Well, sheep hunt is a bust. Will give full report later, but I'm sitting in a tent 7 miles in, with a throbbing and swelling knee, waiting on the rain to break so we can try to pack down.

The rain is much worse than predicted, sheep mountains covered in clouds no visibility- no point. Horse I was riding last night tried to commit suicide with me on it. Amazed it survived the night, something is seriously wrong with it. Praying we can get down in one piece. Will have to hike down leading other 2 horses, and pray the sick on can/will follow unloaded. It's gonna suck hiking down this slippery muddy trial with my knee. Today is going to be the crucible of suck.

Maybe I'll see a mule deer on the way down, and pop that sucker...

Time to cut bait, go back, dry out, regroup, and try again. Good thing there are a few weeks left in season.

That sucks man, sorry to hear that. The lateral pressure of riding a horse wreaks havoc on my right knee. Is that what happened to you or did you do something to it? The only way I can rid a horse without it hurting is with my knee bent like 90 degrees the whole time (which is awful on the hamstrings) or keeping the leg like hyperextended the whole time to transfer the pressure to my hip, which is tough on the hip flexors. That's okay though because I'm not a fan of livestock in the backcountry in general

Good luck Joe.

The horse fell down the mountain with me on it- then while I was walking and leading him, he took his head and therw me off the trail trying to get by me, down a steep embankment.

Dang man that is depressing to hear.

Give it hell today

I had a horse steak in Amsterdam. It was unbelievably delicious...now my second favorite meat (behind elk). Just sayin

cupofjoe04 said:

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The horse fell down the mountain with me on it- then while I was walking and leading him, he took his head and therw me off the trail trying to get by me, down a steep embankment.

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Only thing scarier is doing this in the dark. Horse trips, Sparks fly from hooves / rocks, everything gets crazy.

Sorry to hear that man. Don't forget to check your rifle and gear.

Part 7: I'm back at base camp to resupply and decide to take a day off from deer hunting. Went into the dark timber to look for elk sign and try some lazy bugles, raking and other ElkNut techniques. Results were... poor.

Killed a small grouse before dusk and wasted no time getting it down my pie hole.



"Ice cave" hiking to an elk spot



Sheep


I wanted a fire that night so I kept the grouse fire burning.


Next day... day 5 of the hunt now. Killed a big fat one on the way back to base camp


Hot n Ready... and damn good. Thank God for fresh Dusky Grouse.

Gotta love those grouse to keep it rolling!

I was so miserable walking down tonight, I jumped at least 8 grouse and never once pulled out my slingshot.

Dang. Sucks to hear it, Joey. Heal quick and get back after it !

Well- here is my sheep "adventure"

Got a bit of a late start Sunday afternoon, but my buddy brought over 3 horses so we figured we would ride as far as we could and get camp set.

The horse I was riding did good for first few miles, but then I noticed he seemed to be tripping and stumbling more than the other horses. It was lightly sprinkling, so I didn't think too much of it. About 4 miles in, we were stopped before we hit some gnarly switchbacks, and my horse tried to lay down with me on top of it. This was a borrowed horse, but my buddy has used it many times before- never had an issue. Still not concerned, we pushed on to beat the dark.

6 miles in, he starts trying to lay down again, and I'm able to get off in time. A short distance later, he tries it again and my foot gets stuck under him. I'm not hurt, and quickly freed. My friend isnt sure what is going on, but it is getting dark and raining, so we think he is just being a butt head. We are on some VERY steep switchbacks, and need to make it to flat ground to camp.

Around mile 7, the horse stops, stares blankly up the trail for a second, then starts backing up off the trial and down the freaking hill (STEEP). I'm leaning forward as hard as I can to keep from falling back, still thinking the horse will get his footing and go back up. Instead, that SOB wheels around so fast I don't know what the crap is going on, but I know for SURE we are going down. I bail off the horse to my left, landing with my knee on a downed log. I look back and see 4 hooves up in the air, spinning down the mountain.

We finally get him back on his feet, make sure my rifle (blackpowder, iron sights) is still in the scabbard, and finally get him back up on the trial. I tell my friend that I am NOT getting back on the horse, and we desperately need to push forward and find some flat land to set up camp in the dark and damp conditions.

So, I'm walking in front of the horse, leading it in the back of the train. He is being a little pushy, but not too bad. Till we round a switchback on a VERY steep and slippery trail, and that freaking horse decides he wants to be in front of me. He put his head on my left, and pushed me aside to get by. I mean he pushed me hard enough to knock me off my feet. The problem was there was nowhere for me to go except down. I fall down the slope, and the only thing I'm holding is his lead rope, which I'm afraid will make him fall on me. So I let go of the rope and hope for the best. I landed on my left side again, and slammed my knee into a rock or something. I'm trying to clamor up the muddy embankment, but the horse is standing in the way and I don't want to get stepped on. Finally get him to move enough for me to get up. I'm ready to shoot that SOB now. While trying to get myself together, he tries to lay down again and sends himself down the same embankment I went down, into a small creek.

So, back down the muddy slope I go, into the water, trying to wrangle this freaking out horse. My buddy has his hand full with the other 2 horses. I finally get him back up, we had to walk up the creek to the trail.

It is too dark, staring to rain, and WAY to dangerous with this horse. We have no choice but to set up camp. 50 yards down the trial, we find a few trees we can tie the horses to. There is NO flat spot for a tent. We are forced to set the tent up on the trail, where the only tiny piece of somewhat level ground is. So my buddy will be sleeping just off the trail, and I'm directly on it, with a mound of dirt between us.

It rains pretty hard most of the night, and the trail gets 1-2" of standing water, which I'm sleeping in. It is bleeding through the tent floor, but I have a waterproof bivey cover for my pad and bag. So at least I'm dry, but I'm laying in frikin cold water all night. And because of the slope, I cannot get out of it, and it just gets deeper. The horse, meanwhile is flopping around outside like a dying fish all night. Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with this animal. He won't stand, and rolls around like he is on fire. We are afraid he will choke himself, but if we untie him, he will certainly fall down the mountain. Either way, we figure we are waking up to a dead horse. It was a LONG night...

The next morning, I get up to try and do SOME sort of hunting. The front of my blackpowder took a prettubgood beating, and I'm not sure if my sight is moved but it looks OK. I hike to where I look up the valley to some possible (however remote) sheep ground, and pretty good looking deer territory. The clouds and fog just socked me in. The higher I went, the worse it got. Rain started again... time to call it quits.

Below, you can see the rather quick progression of the clouds





And the other side I was watching, not that I could have ever gotten over there



I went back to camp, to see how the horse was doing. If he was Ok, we would push up the mountain to wait out the wether and hunt tomorrow (should be nice and clear). Sadly, he still looked like he was on death's door. We pack up and head down.

We walk the 2 healthy horses, and redistribute all load between them. Nothing is on the sick horse, and my buddy decides its best to let him just walk behind us. This works OK, only a few hangups. We get a few miles down, and he starts meandering off trial in some really rough terrain. We are essentially hiking down 1/4 mile at a time, then back up to lead the sick horse. He lays down again, and my buddy decides we are risking too much stress on the others, and we need to take them down and come back for the sick one.

I don't know squat about horses, so I'm just along for the ride. A few hours later we finally get down, get the others in the trailer and all the gear loaded.
I check out my knee, and it is really swollen and staring to bruise, but feels stable. So we turn around and hike 3 miles back up. The horse hasn't moved 10 feet, but is standing and eating grass (which is a good sign). He has perked up, and no longer looks like he is gonna keel over. By the time we get down, you would never know anything was wrong with him.

I'm usually a pretty good silver lining type guy- but this trip just sucked.
Good thing there are a few weeks left in season. I'm gonna try and find some time to hike in and hunt.

Sounds like a typical horse hunt. Sorry it was so bad. Hope the knee heal well and quickly.

They are great for the pack out/in. Pain in the neck the rest of the time. Kind of sounds like a horse that has had and recovered from west Nile. No expert, but that was the diagnosis for one of our horses that kind of flipped his lid.

Woof!

Dang, that's a bummer man. Sucks it went like that... Sounds like things got a little "western" on the hike in.

Hope you get to make it back out with a better time.

