high country elk hunting in gunnison colorado with bows and archery

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

That first afternoon I hiked up a nearby drainage with Bill, another guide in camp. We heard no elk. Here, Bill glasses a distant ridge.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Commander and Company hunt an area that stretches 7 miles by 10 miles. It's open to the public, though getting in there without a horse is tough. During the week, we saw only three other hunters.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Most of the guys hiked up to Lookout point the first afternoon we were in camp to get a sense of the lay of the land. As you can see, the view from Lookout is amazing.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

The hunt began with a flight from New York to Grand Junction, Colorado, on September 22. I met up with Greg, Brian Peterson (also with Field & Stream), Eric Barnes, and Jake Fagan at the Grand Junction airport, then the five of us piled into a rental car and headed out of town. We eventually found some National Forest land where we set up targets we had bought at Sports Authority and sighted in our bows. We watched Brett Favre and the Jets lose to San Diego on Monday night football, then got up at 4 the next morning and drove to Paonia, Colorado. This is Butch's Cafe, the only restaurant in Paonia.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Eric sorts through gear in one of the bunk tents. The first few evenings we didn't need our wood stoves, but later in the trip the temperature dropped into the 30s at night - even though it stayed in the 70s during the day.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Here, Terry points out a likely spot while Eric looks on.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

The cook tent was the nightly scene of great dinners and was where we made all of the next day's plans.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

The ride in was inspiring, with incredible scenery all around, and got us primed for the upcoming week. Once, we saw a brown-phase black bear on a high ridge, but he was gone by the time I could my camera out.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Greg gets his horse ready.

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fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:00:00 -0400

That's me on Friday, my horse for the trip. Friday was a great horse, though he was one of those animals who had a mind of his own. Every time the packtrain would stop, Friday would kick up dirt, stamp his hooves, then turn around and look at the other horses. Sometimes he'd also decide he didn't like the trail, and try to head off on his own. But I've ridden a few mountain horses on trips over the years, and know enough about getting the difficult ones to behave that I was able get Friday back on track. We got to camp without incident.