This week centered entirely around the camping trip I was taking to an elk camp. Normally I hunt elk, at least in the sense that I have a license and walk through the forest with a gun. This time though I was just going as a camper, and I would be mountain biking in. It took a lot of prep to carry everything on my bike (days 113-116). The camping trip was pretty miserable (days 117-119).

FIRE: Day 113 (10/19)

Gym, Spanish, and hunting prep were the main activities today.

At the gym it was kind of a fun day. It was crazy busy which was not the fun part – I almost turned around and walked out because it was so busy, but decided to just work through it.

I met a lady named Kate, who I had talked to before. I keep getting to the leg press machine right before her, so she has ended up waiting on me to finish twice. She helped me load and unload my weights, and we chatted about how busy it was, how they need more of some equipment, crazy prices at Lifetime Fitness, etc.

Shortly after that a young guy named Layton asked me for a spot and we chatted a bit. I really enjoy these rare interactions, but I never want to initiate them not knowing people’s situations. I have unlimited time to talk, but most of the other people there probably don’t.

In the afternoon I made a comically inefficient and incomplete grocery run. I started by going to Costco, and I forgot my Costco card. I messed around in the parking lot hoping a way to get in without my card would materialize, but of course it didn’t.

King Soopers was also on my stop list, so I went there. It took me forever to find everything. I realized I forgot to bring bags, so I had to buy two paper bags.

The rest of the afternoon I worked on installing my bike back rack and front roll.

In the evening I met up with an old coworker in downtown Denver. He was hanging out down there after taking his kids to a concert at Ball Arena. This is the same friend I went with to the guitar concert recently.

FIRE: Day 114 (10/20)

Today was rough, like full hangover rough. Last night I only had four units of alcohol which is in the safe zone for me. The staying up late part is what really got me. It was almost 1am when I went to bed. I’ve noticed this in the past on nights where I haven’t had anything to drink. Just staying up late can result in a hangover.

I had the second half of my deep cleaning at 8am. When I was almost to the dentist, I got a flurry of calls from them and a text saying they had to reschedule. I just went in because I was almost there already. The hygienist was sick, so I rescheduled for another day and paid an outstanding balance.

I didn’t go to the gym because I felt too crappy. Instead I made the Costco run that I failed at yesterday. I got everything I needed for hunting, some regular groceries, and some good extra finds that will diversify my camping meals a bit.

In the afternoon I took a nap, and felt better after that. In the evening we watched a couple high school volleyball games.

FIRE: Day 115 (10/21)

Gym, Spanish, and hunting prep.

I worked through my bike packing more and got the first ride with a loaded bike. It felt pretty tippy. I started looking at ways to lighten the load like buying a smaller tent and backpack, since those together weight 15.5 lbs. Ultimately I didn’t want to spend the money on that, so I reoriented the tent/bag roll to lay flat in the fender crate which helped a little. I’m just forging ahead with what I’ve got. I think ultimately I’ll get there, it’s just a question of how slowly and how much I have to walk the bike.

FIRE: Day 116 (10/22)

Aside from doing a good amount of Spanish, all of my time today was focused on hunting (camping) prep. I got everything gathered together and packed onto my bike to assess the end result. The result of the assessment – fuck. I almost died the first time I rode this stretch of road with nothing packed on my bike. Now I have about 20 lbs on the back fender, 8 lbs on the front roll, and about 23 lbs on my back.

The bike feels pretty much fine riding it in the cul-de-sac, but even in that little area I get moments of squirrelly handling. I’m just going to have to take it extra slow.

My friend wanted to meet up in the town Hayden before we head north together to the campsite. He’s getting there too late though for my biking. I would be getting on the bike at around 3pm with a 2.5 hour ride ahead of me and dark setting in around 6:30pm. If anything went wrong I’d be working in the dark. I’m going to go earlier than him, with the downside being I have to carry all of the gear on my bike. He’s getting picked up by other people in our party, and I could have offloaded some stuff to them.

I’m feeling pretty anxious overall. That’s a good thing though because it means I’m doing something hard.

FIRE: Day 117 (10/23)

Today I left to join the elk camp where I’ll just be a camper.

