Some of you may remember the ill-fated elk hunt last fall. Obviously, the #OldManInTheWoods has a memory like a gnat, because nine months later I headed back to the scene of my defeat with #EagleScout to accompany him on a scouting trip for this fall’s mule deer/elk hunt. We weren’t in exactly the same spot but were within spitting distance, assuming you can spit over a mountain. And this trip was in July so we wouldn’t have to contend with below-zero temperatures and snow, right. What could go wrong….
The trip started well. I drove to the Dallas-blob area, my term for what residents call the Metroplex, in time to play with the grand-kids on Friday afternoon and load my stuff in #EagleScout’s truck fo the trip. He had suggested we either drive all the way to Gunnison on Saturday or stop and camp somewhere along the way. Turned out Gunnison wasn’t a terrible drive and we got there about 8:00 pm. Found a clean motel and spent one last night in a comfortable bed.
We got up Sunday morning and had breakfast. The compromise to the Chinese flu is that you go to the front desk and ask for items you’d normally select from the buffet. Then you either sit down in the dining area, six feet away from other diners who are looking at you just waiting for you to cough, or you take your breakfast to the room – that was our choice. Oh well, the western omelet tasted good and it was still warm when we got to the room.
After breakfast we loaded up, and headed to the grocery store in Montrose, CO for a few last things then on to a fly shop in Ridgeway, CO. This took a little longer than planned because #EagleScout had bought a big-game tag which comes with a season fishing license but didn’t bring the tag with him. They called a couple of people before they found this information and wound up just re-printing his tag – that’ll be $30, thank you! While we were in the fly shop, I bought the Tenkara rod I’ve been eyeing for a couple of years since I saw a friend fishing with one in Idaho. Now we were ready to head for the hills.
The plan was to camp a couple of nights along Cow Creek. The folks in the fly shop had said this was a good fishing area and not as busy as other areas – perfect. Until we got to the creek crossing. The guys at the fly shop had said it was no big deal as long as you were in a truck or something with adequate clearance. Clearance we had, but no desire to attempt this crossing with no backup. So on to plan B; just another hour or so by road to the West Fork of the Cimarron, and our camp site looking at Chimney Rock.
We looked at several options and settled on a camp site that was secluded right near the river. Wow! Get up and walk out of camp to fish with my new rod – this is looking sweet. As we parked the truck and got the tent out, it started to sprinkle. Whould we wait or go ahead and set up? It doesn’t take but just a few minutes, let’s do it! Good thing – just about the time we got the rain fly secured (good enough anyway) it really started to pour. We jumped in the truck to wait it out. Then it started to sleet! Oh no, not again!! Fortunately, this only lasted 10 minutes or so and things cleared up nicely.
We left things as they were and went to fish for a bit – still had plenty of time and maybe things would dry up a bit. Well, it turns out that, while we were fairly close to the river, we’re quite a bit above it and there is a pretty steep cliff between us and the river. Being an adventurous soul, I suggested we drive down the road a ways to an easier access point. We did and fished for an hour or so. Turns out that water in this area is pretty skinny and there were no fish that we saw, so we headed back to camp.
We were able to get the camp organized including adding a quick access rain shelter and get ready for dinner. As we were working around camp #EagleScout noticed that 2 mule deer were standing just across the road! Maybe this will be an easy hunt.
Dinner went much better than our first night last year thanks to the Jet Boil stove and freeze-dried meals. We cleaned up and headed into the tent about 7:30 – mosquitoes get busy in the evening and the tent is the best place to be. We visited for a while and went to bed about 8:00 – still daylight outside.
Monday morning we were up by 5:00 (see bedtime at 8:00) and had our coffee and breakfast by 6:00. This went much better at 38 degrees than it does at -2. We fixed lunches and packed our packs for a morning hike. We had two options, the Courthouse Mountain trail or Wetterhorn. We started up Courthouse and #EagleScout said “let’s save this – not a good first day hike.” So we headed to Wetterhorn. This trail leads through the Wetterhorn basin and has lots of pretty views. I went in about 4 miles but could see I was slowing #EagleScout down so I turned around. He went another mile or so in and we met back up at the trailhead.
