Didn't have time to post my usual "on the way out" post as work on my last day ran waaayyy long. Last Wednesday evening it was finally time to get the F outta dodge!! Big Blue was loaded with my stuff and a buddy from work's stuff who I had asked up to our camp and I drove to Ft Collins to meet up with my other two camp mates and over night. Once I got there we realized that we could get the entire camp into BB and did the pack job that night. 0500 on TH we were off. Trip was uneventful (wish BBs gearing wasn't quite so high as she doesn't like to climb in 4th ). Stopped in Toponas at the general store to get my yearly 12 pack of Busch (tradition) and then headed into the backcountry. BB with chains on just chewed up everything that was thrown at her. A trip up the Jeep trail that took 4.5 hours last year took 1/2 hour this year. I did give BB a lil trail love as I let my spotter talk me into a too tight turn....no biggy. Got to the valley and end of the trail we camp at (beginning of no wheels area into the wilderness) to find some Leroys that came up late last year.....kinda creepy lookin dudes but that is what you get with public land Camp went up well and got the fire wood cut that afternoon so we had a day to chill and look around. My buddy couldn't come up until Friday after work and didn't get into camp until long after we were sacked out. We got up early and headed out to the head of a big valley to watch and see what was about. Beautiful but no action almost all day, only a couple of shots on the private land down low. Got back to camp and found out that work buddy had seen two big bucks about .5 miles from where we were but no tag....my other buddy and I had the buck tags Starting Sunday everything changed. EVERYBODY starting seeing animals. I saw two does with fawns and everybody saw everything OTHER than what they had tags for. It was comical. We had two bull tags, two doe tags and two buck tags between the 4 of us. All of the days included great hikes through the woods and scenery. Monday I tucked into a heavily wooded area with small secluded meadows to see what was about. I found a north facing meadow with snow and LOTS of sign so I popped down at the base of a spruce and relaxed. About 45 mins later I heard a racket and thought that I was getting walked up on by another hunter. Crunch...crunch. Then, about 15 feet a away I see brown step out of the timber. Holy crap!! He was a nice 5x5 (again, me with no bull tag). It took him about 30 seconds to figure me out and take off but it was really cool. As I got back to camp that day for lunch I was told that our firends in an adjacent camp had a cow down and could use some help. Got that taken care of and we were off to hunt for the evening. My original two camp mates went back to back with doe tags and our meat pole started to fill. They hunted the same meadow I had gotten my first bull in two years ago. It is a very productive spot. Tuesday my work buddy and I got up early and headed to that same drainage to try and cash in as well. We were in place by 0615 and watched the meadow until around 1000 when 4 deer just "appeared" in the middle of the meadow ( about 150-250m wide and .75 mile long), Two does and two forkies. How did that happen? I moved to get a shot but they moved down toward my buddy. SHOOT!! He did, missed, but got the bigger forky on the follow up. Incredibly they moved right toward me at a light trot I got a good rest this time and punched my forky's clock at about 160m. He was quartering strong toward me so the shot was more straight on than I would like but was a heart shot. Needless to say that the 180gr TB did so much damage in the cavity that it necessitated my first gutless method. Went well and I packed the deer out in one trip while heading to camp to get the sled (Great birthday present from household 6) to pull out his deer. Pretty much filled up the meatpole. We had a great evening of Rumpleminz (our success schnapp) and chow. All slept in except for the work buddy that went out WED to chase a bull. He saw more deer only. Overnight we had gotten some snow and rain and decided that was the day to pull out before it got too bad. Work buddy had his own stuff to stay and chase (he just got out today) but the other three of us loaded up BB and took off for home and butchering. A very good week.....didn't want to leave