Colorado or Bust #31 Back home

[isawlogs]

 Aint smilling .. its called grinning    ;D   

[Piston]

Good luck on this trip Magicman!  We'll be eagerly awaiting your report when you get home!  Looks like it will be a really great time 8)

[Magicman]

Packed up, loaded up and hooked up. 



We are ready to roll at 4:30 tomorrow morning.

Time out.   



I did take time out when I had a chance to feed the Great Granddaughter, Lynlee.   

[Warren]

MM,

Just saw this thread.  Good luck on your hunt.   I am leaving the house in 6 hrs, headed for Colorado elk hunting  also.  Your 31st trip.  My 1st trip.  Will be hunting GMU 44 near Avon/Leadville/Eagle with S-I-L and a group of his friends. Have flown over that part of the country numerous times.  Looking forward to finally seeing it first hand. 

Take care,

Warren

[Magicman]

That is some steep country around Leadville.  I wish you good luck, and safe travels.  Take it slow and easy, drink plenty of water, and breathe deeply.  Altitude sickness is no fun. 

[Magicman]

We ate our steak at the Big Texan.   digin1  One guy was  trying to eat the 72 oz steak.  He failed.

We are now in Dalhart, Tx.  We'll get some sleep and should be traveling by 4:30 AM.

I'll have one more chance to use WiFi, before we go up the hill.        

[beenthere]

We will be waiting with abated breath for the report of a great trip when you come back to civilization.

Wish you well on the hunt, and success too (but know a good hunt doesn't necessarily require a kill, but helps a lot).

Stay safe and enjoy the fun.

[Jeff]

I'm convinced this is the Magicman on the bridge in this commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjGwusHrOtk

[Bill Gaiche]

Funny Jeff!
MM, Now its sawdust and sweat with all the good memories of this years hunt behind you. It was a good one you can say because you had fun with family, put many miles on the ole truck and saw a lot of good scenery. Made it home again safely also. You probably have already started thinking about next years hunt. Man sawing lumber does have its rewards. bg

[Magicman]

Our traveling and camp setup is made easy with the truck camper and enclosed trailer.



Opening day, 2010 Colorado OTC 2nd elk rifle season.  I spotted a couple of cow elk across a draw and uphill from me.  A search with my binocular revealed a nice bull slightly above and to the right of the cows.  Wide and heavy antlered, but with relatively short tines.  A 6X5 with the 5th's and 6th's broken off.  I settle down for the shot.  When the bullet hit, he shifted his weight to his hind legs and lurched forward.

There was a shot down the mountain.  Another behind me.  The "witching hour" had arrived.  It seems as though, even at home deer hunting, there will be many shots within a relatively short period of time.  I guess we all get back into the game areas about the same time.  We saw probably 4 other "orange" hunters each day, so the "pumpkin patch" was alive and well.  There was a camp about every quarter  of a mile.  Thankfully, most were hunting high.

After my shot, I signaled my Son Marty on the radio and he arrived shortly.  I needed him to spot me as I climbed through the sage and oak brush to the spot where the bull  had been standing.  When I got close, I recognized the trees and knew that I was in the right spot.  That took about a half hour.  I looked down and there were the deep hoof prints that he had made when he lurched after the bullet impact.  There also was a nice splash of blood.  Within 10 yards it was obvious that the Nosler Partition had made a complete pass through because there was good pink blood on each side.  Sometimes sprayed as wide as a foot.

More later.

[indiaxman1]

Hope all is successful....nothing beats elk...uncle came through here this summer with steaks and burger......love the whitetail, but taste/texture...elk is the best

[Magicman]

This hunt had actually begun last year before the 2009 season ended.  I had been hunting in the Aspen and dark timber.  A DOW (game warden) made a statement that 80% of the hunters were in the Aspens and 80% of the elk were in the Oak Brush.  That got me to thinking.   This past year I've gotten  BLM maps that show lower elevations and really given Google Earth and Bing a workout.



Hunting a new area is tricky.  I had three possible hunt areas picked out.  The first was inaccessible so we moved camp Thursday.  Friday morning's scouting trip showed that the second area would not work either so again we moved camp.  That put us hunting  Saturday morning in an area that neither of us had ever laid eyes on.  We were familiar with higher up, but not this lower elevation.  Lower elevation does not mean less steep.  We were in some super rough country.  It's 700-800 yards across to the mountainside beyond Marty.  



We carried the 4 wheeler (Quad) with us, but never even unloaded it from the trailer.  Our trailhead was ½ mile from camp, so our "dogs" were tired when we finally climbed out each night.



Sliced brisket and gravy over rice with LESUEUR English peas.

The one item that we didn't have to worry about was food.  I had gotten the Magicwoman to prepare and freeze our entrée's.  We carried two each zip bags with two servings of  pork loin, chicken tenders, brisket, meat sauce, BBQ pork ribs, and hambone/vegetable soup in the camper freezing compartment..   To this we added our starch which consisted of rice, baked potato, instant mashed potatoes, spaghetti , or canned sliced new potatoes.  Veggies were cut green beans, corn, and English peas.  This was topped off with canned peaches, pears, strawberry nut bread, cupcakes, and oatmeal cookies.  We started the day with a bowl of cereal, coffee, and we carried a ham or turkey sandwich, Snickers, Baby Ruths, and trail bars, and the Camelback full of water each day.