After an hour or so in camp, we drove to some of the other areas and fished a bit on our way back to camp. As we were getting ready for dinner, #EagleScout noticed grouse across the road. We went over to look and found not one, but 5. We settled in for dinner, then bed by 7:30. The #OldManInTheWoods was beat, so not much visiting tonight.
We slept in till 6:00 Tuesday morning and had breakfast and coffee with a little more visiting and planning for the day. Breakfast was banana bread (I remembered to bring it this year), thank you #ShoppingBeauty. #EagleScout planned to hike the Courthouse Mountain trail over the ridge to check out another area he had identified to hunt, while the #OldManInTheWoods planned to recuperate. I’m writing this about 10:00 am and have enjoyed my relaxing morning along with another cup of coffee but now it’s time to go fishing, so….
Well, the fishing was still slow, as in waiting for Christmas in July! But, as they say, any day fishing is better than… well just about any comparison you want to add. Especially when you are doing so on a 70 degree day at 10,000 feet in the Rockies. This gave me lots time to practice with my new rod; placing the fly in the right spot, dealing with the wind and the willows. It’s really about the challenge of finding good water, approaching it so you don’t spook the fish, putting the fly in the water in the best position and getting it to drift naturally so you might interest a fish. It’s a lot like hunting but you don’t have to sit in a tree all day – but that’s another story.
After #EagleScout finished his hike we came back to camp and had dinner of #ShoppingBeauty’s pimento cheese. After dinner we went back to a meadow, near where I had fished and “glassed” some high mountain meadows. Glassing means you look through binoculars or a spotting scope at things a long way away. It’s also a good time to visit and talk about life in general. The only wildlife we saw was a fox coming out of the creek, a hummingbird that kept buzzing us, and some cows. I guess technically, cows aren’t considered wildlife but when you’ve driven 800 miles looking for elk, you can at least go home and truthfully say, “…well, we did see some cows.”
We stayed up till almost dark Tuesday night, but got up fairly early Wednesday morning ready to hike the Middle Fork Trail. This follows the Middle Fork of The Cimarron into the high country where it joins some of the other trails in the Uncompahgre Wilderness area. We hiked in about 4 miles and came out into a large open basin about 1/2 a mile from the junction. We stopped to sit on a rock and glass some more. #EagleScout had brought his binocula and I had my 6X range finder. It didn’t take but just a few minutes for Eagle Eyes, AKA #EagleScout, to spot a doe on the other side of the basin. He passed me the binoculars and pointed out where she was. While I was still fiddling with the focus (already focused you know) he said “hey I think I see something moving.” I handed back the binoculars and he pronounced them elk.
Now these were the kind of cows we were looking for! And they just kept coming. I ranged the deer at 850 yards and the elk at 675. At first I thought my range finder was broken, then I realized that was an 8 in front of the 50. I’ve never thought to look at that third digit. Anyway, back to the elk. We watched them cross this meadow and go through a stand of trees. They came out higher up and crossed another clearing one or two at a time, so we got a good count, 10, 20, 30, 31 cows, calves and one small bull (elk, mind you). Ok, this trip can now be declared a success! We know there are deer and elk in this area and where they are – right now at least.
It was starting to cloud up pretty heavily so we decided not to go all the way to the junction. After about 200 yards back down the trail it started to rain, so we hurried to a stand of trees and put on our rain gear. We walked back another mile or so before the rain cleared enough to take them off. We stopped at the point on the trail where another trail forked off to the Porphory Basin. #EagleScout wanted to take the “short hike” up this trail, but the #OldManInTheWoods was feeling his knees. “I’ll just go on back and fish till you get there”. So we decided to split up again. #EagleScout saw another nice basin and two more elk so it was a profitable diversion.
