The Hunting Times

That damn alarm went off again at 4:45. But we laid around and did not get out until about 6:30. We drove out to the Lower Roan Creek area via DeBeque. There were many more hunters today. Maybe the cold snap brought out the elk! Sure enough, as we rounded a bend, there were 3 large bulls about 50 yards off the road. They bolted south and stopped by the creek at 120 yards. An easy shot for Super Hunters like us. Two problems though: 1) we do not have bull tags and 2) they were on private land. We took lots of pictures though. Shot them with a camera instead of a gun. We drove up the road a bit and stopped to get our gear ready (guns out and orange on). We were standing at the tailgate and a truck pulled up. Fella was Rod Graham and runs his own guide business. He said, "I hope you boys don't plan on hunting here." No, we assured him, we were just getting ready. We showed him our GPS and how we could tell what was public versus private land. We also told him th...

Oh what a long day. It's 10 pm local time and we just got back from dinner. We did sleep in a bit this morning. Up at 6 and out by 7. Suppose that was a good thing though as Phil jumped a lady at the gas station. No, you perverts, not that kind of jump. Her Jeep had a dead battery. So we three Eagle Scouts did our good turn for the day. We topped off the tank and bought a gas station breakfast. Seems that our Nissan Pathfinder passes everything but a gas station. Geordie told a funny story this morning. He said that Re-Phil and I had a snoring contest at about 10:45 last night. I'm sure our wives would agree, but personally, I did not hear a thing. I think Geordie is a Big Liar. Re-Phil says that's what Geordie gets for wearing us old men out. Geordie got out his ear plugs so that he could go back to sleep. He's threatening to film us tonight if we do it again. We drove up to Douglass Pass and spotted 4 mulie bucks that we stopped and took pictures of on th...

Got up again this morning at 4:45. Re-Phil was already in the shower. Said he couldn't sleep. I did not have that problem. Rolled out at 5:30. We were on top of the ridge by 7:30, trying to spot the elk. Sure enough, by 8:30, they were walking back up the opposite ridge, exactly where they've been the past two days. We headed back to the truck and drove around the top of the mountain. We parked and headed S. We were three ridges away at the head of Roan Creek. Elk are on that ridge somewhere. We walked down, up, around, down again, back up and across the top to make it to the opposite ridge of the elk. We arrived at 11. It was very difficult terrain. About 350 feet up and down across shale. We glassed for elk. Nothing. So we ate lunch. We glassed some more. Nothing, but we did hear a bugle. We were still glassing when the snow started. It got down to 29F with lots of wind and very little visibility. Snowing on the way out. Note lack of visibility. We walked b...

I'm disliking that alarm more and more each day. It went off again at 4:45 this morning. We got up and took quick showers. Hit the road at 5:45 and gassed up at Loma. We spotted a coyote crossing Douglas Pass. We arrived at the top of the mountain at 7:30. We headed off the E face to glass the elk again. They were going up the ridge exactly where they came down last night. That's two ridge lines to our east and about 2000 feet of elevation change. We decided that we would attempt to get at them from the bottom. As we walked out, we met two other hunters, a man and wife. Marc and Ginn are from California. They are camping on top. This is Marc's fourth trip out and he is carrying a bull tag. Ginn just retired and is on her first hunt. They saw the same elk we did last night, but are unwilling to walk that far. We drove over to DeBeque and ate lunch. We headed up Roan Creek Road. We made it 20 miles up the canyon before reaching a locked gate. We were still abo...

The alarm went off way too early this morning. We were all sleeping very well. Up at 4:45. Left hotel at 5:33. Kinda windy today. Parked the truck at 7:01. Promptly took a wrong turn. Headed out and down. Got to see a beautiful sunrise. At 8:30 we heard a bull bugle. We could tell it was E and in front of us, but not how far. We stopped for an hour to see if any elk moved up toward us. Nothing. We cut across a S face on an elk trail that switched back. We hung out in an Aspen grove until 2:30. Told stories, ate lunch, and even broke out some iTunes, which I think goes against all hunting rules. We came back out on point and sat both sides, hoping to get a shot as the elk headed down to feed. Geordie saw a roosting hawk and called us over to see. Then he came over to ask if we heard another bugle. We did not. Next thing you know, Geordie is hollering. We ran over. He had spotted an elk. He talked us through landmarks until we could see it. We glassed for an hour and s...

Got up this morning at 5:30. Left hotel at 6:11. Arrived at destination at 7:40. Ninety minutes to go 65 miles. The last 10 miles takes 30 minutes - yeah, the roads are that tough. We busted S down a drain wash. It was STEEP and ROCKY. Re-Phil came close to going over the cliff. Said that was his worse nightmare. Check out our climb. Really, this does not do the area justice. A little better. But look back up. Took 2 hours to get to our home base. We were about half way down the hill, or 600 feet below top grade of 8500 feet. We glasses for several hours but never saw an elk. We left the mountain at 4 after planning our attack for tomorrow. We headed almost straight up. Well, the range finder said it was a 38 degree incline. It was tough climbing, but we did it in about 1:15. We saw 3 more mulies on the way out and got some good pics. Gonna be an early one tomorrow. Geordie climbing out. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad Location: Crossroads Blvd,Grand Junction,United...

Well we slept in this morning, which for us was 8 o'clock. We all took showers and then hit Denny's for breakfast. We drove down to Safeway to get lunch items for our packs. We also got a 12 pack of Modello. We then headed W to Loma and SR 139. Then we headed N. We stopped along Douglass Pass for a photo op. That's where we just came from. Facing SE. Our turn off to come back E to our GMU is marked by a large barn. Should be easy to find tomorrow morning. We only made one wrong turn getting to the high gate. Well done for noobs like us. We parked and hiked around with our packs. Had a shore lunch and then back to the truck for more scouting. Noob elk hunters loaded for bear. Notice the awesome weather! We drove as far E as we could and then headed back, checking all pull offs as we came W. At our second pull off, here comes the CO. We initiated contact by exiting the truck without weapons. We volunteered our licenses and he validated them. We chit-chatted for ...