Golden Homecoming Week

The girls had a fun week preparing for the Golden High School Homecoming dance. Every school has one of these each fall and the Aussie's have been taking turns attending each others school event. But this week was Golden's turn and it included a whole week of crazy dress-up days. First it was "neon" day. Then it was "toga" day. Then it was "superhero" day (that's Super Uncoordinated Girl, and Thunder Down Under)...serious, I couldn't make this stuff up. Then it was "decades" day (looked pretty much like neon day). Then we finally got around to the main event...football game and dance. Yeah... Golden won by a narrow margin 48-7 :)

Bec had fellow Aussie exchange student Alice Brose, and her american partner Jo Graff over for the final make-over stages (so the picture is l to r: Jaimie, Alice, Bec, Jo). And let's not forget the tradition crazy shot.

Sounds like everyone had a good time...now the only thing left to do is sweep up the glitter on the bathroom floor.

Muzzleloader Hunting

The aspen trees were just barely starting to turn color last week as my friend Steve Hiebert and I headed up to Pauls cabin for a long deer and elk hunt. It's been a pretty hot fall so I think the season is a little out of whack, but compared to last year there was a lot of rain in the mountains. The service berry and choke cherry bushes were loaded with berries and, while that's good for the animals, the undergrowth is so heavy it's much harder to find them. It's also good for Paul and Carol who collect the berries for jams, jellies, and wine.

We decided to spend the first three days at Paul and Carols, and then move over to public land if the animals weren't plentiful. Opening morning was encouraging when Paul had a cow elk literally walk right up to him about 9:00am. After a little work we hauled that meat out on a 4 wheeler. Next morning Steve and I had a close call when 4 elk came out of nowhere and ended up running right between us. Unfortunately, they managed to stay just on the other side of some bushes and there was no shot for either of us. After that the next couple of days were pretty dead with the exception of a lot of grouse running around. While these make for some good eating (tastes just like chicken) we didn't want to possibly spook the big game animals by harvesting one of these guys.

Steve and I decided to move venues over to another part of the national forest to an area we know usually holds lots of deer and elk. We left the comforts of the cabin and based out of the camper near the foot of Saddle Mountain. The first evening there was amazing. Right about 6pm I had big bull elk about 50 yards away in some heavy cover thrashing a tree and stamping the ground. We had another 4 or 5 bulls bugling up and down the short valley above and below us. I had a small herd of cows come right up to me within 30 meters and offer up a great shot but because of the licenses we were holding, elk were off the table in this area. Next day I managed to get my buck deer up on top of Saddle Mountain, and Steve got his deer the following day on the way back to the camper. It's a tougher spot to hunt but I guess that's why the animals are in there...rough country makes for fewer hunters.

After filling our deer quota we headed back to Paul and Carols cabin for another "shot" at the elk. Long story short... we had a couple of fleeting sighting, but no real action. Even so we filled 3 licenses so not a bad outcome, and we got to enjoy some great late fall weather.

Mount Evans

The road to the top of Mt Evans is the highest maintained roads in the country taking you to 14200 ft in elevation. In the spring, after the melt, it looks like what you see at the right. We weren't sure if we would be able to schedule an actual climb for Bec since the weather is already starting to turn cold, so the next best thing was to drive her up. Unfortunately, the joke was on us since it turns out that the last 5 miles of road was already shutdown for the season (for no apparent good reason). The highest we were allowed to go was Summit Lake at around 12000 ft. The wind was blowing a cold gale, which is pretty normal up high.

Great views...I've got to fish these lakes sometime.

Labor Day '08

Our friends (Paul and Carol) cabin near Craig, Colorado sits in a grove of huge aspen trees and the combination of shade, altitude, and scenery make it a welcome relief from the sweltering summer temperatures in the city. It's a great place for a "getaway" on a holiday weekend when you don't need to compete with the general public for a camping spot . I had a few things in mind for the girls to do while we were there, and first up was a little tour of the property. Unlike last year the service berry and choke cherry bushes were loaded with fruit. Paul and I had done some improvements to the trail system over the summer, so we piled into some 4-wheelers and went for a ride.

Bec mentioned that she had done some shooting before so I tossed in the .22 cal rifle for a little target practice. Bec was very enthusiastic about this and quite the deadly shot as it turns out. Don't mess with this one boys or she'll fill you full of holes.

Saturday was a perfect sunny day, but our luck ran out soon after. The Sunday fishing trip was very soggy affair and, adding insult to injury, the favorite fishing stream was not running especially well and the fish seemed to have died out. I had a go while the girls stayed in the truck, but no luck.

Lastly I took Jaimie and Bec out in the evening to try and call in some coyotes. You could hear them barking all night so it seemed like a workable plan even though it's been a while since I've done this. I dusted off the predator call, got the girls outfitted in some camouflage clothing and we headed out into the woods. Well, the critters weren't buying it. When they don't turn up it's hard to tell why. Guess they were off hiding out with the fish.

All in all it was a good trip. I think Bec had a good time...I've never seen someone get so excited about putting on camo makeup. Add to that Carols gourmet cooking and a few beers and it was a very pleasant weekend.