We woke up and the first thing I did was put my boots on and quest out to take an outdoor dump. I'm not going to lie, I was looking forward to it. With my dude wipe (manly pre moistened towelette) I struck out to find the perfect spot to do my business. A few moments later I was back at camp brewing my first cup of camp coffee.
Tyler and I discussed our game plan for the day. After witnessing the meager amount of gear the Missouri hunters were carrying we decided that we were way over packed. We broke out a gear bag and started dumping gear into it as we decided that we quickly hike back to the truck and drop off some surplus supplies. With our food being some of the heaviest items we carried we decided that we could leave a few days of food in the truck as well. If the hunting was good in this area and we needed to stay longer, we could always hike back for it. This would prove to be a mistake. Another mistake I made was to leave my rain gear in the truck. The weather report was calling for clear skies all week so I thought it was just added weight.
So you know, the trails we were on were extremely rugged. At the lower levels of the trail it was all rock. Not so bad going uphill slowly but when you're going downhill it gets a little dicey. While heading back to the truck I stepped down and heard a very distinctive rattle followed by a quick sting to my thigh. I let out a yell and jumped out of my boots. I'd been bit by a rattlesnake. As I looked around it was evident that the rattler was actually a stick. As my boot slid down the trail it caught the stick in some dry leaves making the "rattle" noise I heard. Then the stick flipped around and smacked my thigh. I was laughing my ass off now, but I think Tyler was laughing harder.
We dropped off our surplus gear, made a quick phone call to the wives then headed back up the trail. It was much easier without all the gear but we were still winded from elevation. We broke down our first camp and headed up the trail to see what lay ahead.
We hiked up the trail taking breaks frequently. It was hard going. As you can see from the picture above we were still fairly well supplied.
I forgot to mention that we were hiking the Rito Alto trail. It follows along the Rito Alto creek. At one point I was badly in need of a breather and made the excuse to look over some rocks at a waterfall I heard. When I peered over the rocks I saw a black bear about 20 yards from us. It was looking around by the creek and didn't see us until I shouted at Tyler, "holy shit a bear." The bear saw us and scurried off into the thick underbrush. I have to admit that while it was cool to see the bear my first reaction was to grab my pistol and start looking around for the rest of them that were surely sneaking up on us to attack. Tyler laughed at me again. We continued on up the trail. A short ways ahead we found bear scat and confirmed they do in fact shit in the woods.
A short while later we came across another find on the trail. A bag of weed. Going through Pueblo we literally had the conversation about all the stoners we saw and how at least we wouldn't run into any in the mountains. Hunters don't have time for that stuff. Apparently some do. I dumped it out and took the baggie with me. Onward and upward we continued.
We came to a place that looked like a pretty good campsite. We were about another mile deep as the crow flies and 2 more miles deep by the trail. We decided to set up camp. The landscape had changed from rocky dry dessert to rocky dry pine forest. This is what we had imagined we'd be camping and hunting in. Surely there were elk all around us just waiting to turn broadside in front of our muzzleloaders.
We set up camp at 38.1002800,-105.7228870 for your google mapping reference.
Up to this point the trail had been pretty steady. You had some climbs in elevation and some level spots but it was basically in the same direction heading back into the canyon. Just past our campsite was the beginning of the switchbacks. The hiking got much tougher at this point. We hiked for over an hour. It was about 80 degrees out and Tyler was sweating steadily from our exertions. He was getting pretty nervous about not having water. You definitely don't want to get dehydrated out here, especially at altitude.
As we climbed to the crest of a switchback, just before starting down a few switchbacks, I noticed a scummy pond off in the distance. We could see the trail running next to it and we knew we'd be drinking water soon. Once we made our way to the pond it was evident that we really didn't want to drink from it. There was more mud and scum than water. We scouted around a little and found a cool clear creek that was feeding the pond. Thank God. As we walked through some brush we jumped a brown snake that slithered off into the bushes. We made our way down to the creek and started the process of filtering our water.
Filtering in the back country goes like this. We used a Sawyer filter system. You fill up a special bag with dirty water. Then you attach the filter to the bag and squeeze the bag through the filter. We each had a bladder in our packs that held about 3 liters of water. The Sawyer bag only held about 2 cups so it was several rounds of filling, squeezing and catching the water till your bladder was full. In the end we just squeezed a bag of water right into our mouths and it was some of the coolest and best water I've ever enjoyed.
We continued up the trail and got up to about 10,300 ft. of elevation. We spent the afternoon and evening scouting around and found a field that had signs of elk bedding and old scat everywhere but no elk. This did at least confirm for us that the scat near our camp was mule deer since it was considerably smaller than the elk scat we just found. We determined that since the site looked like it hadn't been used in a while the elk must be up higher still. It was getting late and we decided to head back to camp, have dinner and go to bed early so we could get an early start for our hike in the morning.
On the way back down the trail we were walking and talking, fresh with excitement at the signs we'd found, and we heard something rustle in the brush. We just caught a glimpse of something on 4 legs bounding across the trail. Could it be our first elk sighting? We got quiet and peered into the heavy brush. What we saw was a mule deer in full velvet antlers. It was a hell of a sight. He stayed there just long enough for me to snap a picture. You can just make him out between the 2 trees.
Tyler checked his phone and we had hiked almost 8 miles and climbed 98 flights this day. For the most part it was sunny all day with just a sprinkling of rain for a moment. It had been a good day. We built a fire since this campsite was much more sheltered from the wind. As we sat around the campfire and discussed the days events it inevitably turned to how we wished we had cell service. It's hard being a dad and not being able to check in with the wife and kids at the end of the day. We could tell that this would be the hardest part of the trip. As we turned in for the night we were feeling good about the days ahead of us and optimistic of our chances of filling our tag. Sleep came quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment