Alone in the Woods

A number of years ago, I would have said that Hunting is My time. I never really thought that my children would become involved as much as they have. See, I have two beautiful daughters, I figured they’d never want to hunt with their dad. I figured I’d grow old hunting by myself, filling that “missing” spot with my hunting buddies and their boys on occasion. I’ve found over the years that I really don’t like hunting alone. I like having someone to share stories with and spend time enjoying the secrets of the outdoors with. When you’re sitting in blind or in a tree stand, when you’re stalking or walking a fence row, there’s all sorts of wonders going on around you. Things you’ll enjoy seeing or hearing but never dwelling on long yet become a part of who you are. Things you’d enjoy pointing out to your child or your hunting buddy. I have never been in the woods or fields were something did not catch my attention with wonder. I’ve felt that those wonders were lost in the thoughts of just one…what a blessing that I was wrong.

Now, don’t misunderstand me… I would never be disappointed if my girls just liked to shoot targets. I’d even understand if they didn’t want to shoot at all. I’d never force them to do something they really don’t have an interest in. Everyone "just knows" that boys will follow their dads into hunting, trying to be just like him… but girls? I’ll be honest, I’ve thought a few times of what it would be like to have a son… Then I think of how blessed I am to have the daughters I have. I wouldn’t trade them for the world and I don’t want them to be “boys”. They just need to be themselves.

My oldest seems to just like to target shoot and I respect her for that. I think she goes hunting with me just to spend time with her dad, and I love her for that. She’s in college now and our time together is very limited, I’m trying to make those times as cherished as possible. Soon, she’ll really be on her own and time with Dad may be a fleeting thing…never caught and rarely seen… I’ll cherish those times together even more.

My youngest shows a genuine interest in hunting. I’ve tried to make sure she understands what it means to harvest an animal. I’ve had her research how to clean and skin squirrels to see how she reacts and I’ve involved her with processing the animals I’ve taken so she can experience the “other” side of hunting. Most of all, I’ve tried to teach her about Respect. Respect for the outdoors and Respect for the animals we hunt. I’ve not been disappointed, she shows a genuine maturity many would be surprised to see and many others never achieve.

I’ve learned a few things too. Patience is one. Explaining about sitting quiet and moving slowly was a tough one. About, paying attention and using your senses. Patience has been a teacher to me. I struggled at first but have since graduated and now, Patience is another tool this ol’hunter uses like a well worn knife or a comfortable pair of boots. Pride is something I’ve learned more about. I used to think that pride in my children was for doing good in school or winning a competition. Now I know that Pride is watching my girls Respect the outdoors and the animals that live there. Pride is watching my girls enjoy, really enjoy the time spent exploring the wonders they see and hear. Pride is watching them grow and learn. Pride will stay in my breast pocket were it’s easy to get to, bring out and show. I’ve learned about communication. Communicating with a child needs to change and grow just like her. Understanding how that communication works lets you bond even closer. Communicating is more than just a 2-way road, it’s a stream, a river, an ocean. It’s everything that moves between us. It can move us further away or it can bring us closer. Having a child does not teach you about communication, your child teaches you. It’s a lesson you can not afford to miss for it’s the building blocks of everything else you learn. And the foundation for communication is Love. I love my girls and I know they love me back.

Now, even if it’s just My time, I’ll never be alone in the woods.

Way Behind!

Sorry, I'm way behind in posting some blogs..... been swamped. I've got the youth bow review to write now that the season is done. We want all the readers to learn what we learned and the manufacturers to get some feedback too. I'll update you on how my deer hunting season went and what made it one of the best I've ever had. Lots of info coming soon....

Colorado Trip - The Last Part.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Well, it’s Sunday. We’ll be home tonight. The adventure has been the greatest but it’ll be nice to be home with family. Mike was really tired last night so I let him go back to sleep and I keep driving through the next tank of gas (about 8 hours). Once we’ve traded off again and I’ve had a quick nap we start talking about our trip. I spend a little time putting all the pictures I’ve taken together and use my laptop to burn them onto a DVD for Mike to take home (all 782 of them). He’ll do the same with the video he’s taken once he has some time to put them all together. After another round of switching drivers, Mike gets out his gear and we start taping a segment for his Podcast on the http://www.upnorthjournal.com/ It’s a lot to talk about, our whole trip and our experiences, so he has to change tapes half way through it. Unknown to us, the second tape is bad and we don’t have it later when he’s getting it ready for his show (episode #77). Even with all the pictures and video we have, one of the things we wished we done was take a lot more. As we’re discussing each day, we remember little things that we’ve forgotten and wished we’d taken a picture of some video of it. So just a note to anyone thinking of taking a trip like this, or just a trip with the family…take lots and lots of pictures and video. You’ll only get one chance.

