Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Okay folks, I havent been back through this to refine the writing, but in the interest of getting it out to you asap, here it is. It will take multiple posts and I am not completely finished with it so bear with me.


This story starts in 1997. That was the year that Dad and I decided to start accumulating preference points for Colorado elk hunting. Thirteen years later, we had 13 points and applied for Unit 76 in southwest Colorado. After a lot of research and considerable thought given to doing it ourselves, we decided to hire Sammy Frazier Outfitting. The summer was spent getting in shape and shooting our rifles. Sammy kept stressing that we may have to shoot a long distance, so practice was essential.

Wednesday, October 13th. Dad was late in picking me up. He got to my house at 3:05 am. I didn�t know there was a 3:05 am. After 20 hours on the road and a nice, but quick, visit with a friend near Denver, we arrived at our hotel in South Fork, CO.

Thursday, October 14th. A beautiful day, crisp and clear. Mmmmm the mountains are wonderful this time of year. We decided to drive up to the Lost Trail Ranch where we will meet Sammy tomorrow. Good thing too, as we went the wrong way on our first attempt! But we got it figured out and found that it will take us a lot longer than anticipated. The gravel road was terrible for the last 15 miles. It took us well over an hour to make that last segment. On the way back, we stopped and made sure the rifles were still on.

Friday, October 15th. A leisurely breakfast and we were on our way! Arrived a little before noon and met our 2 other camp mates. Brad was from upstate New York and was a stay at home dad. Bob was from Colorado and was a retired business owner. Both were nice gents (which is a relief as you never know who you could end up with!). On the horses and we set off. It took us 3-4 hours to get to camp and it was another beautiful fall day in the mountains.


















I tried to soak as much of it in as I could. Camp was a cook tent surrounded by 3 dome tents for sleeping at about 11,200 feet.


















We were about halfway up a long east-west drainage called West Lost Creek. A small river ran down the bottom of it. Willows lined the creek and grassy slopes gave way to dark timbered steep mountains on either side. Timberline was roughly 12,300 feet and above that it was grassy slopes all the way up and over the ridges. In some places, there were sheer cliffs, other places it was possible for elk to go up and over. Later, I would learn that elk can go up or down anything other than vertical.

Our guides were Pat and Jake. Pat was going to guide Brad and Bob and was from Iowa. Jake was from Texas and was going to guide Dad and me. Jake brought with Daylon, a junior in high school who was along as a wrangler and wanted to learn the trade. You could feel a lot of excitement in camp, but with a 4:00 am wakeup call, we all turned in early.