I, on the other hand, got back to the truck and got my boots off just about the time a lady came up with four teen-age kids and two dogs. The dogs proceeded to “herd”, aka chase, cows across the creek while the boys threw huge rocks in the creek to make splashes so the girls would squeal. Remember what I said about the challenge of putting the fly in the right place? So the #OldManInTheWoods sat at the truck and rubbed my sore knees until #EagleScout got back. Now to give you some context, #EagleScout walked a little over two miles farther than I did that day, and got back to the truck about 30 minutes after me. Needless to say, my boy is a fast walker, just like his mama.
We drove to another spot and did some more glassing that afternoon, then came back to camp for dinner. After dinner we went back to the meadow where we had seen the fox to glass some more. Everything was still damp from the rain but the sky had mostly cleared. When we got there, we saw a crowd of 5-6 cars just down the road, and everybody had cameras out. We drove down to see what the commotion was, a bear? No, it turns out, we had stumbled upon a photography club on a field trip. They were taking close-ups of wild-flowers and other plants, but no interesting animals. We had been talking about doing a time-lapse shot of the sun-down so I set up my phone to get a shot of sunset on the mountain. Not being a member of the photography club, the #OldManInTheWoods, got an over-exposed picture of the mountain top that gradually faded to a darker picture – boring!
Back at camp that night, we talked about our plans for the next day. We had already planned to leave Thursday, but #EagleScout had said he might want to take a morning hike before we started out of the wilderness. We had strategized about whether to pack up camp before or after his hike. The rain kind of forced our hand because everything was pretty wet and wasn’t likely to dry anytime before we would have left. So…we were going to pack up a wet camp. #EagleScout decided to pack up early and drive to the spot he wanted to hike but probably not hike it. Good decision.
When we got up Thursday morning, the sky was still cloudy, but not threatening. We finished off the banana bread with a cup of coffee and started packing. Not bad, but my hands were freezing by the time we finished – the temperature was in the 30s every morning. I kept rubbing my hands to warm up in the truck and #EagleScout said “Why don’t you turn on the seat warmer and sit on your hands.” – Duh!!
Kids these days are so smart!! Anyway, we drove over to the East Fork Trailhead, stopping to glass a few benches – you can stop in the middle of the road in a wilderness area without too much worry. Not that I didn’t keep my eye on the rear-view mirror, mind you, but I’m not a worry-wart (much). The East Fork area didn’t seem to be very interesting so it’s a good thing “we” didn’t plan to hike it. You understand that “WE” would have been sitting at the trailhead reading a book by this point, especially when “WE” had been turned toward home. That reminds me of Sugar…
When the kids were younger, my dad had two horses and two people who liked to ride, me and my middle son #BigA. Star was #BigA’s horse and Sugar was mine. He and I would ride for hours at a time all around White Oak. I showed him spots I’d discovered as a kid and we discovered a few new ones of our own. We were reminiscing about those rides just the other day. Anyway, each horse had their unique characteristics. For example Star would balk anytime you came to a creek crossing. If the bank was steep at all Sugar would just go, but Star would stand there. Of course, I thought, “son, you just have to show him who’s boss”. Except that didn’t work and I’d wind up leading him across the creek, wet feet and all. Now Sugar’s unique trait was that no matter how far we rode, she could always tell when we’d turned back toward home and the pace would pick up. When we got within sight of the barn I’d have to haul back on the reins to keep her from running home. I guess I learned something from that horse because I feel the same urge when I get headed home from somewhere.
Bet you thought I’d never get to that point – huh? Anyway, we headed home – drove about 12 hours to Childress, Texas, spent the night then on to Oak Point. We stopped off at the City Coffee Shop & Diner in Vernon for breakfast. I think this is the first time since early March that I’ve sat down inside a restaurant for a meal since March – thank you China! Anyway, it was nice and the people were very friendly. Definitely worth a visit. The rest of the trip back to the blob was uneventful and we got there in time to pick the grand-kids (#EagleScout’s two) up from day care. After another comfortable night at their house, I loaded my stuff (along with a couple of little people suitcases) into the truck for the trip home. After a week – or was it a month – in the mountains we’re onto the next adventure…. I guess in a few days we’ll know whether it’s tougher to hike 8 miles at 10,000 feet or play with a 3 year old – I’m betting on my grandson!