The Camp

After the 2 hour horse ride we made it to base camp. Sits approximately at 9,500 ft. The two good days we were into elk we hunted the mountainside you see in the background.

The big tent on the right is the cook tent where we ate all our meals. The small tent to the left is where we stayed. The next tent was a hunter tent and the 4th one was the shower tent. 

Here is a shot into the tent. There were 4 of us staying in here, very tight quarters. Army cots didn't really sleep that well but the further into the week the more tired we were and then it didn't seem to matter much. The wood stove had one setting, HOT. It literally ate wood. If you didn't put new wood in at least every 2 hours the fire would be completely out. We made a fire every night because it would get down pretty cold, especially when they woke you up at 4am. 

This is inside the cook tent. That's Gregg in the back, our camp cook. He was awesome and always working. He kept the place settings set and clean. He washed all the cups and plastic ware but would trash the plates. He ALWAYS had hot coffee inside a percolator sitting on the wood stove. Super hot but super good and always fresh. 

This was Gregg's set up. Pretty sweet to be in the middle of no where at 9,500ft. He had a nice camp stove and an oven that ran on propane in the corner. The even baked 2 sheet cakes during the week. They woke us up at 4am and breakfast was hot and ready at 4:30AM. Each morning we had a combination of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, french toast, biscuits and gravy. For lunch we packed "meat sandwiches" which did get old by the end of the week. For dinner, some of the options were beef stroganoff, pork chops, rice pilaf, green beans, meatloaf, soup, beef burritos, steak, and lots of other sides. They kept us fed pretty well.  Keep in mind everything you see was packed in on horseback including tables and chairs. ALOT of work I am sure. 

This was the "office". Really the bathroom. They had a real camp toilet which was a nice feature. The fence you see around the trees was for two reasons: 1) to keep the horses pinned up, 2) to keep the bears out.

This was probably the best amenity of them all. A HOT shower when you came in at night. It ran on a tankless water heater and propane. It was so nice to have this luxury at the end of the day. 

This is a shot of the tankless water heater. Best part was the aspen stick going into the shower that you used as the "on/off" and "hot/cold" settings. They had it rigged pretty well.