Originally Posted by Lloyd3
Well...it was a bit if a boondoggle. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people there are out in the backcountry anymore. It's been nearly untenable here since the COVID experience and I had hoped it would return to something resembling "normal", but no, now it's full of these "overland" vehicle types driving equipment that costs more then a house. I realize that it was Labor Day and everybody was getting in their "last hurrah". It's also bow season for big game here and there were plenty of those folks out there too.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

We saw some birds and even got one but...it was a serious circus out there. After it got too-hot to really hunt (95 in Craig on Monday) we headed down to explore that lake we'd been told about. It sadly turned out to as a mud-bottomed bovine latrine, ringed with campers and pickup trucks. I suppose you could fish it with a belly boat, but at 90-plus degrees that day we weren't buying. It was fun to see the country I normally hunt elk in without snow and... we were able to go places that aren't normally available to me then. But...it wasn't really worth all the trouble (and burn all the fuel) to get there, get a hotel, and then get up early to go up the hill. Colorado is sure a mess anymore.

Your last statement is spot-on, Colorado sure is a mess anymore!

I'm fourth generation Coloradan & can't believe what has happened to the state. I for the most part quit going to the mountains several years ago due to the items you've mentioned above. I will be up in the Craig area in a couple of weeks for a pronghorn hunt, but it will be on a private ranch with a trespass fee involved. It's getting hard to even find ranchers who will let you hunt with a reasonable trespass fee these days because most of them have contracted with outfitters. I used to hunt public land back in the days when you could easily draw a license & still not have much competition on the million's acres of national forest & BLM lands Colorado has. Now it takes years to accumulate enough points to draw a license in a good area & when you do the public lands are crawling with different types of rig's & people driving around.

I'm still out there doing what I love to do, but I do long for the days in different times! Maybe our mutual friend Mr. Cobb has it right & it's time to look elsewhere for a place to live!