We get to the Michigan border around 2 pm. It’s like crossing a magical line into your home country… This is our home turf and familiar things are recognized as we get closer to home. We first drive to my nephew’s to drop of his quad with my many thanks… Paul, without your quad my hunt would have been a nightmare at times and much, much more difficult. Huge Thanks. We then head up to Mikes house to unload and get my stuff loaded into my Bronco for my final leg of the trip. At Mike’s house the unpacking and re-packing goes fairly quickly. For a couple of guys, we were pretty organized in loading our stuff. Mike’s wife and kids drive up as we’re unpacking and you can see the excitement in everyone that he’s home. I’m looking forward to the same when I get home.

One thing I’m really excited about (and Mike was too) is that while we were in Colorado our new bows showed up. They were both shipped to Mike’s house because we were hoping that we’d have them in time for the trip. Unfortunately, they showed up Monday after we left. While my Hoyt Trykon did its job and did it well, I was really hoping that I could have had my new Bowtech Guardian to use in Colorado or at least set it up and “play” with it during the day. Bowtech has been a huge contributor to our youth bow review and when Mike and I joined the Mossy Oak Pro Staff they stepped up and helped get us into the Guardians. (Both of our Hoyt’s are in the Real Tree pattern and not offered in Mossy Oak…so…). I guess we’ll just have to plan another big hunt so we can do a story with the Bowtech Guardians (in Mossy Oak Obsession pattern). You know, just to make sure they’re good for say….maybe Alaskan big game…maybe even a trip back to Colorado to make sure they’re good for Elk even… hmmmm… yup, I think that’s gonna be a requirement for testing them out. I’ll write a post later on how the Guardian shoots; let’s just say for now that… I Like IT!
Anyways, it’s one more farewell to my “brother” Mike (although my spouse calls him my second “wife” cause we talk so much) and I’m on the road. We made good time so I’m about an hour ahead of schedule and I’m looking forward to surprising the “girls” when I get home. I pull in the drive and before I can get to the door, TJ is running towards me… (TJ is my 2 year old Australian Cattle Dog)… Geezzzz, let me get in the house you crazy thing! Then it’s hugs and kisses from my girls (Mindy, who just turned 12 (happy Bday!) and (Ka)Trina my “first” wife). Unfortunately, Megan (my oldest daughter) is at college so I’ll have to call her later. Trina has made my favorite roast and potatoes…yum! After all the greetings and hugs and kisses and hugs…and diner, I call my mom to come over and give me a hand finishing up processing my venison (Trina does NOT process venison…Mindy helped though). Since my vacuum sealer was broken, Trina bought a new one…which only worked for the first couple of packages before it quit working… so it was back to freezer bags. Steaks, roasts and the rest are now in the freezer (thanks Mom), a sure sign of a successful hunt!

Back to work on Monday.

Writing this blog has let me remember and re-live a lot of our trip and experiences. From the long drives to the license fiasco and seeing the beauty of the Colorado Rockies. Meeting new people, hunting in a new and exciting environment and learning about different ways of doing things outdoors. Getting to finally hunt in Colorado, which is something that I had been wanting to do for as long as I can remember, and getting to experience the hunt with my best friend and “brother” Mike. It’s been great. Thanks to Aneal from Bowcast for meeting with us. A special thanks to Bill (Insane Willy) for providing the hunt! WOW! Big Thanks to Mike for asking me to go! A very dear thanks to my wife Katrina, for supporting me in going. I also want to thank my Dad. Without his help this last minute trip would not have been possible. Thanks Dad!

And thank you, for sharing my hunt all over again with me.



October 1st is Deer Archery opener in Michigan…oh boy!

Colorado Trip - Part 8

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saturday morning, Mike’s in a funk but we’ve got work to do. First, we need to get my deer quartered up and in the coolers. We get the camera out first because it was dark last night when we finally had a chance to look her over. Unfortunately, with the cold last night, she has stiffened up in such a way as that it was very difficult to take a decent picture.

Now, it’s been 20 years since I cut up my own deer. With my hectic schedule I usually just take my deer into the butchers and pick it up when it’s done. Mike is the teacher here. We get the doe hanging in the barn and Mike helps me get her skinned. Once skinned out, Mike points out the different muscle groups that will provide the “guides” for cutting out the various different sections of meat. Cutting out the back straps we observe that this doe was in perfect health, the meat looks clean and we see no indications of disease. I had brought a vacuum sealer to process any meat we harvested but unfortunately it was damaged on the “Insane Willy” drive. We decided to cut out the back straps and loins and then quarter out the shoulders and hind quarters. We wrapped them all up in plastic bags and got them in the cooler with ice. After we clean up we jump on the quads for the last time and head down to see if we can pick up the trail of Mikes doe. We locate the last spot were we found an indication of blood and canvas the area. No luck. This doe is long gone and running around some place. We spend about an hour looking and then head back to the camp. It’s time to load up.

