Hunt minus three – Wednesday, October 9th
OK, now we’re getting serious. On Tuesday, we did a hike from Wolf Creek Pass starting at 10,850 feet so we know the #OldManInTheWoods can walk in the mountains too. Wednesday was the day #ShoppingBeauty flew home and our son flew out from Dallas. After breakfast, we headed to Durango to the airport. All went according to schedule and our son and I went back to Pagosa Springs for one more night with our friend in civilization. Well, maybe two.
Earlier in the week, we started hearing about the first serious winter storm heading for central Colorado. So, being a serious mountain man, I made a hotel reservation in Gunnison. At least we were closer to unit 67 and our camp. Good decision!
Hunt minus one – Friday, October 11th
We heard on the weather this morning that Gunnison had set a new record low temperature and they were at 7,800 feet. We loaded up and headed to our camp at 10,800. What have I done?!?!
We got our camp set up and hiked around to do some preliminary scouting. Didn’t really see any sign of elk but it’s still early. People started coming in and setting up camp. We saw several RV’s and quite a few wall tents with wood stoves set up. Getting a little nervous here. I mean did you see that picture of our tent? No way you can put a heater in that. But hey, Texas boys are tough. We’ll make it – we have those zero degree sleeping bags!
We decided we’d better get busy cooking dinner before it got too dark. We had planned to camp near the truck so we had both cooked and frozen some meals to make things easier in camp. I fired up the old Coleman stove to heat some chili while my son worked to start a fire. What could go wrong? It turns out that when it’s record low temperatures – several things.
Starting with the fire. We had gathered some nice dry wood and brought in some of the fire-starter pieces to help out. When it’s really cold and there’s a nice brisk breeze the cigarette lighter doesn’t work too well. Good thing my son is an Eagle Scout – you know they’re always prepared. Before we left town he surveyed my grocery shopping and packing and declared that I was short on one thing – toilet paper. So while I filled the truck the last time he went into the grocery store and a 72 roll package!!! Turns out if you roll up some toilet paper under the fire-starter under the sticks under the logs it will burn long enough to get a fire going. Success!!
Meanwhile back at the stove… The Coleman stove has the same problem not burning when it’s really cold and with propane, there’s not a little pump to help it along. The solution is you have to manually hold the regulator knob and be ready to turn it up or down. So the #OldManInTheWoods was trying to hold the frozen block of chili in the pan while keeping the fire going. You know the instructions lather, rinse repeat. In the mountains it’s light the fire, turn it up, watch it flare up when you turn it too high, turn it down, watch it go out and repeat.
At one point during a flare-up cycle, I dropped the frozen block of chili on the ground. Three-second rule. In the mountains though the three-second rule is hard and fast. Leave it there any longer and it will freeze hard really fast. No problem – got it back in the pot with just a little grass added to the mix. Luckily none of the animals that had roamed our campsite had left us any of their presents our we might have had a different story here. Luckily, #EagleScout had got the fire going by this time and came along with his trusty knife to cut the block of chili into smaller pieces so it would stay in the pot. This way when we got into the flare-up cycle we just had to lift the pot for a few seconds and move on to the turn-down, blow out phase.
Eventually, we got the chili hot and sat down by the fire to enjoy our dinner. Have you ever sat out in the Gunnison National Forest an hour from the nearest two-lane highway and enjoyed a nice hot bowl of chili by the campfire when the temperature is approaching zero? The only part of you that is warm your tongue where you just put the hot chili in a vain attempt to warm yourself up. We hurried to finish dinner, put things away, and get into those zero-degree sleeping bags – bedtime 7:30 p.m.
The hunt begins – Saturday, October 12th
For the first day, we weren’t planning to hike in before daylight. We still didn’t know the area well enough. So no reason to get up super early. The problem is that the zero-degree sleeping bag is also pretty confining and after nearly eleven hours in it you just really have to do something else. Get up and have some breakfast and a cup of coffee. The problem with that plan is that it’s zero degrees outside and even the jet boil stove we had took a little time to boil water. Neither of us wanted to wait through two cycles so we chose oatmeal over coffee. Who really needs coffee anyway? Eat the oatmeal and get moving. Maybe that will help you warm up. Fortunately, as we were setting up camp – you know when everything was still looking rosy and we were warm – #EagleScout had made peanut butter sandwiches and packed some other snacks for our next-day lunch. We picked up our stuff and headed out for the day before the sun came up.
Things got better after sunrise. We circled around and up the mountain to come into the area where we were hoping to see elk. The total for the day was a little more than nine miles. As we got higher we began to see fresh elk sign – things are looking up! We followed several game trails around to benches where we thought we might see elk.
