Saturday, September 15, 2007

Another Colorado Hunt Is History

A 2007 sunrise in Colorado. It never gets old to me. God's creation is so awesome no matter where you are, but there is just something very special about those Rocky Mountains - and this is the western slope, not the biggies with the aspens and spruce and timber-line. Even in the middle of chasing elk, I had to stop and notice God's alarm clock!
This was after a morning hunt and it was still a little chilly. Much of the hunt this year was T-shirt weather, but we did have pretty cool mornings.
This is the famous "Prairie Chicken" which is really a grouse. They fed under my tree stand, which I only hunting from in the evenings. I had it at the pond below, and the mulies came in every night, but they were usually all does or small bucks - and too far away. There are three young bucks in the group.



From my stand, which because it was below the pond, was actually only about five feed above the pond. It's a 32 yard shot to the far edge of the pond in the middle of this picture. The closest deer is about 45 yards away. The last two nights I used a ground blind in the brush just off picture to the left. Unfortunately the bucks never came back - after walking by that spot three nights in a row. Such is hunting!




Is that a killer face or what! It was a lot of fun sharing the hunt with Danny, as well as my usual buddies, Kevin and Brian Haugh. We had a blast! Laughed a lot, ate too much, drove atv's like teenagers, and hunted like wild men. We didn't even say "Excuse me" when we...



This was after our last morning hunt - Thursday. I spent two and a half hours running up the mountain with the elk - crawling at times and on my knees in the rocks several times. I was reminded that I'm not 40 and that I really like having an atv to go up and down those mountains when the hunting is done.
We had a wonderful time. Saw lots of animals, did a lot of hunting w/o killing, which is the nature of bowhunting most of the time, and had some great fellowship, but I'm glad to be back home. Besides, the Missouri bowhunting season opened today so I've already missed the first day. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. It was a long 17 hour drive home yesterday. God is good.




4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

So glad you had a great time. Love the sunrise!

Deborah said...

Great pictures, Dad.

Now, go getcha a big'ole Missouri deer!!

(I tried to state that as redneck as I could. Even in my head I couldn't get the accent just right. Where's Jonathan when I need him?)

Scott Bayles said...

That sunrise is just beautiful. So glad that you and Danny had a great time and traveled safely!

Anonymous said...

Another great year, bro. You're always so encouraging! Thank you for for inviting me to our annual trip of a lifetime 21 years ago!
Kev