A hunting we shall go, 2009 Colorado elk

[tradtusker]

good luck fellas All the best!

[Missouri Sherpa]

Al and I rolled into my Iowa compound late last night. We have some housekeeping and laundry to do today and then he flies back to Australia tomorrow afternoon.  More pictures and story to come as time allows.

[Son of Texas]

Can't wait for the stories and pics!!!!

[piggy]

Have been checking here every day to see when you blokes are back. Looking forward to the story and pictures.

[bretto]

This is one I've been waiting on. Glad Your back safely.

[J-dog]

Think I am awaiting the stories as if I was waiting to go out there myself!!                

[Kingwouldbe]

Been, waiting for this one, spare no details guys.

[Missouri Sherpa]

I am finally getting caught up a bit, still at work, but will start posting up a few pictures.  Mr. Kidner is going to be in transit to Australia for the next day or so and will be pretty consumed with catching up himself before he has to go off to work again.  He will be hard pressed to have much time for posting pictures for awhile.  Al took many pictures, more than I did and with his fine camera the quality of his photos are better than most of mine.  I have his photos on a big SD chip and he has given me his permission to post whatever pictures I want.  I will begin the process and Al can add to it whenever he has the opportunity.

First off I am quite pleased to have had the opportunity to share this hunt with Al Kidner.  You could not ask for a finer person.  You never know what you are going to get when 2 complete strangers get together from the far corners of the world but we seem to share similar ideas and values, personality traits such as not suffering fools, holding reputation and integrity in high regard etc., and I entirely enjoyed our two week hunt.  Furthermore, Al bears an uncanny resemblence to my younger brother and every last member of my family (children, sister, wife) all remarked that he looked like my brother when he was that age.  An amazing case of twin sons of different mothers I guess.

I picked up Al at the Des Moines Airport, showed him how to get around  so he could find the new Bass Pro Shop that just opened, and gave him the keys to one of my vehicles so he could explore some on Thursday and Friday while I was at work.  He spent a good four hours soaking in the three acre Bass Pro shop with its stunning displays of over the top taxidermy and retail goods.  We took in a steak dinner and went buffet busting at my favorite chinese lunch place.  He and my son washed and prepped the horses and we were ready to depart Friday night.  I have classmates from high school that have children older than Al.  He is closer to my son's age than mine but that is of little consequence.  He is a willing worker and participant in the process.

   

I had them put the travel boots on the horses legs before we loaded up.  I don't like to show up at the trailhead with a horse having a big gash in his leg from the horse next to him.  These boots might help and I like to take the precaution.

   

Loading up one of the trucks.  This truck only has 75000 miles on it.  I have nothing but trouble with it, as it has left me stranded 4 times since I purchased it 30 months ago.  We would have some complications with our journey.  We pulled out about 6:00 p.m. and headed westward down Interstate 80.

About halfway across Nebraska around midnight we were stopped for fuel and as I always do, I place my bare hand on each tire to see if it is getting hot.  Yowsers!  The right rear tire on my old trailer was burning hot and had thrown most of its tread.  I have had 4-5 trailer tires go flat on this trailer and it is always the same one.  The clearance between the tire and the fender was very tight and was going to be a problem.  I try to prepare for lots of contingencies but I neglected to throw a cutting torch into the tool box for this trip.  Walmart was still open.  Plan A. They did not carry an acetylene torch.  Plan B.They do carry an angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel but they were sold out.  Dang!  Plan C.  Skill saw was in stock and so was a metal cutting blade.  I had a 100ft extension cord so we had to find an electrical outlet.  The girl at the counter of the one of the Convenience stores was closing up and she did not care if we used the store outlet.  We were in business.  We cut off the fender and replaced the tire.  I would purchase a couple of new tires the next day.  I have sometimes had difficulty finding good trailer tires in the middle of the night so I always like to have at least two spares for my trailers.

   

Cutting off the fender at the 7-11 in the middle of the night.

[Missouri Sherpa]

We continued on westward.  I was having intermitent problems with my trailer lights on the Ford Truck/Trailer unit.  I had used a skidloader to move the trailer and had compacted dirt into the ball hitch reciever on the trailer.  I figured we had a bad ground.  We pulled over at the rest stop in Pine Bluffs Wyoming and I stripped a big wad of copper wire and stuffed it up into the ball reciever.  Presto, problem solved after on quick drive around the rest stop.