I want you to understand that when I say we I mean that in the royal sense. #EagleScout had studied the maps, had spent time learning to call elk, had made the trips the past few years. At this point, the #OldManInTheWoods was just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to keep up.
And then – we heard a bull bugle! And it was close!! Man, that was loud!!! I mentioned that #EagleScout had been practicing elk calls. Last Friday when we were at their house to load up for the great elk hunt #ShoppingBeauty took the kids outside to play. We had finished loading most of the gear and were visiting when #EagleScout decided it would be a good time to practice again. Mrs. #EagleScout was cooking dinner and just shook her head. She said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” About that time #ShoppingBeauty came running in the house screaming “Who is it! Who’s hurt.” Mrs. #EagleScout shook her head again and said, “I told you I didn’t think that was a good idea.”
Back to that bull. #EagleScout dropped to his knees and began to search the area through his binoculars. The #OldManInTheWoods doesn’t drop anymore but eventually, I got down on my knees to get my gun off my pack and ready to shoot. We saw a cow elk about 75 yards away – even I can make that shot! Then I spotted antlers but couldn’t tell much. By this time I had my gun ready and was standing behind a tree where I could get a shot – if I could get a shot. The woods we were hunting were very thick so you could only see little glimpses. Unfortunately, all the glimpses we got were of him leading his herd away. After we had calmed down we decided to head back to camp and approach this another way on Sunday. We can use the time to drive around and check out where other people are hunting.
Well, there was one more surprise in store when we returned to camp. The truck battery was dead. The #OldManInTheWoods was the one prepared this time. I had brought my portable jump starter. We debated the merits of starting it now or waiting until Monday when we had a chance of getting somewhere to buy a new battery if we needed to. Decided to wait. We headed back into the woods to sit and watch a meadow hoping they would come in there before dark.
When we returned to camp it was late in the day but we saw a truck parked on the road nearby. Fortunately, they had jumper cables and helped us get the truck started. We let it run for a few minutes while we visited, turned it off and made sure it would start again before they left. We did drive around a bit but not far as it was getting pretty late and we had to do the camp stove shuffle again before bedtime. Oh, and the temperature was down to 20 now with 30 more minutes of daylight. By the time we returned #EagleScout had come up with a brilliant idea – let’s eat the Mountain House meals. Perfect – we can get by with two passes on the jet boil and no clean-up. Also, no fire tonight. We’re down to the essentials. Bedtime 7:15.
It was a rough night. I woke up every couple of hours and every time I did my toboggan had slipped off one ear or the other. Oh, and did I mention the headache? All the previous evening I had noticed my head was hurting. No problem, it’s just because I skipped coffee – take a couple of Tylenol and go on. At some point during the night as I was covering my frozen ear again, I realized that those altitude headaches I heard about are a real thing.
We got up, replayed the oatmeal only breakfast and headed out. We had failed to make peanut butter sandwiches the day before in all of the dead battery excitement so we grabbed a couple of extra Clif bars for lunch. Our plan for this morning was to head straight up the mountain and approach the north-facing bench where we thought the elk might be hanging out for the morning hours.
Now when I say “we thought”, understand I don’t have a clue. But we know they were up there somewhere yesterday and going straight up the mountain ought to save some steps. The day before we had circled around to the left and hunted at a lower elevation.
The climb up wasn’t too bad. #EagleScout was conscious of my limitations and stopped frequently. As we got higher, through the more open area to the left of our target we began to see some game trails, rubs, and fresher sign. We found a likely looking spot where we could observe the cleared area and the woods above it and sat for a while. We had a little snack and sat for a while longer. Then #EagleScout set out to prove a long-held family claim – that he can sleep anywhere.
We continued moving and the terrain became steeper and the deadfalls got larger. A couple of times I twisted my knee climbing over one and again when one foot slid out from under me. About that time #EagleScout said, “Where do you think we should go from here?” Bad time to ask that question. I knew at that point that the mountain had won. Headache, knee throbbing and a Clif bar to look forward to for lunch. Yep – the #OldManInTheWoods is not a mountain man. We sat down and talked about it over a Clif bar.
After calming down somewhat we agreed to continue to move along the bench we had finally reached then head down. We stopped and glassed all along the bench but saw no elk that day. Had we seen those elk again it might have canceled out either the head or knee ache and we would have had a different story.
As it was, we got back to camp, packed up and headed home. The #OldManInTheWoods was defeated by a stupid, cold, beautiful mountain.
After a night in a hotel in Trinidad, Colorado, two showers, and a warm breakfast with all the coffee I could drink, the #OldManInTheWoods was back with a new plan. As we drove into Texas I told #EagleScout that next year(?) we could go during archery season when the weather is better than 2 degrees and I would be his camp cook. Until next year….