Whispering Pines 50K Trail Race

Whispering Pines 50K trail race report.  My first ever DNF (Did not finish).

The weather actually turned out close to perfect for mid May in east Texas.  58 degrees and moderate humidity at the start, climbing to mid 70's and a slight breeze when I finished.  It had rained earlier in the week but the trails were in great shape and from that perspective I couldn't have asked for better conditions.

I did have a little bout with a stomach bug on Thursday before the race, everything was going right through me and that wasn't helping the old carbo loading very much at all.  I was feeling poor enough that I broke my running streak of 50+ days and decided to take a break that day.  Friday had me feeling better, but still not 100%, but I was going to be racing pretty much regardless.  Friday turned out to be a pretty hectic day and I ended up not being able to get in a run that day as well.  After a little over a 6 hour drive we got checked into the hotel and were in bed just after 10, but I was wired and couldn't seem to get to sleep.

My training hadn't been perfect with the 3 weeks off completely with the broken collarbone, but I felt like I had pretty much gotten back on track and was still thinking I might actually be competitive even though I was supposed to be focused on not falling more than running fast.  5:30 rolled around way too soon and ate a couple bagels and a banana and headed to the race.  Actually got started a little later than we wanted from the hotel, but made it to the race in plenty of time and packet pickup went really smooth and had about 30 minutes to spare before the race started at 7:00.  Got my drop bag ready and put it on the tarp provided and just tried to relax and enjoy it.  It was a beautiful morning and before you know it the race was ready to start.  

The 50K and 20 milers start 30 minutes before the 10 milers and 7K'ers so there were about 125 runners or so going off the line.  I was thinking about just keeping an easy pace, but I was still also thinking that I might be able to run right around 5 hours so didn't want to go out too easy.  That was just under a 10:00 pace and I just couldn't comprehend how I could run much slower than that, even walking up some of the steeper hills.

Right off the bat the course goes up a small hill, drops back down, up another hill, drops, back down, repeat, then down a big hill and up a big hill, lots of ups and downs.  It is single track so we all kind of got into a spot right at the start and then just kind of held our spot in line for better or worse.  I really felt like I was doing a pretty good pace for me, it felt like a little more effort than I was wanting, but not too bad.  I was hoping that the fact that we were running about 2,500' lower in elevation than where we live would help offset the higher humidity.  I had my phone set to just tell me the time and distance every 5 minutes instead of average pace, split pace and all that fun stuff and as I suspected it was lost as a goose and the GPS was shorting the course about 25% due to the heavy tree cover.  10 minutes in and it said that I had not even gone .75 miles and I knew I was running faster than 10:00 pace.

The trail was in good shape and the tree cover was so thick that it was shaded about 95% of the time.  There were tree roots everywhere and at first I seemed to be doing a fine job not tripping on them.  Just over a mile or so in people started to spread out a little and get some space between us and I started to relax a little and sure enough, I tripped hard and went down.  It happened very fast, and I reached to brace myself with both arms, not able to keep my reactions from working faster than my mind which would have said "don't brace yourself with your left arm!".  I popped back up and was running down the trail before really even thinking about it, but doing a mental inventory for pain, everything seemed fine.  I could still move my shoulder fine, I reached over and felt where the break in my collarbone was and it felt fine, I seemed to have averted total disaster barely a mile into the race.  I pledged to myself to pay more attention and focus on those tree roots even harder.  

Here's a picture that I took off the race website that I think shows what most of the course was like.

Maybe another 1/2 mile or so I think I glanced over at some cows in a nice pasture that we were running by and bam, I was on the ground again.  Again, my reactions were quicker than my brain and I reached out with both arms.  Again, somehow I ended up okay and I didn't re-break my collarbone.  

This was getting borderline ridiculous now, surely I can run without falling on a nice trail through the woods!  There weren't hardly any rocks or anything, just those tree roots everywhere.  With renewed focus and a big sigh of relief I continued on.  Maybe another mile down the road and I was on the ground again.  No idea what happened that time.  I don't think I was able to even reach out to brace myself before I was on the ground, but again somehow my collarbone was still intact and other than a growing number of scrapes and scratches, I was no worse for wear.

About this time I really started thinking whether I needed to continue or not.  The first aid station was at 3 miles and there was a shortcut back to the start on an old road there.  If I continued to fall at this rate it wasn't a matter of "if" I was going to re-break my collarbone, it was a matter of how far I was going to make it before I "did" re-break my collarbone.  The trail actually seemed to be getting a little better and I decided I would continue on, but just focus even harder on not falling.  

I seemed to finally get into a groove and really started making some progress.  My effort level still seemed a little higher than I would have expected, but I was running a pretty comfortable pace and walking on the steeper hills and I felt like I could maintain this level for a long time.  Weather was close to perfect still.  Before I knew it I was making my way toward the 2nd aid station at the 7 mile mark.  I had tripped a few times, but really nothing even close to a fall.  I was getting pretty confident.  

In and out of the 2nd aid station, some nice downhill running on a fairly smooth section of the course and I was feeling even better.  I actually caught up to some of the 7K runners that had made a shorter loop and felt very smooth and things were really feeling good here.  Maybe the best I felt the entire race.  The trail got hilly again and the tree roots showed back up, but I was able to make it back to the start line to finish the first loop without falling again and went through in 1:41 which was just 1 minute slower than I was planning.  3 1 hour and 40 minute loops would put me right at 5 hours.

I hit the hilly section at the start of the 2nd loop again and really focused on my feet and not tripping.  Made it through the first couple miles really well, didn't trip at all.  The hills were all much bigger the second time around and some of the smaller ones that I ran up the first time I walked up this time.  I was slowing down, but I was also focusing on not falling so I still felt pretty good about things.  Right about the time that I was feeling really confident again I went down hard.  Ended up skidding down a hill on my back a little bit.  Okay, that wasn't fun, but guess what?  I still hadn't re-broken my collarbone!!!  I went on with renewed focus on my feet placement and made it into the 1st aid station with just that one fall where I had fallen 3 times in that section the previous time through.  I was getting better!

Just some quick water and a GU and back down the trail.  This goes on a long uphill section for a little over a mile almost and I was starting to feel it.  I did a little bit of walking in here on some areas where the hill wasn't very steep at all.  I ended up matching up with another runner who was wearing sandals and I we chatted back and forth quite a bit over the next several miles.  I had forgotten to put any body glide on and my nipples were starting to rub me pretty good so somewhere in here I ended up taking my singlet off and tucking it into my race belt.  Somewhere around mile 15 or 16 a runner up ahead of us fell and called out to warn us not to trip over something, so of course I immediately proceeded to trip and fall for the 5th time.  It wasn't a bad fall though and I still felt okay about my improvement in my not falling ability.  Continued on to the 2nd aid station at the 17 mile mark and was starting to get tired, but actually pulled away from the guy wearing the sandals and was making a pretty decent pace.

I was taking GU every 45 minutes or so and drinking plenty of water.  In one of my falls I had landed on one of my water bottles though and the cap that only opens up when you squeeze on it was broken and it splashed water out with every step.  That essentially left me with one working 8oz water bottle for the distance between aid stations, then I would use the broken one to drink at the aid stations.  It was working fairly decently but I was getting a little worried about how that was going to work on the last lap with the temperatures were getting a little higher.

