Colorado 2014 Let The Pack-in Begin part 2

As we rolled out of bed Monday morning feeling well rested and ready for the hike we had in front of us. Once again we hit up the free breakfast at hotel to fuel up and we hit the road for the trail head. After the hour or so drive we were at the trail head loading our packs with the last minute items and strapping on the bows. "The Bama Boys" pulled in shortly after us. They had hike in the day before to set up camp and get situated. The told us they made it back to the car just as it started to rain last night. These guys drove 24 hours straight then hiked over 6 miles that day. These guys were not messing around.

"The Bama Boys" geared up quickly and hit the trail ahead of us. We put on our 85 pound packs and started the hike in. The trail was covered in mud which made foot placement very important. We hiked past the spot we stopped at yesterday and headed up steep muddy switch backs. The mud caked up on our boots, with the mud, the weight of my pack and the altitude I had to give it all I had. We found the cut off trail that lead up to the area we wanted to camp. We hiked 50-100 yards at a time and would stop for a breather. With temps only in the mid 50's I was still sweating my butt off.

As we started up the cut off trail we were passed by an outfitter with pack mules packing down a 4 x 5 rag horn and possibly a cow from the looks of the load on the mules. Hopes were high as we must be in elk country. As we hiked on we passed "The Bama Boys" camp and kept on going.  There was little streams and weeps of water every were. We climbed up another hill and I needed a break as Al pressed on another 100 yards or so. He returned rather quickly as he spotted a camp and a decoy about 300 yards away. We had competition in the area. This could have been good or bad as they might push something our way or we could spook something to them.

We hiked up to a small flat spot in the trees and decided this was going to be home for the next 4-5 days. We quickly set up camp, hung our food and then set off to find water. We knew of the stream down hill from us but did not want to carry almost 4 gallons of water up hill. We set off behind camp, a few minutes later we found a nice little stream that was flowing pretty good. We pumped our bladders and filled our spare containers and set back off to camp. The whole time at camp we never heard a bugle or saw movement in the valleys but it was hot. So I did not expect to see much in the middle of the day.

We made the call to not get to far from camp as we were a little tired from the hike in. We found a small pond surrounded by aspens and pines. I set up just inside the tree line and Al took off 50-75 yards behind me to to call. We sat for close to 2 hours. We did not see or hear anything in the 2 hours. I heard Al coming up behind me so I packed my gear and we headed to a high spot to glass. We glassed till almost dark. Then down the hill back to camp. We had dinner, I had beef stroganoff mountain house. It was pretty good. I just should have grabbed some pepper from my food bag. It was off to sleep in hopes of elk in the morning.