Top_Heavy's World

The realization that I could die set in about day 4.
I love the mountains, Elk hunting, and being spontaneous, put those together and you get a quickly planned elk hunt. Colorado has over the counter tags and lots of land to hunt, so I decided "I am going to Elk hunt in Colorado next week" I don't know anyone with a wife as understanding as mine, so the trip was going to be ME! I loaded my equipment and enough food for a week or so and I left the house Friday night after work. I drove straight thru to Fort Collins, a grueling trip to say the least, but Mt Dew was at my side all the way! I slept in my cab for a few hours just west of there and started up the long and winding roads that lead to fantastic elk country.
I will state here, I had never been to this area before, I had no planning, no mountain picked out. I stopped at a tiny sporting goods store along the road and got a parks map. With that map I looked for the most remote, highest peaks I could find. I drove to some awesome looking mountains in the front range of the Medicine Bow Mountains. A huge park area with a backbone of mountains with peaks over 10,000 feet. There had to be elk there! I managed to navigate to the park enterance, took the gravel roads deep into the park in the direction of the highest visible peak. I drove... seemingly forever, the hours behind the wheel were now uncountable and I wasn't sure of my own name! I ran out of park roads and I found a new type of road.... a washed out logging road! This is the beginning of a LONG trek back into nowhere!

I was able to average almost 5 MPH as I crept in my truck deeper and deeper into the wilderness. At the end of the road I parked and decided I was "THERE". I slept in the truck again and miraculously I woke at the first hint of light. I cleaned up with HS scent free wipes and I put on my hunting clothes and light gear and grabbed my bow. I went up... and up... and up. I stopped above the tree line on a huge rocky slope and was quickly reminded why I drove for over 24 hours after working a full day! I had slept less than 6 hours in that time, but the altitude and the beauty rejuvinated me. I found elk in a clearing sometime in the afternoon. I worked the wind, watched and patterned them, but I never saw the bull I knew was shadowing the herd.
I played the game day after day, too early for bugles, I was forced to find elk visually and try to set up on them. I could have taken a cow on more than one occasion, but I never could find the bulls. I was forced to finally leave this beautiful place after 8 days of solitude. The stream baths, 100 yards from where the water rose from the ground were cold, but fantastic. The serenity can't be described. You will just have to try to go into the wild for 8 days and not see another human. No phones, no people, no 4 wheelers, don't listen to the radio or start the truck, take no watch or anything that will connect you to the "real world", to understand why I still go back. I took a picture of myself, rather good photo if I say so, to find out what pure inner peace looks like. This is me, truly alone!

This type of hunt is not for everyone, and obviously has a ton of risk to it. I routinely was over 3 hours from my truck, the truck was more than an hour at 5 mph up a logging road, another hour to the park entrance on normal gravel roads and I don't actually know where the nearest town or hospital was! No one knew where I was, my wife knew Colorado, but that was it! I had no phone service, I was totally isolated. I do carry a survival kit with me, but I had no gun. A trip like this is special and should not be looked into by most people. Please use caution when going into the wild places!
I haven't taken an elk on my solo ventures yet, these trips are more about being me, surviving and having fun, than killing something. I am a little nervous about packing a bull out of the High Country alone, no fear in me, just another hurdle to handle when the time comes, but I'm not getting any younger!