A Spikey Buck Hunt

This year's hunt for Travis was the archery buck and spike elk. He's never hunted archery before and was anxious to try out his bow and all his new gear. He hasn't hunted big game for himself since before he started PA school 3 years ago, so he was very excited to get to hunt for 4 whole weeks. I was rooting him on, mostly from home with Dallen, hoping he would fill his first archery tag and our freezer. Dallen, Lily and I did go out about once a week with Travis to 'help' with the hunt. Obviously it wasn't a very serious evening hunt on those days with a bouncin schnauzer and a fussy baby. We still had fun though hiking around and getting out up into the mountains. Travis' Dad and Nick came up for opening weekend while I went to Breckenridge for the family vacation. Nick came back a couple more times to help with the hunt as well, so I got to see Mindy then too. Sadly Travis didn't end up filling his tags although he came pretty close a few times. Once there were too many tree branches in the way; another time he jumped them and didn't have time to pull off a shot; and numerous times they just got spooked. It's a whole new type of hunt trying to get one with a bow and arrow. And although he wasn't successful this season, he's already known around here as a die-hard-hunter.

A few mountain goats-the white specks on the hill

One of the bucks he got close to, walking away from him

Dallen's first hunt!