My dad, brother and I went and took a ride out to our hunting area today. My dad missed last year due to big surgery issues that almost killed him. Hes been itching bad to go out and do some hiking to get back into shape since he lost so much weight and muscle from the hospital time he did.
We got up there around 2pm and took him to a new camping spot and our jaws dropped.
The person cutting trees down last year, took EVERYTHING, including the trees we parked the camper under!
We took the time to scout around for a new spot to camp this year and luckily they didnt completely wipe out the next area we will try this year. Its next to a real rough 4x4 trail so hopefully we wont have much traffic. Just really sickened me to see a forest wiped out like that. Living trees! I thought it was illegal in CO ntl forest to cut down living trees for firewood? It sure was when we would cut in ntl forest.
Next step was to do some light hiking and so we took him to our new deer hunting area my brother and I found last year where he got his doe. A little up hill walking, but thats what my dad needs as he gets sick to his stomach when he does any up hill walking. He did real good and we'd stop and take a rest now and then to make sure he didnt over push him self. No deer in he area today but lots of elk sign.
The entire hunting areas are just filled with water and green grass and flowers. It was like walking through a painting. Also picked some mushrooms and found the edible ones.
Just a shot of one of the elk areas I will be hiking down into.
I found a nice deep ravine in that area and want to check it out. Its a long uphill climb, so that will be the day when I strip down the bare minimum and go at it. Maybe find a deer or even a bear down there. They seem to hang out in these areas for shade and water.
On the drive back down the mountain, a little 150lb UGLY as sin, dirty blonde body/ brownish red head, bear ran across the road. Had to have been the ugliest bear i've ever seen to date.
Hunting season is looking good so far, just hope the rain keeps up so we don't have to deal with crunchy grass and leaves. The aspens today were just amazing.
Nice cool rain came through soaking everything, smelled so damn good. A lot of aspen damage however from the spring snows. A lot of the younger trees are stilled bent over and a ton of them are snapped or had to be cut by the forest service. Just a real mess of a jungle.