Some of you who read the title of this article might think I'm
referring to a foot race of ten kilometers for some charity of other.
Well, I'm not.
What I'm referring to is the altitude my two hunting buddies and I camped at during our recent elk hunt in Colorado. Ten thousand feet! My alternate title for this article was "sucking air" because that is what you find yourself doing up there.
It's amazing how every little effort, be it working around camp or walking to get to where you want to hunt that day, requires such an effort to breathe. We were okay on level ground even when carrying our packs and rifles. Only problem is that in the high mountains of central Colorado, there's no level ground. We found ourselves stopping every few steps to catch our breath and after walking a few hundred yards, we had to take a major break to let our hearts and lungs catch up to our dreams. Even rolling over in a sleeping bag or lacing up your boots was an effort.
Hunting and camping at ten thousand feet was interesting in a lot of other ways as well. We were at the tree line altitude so if you wanted to hunt lower down a few hundred feet, you would find yourself in aspen groves spotted with an occasional Frazer Fir or two spiking high into the clear blue sky. If you wanted to go a bit higher, if you thought your lungs could deal with the effort, you might be faced with wide open brown grassy meadows. One of the favorite spots near where we were located was a large area called the "Texas Meadow." Don't know where or how it got its name, it wasn't near as big as Texas and didn't look anything like Texas, but there it was waiting for us at 10K.
Another area near us was referred to by the local hunters as the "Dark Woods." Wooooow! Scary huh? Not really, come to find out is was nothing more than a few acres of Frazer Firs on the side of the mountain just below a steep rock cliff leading up to the high plateau above us. To the locals, this was a difficult place to hunt because they couldn't see their usual thousand plus yards for a clear shot at the elk or mule deer.
The most apparent difference in hunting these mountains versus the mountains in the eastern states, besides the oxygen issue, is that even in the heavily wooded areas there is little if any underbrush inhibiting either sight or shooting lanes. I sat in a large aspen grove one day and could easily see two to three hundred yards for a clear shot at anything that came within range. In the Adirondacks, unless we happen to find a farmer's field somewhere, it is very unlikely that we would ever have the opportunity to see or shoot these kinds of distances.
Then, when we sat in areas such as the Texas Meadow, the sight and shooting range stretched out as far as Detroit....or Chattanooga. We had to listen to some of the locals brag to us how they shot an elk or mule deer 1,200 yards away from where they were sitting. One guy told us that he shot an elk at 1,400 yards..... on the run. Right!!!! I think the high country and lack of oxygen might have made him just a bit light between the ears or he thought us easterners were the ones a bit light in the head. Funny how once we said we were from New York, we suddenly transformed from three rough looking guys with guns into a dance group with little short skirts and pointed shoes all dressed up in pink.
By the end of our nine days in the high country, we three certainly walked away with an enlightened opinion of our western "mountain men." I'll tell you more about that in a coming article. I think you'll be surprised.
See you outdoors!
You can reach Dick at totinorj@yahoo.com.
It's amazing how every little effort, be it working around camp or walking to get to where you want to hunt that day, requires such an effort to breathe. We were okay on level ground even when carrying our packs and rifles. Only problem is that in the high mountains of central Colorado, there's no level ground. We found ourselves stopping every few steps to catch our breath and after walking a few hundred yards, we had to take a major break to let our hearts and lungs catch up to our dreams. Even rolling over in a sleeping bag or lacing up your boots was an effort.
Hunting and camping at ten thousand feet was interesting in a lot of other ways as well. We were at the tree line altitude so if you wanted to hunt lower down a few hundred feet, you would find yourself in aspen groves spotted with an occasional Frazer Fir or two spiking high into the clear blue sky. If you wanted to go a bit higher, if you thought your lungs could deal with the effort, you might be faced with wide open brown grassy meadows. One of the favorite spots near where we were located was a large area called the "Texas Meadow." Don't know where or how it got its name, it wasn't near as big as Texas and didn't look anything like Texas, but there it was waiting for us at 10K.
Another area near us was referred to by the local hunters as the "Dark Woods." Wooooow! Scary huh? Not really, come to find out is was nothing more than a few acres of Frazer Firs on the side of the mountain just below a steep rock cliff leading up to the high plateau above us. To the locals, this was a difficult place to hunt because they couldn't see their usual thousand plus yards for a clear shot at the elk or mule deer.
The most apparent difference in hunting these mountains versus the mountains in the eastern states, besides the oxygen issue, is that even in the heavily wooded areas there is little if any underbrush inhibiting either sight or shooting lanes. I sat in a large aspen grove one day and could easily see two to three hundred yards for a clear shot at anything that came within range. In the Adirondacks, unless we happen to find a farmer's field somewhere, it is very unlikely that we would ever have the opportunity to see or shoot these kinds of distances.
Then, when we sat in areas such as the Texas Meadow, the sight and shooting range stretched out as far as Detroit....or Chattanooga. We had to listen to some of the locals brag to us how they shot an elk or mule deer 1,200 yards away from where they were sitting. One guy told us that he shot an elk at 1,400 yards..... on the run. Right!!!! I think the high country and lack of oxygen might have made him just a bit light between the ears or he thought us easterners were the ones a bit light in the head. Funny how once we said we were from New York, we suddenly transformed from three rough looking guys with guns into a dance group with little short skirts and pointed shoes all dressed up in pink.
By the end of our nine days in the high country, we three certainly walked away with an enlightened opinion of our western "mountain men." I'll tell you more about that in a coming article. I think you'll be surprised.
See you outdoors!
You can reach Dick at totinorj@yahoo.com.
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