I left the 2nd aid station and started to enjoy the nice downhill section with the smooth trail for a bit, right up until I fell hard for the 6th time during the race.  Again, I reacted quicker than I thought and braced myself with both arms as I fell.  Again, somehow I didn't re-break my collarbone.  I was starting to get depressed with my continued falling and I was starting to get tired as well.  Renewed focus and kept going down the trail, but it seemed like I lost some of my energy and the little uphills were getting harder and harder and I was walking just about any uphill I came to.  I was starting to think that maybe I was really pushing my luck and the next time I fell might be the end of my lucky streak.  I was also thinking that as I got more and more tired, the chances of me tripping and falling were probably going to go up.

I was trying to enjoy the trail, the scenery was really nice and trees are just something we don't have many of in Lubbock.  Sure enough I started feeling good again and then found myself looking around and quickly found myself hitting the ground again for the 7th time.  Again my reactions were faster than my mind and I found myself bracing my fall with both arms.  Again I was lucky and didn't re-break my collarbone.

If this is starting to sound like a broken record to you, it was really starting to sound like it to me.  I was running with no music, just my phone telling me the time and distance every 5 minutes and the sounds of nature around me.  I had plenty of time to think and the more I thought the more I realized that I was really pushing the envelope here and not being very intelligent about this.  The whole reason why I took up running in the first place was to get into better shape for hunting and I was lucky enough to draw a once in a lifetime hunting tag this fall and here I was risking re-breaking my collarbone which could put me out for 3 - 6 more months by running this trail race.  I slowed down some more and really decided to just get back to the starting line without falling and call it a day.  I finished the 2nd loop in 2:03 for a total of 3:44 for 20.6 miles for an average pace of 10:54.  

That would have put me in 21st place out of 74 people who ran the 20.6 mile distance, but the race director of this trail race series doesn't allow you to drop down from the distance that you signed up for, so my official results are a DNF.  It was tough to stop, but really the smart thing to do, even though it still wears on me.  I could have just walked that last loop and still would have finished in the middle of the pack for the 50K runners, but I didn't sign up for a trail walk, I signed up for a trail run and I didn't want to spend 3 hours walking that last loop just to say I finished it.  In my mind I would have had to tell everyone, yeah I finished a 50K trail run, but I had to walk the last 10 miles.  Another possibility was that I would start out planning on walking the last loop, but get out there and start trying to run some of the smoother areas and risk falling more and that could have been even worse.

So that's pretty much my race report.  A big DNF.  Here's a picture of me sitting down after I finished.  Not the most flattering picture of me, but I think it really does a good job of showing in a picture how my day ended up.

I was more sore after this race than my marathon last year by quite a bit.  Just got my first run in yesterday and am probably going to just keep running some easy miles for now before I figure out any kind of a training plan.  I really enjoy the trail running, but I'm second guessing myself a little on how poorly I seem to do at it.  Not sure if I just don't pick my feet up enough or exactly what the problem is, but I seem to be better at falling than I am at running when it comes to trails.

 My wife ran the 10.3 miler and finished 36th out of 109 finishers.  She didn't fall one time!

Well, I guess that's my official race report.  For sure a learning experience for me.  The course was MUCH harder than I expected.  I really think I was in 3:40ish shape for a marathon and it took me longer than that to run 20.6 miles on the trail.  

Running with a broken collarbone...

Well, I've been pretty bad lately about keeping my blog updated.  Back in February I broke my collarbone skiing and have been dealing with it off and on since then.  

Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I was enjoying going over some jumps in a little terrain park at Sippapu Ski resort when I landed wrong.  Not that exciting, but Cathy actually was taking a video of me when I wiped out.  I go over the 1st jump at about the 10 second mark in the clip.

When it was all said and done it just seemed to be one of those freak deals where I landed just wrong and that coupled with the fact that the snow was pretty much 100% manmade snow that had thawed and refrozen many times so that it was pretty much like falling on concrete.

I knew when I landed I hurt myself, I just didn't know how bad.  It was pretty painful, but I got back up on my skis (my skis didn't even come off) and skied down to the bottom of the mountain.  Once down at the bottom I started feeling around to see what hurt the most and figured out pretty quickly that something was messed up with my left collarbone.  There was a huge knot that wasn't supposed to be there.  A quick trip to the ski patrol first aid hut and they confirmed that something was messed up with my collarbone, they rigged up a makeshift sling and gave me an ice pack and sent me on the way to the walk in clinic in Taos which was about 45 minutes away.  The X-ray in Taos confirmed it, I had a clean break of my left clavicle, the only thing left was to decide whether it would need surgery or not.  They gave me a little nice sling and told me to get with an orthopedist as soon as I could.  We ended up going back to Sippapu and Cathy and Eli were able to ski the next morning before we headed back to Lubbock.  I didn't sleep that great that night, but we were there to ski and I wasn't going to be comfortable anywhere so we figured they might as well get to enjoy the skiing while we were there.

I was able to get into an orthopedic specialist that next Monday and he didn't think it would need surgery.  He also said I shouldn't run at least until he was able to verify that it was going to stay in that same position and not move around.  If it stayed in the same position he felt that I would probably be able to start running again in a few weeks.

After 3 weeks, the X-ray confirmed it was still in the same place so he grudgingly gave me permission to start running again (I guess he didn't say that I couldn't run anyway).  I started out fairly slowly and kept my arm in the sling while I was running.  I would actually hold onto the strap with my left hand to keep my arm from jostling around as much.  

5 weeks after I broke it I got another X-ray that showed that it was actually starting to heal a little.  

The Dr. told me to ditch the sling and start working on range of motion exercises.  I didn't realize it, but if you don't move your shoulder for an extended period of time it will really lock up on you.  There is a fine line that they have to run between letting you start using your arm before it heals and possibly re-breaking it and letting it heal completely but then having to spend months and months in physical therapy getting your range of motion back in your arm.    I was surprised at how limited my range of motion had already gotten and it took a few weeks to get pretty much back to normal.  I still wasn't cleared to lift anything heavy with my left arm, and still cleared to run only grudgingly with strict orders not to fall so trails were out of the question, but I was able to get pretty much back on track and started logging a few 50+ mile weeks.

We went quite a while between X-rays at this point and I was feeling pretty confident that things were progressing nicely.  I nearly had my full range of motion back and was even cheating a bit on the lifting heavy things.  I tried to keep things close to my body, but I hoisted a few 50lb feed sacks over my head filling my protein feeder down at my hunting land and a few things like that and felt pretty good.  I figured the last X-ray the week before my goal 50K trail race was just a formality more than anything.  I even went out on the trails a few times although I was pretty careful and thankfully didn't ever actually fall down.

My last X-ray looked pretty good to me, although I'm not a Dr. and the Dr. wasn't near as impressed with it as I was.

You can for sure see that it is making progress, but being almost 3 months since it broke, the Dr. was expecting it to be farther along and nearly completely healed.  There is some calcification showing, but it isn't healed.  The Dr. pretty much told me that I was already pushing the envelope with all the running I was doing and really didn't think running a 50K trail race was a good idea at all.  If I did run it I needed to be really careful and not fall down.  If I did fall down, for I for sure shouldn't reach out to catch myself with my left arm as this could easily cause the collarbone to re-break.

