Some of you fellas are as dense as granite. Doing stupid things is one thing, writing about it on the internet and having a bunch of guys say that it was admirable is another. He wrote a great story, seemed to have a good time, and that's outstanding. Leaving on a trip all the way across the country and planning on the way is ill advised at best. Traversing dangerous ground at a rate of speed that conditions and your skill level won't allow is liable to get you killed or seriously injured. Shooting under conditions that are outside your skill set is a poor choice. These are just some highlights, there's more. I can't speak for everyone that hasn't been a fan, but I think that talking this debacle up as doing it right is a disservice to those that might like to try something similar.
Jim had his cow allotment below eagle peak in colorado years ago before finally starving out working his cows on the weekend on the NF and working the mines out of Grand Junction through the week. He would visit and eat with my brother and me on occasion at our archery camp at the trail head at 10,300 ft.
After many years he had been the guy who found the remains of two different lost, frozen hunters the following spring. These guys had pushed it a little too hard in pursuing their ultimate quest of a bull elk trophy.
He found each the following springs of their last hunts after bringing his cattle in from the low country and repairing fence on the Nat. Forest in the Colorado high country.
He said each were found in the same manner and sitting on a hump, hands frozen over the muzzles of their rifles which stood upright from between their spread feet, chins resting in perpetuity on their glove clad hands, faces black as the ace of spades.
The second and last he found before he was starved out by small acreage and low cow allotment really kind of tempted him, he said, as his head was propped up over the muzzle of the most beautifully stocked Weatherby he had ever seen - a gun much more valuable that the old travel trailer he left in the mountains to stay in over the frigid weekends to oversee his cows and fix fence from on his weekends away from the mines.
He begged me and my brother to gut shoot any bruin we got a chance at with our bows as their population was outstripping that of the elk and deer and costing him several of his bovine herd every year.
Last edited by eyeball; 12/03/13.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants.
If being stupid allows me to believe in Him, I'd wish to be a retard. Eisenhower and G Washington should be good company.
