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Outdoor topics => The Outdoor Board => Topic started by: Magicman on October 17, 2011, 08:36:33 PM

Title: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on October 17, 2011, 08:36:33 PM
The MagicMobile is loaded and ready to blast off.  We are not taking an ATV this year.  We will set the truck camper up as our base camp, and then backpack about 2½ miles in to our spike camp.  Tent, sleeping bags, and freeze dried food.  We will pump and filter our drinking water from a seep.

The trailer has two generators, ice chests, & clothes, etc.  It will serve as our mud room.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/Image0321.jpg)
Ready to go.   :)
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Ron Scott on October 17, 2011, 08:45:21 PM
Nice!
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: logloper on October 17, 2011, 08:52:46 PM
 Where in Colorado are you headed?
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: WDH on October 17, 2011, 08:53:50 PM
Lets get this show on the road!
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on October 17, 2011, 09:00:03 PM
We will buy groceries and license in Montrose.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: logloper on October 17, 2011, 09:03:47 PM
We do alot of work in the mountains outside of Montrose. Are you going west up onto the Plateu?  Good luck anyway.  Was up on the Grand Mesa this morning and there were hunters everywhere.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on October 17, 2011, 09:51:57 PM
We always hunted Grand Mesa when 1st season was OTC.  We were walking 3 miles from camp (Mesa Lakes) but it was relatively level.  Second season is too iffy with snow, so we now hunt the Uncompahgre, but you've still gotta walk to get away from those 4-wheelers.   Of course packing in also means packing out.   :o
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on October 17, 2011, 10:27:25 PM
Guess who came to tell Pop goodbye  ???


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3611/DSCN0561.JPG)
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: D Hagens on October 17, 2011, 10:50:57 PM

MM, me thinks with that look in her eyes she saying she wants to come with you :)
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on October 18, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
Or another cookie  ???

Talk to you guys in a couple of weeks.   :)
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: thecfarm on October 18, 2011, 06:37:34 AM
Hope you will be talking about the elk you shot.  ;D
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on November 01, 2011, 10:23:49 AM
We got back home late last night.  It will take me some time to sort through pictures and write a narrative.  We had a good safe trip and there was a "skinning" in the end.   :-\
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: beenthere on November 01, 2011, 11:59:35 AM
Good to hear from you, and was the "skinning" when you hit your shin bone on the trailer hitch....or something similar? ;)

Figured you would be one of those getting the sad news about Tom a bit late. Life does go on, just not the same.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: sandhills on November 01, 2011, 01:00:22 PM
Welcome back Magicman, hope the "skinning" wasn't too serious.  Hope your trip was fun and can't wait to hear/see about it.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: WDH on November 01, 2011, 08:20:26 PM
MM,

Hopefully you came back with some of your hide.  You have to watch your topnot over in that country.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Bill Gaiche on November 01, 2011, 10:00:44 PM
 welcome back MM. Hope your trip was a good experience. bg
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Magicman on November 01, 2011, 10:53:27 PM
Our trip was far from "uneventful".  While stopped at the Texas Welcome Center, I noticed that the truck was leaning heavily toward the driver's side.  An inspection revealed a possibly ruptured "lifetime warranty" air bag.  It really doesn't matter about a warranty.  If it doesn't hold air, it's bad.  I knew that there was a Camping World at Denton, TX. so we continued on, lopsided, but rolling.  We pulled into the CW parking lot, jacked it up, pulled the wheel, and verified that the airbag was indeed ruptured.  The clerk said that they didn't have a set to fit my truck.  I insisted that I really didn't care what the mounting brackets fitted.  All that I wanted was an airbag.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0562.JPG)
Three hours later, we were rolling, level this time.

After setting up our base camp, which was the popup truck camper, we had to pack our spike camp in, which according to the GPS, was 3 miles.  It took us 7 hours to backpack our camp in.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/Image0324.jpg)
Marty was carrying all of the food, cooking supplies, stools, table, water pumping supplies, etc.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/Image0325.jpg)
I was carrying  the tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses, and tarps.  We both had our day packs loaded on top.
I'm really glad that we did not weigh the packs.   :-\


