Caribou Gear Tarp

CO Moose Adventure

Mountain Man

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
413
Location
Missoula, Montana
Well here goes nothing my Hunt Talk brethren! A few of you already know I drew a bull moose tag in Colorado, but I haven’t started a thread about it until now.

This hunt has a lot of emotions already tied up into it. The location is where I was born and raised, but I’ve been gone for 22 years between college and serving in the military. It’s an interesting dichotomy to be intimately familiar with a place while also not knowing how to hunt moose there. To compound the logistical challenge of this hunt…I live in the Netherlands currently, so no boots on the ground scouting for this once in a lifetime tag. So yeah, you could say that I am a bit anxious to get to CO to start hunting!

I am confident that I am likely the only person ever in the modern era to start their CO moose hunt by boarding a train in Europe so at least I’ve got that going for me. Here is a picture of the train station to mark the start of my adventure.

IMG_0813.jpeg

Things got off to a rocky start when my first train was cancelled due to a “lack of rolling stock”. Umm, don’t you guys know I have a moose hunt to get to! Thankfully my buddy who dropped me off at the train station simply circled the block and drove me to the next town where my connection was. Good friends come through during crunch time.

Well, I’m about to fly out from Frankfurt to Denver so will sign off for my trans-Atlantic flight. Let the adventure begin!
 
Good Luck sir! Thank you for your service, have a GREAT time, and share your story when you return!
 
Good luck Mountain Man.
I'm excited to hear how it all goes.
Netherlands to Colorado moose country is already an adventure.
 
Subscribed... This should be good. Can you share the unit or at least what part of the state? There may be a few of us here that can offer some tips. I did have a buddy draw a Maine moose tag while living on Guam. That was an 8000 mile journey to get that tag filled. Good luck. Sandbrew
 
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Just a quick update before passing out. I’ve been up for 24 straight hours now. It’s been a slog. I don’t even have my gear packed yet so decided a morning hunt at first light was not gonna happen. Have to get a good night’s sleep and get my shit together in the morning. I’ll try to provide updates as much as I can along the way.
 
Congrats. I didn't pull any tags last year when I was living in the Netherlands, but sounds like a grand adventure for you. Where about in NL are you?
 
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Just a quick update before passing out. I’ve been up for 24 straight hours now. It’s been a slog. I don’t even have my gear packed yet so decided a morning hunt at first light was not gonna happen. Have to get a good night’s sleep and get my shit together in the morning. I’ll try to provide updates as much as I can along the way.
I was a bit optimistic with my quest for a good night’s sleep. I was up at 3:00 am and could not fall back asleep. Once 4:30 rolled around I decided to just seize the day and take a nap later (which never happened). My dad and I needed every bit of the next two hours to get our act together and were in the Truck right at first light.

Today was a long one with a lot of driving on pretty crappy roads, checking out different areas of the unit, before finally going on a couple mile walk about To close out the day.

Check out this moose habitat!

IMG_0830.jpegIMG_0825.jpeg

The only thing missing are the moose! Despite our best efforts, we did not lay eyes on a moose today. Everyone we spoke with showed us pictures of all the moose they were seeing “everywhere”. Two bulls were apparently one small creek drainage over from where I went on my walkabout just last night. I know if we keep at it, we will eventually cross paths with them, but it was a bit disappointing to not see a single moose on the first full 14 hour day.

We are heading to the same area, but will be leaving earlier and getting further back before first light. I also have a few specific locations to check out based on all the hot tips from the helpful folks who were happy to share information of their moose sightings. I’m officially exhausted so it is time to hit the hay as they say.
 
Subscribed... This should be good. Can you share the unit or at least what part of the state? There may be a few of us here that can offer some tips. I did have a buddy draw a Maine moose tag while living on Guam. That was an 8000 mile journey to get that tag filled. Good luck. Sandbrew
Wow a moose tag while living in Guam, you are putting my paltry jaunt from Europe to shame! PM sent about the units. Thanks for offerring to provide tips.
 

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