What BOBO said

Fyi they been camping at 9500.

Put me in the "maybe" category as well. I joined the 2014 trip and had a blast. Well, technically we didn't "blast" anything, so maybe a different word.

I have a yearly meeting in October that I can't miss, so it all depends on the season dates and what I hear from work (I will usually know by May). If the 2nd season dates don't work, I may try to make a trip for 3rd season and will see if there is anyone else interested. I believe there are OTC licenses for the same area for 3rd season.

Yes I believe there are OTC tags in season 3, there should be more snow also. We didn't have much snow last year during second season to move the herd down to us. I am thinking about applying for a cow tag.

37.6217000°, -108.2131500°

Shouldn't have a problem killing one if you can get a tag.

Right, you and I saw what, 5 that one day? Sat and watched them most all day waiting on that dang bull!

Yes, and we saw them the following day, as well, and I think everyone saw cows at some point.

No snow in second season for 2014 too. Makes me think maybe third will be the way to go. Of course, the year I change seasons will be the year of the early blizzard and banner second season harvest.

But shouldn't we get back to that caliper discussion? I really feel like we were making some progress.

yep, the 2nd season of '15 was a wet, nasty motorscooter! Started raining on opening day (Sat.) and rained virtually every day thru the end of that week (Fri). Made for some not so perfect hiking conditions, rain gear on/off/on/off/etc. There were few snow flurries, ice fog, sleet, but mostly rain. Lows in the upper 30s to low 40s, highs in the upper 40s to low 50s with some of the snow sticking up higher where I spent most of my time (flatter walking) around 10,000'. We camped around 7800' and hunted up to ~10,500. This was the earliest I had ever been elk hunting, as we used to always hunt the later season but you can run into the chance of some really nasty weather then too.

I agree with the others that went, it was a fun time, good fellowship, some comic relief, poking in good fun (for the most part), everyone saw elk but with the temps & weather, the larger herd(s) hadn't pushed that far down, so we were basically hunting the resident elk that had already been stirred up from the 1st season the previous week.

my best advice, start now getting in shape if you are remotely thinking of going! I started in the June timeframe and worked my way up to covering about 10 miles per day walking ... but I am around 600-900' above sea level. Our first day, the crew I was with (ZK-315 & JSimms) covered 13.7 miles all of which was in the 9500-10000' above sea level along with a 30-40 lb pack plus rifle. We all removed as much weight as possible from our packs before day 2 needless to say.

As I used to tell my FIL when we came back empty handed and he was so disappointed, "Hey, we got to see some beautiful country, good food, fellowship out in what God provided us ... we got our cake, just no icing this trip!"

I sure was glad to have good rain gear that was easy to put on and take off. It was a mess.

I slacked off all winter, but I resumed my workouts yesterday. I'm a little sore today, but it feels good.

Did most of you put in for a drawing or buy over the counter tags?

They went 2nd season when it is OTC.

we were all OTC for bulls ...

About the same here. I think eventually going to order one of those work out masks to simulate alititude to help train.

I was on the real mountain crew and although we were only walking 1-1.5 miles it was 1000 feet or so of elevation. Made going up a pain but going down easy.

This is going to be tough, Im now trying to decide whether I should bring a travel trailer and sleep well at night and have a shower, or bring a UTV for easier transportation. And I have never towed a double trailer before so I dont think this is the time to try that one.

Utv can not be used in a lot of areas, most I think. But more edumacted will be on long to clearify

Also depending on where we camp, getting flat ground may be hard as well

Correct Cleric. UTVs and ATV can only stay on the roads where we were last year. I think there was only one day that a utv/atv would have been handy and that was when PMK, Sneaky and I ventured over to a different mountain. There was one road I was a bit skeptical to take my truck on so we turned around. It wasn't necessarily the terrain, but a combo of the terrain and tight trees.

Where we hunted, we drove the truck right up to where the main trail heads started, and took off on foot.

But I thought those were called "shimmering aspens"?

Some people do...

Haha! They are these days.

So who was the dendrology guide on the trip?

Good ole Cleric himself. I will give him credit, he is a wealth of knowledge