We get my quad loaded into the back of Mike’s truck and then hook the trailer up and start loading all our gear. After we’re done we grab quick showers and clean up the cabin. One long last look around, our thoughts quietly reminiscing about what we’ve experienced here and then we get in the truck and reluctantly pull away from an Adventure we’ll never forget.

We’ve got a long drive in front of us but we’ve got a plan. We’re going to head north to Wyoming and then across to Nebraska, stop at Cabelas in Sydney to return some of the items we purchased for elk hunting that we didn’t need and then it’s homeward bound.

We get into Wyoming and get on highway 70. We stop in Encampment, a little sneeze of a town, population 100. A couple restaurants, a gas station and a party store. In the party store we pickup some snacks for the road… Imagine the late 60’s early 70’s, the owner is a weathered, long hair in a pony tail, beret and denim vest wearing fellow whom we’d guess grew his own medicinals…polite and easy mannered. After a short conversation about local hunting and fishing we get on the road again. As we head towards the mountains we start seeing herds and herds of pronghorns. They are everywhere.

When we get to 130 we’ve got a choice of staying on 70/130 north until we get to interstate 80 or we can turn East on 130 and go through Medicine Bow National Park and get to I-80 at Laramie… I told Mike to flip a coin. Heads we turn and tails we continue north…Heads. I think that coin was exactly what Mike needed. We head into the National Park. We notice that it seems like every turn off has trucks and campers parked in them. It’s the start of Elk gun season on Monday and hunters are packing in to the park in droves.

We also note that we’re still in the free ranging cattle area…they are all over the place, including right next to the highway with no fences…careful driving is required since our cooler is full.

Our first stop in the National Park is at The Continental Divide. Another photo opportunity. Mike has to call his mom from the top of the Divide…she’s not home so he leaves a message. We’re standing on the top of the Divide, In the Rockies, what a view.

We continue driving through the beautiful and winding roads until Mike sees a park stopping area and decides to stop. It’s Lake St. Marie and if you ever get a chance to go through Medicine Bow National Park you need to stop and look around at Lake St. Marie…It’s inspirational and can provide a little peace for your soul.

We walk down to the lake and simply stare at the sight of the water and the immense mountain cliff on the other side. Snow can be seen on the peaks. The water is crystal clear and cold. Fish are surfacing all across the lake making ripples, moving the water. Unfortunately, it’s overcast. You can imagine what the view would be like if the sun was shining down on the lake and reflecting from the snow. Reluctantly, we climb back into the truck and continue on our journey.

After we stop for gas our next major stop is at the Sydney Nebraska Cabelas. We return some stuff and pick some goodies up for the kids. We gas up again and we’re on the road. Now if we didn’t mention it before, as we’re coming down in elevation from over 10,000 feet in Medicine Bow National Park to 4000 feet in Eastern Nebraska…it’s nothing but corn fields and corn fields and corn… and corn. We run into rain again but it’s short lived and the sun puts in an entrance for the rest of the afternoon.

It’s been a busy, stressful, aggravating, exciting, emotional and wonderful trip. The drive home is a long one but helps us put into perspective our thoughts and feelings we’re experiencing. Tomorrow, we’ll try and put together a podcast for the UpNorthJournal. Tonight we’ll take turns driving and putting our thoughts together on what this trip has meant to each of us and what we’re taking home from it.

Next – Sunday, Home and Final Thoughts.

BTW : HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE... you caught up to me again!

Colorado Trip - Part 7

Friday, September 19, 2008

The last day of our hunt.

Mike and I wake up this morning with the understanding that this is it. It’s the last day of hunting. Tomorrow morning we’re going to have to load up and start our 25+ hour drive home and work starts on Monday.

This morning Mike and I decide that since I’ve not been seeing any deer I’ll follow Mike in and head to the other side of the valley. Mike’s at least been seeing deer. So, we load up and head down towards his water crossing. The only difference with Mike’s water crossing is that we have to do this one on foot. The quads get parked on the trail and we hike down to the water. We’re hoping that our boots are tall enough that the water won’t be soaking our feet… We made it across, in the dark and stayed dry. I walk with Mike to his stand and then continue on until I get to the edge of the valley and the mountain. I follow the valley line until I come across a stand of old pines that are on the slope but spaced about 4 feet apart in a circle. It’s perfect. The ground is bare and I can lean up against one tree with two trees in front that are slightly apart. The side trees provide cover to keep me concealed. After getting all arranged and my gear set out within easy reach it’s time to sit quiet… within a few minutes I can hear some scratching sounds… I watch a large field mouse to my left. He’s come out of his hole and is thinking about heading my way… Every time he starts towards me (he’s only about 2 feet away) I move my hand a little and he dashes back to his hole. We keep this up for quite awhile. He’s getting bolder and bolder each time. Eventually, he dodges around my hand and behind my back. Guess I didn’t see his other hole in the tree I’m leaning against. Now I can hear him running around just behind the bark. Getting ready for winter I guess. Well, it was a perfect hunting morning, cold after last nights rain but clear with almost no wind. Unfortunately, 10 am rolled around and no deer. I packed up and slowly made my way to Mikes stand. He didn’t see anything either. He only heard the coyotes calling but they’ve been calling almost every day and in several packs too. We didn’t see any though except for that one I missed on Monday night. Back to camp we go.