What I went into the checkup thinking was going to be a slam dunk ended up becoming a hard decision.  Did I skip the trail race that I had been training 4 months for?  Do I just run it very cautiously?  I told the Dr. that I was probably going to go ahead and run the race, but I would try my best not to fall.

I pretty much failed miserably on that goal, but thankfully it seems like my collarbone was able to stay together.  I'll update the blog with my race report soon.

Don't take my experience as irrefutable evidence that you can start running again after taking 3 weeks off for a broken collarbone, but that was my experience and so far it seems like I was able to get away with it.  Luck may have as much to do with that as anything though.  

One thing I did find was a relatively unknown alternative to the plate and screws if you do need surgery though. http://www.sonomaorthopedics.com/collarbonedoc/ seems like it would be the way to go to let you get back on your feet and active as fast as possible.  I didn't need surgery so it wasn't really something I looked into, I'm sure it is very expensive, but not sure how much more that traditional surgery or anything.  Might be an option for some folks anyway.

That's it for now.  Nathan

Natural Bridge Caverns Trail Race

Natural Bridge Caverns Trail Run - Race Report

Okay, here's the short version.  Sub 2 hour for my first trail half marathon - Check.  Don't fall - Check.  Have fun - Check!

The LONG version.

I'm still happy the way that this all worked out and I got to run my very first trail race.  Due to some last minute scheduling conflicts, I ended up having to go to a meeting in San Antonio on Saturday the 1st of February.  The meeting was going to be too late in the evening to get back home the same day so I was going to have to spend the night.  Last time I had something like this come up, we turned it into a date night and my wife Cathy came with me and we enjoyed an evening on the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  Since this was over the weekend, I decided to check and see if there were any races in San Antonio while we were there.  Sure enough there were a few, and this one really seemed interesting being a trail run and the very unique aspect that it actually starts inside a cave.  There were 5K, 10K and a Half Marathon distance options so I signed up for the Half and signed Cathy up for the 5K.

Travel to San Antonio was fairly uneventful, my meeting Saturday evening went really well, and now we were down to the race.  I ran a little 2 mile shakedown run Saturday afternoon after we got there and it was downright warm.  79 degrees and 49% humidity at around 3:30 in the afternoon.  The forecast was for mid 50's and rain overnight so I was hoping for a cool down.  I ended up getting it and then some.

Race day morning, I grabbed a banana and bagel from the hotel breakfast stuff and drank a diet coke on the drive to the race.  It was only about a 15 minute drive from the hotel and we were there by 7:00 for the 7:30 start time.  It was gloomy with some off and on light rain and windy.  The cold front had indeed come through and it was in the mid 40's instead of the mid 50's.  That was still okay with me, but Cathy ended up wearing nearly every article of clothing that she had brought on the trip.  We had gone to packet pickup the day before so we pretty much just hung out in the car until it was 10 minutes until race time and the pre-race meeting started.  The Half started first so we listened to the announcements with most of them centered around the start inside the cave and the pretty strict rules about not touching anything, no headphones, and a couple no running or passing zones.

Another very unique aspect to this race is that it starts in a time trial format (because of the previously mentioned no running and no passing zones).  When you register it asks for your "one mile pace" whatever that is.  I had read a review from the year before on a person who put their time down as their fastest one mile ever, and they had realized that most people put their approximate expected race pace so I put down 8:00 for mine.  Standing in line the guy in front of me said he put down 8:30 and he was ahead of me though so who knows.  The end result is they try to line you up so there aren't any super slow people in the front that are going to clog things up for faster people behind them on the narrow tunnels through the cave.

Here's a picture that I stole off the internet showing where the cave gets it's name.  This is where we walked down into the cave at the start of the race.  We exited the cave in a different location about 1/2 mile away.

Okay, we walk down into the bowels of the cave, down, down, down, and you know the saying, what goes down must come up.  We get to the starting line and within a minute or so the first runners start going off.  They would wait 8 or 9 seconds for the runner to get up the cave a little and then start the next one.  They had a timing mat that made a nice loud beep when you went over it so you felt pretty confident about your start time anyway.

The cave itself was really neat.  It is privately owned so they aren't limited to a lot of things that a publicly owned park would be and it shows.  Nice railings along the tunnels, well lit passageways and really neat paved trail going right through the middle of it all.  The race director said you end up running almost 1/2 mile inside the cave and it seemed pretty close to that.  Things went pretty smoothly through the cave, they had people marking the no running no passing zones and the only difficult thing was not stopping to take pictures.  I did end up catching up to a little traffic jam on the final climb out of the cave though as a lady and her boyfriend must have overestimated their "one mile pace".  Of course it was the last no passing zone, but it was a very steep incline and we were using the railing to help pull yourself up with your arms.  If anything, catching the traffic jam made me not overdo it right at the start of the race.

This is another picture that I stole off the internet.  This is the last no passing zone coming up and out of the cave.  If you look really close you can see some tiny people toward the top of the picture.  Very neat place.

2 things happened when we exited the cave.  First, everyone's GPS started beeping announcing that they had found signal, second, the shock of the mid 40 degree weather smacked you with a wake up call after running through the cave that is 70 degrees with 100% humidity year round.

I had started my runkeeper app when I went over the timing mat, but obviously with 100'+ of rock over my head in the cave, I didn't get a GPS signal.  I knew my overall time would be right though and was hoping I could at least pay attention to my current pace and get some kind of feel for how fast I was running.  Based on the light rain in the forecast I had left my headphones at home, but I had my phone set to give me my Time, Distance, Avg Pace and Split Pace every 1/4 mile and had the volume turned up all the way.  About 1/4 mile after exiting the cave it called out my first numbers and of course everything was way off.  Something like a 16:00 pace.  We ran out the cave, along a caliche (gravel) road and then through the paved parking lot and out the paved main entry road to the cave.    We were pretty clumped together still through here, and stayed that way for about the first mile.  We left the pavement a little past the 1 mile mark and turned back onto a caliche road again and I was starting to think this was going to be pretty easy when they turned us off the caliche road straight onto basically rough pasture.  There wasn't a trail anywhere to be found, they had just pulled a rotary cutter behind a tractor and basically mowed a patch through the grass and brush about 5 or 6 feet wide.  There were broken branches about the size of my arm mixed in with rocks, cactus, etc.  You could see where you were supposed to run based on the mowed path, and it was marked well, there just wasn't any kind of actual trail to run on.

Right about mile 2 we got back onto a caliche road and the going got easier again.  By now we had all kind of gotten into a rhythm and were spaced out single file about 10 yards apart or so.  We had a long uphill in here and gained about 200' of elevation from mile 2.5 to 3.5, it wasn't steep, just a long climb.  At about mile 3.5 we left the caliche road for a 2 track jeep trail that was a nice change of pace, not as easy as the caliche road, but WAY easier than running across the pasture.  Mile 4 had another excursion across the pasture and then back onto the caliche road, then back onto a jeep trail.  The rain was staying away for the most part, but it was completely overcast and the wind was blowing 20+ mph the entire race.  It always seemed that when we were down in the bottom we were running with the wind and when we were up on the top we were running against the wind.  This area right here was right on an exposed ridge line and smack dab into the teeth of the wind and I might actually admit to have gotten a little chilled on this part of the race in my sleeveless shirt and shorts.

