silvertip_co

We are skipping elk this fall also. Going to focus just on mule deer. Solo. We may be done with elk for good. 11 years no elk and only one doe, sad. We did way better back east in PA and GA. Maybe i've lost what little touch I had. Or maybe I'm just too old, too fat, too lazy. Hard to say. If we focus on one instead of trying to do it all, maybe we will put some antlers on the wall. Good luck to all our realtree friends.

Great pics guys, thanks for posting. I ripped some of the ones with people in to put on my facebook album of the hunt since i got NO pics of us guys together. It was fun and a lot of hard work for no elk. Better luck next yr.

I'd like to say we will miss our friends from prev rt hunts steve k, and jim l, and luke, and them two young guys from PA who came over cottonwood pass in a blinding snowstorm draggin a camper with no brakes, and kathleen from ak who is a seriously dedicated hunter trader trapper and mom.

Jim sorry about the cancer, good luck getting it fixed up. Dawn and I have decided we will be leaving home very early Saturday morning so will miss first few hours of the first day. See y'all then. Much good luck to you.

19 in platoro now the nooa says. 7day forecast is still 50day 30 night. Travel safe. Good luck. Can't wait to meet y'all.

7 day weather seems to be holding at 55days and 35 nights. Ill put your numbers in my cell, feel free to add mine also, its posted on prev page. Still not sure if we will leave fri eve or sat morn, dawn was gonna get off early fri but the supt is coming to her school so I think that's out the window. We'll see. Have a safe trip all.

That's a cool hunting rig trevor. I agree with cowboy778, watch the ruts as you come in and youll be fine. Its just two short stretches of ruts as you come in. My boss gave me fri off too so ill finish loading and hopefully leave here by 4pm when wife gets off. Got a new furnace installed in camper last eve and straightened out a dead short. I just have to put new tsat on and button it back up this eve and I can start loading atvs on wed thurs. We are both excited about camping and hunting with all the guys. Family. Friends. Outdoors. That's what its all about.

Dawn has reassigned her Saturday meeting to a friend of hers so at the moment it looks like we could leave at 4pm friday and get there around 8pm. Still be settin up in the dark but at least she'd get up on the mtn early Saturday. This year we MUST all pose for a group foto. We didn't do that when we all met in cement creek and I remain sad about it. I hope Aaron is having a good trip dropping off the wood, he was gonna camp in his truck overnight last night.

Looked at tne 7 day forecast. 55days 33 nights. Not too bad. I hope it holds. Its really cold there when it drops to 9 below. We should have a great time. I still don't know if we'll be there fri or sat or sun. Working on the rig and loading up some today. Ill bring the extra BLM maps with me.

The camp store at Halfway as I call it has licenses also. Steve the super8 in alamosa is nice and has continental breakfast and its nea walmart for those last min items. There are cabins on 17 south of antonito just as you cross the cpnejos river bridge that are not expensive.there are some on the right and some on tne left down a half mile or so. Not fancy but nice people. Cowboy778 when you drop the wood can you try to do it behind(south) of where we all camped as steve b thinks the little clearing surrounded by aspens is a more protected spot than where we camped. If not we'll just camp where the wood is. LOL.ill try to bring some tubs full of cut up wood when I come. Good luck to all.

Gps coords one more time: 37deg 13.55min n, 106 deg 27.47min w. I still have six maps if anyone wants one with a x on it just email me.

No one in Platoro valley sells diesel fuel the Cafe guy said.

The store is 1st left going north in to Platoro, the Cafe is 2nd left. You can go from one to the other by winding thru town if you dont want to go back out onto fr250. If you want a sitdown meal both place have restaurants with great meals. Ill try to remember to call about diesel fuel today and call Sam the packer too in case we need horses. The location between valdez creek and trail creek is excellent free campsite, its 1/4 mi long amd 200y wide and plenty room to set up for small or larger group. It gets used a lot but I've never seen it crowded in summer or in elk season. Fri snow is predicted but temps generally are 55days and 35nights. Go to NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and type in Platoro Co for weather and 7 day forecast which changes daily of course but is pretty accurate IMHO. Radio reception at camp is very limited. Cell will work some on the porch of the platoro store.

More info: get water from trail creek at north end of camp area, not the conejos river. Halfway and platoro have gas and propane at touurist prices if u need. Halfway is 6 mi south of camp, platoro is 9 mi north of camp. Showers are 5.oo at platoro store, 10.oo at the platoro cafe. Directions if u don't have a gps for the coordson page 2 or 3 are: take 17 sou out of alamosa thru antonito to horca. Turn rt on to fr250 at the red bear inn at horca. Go on fr250 approx 15 mi and start looking for valdez creek traihead on the right in a left hand curve. Go about another 1/4 mi and turn left onto a twotrack. Theres a sign that says "dispersed camping area" or somethin similarly federal. When u turn onto the two track go about 500y south to the camp site that the first arrival picks. it should be in a clearing surrounded on 3 sides by aspen. The two track is rutted with holes as cowboy778 will attest. If your rig is longer than 24ft be careful of the ruts as a long rig WILL drag. Good luck.