Since this is the last day I want Mike to see the view from the High blind. So we pack up (never know if you might get a chance at a shot) and get the quads heading towards the peak.

We make sure we’ve got plenty of pictures of crossing the river and Mike films me crossing and vise versa (even though each time I go across I hope I don’t get stuck or stall out!).

We park about 100 yards from the high blind. Mike spotted a doe between us and the blind when we had to stop and cross under a fence line just before we parked. She watched us pull up so there is no chance of a stalk and shot on this one. Once at the blind Mike can now understand what I was talking about when I discussed the difficulty of using the blind as an archery blind and what a nice snack shelf it makes for the bears… Some video and a few pictures later we’re standing there wondering how we can ever leave, it’s incredible up here!

Being from Michigan, we’re pretty much flat landers and we rarely get to experience this type of beauty. Eventually, we head back down and get the quads moving.

Since this is the last day, Mike and I need to get some fishing in. So after lunch we load up some fishing gear and drive down to the creek, past where I hunted my first night. The river is running cold and high, the weather is perfect with only a few storm clouds off in the distance and the sun high and warm. We can see the fish along the banks…and they’re huge! Now comes the interesting part…

Mike has a fly rod, which he’s never fly fished before and I have an ultra light spinning rod… spinning rods are just not made for using flies! I have to wade into the water and let my bail stay open until the fly is down river among the fish and then play it across the top. After doing this for almost an hour I hook one! Hot Diggity Dog! I finally get the monster towards shore and we realize that we don’t have a net! I let him back out to tire him out some more and that was a mistake… within a few minutes he’d had enough and busted the line…spiderwire 8lb test! Dog gone it! …Mike still hasn’t hooked up yet. They’re just teasing us under the surface. Even the eagle that flew by seemed to be laughing at us. Finally, we load back up and head back to the trout pond by the cabin. Surely we can hook up with some nice rainbows from the trout pond… right. After a few minutes at the trout pond, I hook a monster again! Again Snap! What do we need, steel leaders!?! Mike finally hooks up with a beauty after another hour of fishing and just drags it up the muddy banks.

Good thing there was all those rocks in the way when he washed it off…it sure was a lively bugger.

Mike graciously loans me his fly rod (which I’ve never used either) and before long I’ve hooked another rainbow.

This time, I follow Mikes lead and drag the silly thing through the mud instead of letting him break the line. If nothing else, we’ve got something on this trip… a couple large rainbows (and they were only about middle size from what we could see in the water!). We clean them and ice them up back at the cabin.

It’s time. The last Hunt. Mike and I load up our packs and with a few final words we head the quads down towards the water. Crossing on foot sure is easier when the sun is up. I wait while Mike gets up into his stand, wish him good luck and head for the final time out to my hidden tree ground blind. No mice tonight. I make sure my gear is set and my camera is ready just in case. Around 5:30 I hear Mike shoot and I hear the arrow impact! I never would have thought that you could hear a bow from over 200 yards away! I watch in his direction and quickly see a nice doe moving briskly but confidently towards the mountain. My guess is that Mike got a shot at his little buck again and that was the doe that he was following around. Since we forgot to bring out the radios (they’re at the cabin) I know that Mike will sit still until my hunt is done. Boy, am I excited for him. At least one of us will be taking home a deer. I think about how loud his bow was and how easily I heard not only the bow but also the impact with the deer’s body. I range find his group of trees and it’s easily 225 yards + away. While I’m thinking about that I glass the valley in front of me and to the sides. While I’m glassing to my right, through the trees, I see a shape that doesn’t look quite right. Sure enough, it’s a deer body (can’t see the head), browsing on the bank of the river about 150 yards away. I watch “her” browse and head down out of sight. I’ve seen another deer!!

Shortly after, I’m glassing straight in front of me and see a doe and young one following the edge of the river away from Mike’s location. I get to watch mom and young one browsing for almost an hour. As they’re making their way towards where I saw the other deer heading towards the water, I glass through the trees to my right and immediately spot a deer 40 yards away right at the edge of the field and the mountain! It looks like the same deer that I earlier saw disappear towards the river. She, I can see her head now, must have came back up and was following the edge of the valley right towards me. I shift my position and get my bow ready, turn on the risercam and wait. I think she heard me move because she suddenly moved away from the tree line and back out into the field strait away from me. While she’s spooked from some noise, she can’t see me and soon calms down again. However, instead of walking 5 yards in front of me she is now almost 40 yards out.