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0525.JPG)
Our spike camp is now up and running.  We ate trail bars and Mountain House freeze dried meals.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0521%7E0.JPG)
We pumped our water from this little seep.  On the third day, Marty noticed a "cow pie" just upstream from our pumping location.  We were using a Katadyn Vario pump and a SteriPEN.  The water tasted good.  I'm still hoping and trusting that modern technology works.  That was surely putting a lot of faith in a couple of gizmos.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0526%7E0.JPG)
We also had "bare" necessities.   :)


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0517%7E0.JPG)
These Aspen leaves were gone the next day.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0520%7E0.JPG)
A tired old warrior.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0530%7E0.JPG)
Tuesday, the weather radio said that a "watch" had been changed to a "warning" and that a weather event was on the way.  We quickly built a snow fence to protect the tent and prepared to head back to base camp.  It would take us 2 hours of hard walking/climbing to reach base camp.  (It took three hours to travel from base camp to the spike camp.)


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0533%7E0.JPG)
Base camp after the weather passed.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0534%7E0.JPG)
The snow fence worked and protected our spike camp.   :)


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0539.JPG)
We hung our food supplies high to protect it from the bears.  I did have a 15 yard encounter with a sow with two cubs.  The cubs became separated.  One with her and one hanging onto a tree beside me.  She was huffing and really stirred up.  I kept talking to her, waving my arms, and backing out.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/Image0326.jpg)
We did have cellphone service and this solar charger kept the batteries topped off.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0547.JPG)
We lined our plates with aluminum foil to eliminate washing and used a Caldera Cone stove to heat our water.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0566.JPG)
The road got in bad shape after the weather event.

OK, what about the hunt?  Five hunters on horses had pounded that mountain top for the 5 day first season and they had killed 4 bull elk.  We were doomed before our season began.  There was a local hunter and his wife hunting for a cow elk for their Winter meat.  Their tag went unfilled.

We hunted hard, worked hard, got down into the mean thick stuff, and could not locate any animals.

On a personal note, many of you have met our Son, Marty.  My joy was spending 14 days with the man that he has become.  My thanks and appreciation go to his wife and 4 children for allowing him this time off.

Final tally:  Shooting and killing= 0.0%.  Hunting success= 100%.

Oh, and about the skinning.  He was driving 39 mph in a 45 mph speed zone.  A shrewdly placed "School Zone" sign proved to be the perfect speed trap.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/3612/DSCN0569.JPG)
Texline, Tx.  collected $445.10.   :-\




Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: WDH on November 01, 2011, 11:01:27 PM
"You in a heap of trouble, boy...."  Sorry that you got "trapped".  Stuff happens.

I enjoyed the pics, and thankfully you spared us from the "bare" part of the bare necessities  :D.  You are probably a little thinner, whiskerier, and blessed for the trip with your son. 
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: Bill Gaiche on November 01, 2011, 11:29:29 PM
MM, glad your back safe and sound. Its not always about the trophy but about the hunt and all the details that are put together from start to finish. Marty is a fine son to be proud of as you are a dad and there is no doubt that these hunting stories will continue to be made and then told again and again. Next year may the early bird get the worm. Had lots of fun no matter how much tx charges to get out of there state. bg
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: WildDog on November 02, 2011, 04:38:21 AM
Thanks MM always good to see pics of someone elses stomping ground. I'd never heard of a snow fence before. No doubt you and your son came away with great memorys of time spent together.

30 years ago I walked a river the "Colo" and got beat after 10 days with hyperthermia etc. Dad knew it upset me and offered to do the trip with me in August that year, it was 200 sets of rapids, drift sand and horizontal scrub, I don't have many fond memorys of him but I won't forget that 2 weeks we shared.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: SwampDonkey on November 02, 2011, 05:18:19 AM
Looks just like a late season deer hunt in NB. Snow, rutted roads, flat tire and no deer. :)

Glad you and your son had a good time. Also, got a chuckle about the cow pie in the brook water.  :D But if cow pie in the water would have killed ya, I would be dead before this. ;)  Looks like you both were well prepared for cooking, camping and battery charging. ;D
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: thecfarm on November 02, 2011, 07:03:33 AM
You met the troubles you had head on and still had a good time. That is good. Sorry to hear you only came back with a bunch of good memories. There is always next year.
Title: Re: Colorado 2011
Post by: sandhills on November 02, 2011, 10:11:01 AM
Thanks for the stories and the pictures, kinda funny how the troubles are what makes the good memories isn't it  :).  Glad you had a good time and enjoy the hunting as much as I do when just being there is enough to have fun.  By the way, that tent looks COLLLD  :D