Glad to see everyone is getting ready. I wont be able to haul wood down there Saturday with cowboy778. I re sent the gps coords to steve b. Please feel free to call or email me with questions. I plan on arriving noonish on the 19th. Have a safe trip. 719three6nine27one5 is my cell for last min questions, call anytime, if I don't answer please leave a msg and i'll return your call.

I still have 6 maps left. Anyone needing one email me your address and Ill send it off. Sent one to Trevor this morn.

Just had a good long talk with Trevor. He's coming. I gave him all the info I could and ans his questions. I told him to call me anytime and Ill try to help him. He asked about diesel fuel in Platoro. I know that halfway and at the Cafe they sell gas and propane. Wasnt sure about diesel. If no one here knows Ill call down there this week and ask. ALso the last gas on the hard road is the Shell station on 17 in south end of Antonito just as you are leaving town. They have gas and diesel. I believe this thing is coming together good and we'll have a great time and hopefully get some elks. Cowboy778 and I are going to haul two pickup loads of firewood to the camp site on Oct 13. He's got a LOT of wood his wife and he said. I have a small pickup load. So we should be ok. I gotta get two large propane tanks for the camper and a new regulator and I should be ready. Ordered a new furnace for it and it shoudl be here by week end so thats the last job I got other than packing. Also I'll call Sam the horse packer guy soon and let him know 10 or 12 of us will be there hunting and we may need his services. Dawn and I are gettign really excited about elk camp. I'll try to check in here nightly now til we hunt, so please let me know what else I can do to help the group...

Saturday is last we can shoot at the gun club. I neeed to build steps for the camper Sat afternoon and Sun and do some re-arranging on the flatbed trailer. I hunt antelope Oct 6-12 tho I have to work days. Was figuring on loading what wood I have on the 12th after work then riding to Platoro to unload it the 13th. That'll help Steve locate the campsite too. Well if somebody dont steal it that is.

Kyle Will and I are shooting at 8am Saturday if you wanna shoot. Prob the 7th or 13th weekend we need to haul wood down there. Just a down and back trip.

Was 44 and foggy here in PuebloWest Fri morn. I thought I smelled elk...

We had a great time and perfect weather camping with cowboy778 and his family. Wife and I didnt scout much but I did give cowboy some areas to look at. We fished and caught a few nice trout on nymphs which was new luck for us two dry fly fishermen. We also rode the one atv we bought. I found some 4' firewood in the woods behind camp that we could cut up in elk camp. Cowboy and I are talking about making a wood hauling trip down there some weekend. I'll let it up to him what weekend as we have no plans til Oct 19 and Oct 30. I dont think our camp area will be well used but I'd hate to haul wood then find it gone. It's a great place tho. We camped about 100 yrds from the gps location I listed above and it was a good place with room for more of us realtree guys. I put a few pics on my facebook but havent taken time to try to load them here. We were going to takethe tentcamper down a week early like on Oct 13, but am gonna mount it up on a ol 16' flatbed trailer so we can haul 2 atv's and the camper together. That'll eliminate hauling it down early. It should be a great 'rig'. Due to our work schedules we will prob pull in elk camp around 2am on the 20th.

Sounds like a plan... I may take our camper down there and park it on the 13th. That way I haul a load of wood in that day too. Then the 19th maybe I can get offa work early and head down there and set up before dark( a rarity for us). Steve B is up in AK working on his cabin so I'm not sure what his plans and timing is yet.

If your camper is a new(er) model then all the mechanicals and brown/grey tanks should be enclosed and above the frame level... ie all the stuff is inside so all you gotta do is keep the camper warm. We set out tstat at 55 and never had a prob in our 24' one we sold. What we did was empty the water tanks completely before leaving civilization. Then we carried drinking water and wash water in separate containers, keeping the water bottles in the bathtub of the camper to minimize freezing, we would keep 6 gallons inside camper then maybe 6 more gallons outside. Theres water available roadside at a creek which you can drink( we did) or up near Platoro town on the right is good spring. Keep the outside water bottles where the sun hits them and they"ll stay mostly thawed. The two things MOST critical down there are of course water, then propane, then gasoline. Running out of propane or gasoline is time consuming and very expensive. Esp the gasoline. We always took our empty water jugs with us in the truck when daily hunting then just stopped wherever to refill on the way back to camp. The only propane and gas is 9 miles west of camp or 6 miles east. Dont try to carry 27 one gal jugs for water or whatever , two people use about 4 gal a day for cooking and flushing and filling our backpack water bottles, 6 gal a day if you wash up some. Make sure your brown and grey water tanks are empty when you leave town to go camp. It wont be so bad over Labor Day when we all go. Ocober will/can be be different.

As an update I have heard nothing more from the two Ohio guys, the farmer brothers, despite emailing them several times. Perhaps they've changed their minds. We hope to be in camp Fri afternoon the 19th, if we can get there before I will. Bought two atv's on Saturday but I can only haul one. If someone wants to haul the other I'd appreciate it. If not it's no problem.If you need to contact me for help or questions it's [email protected] for my cell number. I'm here for the group. Cowboy778 and I discussed camping there to scout over Labor Day weekend so I hope we can work that out. We both have campers we need to try out. My wife's all excited about that and we wanna put some miles on at least one atv.

How much stuff you got? You could prob mail it here. EMail me for my fone number.