She starts walking from my right towards my left, strait away. I range her at 36.5 yards and get ready. She stops, looking towards me (still can’t see me) in a perfect broad side position. I calmly (I don’t know how I was…) draw back and anchor. I pick my pin and a spot over her heart… exhale… WHAM! The release lets go and the arrow is away… THWACK! Solid hit! She squats, kicks and bounces off… She’s not bouncing all out (Mule deer seem to bounce more than run) and starts to walk soon… At about 100 yards I watch her just fold up and collapse!

I have just got my very first Mule Deer! Not only that, but this is my very first Archery Harvest ever! Ever! WOW!!! Talk about excited! I know Mike has shot a deer and now this! Ok, no twigs on its head but I’m cool with that. Sure, it would have been nice to score on a buck but that’s not why I hunt. I m grateful for being able to harvest venison and I have no problems harvesting a doe when it’s available. And this is my FIRST ever with a bow! I know to let her lie for awhile just in case I didn’t make as good a shot as I think I made but I just can’t sit still. I get up and slowly walk out of my hide to see if I can spot her were she fell. I look around and see the other doe (with the little one) watching me… So I freeze. I stand still for almost 10 minutes hoping that the doe will stop staring… and staring… and staring… nope. I decide to slowly walk backwards back into my hide. When I get back the doe is still staring at me (or more likely where I disappeared). After what seems like hours, she starts walking towards me! What a silly deer! She ends up following the same path that I shot the doe on right in front of me. If I had 2 tags and she didn’t have a little one with her, she would have added to the cooler. I took some pictures and finally stood up.

She bounced off directly towards the other doe. I walked out and she bounced up the ridge. That took about 30 minutes. Time enough and it the other doe was not down for the count I think she would have been back up and gone with all the action. I walk out to where the doe stood when I shot and very easily find my arrow a few yards past that point… completely coated in red! I decide to play it safe and start following the blood trail instead of just walking to where I saw her go down… A blind man could have followed that blood trail. Sure enough, when I got to her she had bled out from a perfect pass through heart shot! It’s about dusk time so I drop my pack and start walking towards Mike’s stand. I get to Mike only to find out that yup, he shot, looked like a complete pass through but there is only a little spec of blood on the arrow. I tell him that I’ve got a doe down half way between us and that I heard his shot. He heard mine too and was fairly sure that I’d gotten something because he could hear the impact sound as well. We decide to not try and track his doe yet, let her lie down and relax. We’ll go back and grab my gear and head back to the cabin to unload stuff. Then we’ll come back with the quads and load up my deer and start looking for his.

It’s dark now, so we pack up what we’ll need to get my deer loaded and track Mikes. We have bottle of Bluestar (http://www.bluestar-hunting.com/) which is a blood revealing agent for tracking. Looks like a great chance to see if it really works. We also have some samples from illumitacks from elusive wildlife (http://www.elusivewildlife.com/) that we can try out for marking our trails. In addition to those, we’ve got our GPS units and our sidearms, just in case. Now, getting the quads over is a chore in itself. Earlier in the week we had to do some repairs to Mikes stand and to get the tools over we had to cross the creek up stream on a barely visible trail (had to turn around a couple times trying to find it). This crossing is even tougher on my 2 wheel drive quad than were I was normally crossing, talk about crossing my fingers! Now, we had to cross in the dark and find the trail!

We got across and found our way through the slashings to the valley. Mike stopped to tack the first illumitack to the tree by the trail (very smart move) before we continued on to my doe. We parked the quads around my doe to help discourage coyotes and such while we tracked his doe. Mike placed the next illumitack on the grip of his quad (another smart move). We mixed up the bottle of bluestar and sprayed it on the tall grass around my doe to test it…. You have to use this stuff in the dark so we turned our lights off and WOW! It looked like I’d shot an alien! Glowing all over the place! I think you could read by all the light. Ok, we’ve verified the stuff works so we walk over to where Mike shot his doe and turn off our lights… Mike sprays a little in the air and within seconds there are glowing spots on the ground and leaves. It’s obvious that it’s a pass through, the glow is from both sides of the trail she took out. We start following the glowing spots… to the edge of the valley were I saw her… up the mountain… across the mountain… down the mountain (only a 150 yards from were she went up)… through the thickest bunch of slashings you could find… found were she bedded down… to the river. Now, up until this point we’ve been finding blood with the Bluestar spray fairly easily. It’s not been much but it’s allowed us to track her…to the river. Mike crosses first, then I cross (I don’t have my rubber boots on this time…) only getting mildly wet. Within a couple of minutes, Mike has found blood with the spray, on the rocks coming out of the water. We spray the trails heading into the slashings but can’t find any more blood. The spray runs out. I look at the GPS and we realize that we’ve gone in almost a complete circle from when Mike took the shot. We decide to call it a night on tracking and try to find the trail tomorrow if she’s gone down. Personally, I think the amount of blood we’ve been following is the same as if you’ve cut your finger. Sure, the arrow did a pass through but it went over the lungs and didn’t hit anything but skin. A little blood, a scar and she’ll be back next year.
After crossing the river again, we head back to my doe. She was easy to find with the illumitack blinking like mad. We load her up on Mike’s quad and strap her down. We can see the first tack Mike placed which worked out well since we wouldn’t have been able to find the trail back to the water in the dark. Back across the water we drive and head back to camp. I dress her out on the back of the quad and then we put her in the back of Mike’s truck for the night. It’s in the 30’s so its cold enough and we don’t want the coyotes getting to her.