Somewhere in here a guy that had started behind me caught up to me and we struck up a broken conversation that would end up lasting the next 7 or 8 miles.  We would tend to run side by side on the jeep trails or caliche roads and then get into single file on the single track trails and on the pasture crossings.  I soon found out that he was in my age group and while I hadn't come out and declared it to anyone, I had looked at the previous race results and was thinking that I might actually have a shot at an age group award on this race.  Without really knowing who was ahead of us I had no idea if he was going to be the one to pick up that 3rd place age group award instead of me or not.  My phone was giving me my audio cues every 1/4 mile and he mentioned that based on my time vs. his stopwatch time, he had started 28 seconds after me.  I then knew that if I was going to beat him I would need to beat him by 28 seconds.  At that point in the race I really had no idea whether I would be able to maintain that level of effort or not so we just kept running.

The jeep trail continued for the most part with a few pasture excursions.  We started to drop down into the bottom and at about mile 5.5 there was a really steep drop of about 150' in less than 1/4 mile.  It was a little muddy in here as well and I could tell the mud was building up on my shoes a little.  I made up a little ground on the descent and even more when I bypassed the 2nd aid station at the bottom of the hill.  This stretch in here was probably the prettiest part of the course to me (other than inside the cave).  Nice and flat along a river bottom, nice smooth ground out of the wind, some little ponds along the river, big oak trees, just really nice.  We pretty much stuck to a 2 track jeep trail for then next couple miles along the bottom.  One other interesting thing was that the entire run was on private property and there were deer blinds scattered throughout the course.  Don't think I've ever seen that during a race before.

Somewhere along in here I pretty much gave up even listening to my audio cues on my phone.  With all the tree cover and twists and turns, even the current mile split pace wasn't believable.  The mile markers were nearly a full mile off from the distance per my phone GPS and getting worse.  My phone was giving me current split paces as quick at 7:30 and as slow as 10:30.  The guy who had caught up with me around mile 3 was still with me, we had passed a few folks and a couple people had passed us, but I really felt like I was keeping a pretty even effort and by mile 8 or so I felt that I could at least keep this up another 5 miles.  I started listening more to the time that my phone was telling me than anything else.  I did grab a cup of gatorade and a cup of water and drank those at the 8.5 mile aid station, and that was my only aid station stop the entire race

Around the 9 mile mark the inevitable happened... What goes down must go back up and a really ugly hill was staring us in the face.  We had ended back on a caliche road again and could see it coming up ahead.  We also joined in with the tail end of the 10K runners.  The hill was a little over 220' climb in just over 1 mile, but the bulk of it was about a 150' climb in 1/2 mile.  I walked it.  Everyone walked it.  I didn't see anyone run the entire way up it, but we were still a little spread out.  With the 10K runners mixed in there was probably a dozen of us walking that hill at the same time though.

At the top of the hill, the half marathon route split back off the caliche road over a glorious pasture track again.  Rough, rocky, no trail, just a mowed path through the brush and cactus.  Then back to the caliche road, then off through the pasture, then on again then off again.  I was so turned around by this time I had no idea which direction I was running at any given time, I just followed the trail.  Somewhere along in here on the single track through the pasture I left the guy who had caught up with me.  I doubted I could put 28 seconds between us, but I knew I had a little left to give and maybe if he slowed down some and I was able to pick it up I would have a chance.

I saw the mile 12 marker and we were back on the caliche road again to stay this time.  I tried to pick it up some more, I knew I had something left and tried to pick it up anyway.  My splits are so messed up I'm not sure if I really did pick it up that last bit or not, but I know I tried to.  I passed a younger guy that had passed me earlier and moved on out, maybe I could put 28 seconds between me and the guy that had caught up to me.  I see the 6 mile marker for the 10K so I know I have less than 1/4 mile to go and tried to pick it up again.  We end up back in the paved parking lot zigging and zagging through parked cars.  That last 1/4 mile seemed to be getting longer and longer and I still can't see the finish line. I turn one last corner and there it is.  There are some 10K finishers in front of me and a guy in a black shirt that had been about 50 yards ahead of me pretty much the entire race.  I try to pick it up to a sprint and might have gotten there, I'm running against time and have no idea how far behind me my competition is.

Cathy is there cheering for me after finishing her 5K and I cross the line after almost catching the guy in the black shirt.  They had me a water bottle and my finishers medal (rock) and I am finished.  I am finished!  I bend over and spend the next few minutes trying to catch my breath.  After a few minutes I can walk around and grab some of the finisher food and after a couple minutes of that I'm plenty cooled down with the temperatures continuing to fall even lower.  Around the 11 mile mark one of that staff had called out that it was down to 37 degrees out and I believe them.  The official weather for San Antonio had it at 45 degrees, 81% humidity and 23 mph wind out of the north, but we were about 20 miles northeast of downtown so I'm sure it was cooler at the race location.  I found the spot to check your time by scanning your bib and my chip time was 1:47:02 and I was very surprised that it showed that I was 1st place for my age group!  Cathy checked her's and it showed her as 2nd place for her age group so we were both very excited about that.   I grabbed a long sleeve shirt out of the rent car and put it on over my other shirt, that's about all I had brought, I was still pretty cold with the mist and the wind so we decided we could wait for the official results inside.  I found the guy that I had raced with for most of the time and asked him about his time and he hadn't checked it yet so I followed him over to check and it gave him an error when he tried to check it.  He went to check with the race officials to see what was up and I headed back inside to get warm.

Here's my finish picture.  You can see the guy that I ran with most of the time coming in behind me in the black with red sleeve jacket although I didn't know he was that close behind me at the time.

Here's a picture of Cathy when she crossed the line.

And a picture of us together with our medals.

The 5K awards got started and it turned out that Cathy ended up getting 1st in her age group instead of 2nd.  The woman that had finished in front of her for her age group won the overall masters female so that bumped Cathy up to 1st place in her age group.  They give a neat little slice of agate for the age group awards and it was really neat.  She finished with a 35:11 and 1st out of 16 in her age group.  She was 12th female overall out of 81 and 33rd overall out of 125 total finishers.

Turned out the same thing happened to me when the Half Marathon awards rolled around.  The guy that I had been running with for most of the race got his bib problem sorted out and ended up being 1st place male masters with a 1:46:42.  I was only 21 seconds behind him with my 1:47:03 (they rounded my time up a second for the official results I guess).  It was kind of odd because looking at my finish photo I can see him coming in behind me and evidently I beat him by 7 seconds from the time we were running together, but because of the time trial start and the fact that he started 28 seconds after me, he won the overall masters male by 21 seconds.

I ended up 1st out of 16 in my age group and 12th overall out of 149 finishers.  2 women beat me, one ended up taking second place with a 1:34:27.  Pretty impressive time on that course.  The first place male and overall winner was 1:32:45.

Here's a picture of one of our race shirts and our awards.  I picked the blue age group award rock and her's is the green one.

Okay, I knew that was going to be long, but it was even longer than I was expecting and I'm not done yet!

Final thoughts.  In some ways I wished I wouldn't have run so hard.  The scenery was very pretty and I wanted to stop and take pictures at least a dozen times along the way.  I would have liked to take pictures of the "trails" across the pasture, some of the windy jeep trails through the trees, for sure I would have liked to take several pictures along the river bottom, pictures of the deer blinds to show people, of course pictures in the cave, etc., but instead I was too busy running.  I wanted an age group award and I got it, but in many ways it would have been nicer to just run and relax along the way and take pictures.  Of course I might have frozen to death dressed the way I was if I wasn't putting out 100% effort!

