer as they pranced around in safe land.
Wednesday we decided to move camp out of the beautiful mountains of the Grand Mesa National Forest and move it to the Sage Brush and Cedar Trees above DeBeque, Colorado. We figured this would save us more than an hour’s worth of driving time to get to our new area.
We found a few more deer including some small bucks. Of course, since they weren’t the prize we were after, we turned them down. But it was great to finally be seeing some game on public lands. Wednesday and Thursday we must have hiked a good 5-7 miles per day trying to find some more game. We pushed a few deer out into the open, but still didn’t find what we were looking for.
Friday morning found us changing our game plan at the last moment. We decided to try one of the areas we had already hit before, but thought we might try a different approach. We all picked a different mountain and started our climb. As I was about 30 feet from the top of the mountain, Mike comes across the Talk-About and tells us to get to the top of the mountain because he has seen the buck we are after. Paul then comes across and tells us, it has just gone across the top of the next ridge. Once we are all at the top of the mountain we formulated our game plan. Chris said; we have just 10 hours so let’s get busy. It took us just over 20 minutes to get down the mountain and back up the next ridge. Just as we crowned the top we noticed the huge valleys below and thought, he has to be here. We sat down and started glassing the mountain and we noticed some deer running out of one of the ravines below. We thought for certain it was him, but it turned out to be a doe followed by 5 more. We came up with a new plan on how to tackle the area below. We split up each going in our own direction. Mike ran into the deer one more time, but didn’t have a clear shot at him. The 5 of us ran all over the mountains as we tried to get another glimpse and maybe a shot at the deer. Unfortunately, he always seemed to be a few steps ahead of us at all times.
The trip was a huge success! Nope, none of us filled out tags, but we had a great time and really enjoyed the time we spent together. When I was talking about the trip, I mentioned that it was like most other vacations. When you return home you just come back with pictures and the memories you have. I have no regrets, because we at least gave it the proverbial Painter Onion.
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