Problems seem to come in threes and we were not done.  About an two hours later the alternator fails on the Ford truck.  This alternator only has about 5000 miles on it since last December when it was replaced.  We spent 8 hours at the Laramie Ford dealership getting it fixed.  Fortunately this was the last thing to go wrong with our equipment for the trip but I was suddenly short a kilobuck for the Alternator, a new battery and a pair of 14ply trailer tires.

   

When you have hours to kill hanging around a car dealership you might look at some cars.  I caught Al lusting after this mustang and he asked to have his picture taken with it.

   

We spent the night at a local hotel after we fed and watered horses at the city park.  Next morning after a good breakfast we unloaded at the trailhead and fed and watered the horses again.  I make feed bunks out of old air tanks.  This is preferrable to using nose bags or rubber feed pans.  They cannot tip these over and they are deep enough to keep the horses from nosing out too much of their feed.  

   

I insist on weighing everything and getting evenly divided loads.  Here is Al showing his form at weighing coolers.
   

It takes a couple of hours to feed, water, weigh packs, saddle and load all of the horses.  We were off, finally.  The trailhead was full of weekend hikers and fishermen, parking lot was full and people everywhere.  We would pass them all up by the time we made our way to camp 8 miles up the mountain.

   

We crossed a bunch of creeks and some of them had bridges across them.  I am always leery of dragging a string of horses across a long hollow sounding wooden bridge but we did not have any rodeos the entire trip.

   

We stopped about half way for a short rest and to tighten up a few straps.  We made great time and got to camp in about three hours.  I had a horse turn up lame and my most experienced packhorse had pneumonia.  I shot him up with antibiotics for three days before we left and he was fine when we returned from this trip but we were one horse short for the pack trip.  We had to divide the extra load between the other four pack horses.  We were loaded kind of heavy, around 200 pounds per horse and kind of bulky too with the extra top loads.  We did not have any trouble and made great time.  I am proud of the performance of my horses, they did a great job.

[Mike Bolin]

   

[Missouri Sherpa]

I rode the same horse I have for several years, Sylvester.  I tried to get a couple other horses conditioned to be lead horses but none of them are as good as this one.  There are some things I don't care for with this horse but handles the best with one hand, doesn't ever spook and he can flat out walk a hole in the wind. He is a handsome devil and really sets a fast pace for the rest of the group to keep up with.

 

I had Al on a very dependable horse and he pulled a single pack horse along for me.  The number of problems you have with a pack string increase as an exponent of the number of horses you have in one string.  Better to divide them up a bit if you can.

[Shinken]

This is *AWESOME* stuff MO Sherpa!

Keep it comin' man!

I am on the edge of my chair....

Shoot straight, Shinken

[Missouri Sherpa]

This is headquarters.  My old friend, the Montana Canvas Alaknak tent.  I stayed in this tent along with my son the first week and Eric Nielsen the second week.  I cooked meals and we eat in there.  I have been using this tent for 12 years and it probably has another 12 years in it if I keep on taking good care of it.

 

This is the guest quarters behind the main tent.

 

Both tents have a small woodstove and cots which are major comfort items on a two week hunt in the mountains.  Al and Charbineau stayed in this tent for two weeks.

 

I have a very light weigh but heavy duty bag rated to 40 below.  I didn't really need such a good bag but with a name like Sherpa gear and getting a huge discount on the purchase price I couldn't pass it up.  

Laying on the bag is a fenix tactical light with a light diffuser.  Turn this baby on and hang it in the top of your tent and its like turning on a 60 watt lightbulb.  We had plenty of good light to take our morning and evening meals.

[Missouri Sherpa]

Here is my kitchen.  I have a griddle, 3 teflon skillets with folding handles and a coffee pot.  There is a story to the pot, which will come later.

We had grilled pork loin, chicken breast, sirloin steaks, pancakes, omelettes, sausage links and patties, ham, bacon, scrambled eggs, egg mcmuffins, breakfast bagles, stirfried oriental vegetables... you name it, we can do it in this camp.  We have a bit of makers mark, glenlevitt, or JD after supper.  Real enjoyable company.

 

What a great crew.  I did not have to chop any wood all week, and we had plenty of firewood to run the stoves every night.  I have a gravity filter water purification system that takes most of the work out of keeping good water handy and they kept up with the water duty too.  I only had to cook the meals and do the dishes which isn't too difficult with disposable chinet plates and paper towels that get burned at the end of the week.
 