I did enjoy the trail race and the varied terrain and the scenery while I was running though.  Not as much as I would have if I had run slower, but I did get to enjoy it.  The rocks and stuff were pretty difficult, but there was probably only 2 or 3 miles of true pasture crossings, maybe 5 miles of jeep trails, 4 miles of caliche road and a mile of pavement counting the parking lot.

I was surprised to find my arms sore when I was finished with my run.  Not 100% sure if it was just the cold weather or if it was from being tensed up running over the rocks and stuff and trying to keep my balance and not fall, or a combination of both, but I can still feel a couple spots in my right forearm and my left tricep where I was tensed up for so long it made me sore.

My feet are sore.  I did a big no no and ran this race in a pair of trail shoes that my longest distance to date in them was only a 6 mile run and I only had about 20 miles total on them coming into this run, but I'm glad I wore them.  They have good lugs on them, and a much firmer sole than most of my shoes and that helped a ton in the rougher stuff.  They also didn't hold onto the mud very bad and as soon as we got back to anything hard packed what little mud there was would come off.  I ended up with some cactus spines in my left foot and didn't even realize it until after the race.  I think if I had worn my normal running shoes my feet would have been screaming at me after that first trip across the pasture.

I'm sure there are some other things that I'm missing, but I need to wrap this up and get to work.  Overall it was a great experience for my first trail race and I'm looking forward to more.  I'm about to sign up for my first 50K trail race this May and hopefully it ends up being as good of an experience as this was.

That's it for now.  Nathan

Boone and Crockett Elk!!

Okay, after a somewhat nerve wracking morning with the official scorer here in Lubbock, I now have an official score on my bull. It was close, but he made it! 

The biggest differences were on the mass measurements, I just used a seamstress tape and just measured about where it looked like it would be the smallest. He used the official 1/4" steel tape and went back and forth and back and forth and found the absolute smallest measurement and entered that. That is the correct way to do it, I just didn't think it would result in as much of a difference as it did.

The other decent difference was on where he drew the line on the G1s and G2's was a little less than I was measuring from and I measured along the bottom of the tine all the way around and he measured from the middle of the tine out and then out and up at the tip. That resulted in a little less length on those.

He ended up with 372 1/8 gross and 361 6/8" net when it was all said and done. Took a lot longer than I expected, close to 2 hours when it was all said and done before we had the official score sheet in ink signed off and ready to submit. I took a picture of the process, lots of masking tape, marking in pencil, measuring with the cable and then marking the end with a little clip, then measuring the cable, using the steel tape to measure the mass, etc.

Here's the official score sheet.

I listed my friend Mike as my guide because he did have his resident guide license for me to be able to hunt the wilderness area. My bull was shot very close to the boundary between national forest and the wilderness area but I figured might as well list him as my guide just to avoid any potential issues or anything, not that it would on a bull that just barely makes it.

Still pretty excited about it. Now I guess I need to actually go through the process and spend the $40 to submit it.

New Mexico Mule Deer Hunt

Okay, I didn't have very high expectations going into this hunt and turns out they were still a little too high! ;-)

This was a 3rd choice hunt on my application and the drawing odds have historically been in the 75 - 80% range.  Not a high demand unit at all.  I had hunted some of the units around it though and felt like with some extra effort and some planning I might be able to get away from the crowds and have a decent chance at a nice buck.  

I was wrong.

I can probably take a little bit of the blame as I just didn't put my full effort into it from the start.  I did do some internet scouting and talked with a few different people, but not a tremendous amount of time spent on it.  The unit is only a 2 1/2 hour drive from my house so from the start I just planned on doing a weekend hunt of it and not even hunting the full 5 day season.

Set my alarm for 4:30 am Central time and left the house headed to the spot I had picked out from looking at maps and talking with a few folks.  Some public land in the sand hills that was accessible from a county maintained road.  Thought I had some good looking spots lined up with no roads and some decent terrain. Got there Saturday morning about 15 minutes before shooting light and started hiking in. Kept hiking and kept hiking. Didn't see much sign at all and there had been a rain the night before so I would have been able to see fresh tracks. Finally mid morning saw a doe and 2 fawns. Got back in a little over 3 miles and that was it. 

Here's a picture that I took for an example of the type of terrain I was in.  In some other units around there would have been deer all over in this terrain.  Just not here.

Pretty discouraging, but I had several other options I had looked at and decided instead of spending a lot of time and effort hunting a spot with such a sparse deer population I would just shift to a different spot.

I ended up driving around a bit and the mix of public and private was a little confusing on what was marked and what wasn't, but basically after about lunch time I decided that there weren't many deer in the sand hills. I did hear some shots that morning up by a rimrock area, but that looked all private so it wasn't an option for me.

I relocated to an area Northwest of Roswell with some checkboard BLM and State land after lunch. It was tough to get off the highway onto public land, but finally found a spot. Looked pretty deery and spooked up 5 does and fawns right off the bat when I started hiking toward the bottom. Snuck up on a doe and 2 fawns down in the bottom, then moved up onto the top on the opposite side. Saw the biggest covey of quail I've ever seen in my life, at least 50 birds. That turned out to be the highlight of the trip probably. Thought that this rock stack was pretty neat.  I guess someone had some time on their hands at some point!

I sat down and watched the bottom area as the sun set and 8 does and fawns came working through the bottom but no antlers.  Some of them may have been some of the same deer from earlier, but not sure one way or the other.  One thing I was sure of, and that is that none of them had antlers.  I walked back to the truck in the dark and decided to try a different spot in the morning.

Here's my view of the bottom while I watched the sun go down.

And a view of the sunset.

I ended up with a tiny bit under 10 miles logged on my boots according to my GPS for the day when it was all said and done.  Net result right around a dozen deer seen, all of them does and fawns.  Hopefully the next day would be better.

I started out at Bitter Lake Wildlife refuge Sunday morning. It's 12,000 acres and open to the public for deer hunting if you have a tag.  I spent the night in my pickup in the parking lot that night and then headed out onto the refuge about 30 minutes before shooting light. Didn't see much in the way of tracks in the bottom, so I moved over into the hills a little. Heard some coyotes but not much else. Actually glassed a shed antler about 1/2 mile away and headed over there. Chalky white, but a decent find. I think that's the first shed antler I ever found by glassing.

Still not seeing any recent tracks really. Made a big loop and headed back out. Found another shed antler and saw a few more tracks, but didn't see a single deer. Here's a picture of what most of the country I was covering looked like.

Back at the truck with my chalky sheds.

Logged a little over 6 miles on my boots per my GPS.  As I was heading out a couple of recreational horse riders where heading in.  I think there was one other hunter at the trail head that morning, but they were gone by the time I came back out a little before lunch.

I decided I would at least go look at the twin buttes road area that gets mentioned as a good spot quite often, and I headed over there thinking I would try to get back in off the road a ways and see if I could at least see a buck. Wow, I've never seen so many hunters in such a small area in my life! Probably 50 or so hunters in about a 10 square mile area. Campers, trailers, tents, ATVs, a regular city back there. 

