The 2019 Hunting Season
-Three tags this year. I filled two of them. I thought I was on a roll and there was a chance for a hunting hat trick, but I just couldn’t make it happen. All three hunts were amazing. It was a year like no other for hunting. I could probably fill several pages with details that were exciting to me, but given this is not everyone’s thing, I will keep it short.
Hunting is a lot of work especially if you are successful or even if you are not but you do more than just the bare minimum some other hunters do. I will give my hunting partner, Andrew, credit. He is willing to hike into a remote area to increase his odds. I came back from each and every hunt this year washed out as much or more than many of the 100+ mile bike rides I’ve gone on.
Archery deer season was up first, and this was the first time I tried to hunt with a bow. After many many hours of practicing at twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty yards, I went out very confident I could place an arrow. Returning to an area I’ve hunted with a muzzleloader I went camo’d to the gills complete with face paint, and set up a blind. On the morning of the second day I had some success calling deer in to the blind, but she came up behind me, and hoofbeats from behind sound like they are right on top of you. I quickly stood up from my blind, spun, and took my shot only to land short. It was a long shot. A couple of hours later after abandoning the blind and jeeping the trails, I came upon what I was pretty sure was the same deer from before. No, they don’t all look the same. I got out of the jeep, crept up within fifty yards and loosed an arrow at her as she stood in a grove of aspens. It was a one shot kill. I kept my eye on her as she began to climb out of sight, but she went down just before reaching the top of the hill. I really like bowhunting. I like the stealth and the silence of it, and I am really really considering taking on elk next year during the archery season.
Pronghorn rifle was next up. Andrew Eastman tagged along for that which we thought would be his first big game take. He did not disappoint. I’ve taken several antelope over the years, so we made a point of having him take the first shot at a very large doe we first mistook for a buck. He had firsttime jitters and missed his first shot, so, the game now on, we both took turns trying to bring her down. Our doe, pursued by a hormone enraged buck, criss-crossed the prairie at 40 mph before stopping 387 yards down the fenceline we were standing along. Leaning and cock-eyed, I took my shot and dropped the doe where she stood. Hours later, just as I was finishing boning the meat, a threesome of antelope approached and Andrew was able to get his final shot. It was a well placed round at 420 yards, -not too shabby for a newbie. We both went home with our coolers filled.
We came up empty on elk, but we had a great time hiking and scouting what was for us a new hunting unit by Lake City, CO. It is not a unit loved by hunters for its remoteness and limited access by vehicles, but we liked it, and we will go back. Our final hike took us above treeline by Cooper Lake. I wish we had more energy above 12000 feet or we would have probed some of the tree fields along the valley we hunted. There must have been some elk in there seeking cover from the nearly 70 degree temps. I didn’t mind the work and neither did Andrew. It is beautiful up there and isolated. I think if we returned during the archery season when the elk are in the fits of their mating drive, it might be a different story. We saw moose. We saw beaver. We saw many very big deer. We even saw a beautiful grouse I suspect was on the endangered species list, BUT! -No sign of these very prolific animals we went up there for. We had fun though.