Back in the cabin, Mike is certainly depressed. I can understand how he feels, it’s a hunter’s worst fear that he’ll wound game and not be able to recover it. We talk about the shot and the amount of blood. How it was probably just over the lungs and really didn’t do any damage. She’ll scar and be fine. We’ll go out again in the morning to look on this side of the river just to make sure, it’s the ethical thing to do, but I’m sure she’s running around someplace eating and looking for a place to sleep. Deer are tough critters.

I could almost forget that I took my very first archery deer. Mike is worrying about his shot and I’m worrying about Mike (in 25 years I can count on one hand the times I’ve seen him this depressed). There’s not much I can do but be there. I call him a few nasty names, because that’s what friends are for.

It’s a long and restless night for both of us.

Next – Saturday, We Look, We Load, We Leave and New Discoveries

Colorado Trip - Part 6

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Well, hopefully, this morning’s hunt will be exciting, but not like last nights…

I’m back in the ridge blind this morning. Things are looking a little overcast, clouds in the sky so no full moon lighting up the hills. It’s quiet and cold. One thing we haven’t talked about is the weather changes here. At night the temperatures are in the 30’s and very low 40’s but during the day the temps have been in the 80’s! Talk about a temperature swing! It’s all about layering your hunting cloths so you’re not too hot or too cold. Anyways, it’s below 40 degrees out but the sun is coming up on an overcast day. It’s one of those mornings that you just feel like everything is going to connect for a perfect hunt… Guess my feelings got hurt. Nothing. No deer, just one small Rabbit.

(You'll have to look hard to find the little guy).

Even overcast it’s a wonderful place to be in the morning…no cars, no desk, and no phone (in the stand). Oh well, I pack up and head down the mountain. On the way I decide to do stalk on this side of the creek, we kicked up a deer on the “Bill” tour and there are lots of deer sign. I slow walk the ridge edge of the open field (by where I parked the quad) and head down the 2 track that leads to the high blind.

Where it cuts up the ridge I turn towards the water and move slowly out… Nothing.

I do have a nice size Hawk circling overhead letting me know he sees me. I head back along the water, walking quietly and looking for movement…Nothing. Seems like today is going to be the “Nothing” day. I’m almost back to the quad when I realize that the broadhead is missing from my arrow! It was on tight when I was sitting in the blind… I took the picture with my bow just before I started my last stalk heading towards the quad. I did have to push through some fairly heavy slashings on the way to the quad while I was stalking. I held my bow behind me to keep it from being caught.

I guess that the broadhead must have run up against a couple of limbs and spun off. I tried to find it but talk about a needle in a hay stack! I’m more upset about leaving a sharp broadhead on the ground or stuck in a limb than I am about losing it. Not looking to be a good day so far… On the quad, over the river (through it), through the woods and back to “grandma’s” house we go…

After meeting up with Mike, who didn’t see anything either, we decided that we’d take a drive down the road the other way on the quads. While we were driving, we watched a storm coming across the mountains. After a couple miles and seeing lightning, we decided it would be smart to turn around and head back (we don’t always do the smart thing…).

We got back to camp and within a couple minutes it began to pour…hail! It started dumping marble sized hail! …and I had left my gear on the back of the truck… After running out and being pelted to no end I realized I left the keys (with the remote for the truck) on the quad…here we go again… ouch. I should have worn a helmet. Mike and I watched it hail for a good 30 minutes then it turned into straight rain for another 2 hours. Thunder! You have got to experience thunder in the Rockies!

(The sunny spot on the mountain is about were my blind is... now to get to it...)