They all looked like they were hanging around camp so I went on in and tried to get off the road. I hiked about a mile and setup overlooking a bottom and within about 15 minutes see 2 hunters coming up through the bottom beating the brush. Literally, one of them was picking up rocks and throwing them into the brush. They spooked about 10 deer out, but all of them were does. 

Here's a picture of the bottom.  If you look close you can see the orange dot that is one of the hunters when they were working the bottom.

After they finished working the bottom I decided I would follow where the does went back farther in. It was going to be sunset soon and I figured they might lead me to a buck. I topped the next ridge over and a pickup was driving up a road that I thought was blocked off down on private. I moved over onto the ridge and about when I was going to sit down 2 other hunters come walking up from the North. I decide to just head back to the truck and as I'm going down the ridge, 2 more hunters are on their way up from the West. I keep heading back to the truck, bump some does and fawns on the way and decide I might as well sit a ridge looking over a bottom as the sun sets. Saw another doe and fawn, another truck drive by, I can hear ATVs roaring all around, and am just amazed at the amount of pressure put on the deer in this tiny little area. 

After sunset I dropped down for the last 3/4 of a mile to my truck and bumped a doe in the bottom as I went through. If there are any bucks in the area they are going to about have to get stepped on to get them to leave cover. 

My best decision all week was to head back to the truck before dark as about 1/3rd of a mile away I almost stepped on a big old rattlesnake. I just left him alone and went around. 

A pretty sunset to end the day though.

I decided to just drive back to Lubbock and call it a learning experience. Just 4 miles on my boots that evening. There just weren't any real areas to get very far back in that I could see.

Total for the weekend, 20 miles logged on my boots and didn't see a single buck.  For sure saw more hunters than deer when it was all said and done as well.  

Needless to say I won't be putting in for Unit 32 as a 3rd choice on my application next year.  If any of you were thinking about it, I would seriously consider whether it is worth it or not.

Pretty sad to end both of my New Mexico hunts without an animal on the ground.  The only other time I didn't fill a New Mexico tag was my Antelope tag that had me assigned to a ranch without antelope.  Before this year I was 2 for 2 on elk tags and 3 for 3 on deer tags.  

I guess now I can concentrate on my property here in Texas and my hopes and dreams of a trophy whitetail may still come true.

That's it for now.  Nathan

New Mexico Elk Hunt

Okay, I've gotten a little behind getting things posted.  I've had a very hectic couple weeks with my New Mexico elk and deer hunts.  I'll try to get caught up now.

I took notes on my phone as the hunt progressed, I'm sure I'll have the tenses mixed up as sometimes I was typing in present tense, sometimes in past tense and even sometimes in future tense.  Hopefully you'll be able to follow along, basically as it happened.

Friday evening

Trip up here went very smooth.  Left the house around 2:00 pm central time and was parked at the trailhead around 8:00 pm mountain time.  The campground was closed and there were only 2 vehicles parked at the trailhead.  A pickup and empty horse trailer and an SUV.

The river was running a bit higher than I was expecting, I walked around the campground looking for any easy crossing spots.  A few looked doable, but none looked exactly easy.  Sure hope I don't start out in the morning getting my feet wet.  

Getting settled in to sleep a while in the backseat (floorboard) of the truck.  Set the alarm for 5:15, sunrise is at 7:15 so shooting light is 6:45.  Would like to be an hour or so up the trail before shooting light.  

Saturday

Tough day! Several mistakes, but the biggest one was getting up WAY too high, elk seem to be down around 10,000' and I spent a lot of the day up over 11,000', topped out at 11,816' per the GPS.  

Ended up going up a different creek than I had planned because a guy and his son showed up just before I left and were going to head that way.  Think they got one, heard 2 quick shots about 8:30 then maybe 10 seconds later another and then maybe 30 seconds later a 4th. I heard what I think was a very small bull and a cow maybe 200 yards from me, but it was thick and early and I didn't go after him too hard, tried to get closer and cow called a few times but I think they skedaddled.  I had been following their tracks off and on, just didn't realize how fresh they were.  None of the tracks looked very big, about 4 or 5 total in the group.  

Here's a picture that I took of the area that I was hiking up.  There was still a bit of snow on the ground from a storm that had gone through earlier in the week.

Saw one lone set of tracks from a decent sized elk heading down from up high at about 11,000' before I crossed over to a different canyon.  Pretty neat view though.

Went up a lot of terrain like this climbing out of one canyon and moving over to the other.

Didn't see or hear anything else all day though. I was trying out a new pack and the shoulder strap broke when I went to set it down at lunch.  The stitching holding the buckle just popped.  Thankful I had bought some spare clips to rig my rifle sling and was able to band aid it, but it was far from a perfect fix, if I didn't keep tension on it, it would come undone and I had to mess with it 3 or 4 more times during the day.  I finally was able to get it fairly well repaired and it didn't come loose again for the rest of the trip although I was a little worried about it from then on.

The scenery was great and I really was thinking that there should be some elk up there, but based on the complete lack of any tracks I think they had all moved down already.  

Another pretty view from 11,816'.

Here's a panoramic picture that I took with my iPhone.  You should be able to click on it and see it full size I think.  Really a wonderful view.  It would have been worth the hike if that's all I was trying to do, but to be up that high when there weren't any elk really was frustrating.  

Set up camp at 10,600' thinking I was close to some overlooks I could hunt the next day, but after setting up camp and hiking over a mile to the nearest overlook I decided I had set it up too far away and too high.  Too late to pull it and move it so just camped up high.  That part wasn't bad, just not seeing much sign or any elk has me discouraged though.

Here's my tent setup.  That part wasn't bad at all.  Actually really enjoyed staying in the tent that night.

Totals for the day - 8.46 miles, 3,127' elevation gain.  

Sunday

Broke camp in the dark and my goal was to try to find an overlook spot before shooting light and sit and watch the canyon to see if any elk came up.  I ended up taking a little longer than I planned to break camp and get going.  I ended up walking over 1 1/2 miles to find a mediocre overlook and it was after sunrise before I sat down.  Still not seeing much in the way of tracks or anything.  The fresh snow from Wednesday was pretty much void of tracks except rabbits, squirrels and the occasional coyote.  Did see some bear tracks yesterday.  After about a half hour of sitting I headed on down the trail to see if there would be any other good overlook areas.  This was the best overlook spot I found.  Very scenic, just nothing moving through it.

I did find the area where the other guys shot one on Saturday.  Never found the gut pile, but looks like they either too two trips with a sled or brought two sleds.  Not much in the way of a clearing, just some aspens that are a little spread out more than the rest.  Pretty discouraged. 

Went back to the trail head about 10:00.  Crossing the river was a little easier in the daylight, but still a little more than just splashing across like I normally would do.  Very pretty country though.  Here's a view from the river bottom.

