Colorado hunting trip a success, should keep freezer well stocked
Supper table shot: Bob Schenck, me, Brother Bob, Bob Miskanin, Betsy Schenck
It’s Monday, October 29 and Hurricane Sandy, the perfect storm of the century, is now hitting the eastern seaboard. With a storm this big our weather will be affected for a few days to come.
Only time will tell how much damage this big storm will bring and if any lives will be lost.
The storm surge predicted will certainly affect travel along much of the coastline, as well as inland in places as it comes up rivers and inlets.
As we were coming back on the Thruway yesterday we saw many repair crews traveling in this direction in anticipation of any damage the storm will bring with it.Winds of over 50 miles per hour have already been reported in New York City. It’s only going to get worse which will surely bring down power and telephone lines.
We also noticed that streams and small creeks in western New York were already flowing at high levels from the two and a half inches of rain that has fallen in that area since Friday.
Bob Miskanin and brother Bob with cow elk
We missed it here in the Adirondacks but this one will surely drop much rainfall—and possibly snow—in this area before it is all over.
When I was out in Colorado, in one of my phone calls to Karen she said she saw a red bird at the feeder that she thought was a Cardinal.
Well, this morning I looked out and sure enough there was a male Cardinal feeding at the feeder with a mate on the ground.
We had one stop by for a day or two several years back but it didn’t stay the winter. I should have put up my net this morning before the storm hit but I had other things to catch up on. Hopefully they will stick around for few days and I’ll get bands on their legs.
Out west I saw some birds in the Carbondale area that I hadn’t seen there before. The morning I shot my bull Elk I was on the Golden Hill in Fenders Ranch and a bird buzzed over my head at breakneck speed.
I did not see the bird, only its shadow. It was a hawk chasing something.
Later I saw a Peregrine Hawk, which I’m sure was the bird whose shadow I had seen earlier. These birds are very fast fliers and can do over 75 miles an hour in a dive.
Another bird that I hadn’t seen in this area was a Clark’s Nutcracker. One day while on watch in Cattle Creek I saw four or five fly by.
Then two days later I saw a dozen in a group flying down the valley in front of me.
Later that day I saw one at camp setting in a tree top and Red Shafted Flicker not two feet away.
There seemed to be a lack of wild food because it had been so dry out there this summer.
I saw several Steller’s and Pinion Jays, a Cassin’s Finch and a Northern Shrike. The Black-billed Magpies were everywhere and loved the gut piles we left them.
Before taking Bob Burnsbey back to the Aspen Airport for his flight home I dropped off the other two Bobs in Cattle Creek.
We saw several Mule Deer that morning and two nice bucks but no one got a shot.
After leaving Bob at the airport I had a few errands to do and then I went back to Cattle Creek.
While driving in, a nice 4×4 buck jumped the creek and stood on the bank about 140 yards away.
One shot and he was down. He was over 200 pounds so it was a good thing it was all down hill to the truck.
I got a plank that I used to load the four-wheeler and had him in the truck before anyone got back.
We made a trip to Silt and it spit snow on the way back. Before we went to bed there was an inch or more on the ground.
We went to Fenders the next day and there were a couple inches of snow for tracking. Brother Bob and I went to the top of the mountain to get the jeep back down and check for tracks.
We left Bob Miskanin off at the bottom where we took two cow Elk last year.
When we got back to the bottom Bob had seen three cow Elk and two Mule Deer but they were too far away for a shot.
I walked back up to the top of the mountain to see if I could get these animals back around for a shot. I jumped these animals and they went right between the two Bobs, but still no shots.
Then a cow and calf came back. Bob Miskanin got a long shot 170 yards and killed the cow Elk, his first ever. It was high on the mountain but Brother Bob and I were able to drag it downhill to within a couple hundred feet of where we could get it to the jeep.
The two Bobs were the butchers and I carried out the parts to the jeep. That was the end of our hunt. The meat box was pretty full for our ride home, which is always good.
Funny things that happened on our trip west, but that’s another story. See ya.