Talk about sticking your head in a cannon barrel! Now, we figured that we could still have an opportunity to hunt. A couple of the blinds even have roofs over them. Our biggest concern was for the level of the water in the river… We picked out 3 rocks we could see from the cabin window and as they quickly disappeared under water we realized that crossing was going to be out of the question. Lunch was Venison hamburgers, might as well sit and enjoy the weather… The rain stopped around 3 o’clock so I convinced Mike that we should take the quads down to the crossing I have to use to see how bad it was. A bit of information… Quads are a requirement (or at least a life saver) in this type of hunting. The right kind of quad makes a difference… Mike’s work horse style quad works great, especially in the mud and getting through the river… My nephew’s racer style quad is a different story… It’s a 2 wheel drive manual transmit ion, high sprung suspension speed machine, great for the sand dunes and Michigan’s trails. When we picked it up it was completely coated in mud. I should have used that as a clue. I don’t have mud flaps. That’s what the body on top is for…to stop the flying mud… get the clue now… yup. It was an interesting drive down to the water. A mile of mud. Flying mud. Good thing we were just checking and I didn’t have all my gear on! Did you know that small tires with neat little “H” symbols are excellent for throwing mud up over 8 feet in the air? .. me neither. How about that mud from the rear tires can fly forward over the back of the quad and hit you in the face? … me neither. At least I had my Gortex coat on and could just turn the hose on that to clean it. My hat was another story. Ok. We’ll be taking a break tonight. Time to catch up on some writing and looking at the pictures I’ve taken so far. (I spent an hour with the water hose getting all the mud off my quad and I was nice and rinsed off Mikes too)

Next – Friday, the last hunt.

Colorado Trip - Part 5

Day 5 – Wednesday September 17, 2008

Wednesday starts out with me heading to another location. Since I’ve not been seeing any deer from the valley I decide to head to the first blind that Bill showed us, halfway up the mountain. The cabin is at about 6300 feet and this blind sits at around 7100 feet. I had my GPS on when Bill gave his tour so I feel confident that I can find where I need to go…. I hope. I jump on the quad and drive until I get to the water (about a mile). I didn’t think about what crossing the water in the dark on the quad would be like… I remember big rocks and this quad is only 2 wheel drive. I cross my fingers, try to spot the best path to cross at and give it some gas… made it (not without some moments of, shall we say, renewed energy levels). I park the quad down a trail by the water and start hiking towards the stand on the ridge above me. Luckily, I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction and after a few minutes of huffing and puffing (I’m not used to the elevation yet either), I get to the blind. Just a note; this is were Bill was telling us not to worry about the bears, even though the blind is built in a stand of berry bushes, “it’s been a good year for them and they shouldn’t bother you, it was last year we had a problem”. Bill said that smoothly enough that you had to think about what he said or you just forgot that little bit of information. It’s a good blind though so I’m not worried. Besides, another item that Bill suggested we carry with us was our handguns. Just in case. Anyways, I settle in and watch the sun come up for another beautiful memory. Just about 7:30 while I was glassing the ridge in front of me, I spot a little bit of white that looks out of place. I steady the binocs and watch as a nice muley doe is nibbling on some leaves. I watch her for about 30 minutes as she wanders back and forth while heading towards me. That is until she disappears in the thicket and never comes out. At least I’ve seen another deer. As the morning hunt comes to a close I look around and think about how fortunate I am to be able to experience this tranquility in the outdoors. It’s quiet; there are no cars, no planes or trains and no voices. Just the sounds of nature, the birds, the wind and the sound of the water in the creek below me…

I should have brought lunch with me and a sleeping bag. Oh well, I pack up and head back to the quad for another adventure in river crossing.

Back at camp I meet up with Mike and we talk about the morning hunt. He’s seen so more deer but nothing shootable. Once again he is out like a light taking a nap… seems to be a trend here… Lunch today is venison spaghetti.

We’re now rested and fed…hmmmm, what to do? Mike wants to jump on the quads and take a ride before we have to go out for the afternoon hunt. We head up the road past Bills house looking at the mountains and following the river. We stop several times to remove the rattles from rattlers that didn’t quite make it across the road in the last hour. We watch one truck go by with a really nice elk in the back, looked to be at least a 6 x 6. I spot a mule deer down in a draw by the river and we stop to take some pictures. While we taking pictures my wife calls to see what’s going on. We’re chatting away when Mike say’s he sees what looks like sheep crossing the road down in the valley… He gets his video camera out to use the zoom and says they look like mule deer. From what I can see the color is wrong but close to what elk cows would look like… I say bye to the wife quickly and we get the quads moving quickly towards were we can see the “critters”. We arrive at were we saw them cross the road and don’t see anything until we look past the large stack of winter hay and see….

Prong Horns! A whole herd of prong horns crossed the road. Mike jumps off his quad (leaves it in the middle of the road) and tries to sneak up on them to get a better shot with his camera. Oops, big ranch rig coming so we need to move out of the way (it turned before it got near us…) so we drive past the hay and see the goats running up the hill. And then we see him… If you’ve ever been in Cabelas and seen the prong horn mounts they have…they’re not even close to the size of this monster.