Driving to BLM land

The drive was ok but a little longer than it should have been because of accidents and construction on I-70. I had some other mishaps like getting yelled at by a traffic directing guy. I tend to get confused by unusual traffic diversions, and this was a construction detour with an added accident in the same area.

It looked like the guy was controlling traffic for the traffic perpendicular to me in front of me, and that I had a stop sign (flashing stop lights) with that cross traffic stopped. He wasn’t making eye contact so I couldn’t gesture to ask if it was ok for me to go, and I started thinking I was supposed to go, so I edged out. He saw me and yelled for me to go back, which I did. After a minute or two he came over and we chatted – pretty nice guy. Told him sorry, I misread the situation.

Besides that I arrived fine at a little patch of BLM land that those of us not driving to the final campsite use as a parking lot.

Biking to the campsite

I had dropped off my fender crate, front roll, and backpack at the trailhead hidden in the brush. I didn’t want to bike with that stuff any longer than necessary. It was about a two mile ride from the BLM to the trailhead. While loading my stuff onto my bike a quad of hunters pulled up and the driver gave me shit saying “oh that’s rough! want us to tow you?”. I just laughed instead of calling him a lazy fat-ass.

The ride went fine, and really not substantially worse than when I rode it with no gear. It was exhausting, but I probably rode and walked the same portions as the first ride. The bike wasn’t too tippy or hard to control.

About a mile into the trail I ran into my hunting buddy’s son (HBS) and his friend. They offered me a ride to go get HB (hunting buddy), who was arriving at the BLM land about an hour behind me, and then back to camp. I declined, wanting to complete the ride.

Over the rest of the trail I ran across all of the ATV people who had passed me initially, and I think I started to gain their respect once they saw me 3-4 miles down the crazy road. I got a high five from the guy driving the quad, and a couple positive comments from other ATVs.

Arriving at camp

The camp arrival was a relief physically, but it was an odd social experience. I didn’t know any of the four guys there. We chatted a bit, they gave me a beer, and I set up my tent and joined them by the fire. It kind of felt like I was invading their camp, which would set the mood for the rest of my time there.

Eventually HB and HBS arrived back at camp. We had steak for dinner that HB cooked, and then chatted by the fire until we went to bed.

FIRE: Day 118 (10/24)

Camping last night was pretty cold and uncomfortable. My sleep pad deflated so I was on the cold hard ground all night. I basically didn’t sleep and got a 40 sleep score.

Through the day I was sad a lot, and wondering why I go on these hunting trips. That’s not unexpected after the exhausting bike trip, drinking, and not sleeping.

I went hiking a bit, and then came back and took a nap. The evening camp fire was awkward with HB and HBS both out until after dark, leaving me hanging out with strangers. On top of that it was raining and we all had to huddle in the little kitchen tent. I was sitting literally inside the open legs of another dude I had just met a day earlier. The oldest man in the camp brought stew that his wife made which was really good.

I didn’t drink very much tonight and I really saw all of the hunting party through clear eyes. I liked them on a casual hanging out level, but I’m a by the book hunter and they definitely are not. I’ll leave it at that without getting into specifics. I will not be hunting in the same camp as them.

FIRE: Day 119 (10/25)

It rained off and on overnight and the roads were pretty muddy. I was leaving camp today though, no matter what. This was by far the least enjoyable elk camp I’ve ever been to. There were too many people (eight including me), most of them were strangers, I didn’t approve of what they were doing, and the rain made everything miserable.

HBS and HB were sort of insisting they drive me down to my car. I told them multiple times that the ride down is the fun part. Finally I said if they were going for some other reason, then sure. They did have another reason which was to carry a bunch of empty coolers and things like that down to another vehicle, so they could make a single trip out when they leave.

I packed up all of my stuff while they loaded their truck. Others in the hunting party were already getting shit faced… before noon.

The ride down the mountain was comical, and I would have easily made it faster on my bike. HBS’s huge truck had to hoist itself over rocks, fight to grip up hills, and avoid its own weight dragging it into mud holes. It took about 90 nauseating minutes to get to my car. On my bike I would have made it in one hour tops, with fresh air in my face the whole way. They did save me from getting muddy, so I appreciated that much.

The four hour drive home felt pretty quick in the luxury of the Crosstrek.

In the evening I unpacked everything, and we watched the Broncos vs Cardinals.