Colorado Adventure Day 7

Day 7 of the Colorado trip started off with high expectations. The skies were clear and the moon bright this morning, although it was cold. This should have got the deer moving after yesterdays storms. Kevin joined me down in the valley and set up about 250 yards from the stand I was in. Hopefully we would see some deer this morning. Around 7:40am the coyotes cut loose again, they sounded like they were closer this morning than they were yesterday.
The minutes passed and turned into hours. I new that this morning was going to be a bust, nothing was moving except birds. I glassed the mountain sides to see if there was any movement, the only thing I saw was muddy trials and sage brush. At about 10:00am I noticed some movement off in the distance, but I knew that Kevin was going to be coming that way at that time. It was him heading in to pick me up to head back to camp. We crossed the creek and made our way back to camp.
We decided to make the most of the day since it was going to be our last full day here. We packed up the quads, camera, and our bows then we took off towards the summit blind.

View From The Summit Blind

We figured we would at least take some pictures and video from the summit blind and maybe, just maybe we would see a deer in the distance we could put a stalk on. When we got to the river we had to cross it with the quads, it was there we took some photos and video. Then we headed up to the blind. As we approached the blind I noticed a doe mule deer cross in front of us, finally we saw a deer! After a few photos and some video we headed back down to camp to eat lunch then it is to the creek for some fly fishing.

My Trout

We spent about an hour trying to catch some trout out of the stream. After no luck at the stream we tried the pond and had some success. We each caught one trout a piece on my fly rod. We then hurried back to the cabin to clean them and get ready to head into the woods.

Kevin's Trout

We got into the woods around 5:00pm, Kevin set up in the same place as the morning hunt and I headed back to the stand. At 5:30pm I saw a doe come in from the right just under my stand. I watched and waited for the deer to offer a shot. It made it to about 25 yards out and quartering away. I knew that this was the shot to take so I drew back and took my time placing the shot. I snapped the release and the arrow flew right into her left side. She kicked and ran off. I just knew that I had placed a good shot. I watched her run out of site and sit down for a while to rethink the shot. After about a half hour I got down and went looking for the arrow. I found it and when I looked at it my heart sank! Just a little bit of blood and hair. I am now thinking I made a bad shot. So I went back into the stand and replayed the shot in my mind over and over again. I kept seeing the arrow hit my mark, but I couldn’t be sure she was lying out there somewhere. I had to wait until dark to go look so I wouldn’t disturb Kevin’s hunt. It wasn’t long until I heard what sounded like a bow shot from his direction. I later find out that it was him who shot. He took a nice doe from about 36 yards away and it ran about 100 yards. I wish I could say that. We got a game plan together to go looking for my deer. We came back and got the quads and crossed the creek to start looking. It was so dark it was hard to see. I grabbed a new tool that I was given to field test this year. It’s called Illumitacks from Elusive Wildlife Technologies. They are flashing led lights that you can tack on a tree. We needed to be able to see our way back to the creek to cross and it was almost impossible to find it without them. I placed it on a tree near the brush that covered the crossing on the creek. We could see the light from over 200 yards in the dark! We then went to where Kevin’s deer was at so we could start the search for mine. I placed an Illumitack on my quad so we could find our way back to it in the dark also. Remember we are in the mountains in Colorado and didn’t know our way around too well.
Next I broke out another tool that I was given to field test. It is called Blue Star, it is a blood finding agent. You spray it on the ground and it illuminates blood no matter how small. We went to the spot where I shot the deer and started spraying the ground. Now remember it is dark out and you are not supposed to use any light source when using it. The ground turned florescent blue, it was amazing how well this worked. We began the tracking process finding blood along the way. I had blood on two sides so I knew that it was a pass through shot. We wound up tracking it up the mountain and back down again into a thicket, then to the creek and across it. That is where I lost the trail. We also had run out of spray to see if we could pick it up again. I hate like heck to hit a deer and not find it. I don’t know if it died or not, but I will try to do a broad search tomorrow morning before we head back home. That is why everyone needs to practice, practice, practice. I haven’t shot from an elevated stand on a regular basis this year and I think that is why I missed that buck earlier this week and possibly lost this doe this evening.
If nothing else at least Kevin got his first animal with a bow, that is pretty awesome to be a part of that.

Kevin's First Archery Harvest

Now that my hunting is over for this trip I have to say that despite my not getting a deer I had an awesome time. I will just have to take some time and reflect back on what an awesome week it really has been. I just have to get the sour taste out of my mouth for screwing up my two great opportunities.