We had a good place behind the tents to target practice, just about every day.

 

Here is a picture of Al and one of his fine arrows captured in flight.  His camera had a fast shutter speed and it was no big trick to take this picture.

 

Here is Al showing his shooting technique for Chital deer in the tall grass.

 

We highline the horses about 100 ft from the main tent.  I can look outside and see them if they are making any noise.  Horses need to graze 5-6 hours a day to get all the forage they need.  I would get up at 4:00 in the morning and turn them loose to graze.  I catch them a couple hours later on my way to the morning hunt and turn them loose again in the evening while we are having supper.  Highlined for the night.

   

Dump 50 pounds of sweet feed on the ground and they come running.  Easy to catch.  If they have been out long enough the will go stand under the highline and wait to be tied up.

 

I let these horses run loose in the meadow.  They have every opportunity to eat all they want and drink all they need without me having to mess with them.  I have yet to have one try to run away.  I think they really like it up here.

[Shinken]

Any bear sign in this country MO Sherpa!

Did you spot any wildlife on the ride in?

It is beautiful in there!

Shoot straight, Shinken

[Kingwouldbe]

No hurry my friend we been waiting for 2 weeks to hear your story's, take your time.

[Missouri Sherpa]

Yes, we did see Moose, mule deer and assorted small animals coming and going from camp to the trailhead.  We saw a total of 4 bears and have good footage of 2 of them.  I guess this is as good of time as any to post the bear pics.

 
 
 

Al and I came across this toad on the first day we hunted.  I have a pair of Leuopold wind river binoculars.  Not the finest glass in the world but they have a built-in range finder.  This bear was 193 meters from us.  The wind was blowing from his butt to his nose and he was feeding uphill.  We could have circled this animal and kept out of his wind.  He was feeding toward a patch of timber and we think this bear could have been taken with a longbow by a man with enough courage to get in his path.  This bear has a belly that nearly drags the ground and is sway backed with huge shoulders and a big head.  He leaves piles of scat about 12 inches across and 6 inches high.  He is a big old bear with a frosty tipped cape over his neck and shoulders.  I have killed  a number of bears and have been in camps with bears taken that weigh over 500 pounds on the camp scale.  I would estimate this bear to be in that class, 500 pounds or better.  I applied for a bear tag but did not get my order placed in timely fashion.  I called in about 20 minutes after the limited tags went on sale and the DOW was sold out.  Next year I will have my computer ready to place an order the second the sale opens.

Bear sign was plentiful and present everywhere you turned.  Big boulders turned over, logs ripped apart and lots of scat.  There was a tremendous berry crop(raspberry, service berry, wintergreen etc.) and the bears were feasting on it.

 
 

 

Al and I stumbled upon this bear about sunup on Sunday morning our second week.  I was taking my pack off to relieve myself after climbing up to a relatively flat bench and this guy woofed at us, several times.  We were within 30 yards of this bear for 10-15 minutes.  I have never seen a blue phase black bear before and have never even heard of one outside of the glacier bear in Alaska/BC  This bear was not as big as the first one but I estimate it to be about the same size as the full body mount bear I have in my basement, around 300-350 pounds.  Still a fair sized bear and with a beautiful long silky coat.  I had my bow ready to plug this bear if it jumped on Al while he was taking pictures.  The bear was acutely aware of the shutter sounds and was circling closer for a time before he finally fed off and went up the mountain away from us.  If we had tags we would have had a slam dunk shot on this one and probably on the first bear we saw.  There are plenty of bears in Colorado.  Steve and Eric saw a sow with a cub this same day.  The cub was black and the sow very large, black with a white patch over her shoulders.  They took some pictures but turned out to be quite blurry depiction of black smudges at 100 yards.  If I can get them cleaned up, cropped and sharpen the image I will try to post it.

[Missouri Sherpa]

I have to get back to the pile of work that is staring me down.  I have a few more wildlife pictures to post as well as some more great scenery habitat pictures before we get to the hunting and shooting parts that I figure you are all waiting for.  It is not my nature to drag out a story but I need more time to do it right so bear with me, pun intended.

[Guru]

This is awesome!          

That has got to be the coolest looking black bear I've ever seen   :eek:

[northener]

You really know how to do it up right!! I really enjoy reading this thread and the pictures bring it to life.  Thanks Mo Sherpa