The crew…..

After the bulls settled down on the last day we headed back to camp early. We had a great week but we were eager to get our stuff together and head off the mountain. There were 6 of us hunters in camp, 4 guides, and the camp cook, Gregg. He was a very interesting man of few words. He seemed to be one of those total anti-government types and I joked around about his "bunker in the woods". Then he preceded to tell me all about his bunker and how he is planning on stashing supplies along the mountain roads. This was going to happen after his seasonal run for mountain mushrooms to stash away for rations. I asked him to smile for a picture and he told me he was manic depressive, that was the last time I asked Gregg to smile for a picture. He mostly kept to himself but if you got him going on certain topics, of course political, it was like opening pandora's box. He played the harmonica for us the last night and was actually quite impressive. Let's just say he prefers to live in the mountains. 

The two guys with my dad were father in law and son in law from West Virginia. First time they had been on an elk trip. They had about as much luck as we did.

Here is a picture with our guide, Mike. He was only 23 years old. He did a great job all week. He limped along with an abscess tooth but never complained. 

These were the three main guides. We had one guide for 2 hunters. The guy on the left was Andy. He was 24 years old and seemed like the type you could never dare because he would literally do anything. He worked really hard all week for the two guys from west virginia. One night he left on horseback by himself in the rain to figure out a new trail for his guys in the morning. Can't say I would have ever done that in the middle of no where by myself. 

Dustin is in the middle. He was 32. By far the most experienced guide. He apparently won several elk calling competitions in Colorado. He had lots of stories with calling in other hunters intentionally if they were in the area strictly to mess with them. He was the only one all week the other guides weren't sure if it was him bugling on the other side of the mountain or a real bull elk. He had a funeral to go back to in the middle of the week and stayed with his hunters all day, a father and daughter pair. When he came back to camp he had to ride 2 hours in the rain/sleet on his horse to get back to camp. He finally got back around midnight. These three guys were of course more "man" that I will probably ever be. A rough crew to say the least. I thought my camera might break just attempting to take their picture. These guys had been living in the mountains since July scouting and getting to know the area. They like the simple life. 

Here is a picture of the entire group on the last day, minus Gregg of course. The father/daughter pair in the middle were from Denver. She was only 13 years old and lasted 6 nights and 7 days with a bunch of guys. Never complained once. She shot a 5x6 bull on the first day at 20 yards but they lost blood and couldn't recover him after looking all day. The next morning she shot a different small bull with a perfect shot and they couldn't find him either. She held her own and did better than probably 90% of most 13 year old boys. No one actually got an elk on the ground but all saw plenty of elk and had a fun time doing it.

When Gregg heard over the radio two days in a row that Addie (13 year old girl) killed a bull he started writing a song. He threw the first away when they couldn't find the bull. He kept the 2nd version and decided to play if for us anyway even thought they didn't find her bull. So we had to pretend she found her bull.

I actually couldn't get out of camp without getting a picture of Gregg. He even gave me a half smirk, I think…….