Caribou Gear

Holy $#!#, I'm Tired.

Arrogant1 said:
Sir, I am going to need you to step away from the Costco and get that baby down for a nap. Need some more posts to get me through the rest of the day. Oh, and once you finish with this story, you might as well recap your hunting excursions from last year!
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Home Depot now.

Gotcha covered:

CO Deer: Wind, Treasures, and... Wind

My favorite time of year - Colorado Mule Deer hunting in November. I only ended up with tags in state this year - a blessing and a curse: time to focus on my resident tags being a blessing, no opportunity to traipse around the magical states of Wyoming or New Mexico a curse. I spent most of my...
www.hunttalk.com www.hunttalk.com

Black Friday (doe) Shopping

Had to go do a little Black Friday shopping. 4th season rifle started the day before thanksgiving and I still have a doe tag. My bro tagged along, he’s never even been hunting before. I figured we’d keep it easy: find a forest service road, walk about a 1/4 mile, glass a large hillside, he’d...
www.hunttalk.com www.hunttalk.com
 
JEL said:
Right? It should at least have some meat in it like the Beefy 5 Layer Burrito.
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Too spendy for something to eat cold while hunting.

5 layers and Gordita crunches best saved for post hunt success feasts. Or post hunt failure feasts.
 
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I take off for the elk.

Looking at them through my binoculars from the truck i keep wondering how in the heck that is 3.5+ miles away. But it is. I know it is. Worse, they're higher up the hill this time than the night before.

I keep wondering if it's the same herd or a new herd that's moved in. This areas is a bit of transition zone for wintering elk as i understand it. They'll stop over here for a while and as the weather gets worse yet as winter progresses they'll finally move on to their ultimate wintering grounds.

My pitiful dad legs. I can feel my hike from the night before; especially as I start ascending the hills after wading through the snow in the long flat zone before the hills. It's deceiving, go look at the photo of the elk taken through my binos, that long flat zone before the hills is nearly a mile long. How it's another 2 ish straight miles up from there I still don't get. But it was.

It gets to be 3:30. I've stumbled through drifts and postholed my way. Sometimes I feel the twang of my muscles as I try to pull my legs out of a posthole.

Gosh this is pathetic. What have I become in just a few months of being a dad, eating like shit, sleeping horribly, no longer able to go the gym for 1.5 hours and run all the time? Now that we're starting to get a rhythm of things at home this really has to change. No longer being able to go to the gym means we're slowly building out a home gym in the garage, too.
 
I climb up on a ridge to look for the elk. I see one lone cow grazing about up a good ways. Probably a half mile, but heck if i know anymore. The rest are nowhere to be found. My best bet is they're below her, out of sight, behind yet another ridge. All said and done probably onlye 1000 ish yards from where I found them the night before.

Still not sure if this is the same herd, i mean no way of really knowing I guess. Hadn't been close enough yet to tease out the bull situation in this group.

I'm wary of making the same mistake as last night: busting them. I sit on this ridge for about 10 minutes thinking about what to do while the wind continues to whip.

I know full well, I have at least another 30-40 minutes of hiking to get on top of them. Last night is helping me understand these things.

My legs hurt. My right achilles tendon hurts. This achilles tendon thing is something that popped up after hiking out my buck in November and i've never felt pain there before.

I'm thinking my best game plan is to back out and come back in the morning and start hiking immediately in the morning. Slowly pick my way up here glassing carefully along the way and locate the elk once i'm basically up here, instead of at the truck.

I'd really prefer to not hike out 100% in the dark again. This country and this weather... it's just not fun to do this alone and in the dark. I look at that cow again, look at the ridge ahead of me that i'm certain the elk are just over.

I'll bust ass up here in the morning. There's still time.
 
Back at where I was staying I get all my clothes off and jump in the shower and eat dinner.

It's weird how you don't really notice things wrong with your body sometimes and all of the sudden you do. It hits me after jumping out of the shower and I start getting lounging clothes on that I've been limping around ever since I hopped out of the truck when I got back. My achilles tendon hurts badly with every step.

I have been wondering if I need new boots. I've been running 80 dollar cabelas boots for 6 years now.

Hiking through that snow is no joke either. I mean yes, I'm not in the best of shape right now, but honestly, I am a very fit guy overall. So this is all really bugging me as i'm hobbling around.

I'm laying there on a couch just thinking about the events so far. Getting on the elk was really cool. But overall this trip has been plenty of anxiety.

It's been extraordinarily cold, extraordinarily windy, the truck nearly gets stuck every single time i've driven in and out of where I'd been starting, and i'm realizing that even if I do manage to hike in there without blowing out my achilles tomorrow, i'm gonna have a horrible time getting that elk out, even with a sled.

It's just really starting to feel like too big of a bite to chew while solo.

I make the call to my wife and tell her I've decided to wrap it up. This whole thing was more physically exerting than I anticipated. This recent weather and snow changed the game and I hadn't been prepared for it.

It seemed the sun was setting on my 2022 season

2.9.jpg
 
PSYCHE!

Okay yes, it's true, 2022 is officially wrapped but this tag is good through Jan 31.

I've got one friend down to come back with me (so happens to be the former Bachelor from before).

@trb may even join me if he can find some day(s) available to be away from his own dad duties.

Hopefully more to come folks. Wife is down to let me go back out. Will be pinning down a weekend for Jan shortly.

I need some cross country skis for this shit. Good grief.
 
TOGIE said:
My legs hurt. My right achilles tendon hurts. This achilles tendon thing is something that popped up after hiking out my buck in November and i've never felt pain there before.
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I bet you strained it. Gotta be careful with those Achilles tendons. At like 16 I strained both of mine simultaneously (being an absolute IDIOT jumping off a building) and I was useless for like a week. Had to crawl around the house. They are not the tendons to be playing around with. Anyways, back to you story, just worried about the "poor dad legs" LOL.
 
wllm said:
🤷‍♂️

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Expedition Down Suit

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But really.
 
TOGIE said:
Gosh this is pathetic. What have I become in just a few months of being a dad, eating like shit, sleeping horribly, no longer able to go the gym for 1.5 hours and run all the time? Now that we're starting to get a rhythm of things at home this really has to change. No longer being able to go to the gym means we're slowly building out a home gym in the garage, too.
Click to expand...

10+ months in I still haven't figured this out, so if you figure out the secret sauce please let me know. I figure I have 3 hours of unscheduled time in the day, but that doesn't mean free time. That's split between chores, maintenance, the dog, time with my wife, and finally me time. Of course I'm usually feeling pretty tapped out.
 
vanish said:
10+ months in I still haven't figured this out, so if you figure out the secret sauce please let me know. I figure I have 3 hours of unscheduled time in the day, but that doesn't mean free time. That's split between chores, maintenance, the dog, time with my wife, and finally me time. Of course I'm usually feeling pretty tapped out.
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You guys are bringing me back to those days when you're so sleep deprived and worn out from parenting little kids, that the notion of getting up earlier than you have to seems like the craziest damn idea you've ever had and when you do go out, you're sure that must have some sort of disease, because how can you be so weak?! I can't tell you that parenting gets easier, per se, but this part of it does.
 
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