Not only is he well over 15” but his horns are spread way past his ears. What a beautiful sight. We watch him move his harem over the hill so we drive around to the other side and watch him move them towards the public open lands. We haven’t even had our evening hunt and it’s already a day to remember.

Speaking of which, it’s time to head back and get ready to hunt! On the way back we stop at a couple of spots to take pictures. The views are incredible and every time we turn around we see something else that just makes you stop and stare. After a couple more stops and a little fun on the quads we get back to camp.

Tonight I’ve decided that I’ll head up to the high blind, it sits at about 7400 feet and is the highest hunting spot on Bills property. A new adventure (and boy was I gonna eat them words!), off again to cross the water. It’s about 2 miles to get to this blind, even though it is only a couple hundred yards up the mountain from the blind I was in that morning. After I park the quad about 200 yards away from the blind, I climb and get to the summit…I keep saying “what a view”...but, what a view!

Now, the blind is a bit different from the others. It’s only about 5 feet off the ground and has a low (about 2’) wall running around 3 sides. No top cover, but a large half circle of wood on the long wall to hide the silhouette of the hunter while he’s sitting. It’s sitting on a ridge that looks down a cleared path about 35 yards on one side and a short cleared path on the opposite side (short walled sides).

The front is blocked by large bushes and the back has the large half circle. Unfortunately, I realize that this is really a gun only style blind. The short walls are about 8 feet apart so you can’t get a good down shot with the bow and still cover the other clearing. There is a chair so I position it right in the middle. This allows me to see down the dropped path and also see the short clearing. I’ll just have to move to make a shot down either one. I’ve been sitting for about 20 minutes when I hear the sound of trees snapping and branches violently breaking from the upper ridge about 250 yards away. It’s either a bear or a bull elk thrashing some trees. This goes on for awhile and I can follow “it’s” progress as it moves about 150 yards parallel on the ridge. Shortly after it quiets down I hear several cow elk calling down from were I parked the quad! Shortly after that I hear bears fighting close to the cow elk… By this time I’m intensely scanning the ridge line and straining my ears to hear movement…. Any time I’m just positive that something is going to come into view… BAM! The bush 10 feet in front of me explodes! A red tailed hawk had decided that something in the bush needed eating… and hit that poor thing in full stoop at what seemed like 200 miles an hour! Talk about making a person jump! I couldn’t swallow my heart… I first had to pick it up and put it back in my mouth then swallow….whew! After it settles down for awhile and it’s getting close to perfect dusk… I’m quietly listening… SNORT! STOMP STOMP! SNORT! STOMP STOMP! Hol%* Cra*$! A bull elk! He’s gotta be 30 yards next to me just on the other side of a huge bush! …I’m busted! …..or am I? He’s carrying on like a freight train, stomping and snorting… he’s moved back a few yards but doesn’t seem to be running off. It’s more like he’s startled and pissed… yikes. But as my pulse starts to level out I realize that it’s not at me he’s making all this noise at. The wind is strong in my face so he couldn’t smell me and the bush is too thick for him to see me…hmmmm… then I hear what’s in the bush…. Did I mention bears fighting earlier…and did I mention that the bushes are berry bushes…. Did I mention that the blind is only 5 feet off the ground and open on one side…? Kinda like the food shelves at a grocery store….YIKES! I decided to become the perfect example of a statue and didn’t move! After awhile the elk has moved off, snorting all the way and the bush is calm and quiet… (maybe he walked under the blind….) and it’s now dark… I quietly get my carbon suit off and into my backpack (I always pack it in to keep odors off it). I get my arrow put in the quiver and my bow strapped to my pack. My surefire flashlight is ready and my gun strap is unsnapped…. Now to get out of the blind… it’s only 5 feet of ladder, thankfully, because halfway down it decides to tip over and dumps me on the ground…oh perfect I bet I sound just like a dinner bell... After a gold medal quality gymnastic move to get back up, I put my pack on and start carefully heading towards where I parked the quad… (it’s hard to hear anything with my pulse beating so load in my ears…). I make it to the quad and jump on, get it going and turned around… to realize that in the dark the trail is almost non existent and the grass is higher than the head light! And the moon is behind storm clouds that moved in… Yikes! All kidding aside, I don’t think I’ve ever been the type to panic, so I think about how I drove up and start looking for the little signs of passage. A bent over area of grass here and there and I finally make it back to the more worn trails heading towards the water. I can see how someone that is prone to panicking could end up heading in the wrong direction and get lost or worse yet, drive over a ravine or cliff. Always stay calm and think about what you need to do. At least now crossing the water doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back in the lower ridge blind.