That's a bummer, hope you are still able to get back out. How is your knee doing?

Wow. I know it's a borrowed horse and all... but it would've been a lot to convince me not to leave the SOB in the woods the first time few times it threw me off!

Thanks guys, I appreciate your concern and the opportunity to vent to people who will truly understand. Better than just stewing about it.

I think my knee is fine. It's plenty sore, all the swelling is settling under the patella. I might have some bone bruising or something on the outside top of my tibia/fibula. The ligaments and range of motion all feel fine, doesn't seem to be any strength loss. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm counting myself very blessed to be down in one piece.

Im more worried about my blackpowder rifle this am. Front sight took a beating. It looks straight, but has some pretty good marring on it. I'll have to take it out and shoot today and make sure it's on.

Of course today it's a beautiful and sunny... oh well.
I did hear from another guy whose daughter had a ewe tag, and hunted the opposite side of the bowl I was targeting. They basically just hunted Sat & Sun am, and headed down. He said there weren't as many sheep in there as normal, and there was a camp of ram hunters over on his side. They ram group has been there for a while already (ram season opens sooner than ewes), so maybe they had pushed some sheep out. If they are ram hunting, they are in the wrong place IMHO. There are occasionally a few rams in there, but that area is a heavy lambing area, so it's mostly always ewes, lambs, and juveniles.

Maybe waiting another week or two is a blessing in disguise. Hopefully those guys will move on and the sheep will pour back in there like normal. I'll get back up there somehow!!! Will have to be a hike in before dawn on Thur and hike down in the next 2 weeks.

lazuras_dc said:

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Wow. I know it's a borrowed horse and all... but it would've been a lot to convince me not to leave the SOB in the woods the first time few times it threw me off!

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Thats exactly how I felt. I'm no horse guy, so I would have definitely made a different decision on my own (and probably gotten at least the horse, if not both of us, killed). In hindsight. I think we could have left him tied somewhere and he would have been fine after a day or so. No way we could have known that then.

He's just lucky I didn't shoot him, because that's what I wanted to do after he threw me off the trail like a rag doll.

Part 8: Feels like I've been at it for a week, but it's only day 6 of the season.

I had to really talk myself into going back up to my deer bed spike camp. After repacking, and shoveling more mountain house and water down the gullet over a 2 hour period, I had my mind right to go back and stick it out for 5 nights, which was all the time I had left.

After re-setting spike camp I decided to go yet another direction to a different canyon in the opposite direction of my target buck.

I had glassed up 13 bucks one morning in this canyon last year, and without much effort, since I didn't have a deer tag. The CDT runs along the top of it and it's common to see hikers and other hunters cruising it at times.

I finally spotted some bucks to the north but only had about 75 minutes of legal light to get close. I threw caution to the wind and hauled ass... and I mean hauled it. I made great headway and got within 250 yards of the 3 bucks I could see. One of them was a dandy.

Put a quick plan into place that would allow me to keep my pace, unseen by the bucks.

It all came unraveled when I topped a little knob to see 7 or 8 more having a little buck party not 100 yards in front of me.

I watched everything bound off in different directions, cussed myself a bit, then said a little prayer to get back up the mountain safely before dark. Got back to camp with a new old focus... my target buck.

It should be less than 14. What the hell else ya got going on a Tuesday afternoon?

Dude I'm so amped I feel like I just watched Rocky fight Drago! Thanks for sharing!

Heck yeah. Great story. Thanks for sharing

If anyone is interested, youtuber Justin Rackley is documenting his public land hunt in Colorado.

Believe he is Class of '08.

Hell I can't figure out how to embed the videos so click the links or piss off! Y'all can figure out the rest of the story. I'm packin for my Elk Hunt. Yaw mooole!



https://i.imgur.com/3Je6EwT.mp4

The dippin dot snow is "Graupel", not gravel. It's a German word for pain in the ass stinging precip. GD German snow sucks!

Final 500 yards

https://i.imgur.com/iSNp6Mg.mp4

LEJ, where r you hunting again ?

North of Pagosa Springs in the Weminuche Wilderness. 77

Ugh, sorry for your brother... that's brutal.

Stay after it man! Go get you one!!!