Makes you feel any better your the second one to say that this year!!!

Keep after it, I got a good feeling!!

Well the last Hunter is on my way home. I sat all day yesterday. Had really high hopes......no elk. If I only had a mule deer tag. Saw 14 deer yesterday, 4 of which were nice bucks. The elk just never showed up. It was a very "unseasonably warm" second rifle season hunt. Not a ton of movement because of that I imagine. As Sneaky mentioned everything we busted that were shooters were in dense thickets of dark timber or scrub oak. I had a spike come out in this same opening two days prior with tons of sign but it just didn't happen this year. I think we have a better idea though for next time of where to start hunting. All in all, it was an amazing hunt. Genuinely nice people, great food, a good time. We can all definitely say we worked our buts off for a shot at one. I personally logged just shy of 25 miles hiking over 5 days. One of those days being the day Sneaky took us "over the point" as creekrunner reffered to it as. The next day we had to "one up the day before" by climbing 1500 vertical ft in about 1.5 miles. I don't know how to calculate the percent grade of such a climb, but it was "steep". Now back to reality......ugh. Thanks guys for letting me tag along.

No one got shoved off a mountain so it sounds like it was a fun hunt that everyone will be able to try again at some point.

It was a very fun hunt. It was a good hunt, too, considering we had encounters with several legal bulls. Being new to the area, we spent a lot of time getting to know it. That first day trashed my hip. Jerrod twisted his knee. We could hardly get around to hunt the second day, so we drove around, mostly, and recovered. The third and fourth day we hit it hard, again. I really like that area, and now I know where we can and can't go. I have a lot more confidence going into this hunt next year.

We had a great group of guys and I can't wait to do it again. I just need a few days to recover, first. I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures, but I'll post what I have. Some are on my GPS unit, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

Glad you made it back out in one piece. Sounds like we need to be putting in for deer instead of bear.

Creekrunner made it clear where we were camping. He had a great spot set up for us, too.

That GPS unit takes pretty decent pictures, apparently. As long as I do my part, anyway.

Made it to mi ranchito a little while ago. Son of a gun that's a long drive.

Great to be with you guys.

Yes it is. Glad you made it back in one piece. Now, it's time to recover.

Cool pictures. What unit did you guys hunt?

Sounds like fun trips in beautiful country.
I'm proud of all you boys for giving it your all.

Sounds like a fun trip!!!

Man, awesome pics Sneaky.

Sorry y'all didn't have better luck, but sounds like you learned a lot which you will put towards future trips to the unit. It may have been an expensive "camping" trip but some time up in that country is it's own reward.

How was the pressure from other hunters? Did you have any crews camped nearby, or run into many other folks on the mountain? Did you like the Unit over all?

It was a great area and we had some really nice guys camping across the road from us. It was pretty much like I expected. Some people up on top hunting where it's flat. Once we bailed off the top into the steeper stuff, we didn't run into anyone.

71.

We had some troopers. I took those guys in a few places we never should have been, really, but we got in and out and even managed to put on a few more miles before the day was done. My joints are still feeling it.

Little Droppy didn't turn out to be so little! 179 3/8" . No Elk around, so returning from Colorado.

Very nice.

Congrats Rob!!!!!! Stud!!!

What do you think that big deer scored again