First Half of our Hunting Trip Oct. 2009

Time to go hunting! We picked a spot near Livermore, CO to try out our first hunting trip in Colorado together, Rachel's first hunting trip ever. We got out there Saturday afternoon got set up then went on short hike to check out the area. Sunday morning we headed out around 5:30am for our first hunt. About 2 hours into our hike we spotted some deer, 4 or 5, but they were all doe and we had buck tags. A few hours later we saw some wild turkey, no tags for, then we got within about 15 yards of another group of deer. Once again they were all doe. After hiking for 5 hours we decided to head back to camp, we knew it was at least another 3 hour hike. On Monday we were pretty exhausted so slept in and headed out about 11am. We decided we would hike up a mountain to see what we could find. No animals up there, just lots of bear scat and beautiful views. Then it was time to go down, steep and rocky, but worth it for the views. We found an area that we could tell the deer bed in; decided to check it out on Tuesday morning. Tuesday we got up early and headed out to the hill overlooking the area we scouted. Very cold morning, but then finally we saw movement. About 10 deer in total. We couldn't get a great view to see if there were any bucks, so we followed them a bit. Rachel couldn't tell if there was a buck for sure up there, so wasn't comfortable taking the shot. Chris though, being the pro he is, could tell and was comfortable taking the shot. We hiked up the hill to find him then had to field dress and load him in our sled. Now a 3 mile hike up and down hills back to camp, exhausting. Rachel was to head back with the dogs and to the meat processor. Chris would stay back and scout out a couple more places for the rest of our hunting trip. We still have another buck tag, bear tag, and elk tag. See slide show below for all the pictures of the first half of the trip.