More later.

[Buck]

Sounds great. Welcome back!

[Magicman]

We finally did get some snow, but it came with a price.  The wind was fierce and gusted to 50 MPH.






The Poop tent took a beating from the wind.



We had one morning that we were not able to go out.  With the wind, rain, fog, (clouds), we couldn't see 20 yards.  That afternoon we were able to get out and did see a nice herd of elk with a fine bull.
We made our move early the next morning.  The wind was right and we were moving toward our spot when the herd suddenly spooked.  Other hunters had also spotted the herd the evening before.  They didn't have the wind and had blown the whole deal.  That ended Marty's last chance for a shot.  He could have taken a standing broadside shot at the bull at about 500 yards.  Others may be confident with taking such a shot, but we are not.  We feel that the obligation to make a clean kill outweighs taking risky shots.

We watched another hunter make a 700+ yard shot with a 30-378 Wby. Mag.  He got meat and blood, but never recover the bull.

Later that day, we sneaked within 15 yards of a bedded spike bull.  In all we saw about 50 cows and 4 bulls.  Three of them were legal and very nice.



We saw many cat tracks.  Here is a small bear track.  We saw one that was huge.

More later.

[ellmoe]

 It's a "page turner" MM. ;D Keep   'em comin'.

Mark

[Magicman]

Oh yes, back to "Day One" and the blood trail.  I waited for Marty to reach me and we started trailing my bull.  About 45 minutes had now passed.  Down the hill we went, and there at the end of the blood trail was my bull......with another hunter's tag on it and that hunter field dressing my bull.  Remember that "other" shot down the mountain?  I seriously doubt that the bull was even standing when he shot.   He was just in the right (wrong) spot at the right time.

There are arguments both ways to this situation, and all could/would lead to something ugly.  I didn't call Pat that night.  I sent her a "Lynn is OK" message with the SPOT.  I was not  OK, and I just really didn't want to talk.  I was determined not to let this ruin my trip, and it didn't.



Marty and I hunted together and separately.  We spent over two weeks together.  We never even turned the radio on while traveling.  There was just too much talking that we needed to do.  We've been hunting together since he was about 6 years old, which means that we have spent over 35 years in the field together.  We think that this was our 8th Western trip together.  He has taken antelope, mule deer, and elk.



We always stop twice at the Big Texan Steakhouse in Amarillo, Tx.  "Anticipation" going out and "Celebration" coming home.  Here is our "Celebration" stop.  Yes, we celebrated.  Nothing to do with a kill or no kill.  We celebrate the love and respect that we have for each other.



BTW, that guy wasn't able to eat his 72 oz. steak in an hour.

We started planning our year 2011 hunt before this one ended.  If I don't draw my limited area again next year, we already know where each of us will be when legal shooting time arrives.  If I do draw he, of course, won't hunt but will be my "guide".



A nice long shower on the way home was refreshing.



My best buddy and hunting partner. (he had already shaved  :-\ )



I've shaved and carefully put "The Hat" away until another year.

[sandhills]

That was a great story and here's to many "another more years" to both of you!  But what are you gonna do about those dang woodchucks? ;D ;D

[redbeard]

Wondered where you have been MM i thought you were still sawmilling somewhere in the remote. Forgot about hunting season, what a nice story about your trip thanks! I will be sharing this with my hunter friends.

[WDH]

Yes, those woodchucks have been chucking your wood and need a good seein' to when you get home  .

[Magicman]

I'm convinced this is the Magicman on the bridge in this commercial.  

Yup, it looks like I had better get back to work before all of my wood gets chucked.   ;)
Anyway, that couldn'a been me on the bridge.  The Hat was wrong.   ;)   

[Bill Gaiche]

MM, good story. Been there and done that. There is nothing like hunting in the Rocky Mountains in my opion. Its great that you and your son can share such good companionship. He will never forget the memories and will share them with the grandkids. I knew that as a dedicated hunter you would be planning next years trip. The woodchucks are for real. The hat was just a coverup. bg

[barbender]

There's nothing like hunting out west, it kind of spoils deer hunting back home for me : MM, I tried that 72 ouncer once, I went in kind of cocky about it until I learned about the salad, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, and dinner roll you had to eat with it in an hour I got to 10 minutes left and still had 16oz of steak left, I could have choked it down but I would've been green around the gills. I can honestly say that the point where I stopped, I enjoyed the meal. People told me a bunch of strategies, cut it up real small and drink it down with water, etc. I say, I came to eat the thing and enjoy it too. So I just ate on it like I would any other steak. Oh well, I was a little disappointed in myself. I had always wanted to find a steak like that to try after watching "The Great Outdoors" starring John Candy back when I was a teen. There was a steak on the called "the ol' 96er" I'll have to try again someday.