I drove in Taos to get cell signal.  Talked to my wife and she encouraged me to stick it out at least another couple days.  Looked at the maps and decided to just start trying out canyons heading back to the east.  Got parked at the first trail head around 3 pm, got across the river and thought I heard voices although there wasn't any other vehicles at the trailhead.  Started looking for the trail and there were 4 Asian ladies saving some trout out of a shrinking puddle.  One could speak a tiny English, they were staying at a monastery close by.  I asked them if they had seen any elk and either they didn't understand me or didn't want me to kill any because they didn't reply.  After a bunch if twists and turns I finally got on the main trail only to realize that it was an ATV trail.  There were some fairly recent motorcycle tracks but it looked like they had gone in and out.  Pretty soon after heading down the trail there were two places that looked like a lot of elk had recently crossed it.  I kept heading to where there was a fork in the creek about 1 1/2 miles up the trail.  Not much more sign and not any good lookout spots.  Got to where I wanted to be and checked out the non-trail side of the split.  Really nice area, but the elk don't seem to think so.  Not much elk sign.  Did see a pretty good sized bear track and then later saw a pretty good sized bear!  Nice chocolate brown colored.  Of course I don't have a bear tag.  Didn't even check into whether the quota was filled or not.  

I did take a picture of the bear track in the snow.  My boots are size 13 to give some size perspective.  Not a massive huge bear, but quite a bit bigger than the bear tracks I had seen the day before.

Between the lack of elk sign and the bear I decided that I wasn't going to stay the night here.  I waited a little while and then went back to the places where the elk had crossed the trail and waited until dark.  I set up on the heavily used game trail where it crossed the ATV trail.  At least I knew that the elk were using it, just not what time of the day, or if they would use it that day.  Probably setup too close, just 20 yards, but it seemed like the best spot.  I could be using a bow at this range.  Thankfully a motorcycle or ATV didn't come screaming down the trail right at sunset or something.  

About 20 minutes before sunset a bull bugled a couple times and it sounded like it was up the canyon from me.  I gave up my ambush spot and headed that way.  I cow called a few times and got close to where I thought he had bugled from, but nothing else.  I had left my bugle tube with my pack at the ambush spot so I went back, got the bugle tube and bugled a few times on my way back to where I thought he was.  Nothing again.  I headed back to my ambush spot and heard another bugle.  Headed back that way and nothing.  I decide to go back to my ambush spot and then about 20 minutes before the end if shooting light he bugles right down in the canyon across from me.  I bugled a couple times and headed that way but he shut up again.  Getting really close to dark and I went back to my ambush spot until the end of shooting light.  Probably 1 minute before the end if shooting light and he bugled again.  This time it sounded like he was on this side of the canyon, sounded pretty close too. I grabbed my backpack and headed that way, I was either going to see him before shooting light or get out of there so he doesn't see me after shooting light.  I didn't see him so I headed on down the trail without a light until I got well around the corner and dropped some elevation.  I decided to stick there for the morning since I knew there were elk there and at least one bull.  Cooked up some supper, organized my backpack for a day trip and slept in the truck again.  Not the most comfortable, but I didn't have to mess with setting up and taking down the tent.  Not 100% sure exactly where I wanted to be in the morning, he was bedded on the other side of the canyon from the main trail, but I can get in quiet and know where I want to be on that side.  If I try the other side in the dark, I would probably be noisy and didn't really know where I would want to set up.  Leaning toward just going back to where I was tonight.  Not near as discouraged as I was.  Still hadn't seen an elk this hunt, but I for sure heard one and it was a bull and pretty close.  Maybe I would be able to close the deal on him in the morning!

Total mileage that afternoon was 4.44 miles and 885' elevation gain.  My GPS had 2.6 or 2.8 or something like that with about a mile to go to the trailhead this morning and the battery went dead before I got there so I think I had at least 3.6 miles this morning.  That would put me to a little over 8 total for the day.  This morning was mostly downhill, but I bet I climbed at least 115' going up and down some ridges and stuff.  We'll call it 8 miles and 1,000' of elevation gain total for the day.  

Monday morning 

I left the truck on time for a change, right around 5:45 am. Got to the ambush spot right around 6:15 and hunkered in to wait.  Shooting light was 6:44 so plenty of time for things to settle down, although I was pretty quiet coming in with no light on the trail.  Heard a dog barking down by the river where some houses are so I was hoping the dog was barking at elk and they were on their way toward me.  I thought I heard a quick bugle, but not sure.  Right at shooting light I let out a quick bugle but no response.  I held tight trying to stay warm without digging into my backpack and making noise and somewhere around sunrise I heard something moving down in the bottom of the creek.  I grabbed my gun and headed that way slowly and quietly.  More noise as no doubt a group of animals were moving through the creek bottom.  They passed me going upstream so I turned around and followed them.  I heard some soft mewing, they are elk for sure.    It's really thick and they are less than 100 yards away, but I still haven't seen them.  They sound like they are on the other side of the creek, but for sure in the bottom.  Finally I see the first elk.  A nice sized cow less than 50 yards away.  She didn't see me.  Then I saw another cow and a calf, then another, then another.  I was down on one knee with my rifle up, hoping that the last elk through was going to be a nice bull.  Nope, it was another cow, limping pretty badly.  I slowly tried to get back ahead of them to see if maybe I missed one at the front and there still might be a bull with them, and the limping cow busted me and starts trotting up ahead.  The rest of them bust ahead as well, and end up crossing the ATV trail about 50 yards ahead of me.  Still no antlers.  I cow called and they seemed to stop running and I heard them mewing again so I don't think they were too spooked.  Altogether there was probably 10 or 12 elk.  Lots of calves, pretty much each cow had a calf with it so that's a good sign for the future. One of them got split off low and ended up down in the bottom of the creek.  I caught a very quick glimpse of it, but couldn't tell if it was a cow or a bull.  I hung around and could hear it moving around a bit and heard it mew, so I figured it was a calf.  Never did get a good look at it though.  Was for sure good to at least see some elk even if none of them had antlers.

I went back to the ambush spot and threw out a few bugles thinking the bull or bulls maybe late getting back out.  Nothing.  I settled back in and waited until 8:30 and then grabbed my backpack and headed down the trail.  Thought about just going back to the truck and driving into Taos so I could talk with my wife, but I decided to at least check out the other side of the canyon and see if I could figure out where the bull from last night was coming and going.  Got over there and slowly made my way up the ridge.  Looked like a pretty decent spot for shed antlers so I was looking for those as well.  It's not like I had all day... Oh wait, I did.  Got up to the spot about where I thought I heard the bull bugling from yesterday.  Not much in the way of game trails in this side, but a little bit if sign here and there.  Scouted around a tiny bit looking for the most open area and settled in on the ridge top, not exactly open, but I found a spot where I could see about 50 yards through the trees in either direction.  Pretty sure the bull had walked along this ridge line last night and that's how he covered so much ground.  I did have a nice view of the canyon were I had been the evening before and where I saw the bear up in the aspens.

I was too thick to have much of a chance unless they are talking.  Got set up on the top by 10:30 am and settled in to wait.  I heard the first bugle at 4:30, then 4:40, then I bugled at 5:00, then another bugle at 5:10, then I bugled right on top of it, then pretty much constant from then until dark.  I made the mistake of not going to them, thinking they would come my way.  Turns out they have another much better route that they went about 1/4 mile west of where I was set up.  There were several bulls and tons of cows talking up a storm.  Pretty amazing.  I realized that they weren't coming my way and went after them.  I missed them by 5 minutes, 10 tops.  Was the closest I have ever been to that many elk that seemed like they didn't have a care in the world.  My head was spinning trying to think through the best way to go after them.  My biggest worry is that the cows will bust me in the morning before the bulls come through.  Probably the wisest decision would be to just leave them alone in the morning and go back tomorrow evening.  I've never been the smartest hunter though.  Spent a tiny bit of time right at the end of shooting light scouting around and found a spot that I marked on the GPS for where I wanted to be the next day then headed back down the mountain in the dark.

