I am almost sick. My old man (Chuck, the boss) is off hunting Caribou in Quebec and I am at home working my (well you know) off. Did run into a bit of something encouraging this weekend though. After fighting my way through the Labor Day weekend crowd in Estes Park (and waiting 1 hour and 12 minutes to get a bucket of KFC), I made it up for a good hike in Rock Mountain Park. Along the way, I happend to run into this nice looking fella. Solid 6 point bull, virtually perfectly symetrical. We sat and watched him for over an hour, he got in really close (as you can tell by the picture I was able to get with just a cheap point-and-shoot digital), and was already doing a bit of bugling. Hunting season is close… my license results from the draw kind of suck but at least it is almost time to go.

What may make it better is that I think I’m going to go with a new rifle this year perhaps. I am hauling my Remington Classic 35 Whelen up to the store tomorrow to make a trade with Mike for a stainless #1 in the same caliber. I haven’t bought a gun in forever… should have known I couldn’t hold it much longer. Hopefully some of you will get the same pleasure this season.

And by the way, as a lifetime Colorado native, I am happy all you folks from all over have become a part of our beautiful state but seriously, the crowds in the mountains two weekends a year (Labor Day and Memorial Day) are really getting ridiculous, haha ;-).