Yesterday I took a walk. The woods are a piece of public land roughly a couple miles long and a little over a half mile wide. The elevation is 8600 feet, it's about six miles E of the continental divide.
Good views and things are snowy now.
There were three other cars there when I parked at around 7. Temps in the 20s with a breeze and five inches of snow from about 24 hours before.
Passing the entry gate to the closed campground I saw what I thought were tracks. Just as easy to walk up the hill then follow the closed road. They were elk tracks, right there right next to the highway for whatever reason.
I heard a bugle maybe over the noise of the road but I had suspicions. I kept my ears open and when I heard another bugle I walked in that direction. Soon I glimpsed the orange safety orange through the trees. The rut is long past.
Following the height of land I spotted human tracks, one normal sized the other a youth or child. A second pair of people through the trees. One more to go. The front range of Colorado only has one "over the counter" unit. I was in it.
During the past summer there had been extensive fire mitigation thinning of trees. I'd think in another few years this will be prime deer habitat. For now there are just giant mounds of brush and clear cut.
I followed a ridge of land back away from the road and all the people. The tracks I did see I followed until they left the public land. Elk passing through on their migration. While it's heartening to know something has passed through in the past 24 hours no animals were pausing, except out by the road.
The grass was still green in many places from the recent rains. It was also cropped off close to the ground by the elk. The grass was in very widely spaced tufts, maybe ten of twenty feet apart. One pile of scat, wet and unfrozen but not warm.
Slowly I made my way back towards my car, wandering around not really knowing where I was on the changed landscape. The clear cuts are welcome by me. The only species that used to grow was stunted lodgepole. Opening up to light will allow mountain mahogany and many forbes to get a start. Small plants and bushes support a variety of animal species. I'd of rather a fire, nothing spurs growth like a good fire. Too many houses now for fires.
I approached a hill overlooking the parking lot by circling around downwind. Elk love to hang up top of that hill, I've spooked them out of there before. No use wasting one of the few chances I'm likely to get. Walking through the tall dead grass I see lots of sign, but no elk. The windblown hill has pieces of ground without snow. Setting down my pack and rifle I sleep and doze in the sun for over an hour, then brew up a pot of coffee using melted snow.
Feeling half human despite my 4 in the morning start I cross over to the dark side of the small valley and look for a place to anticipate animals entering the private land after crossing the road. I walk around figuring out distances from road and re checking for any buildings of any kind. Everyone is gone, too cold.
I find a spot. A log to set my but on, some brush to break up my outline. I wait. A lenticular cloud has taken up a spot above me shading the sun. Steady wind at 20 gusting to 50. I can't hear a thing over the wind. Cold. A dozen turkeys wander by close enough to take a photo with my iphone.
I settle in for the long cold wait for sunset when I have an excuse to go home. I turn on my phone and read an anti hunting thread on Dkos in between looking up and after my eyes adjust, scanning the clear cut below me looking for movement. One day amongst many.