Very light day on the boots.  After over 8 miles the last 2 days and not seeing an elk, this day I only had 3.44 miles on the GPS, with 1,275' elevation gain but I was into elk heavy.  I knew where I wanted to be in the morning!

Just looked up for the first time this trip I think.  The stars are AWESOME!

Splurged and checked in to the Sipapu Lodge!  $34 a night plus tax ended up being $38.10 with tax and everything.  $500+ of ultralight camping gear and I'm staying in a cheap hotel! Took a hot shower and slept in a real bed and less than a 10 minute drive to the trail head.  Still no cell phone coverage, but the check in clerk let me use their phone (there aren't any in the rooms) to call my wife.  It was really good to hear her voice and not be near as discouraged as I was Sunday when I called her.  I decided that I was going to go ahead and try to intercept the elk headed back to their bedding area in the morning.  It's about a mile from the trail head and gains about 600' elevation so I decided to give myself an hour especially in the dark with no trail.  Sunrise is around 7:15 so needed to be there at least by 6:15.  That would mean leaving the trail head at 5:15, so I was going to set my alarm for 4:45. 15 minutes to get up and get dressed and out the door, 15 minutes to drive there and get going.  I think that should work.  9:15 so that's 7 1/2 hours if I get to sleep!  For some reason I decided to move my alarm up to 4:30, then for some reason I thought I would give myself 6 more minutes of sleep so I ended up setting it for 4:36.

Tuesday  

Got a good start, left the pickup at 5:15 and got to the spot at 6:15.  Just over a mile and closer to 800' of elevation gain.  Things started out very quiet, then a far off bugle about 5 minutes after shooting light.  Closer to sunrise I heard some more, they were not coming up the way I had planned so I picked up and headed toward them.  No doubt there was a bunch if them!  I was closing the distance and getting really close.  The only problem was that there was some oak brush between me and them.  I looked for an opening ahead of them and even thought better if it at the time, but I decided to try to sneak through the oak brush a little so I could get a better look.  Needless to say, that was a mistake.  They busted me and started milling around.  It was pretty thick, but I saw a 6 point that I had a very marginal shot at moving through the brush, but I didn't take it.  I cow called a couple times and that got them settled down a little bit, but they were moving out.  The herd bull was in the back and I thought I might have a shot at him before they all got turned around, but I didn't ever see him.  After being too passive yesterday and missing them by just a few minutes, I was too aggressive today and blew it when I should have backed out a little and found a more open spot they would have to go through.   Oh well.  I followed them a bit and they ended up moving onto private.  Hopefully I hadn't spooked them too bad that they stay there all day.  I went back to my original spot and sat down and then heard a bugle off to the south.  Got up and headed that way, bugled and cow called and got one response, then maybe again, but it sounded like he was moving out.  Headed back to my spot and backpack and trying to figure out what next.  It's barely 8:00 so that means around 10 hours of sitting here until the action might get going again this evening.  Not sure what else I would do though and maybe they will try to come back to their bedding area after a little.  I guess I'm going to just hang out and try not to go stir crazy.

Here's a picture of "the spot".

I turned my phone off airplane mode to check a GPS app on my phone and I had cell service!  Crazy.  I checked a few other places up on ridges and had to drive all the way to Taos the other day to get service and I now had it here at "the spot".  Now if I could just get into elk again!

I enjoyed having cell service during the long wait.  Talked to my wife, sent out some text messages and emails, even called a client.  Not sounding good so far for tonight though.  I think I heard a bugle way over on private as it got closer to evening.  At 4:45 there had already been a couple bugles close by but nothing was talking now.  Not much I can do about it now though.  Been thinking through my decision to not pull the trigger on that 6x6 moving through the brush at 40 yards and I think I was too interested in the possibility of seeing and having a chance at the herd bull, and that may have been part of the reason for not pushing the shot.  Also I wasted some time looking at his antlers to see how big he was.  If I had cow called he might have stopped and I probably could have got him.  Oh well, possibly a lesson learned.

The evening was a complete dud.  Didn't hear a thing.  Not sure where the elk went to after I busted them up this morning, but they aren't close enough to hear or they aren't talking if they are.  There are sure some highs and lows in hunting!

Another light day on the boots.  Only 3.53 miles and 1,207' elevation gain.

Checked back into the Sipapu Lodge. Same price I got the same room that I had the night before.  They hadn't bothered to clean it yet, but I didn't get a discount.  Oh well, it was worth asking about.

Alarm set for 4:36 again.  

Wednesday morning

Fell back asleep after the alarm and woke back up at 4:54. Had everything set and ready to go so I hustled and ended up at the trail head about the same time as yesterday.  Headed up to the spot I had marked yesterday evening and took the long way around so I didn't leave a scent trail that they would cross on the way where I had my ambush setup.  Ended up hiking in just over a mile even though this spot was a little closer to the truck.  Got setup just after 6:00 waiting for shooting light to arrive and hopefully some elk. 

Here's what it looked like where I was setup.  I had been busted in the oak brush about 50 yards west of this spot, still not what most would consider "open", but I had a good lane about 100 yards that I would be able to see anything coming across it.  This spot would have been PERFECT the morning before!

Shooting light came and went without a sound.  Some coyotes sent off to the south a little after shooting light and I let off a bugle right at sunrise, but no sight or sound of elk.  Ended up sitting around until 9:00 and never heard or saw a thing.  I bugled and cow called a few times and didn't get a response.  Looks like this group of elk doesn't respond to pressure very well at all!  Or maybe they do and that's why a 6x6 bull is a satellite bull.  

Ended up giving up and headed back to the truck.  Without the big group moving to their bedding area that morning there wasn't any reason to hang around there for the evening again.  I didn't have any real promising spots to try that evening and I was missing my family and they were missing me so I decided to just hang it up and try again sometime in the future. 

Finally tally on the GPS for the morning 2.3 miles and 835' elevation gain.

Did take this picture on the way out as it was the only time I crossed this spot in the daylight.  This was the river that I was crossing each day going and coming to the truck.  The shallow crossing spot was about 6" deep and my Meindl boots did a great job of keeping my feet dry.

Got home safe and sound and plenty tired.  Only ended up putting 25 miles on the boots with the bulk of those the first 2 days.  Sometimes the elk just aren't where you expect them to be that's for sure.  I for sure will continue to put in for this unit as my 3rd choice.  The odds still aren't great, but I should be able to hunt it every 4 or 5 years based on the drawing odds.  It's relatively close to home and if I can hunt it a few more times I think I might be able to get it figured out.

Was really surprised how quickly I bounced around with my emotions from highs to lows and back again.  Not sure I have the mental toughness to go stick it out for a full week without seeing plenty of game to keep my excitement level up.  I got depressed pretty quickly when things weren't going my way early in the week.

I'm sure I've forgotten some important details, and for sure probably have my tenses still all messed up and some auto correct errors from typing this on my phone during the hunt, but I think you can get the general idea.  I did write myself up a long note on motivational thoughts that I still need to finish out as well. 

Oh well, that's it for now.  Nathan