I've come into the possession of information (about both fish and birds) that is sorely-tempting me to deviate from my normal start of the small game season here. Doves have traditionally been the September 1st kick-off, but this year....something different my be in the offing. While elk hunting last November, the son of the hunt manager (on the Ranching for Wildlife location we had drawn) made mention of the exceptional number of birds he'd encountered in a very specific a location while archery hunting earlier in the season. Blue grouse (now officially called "Dusky" by the twerps at the Division of Wildlife) out here are usually a hit or miss proposition at best. Lots of walking (mostly & rather-dramatically straight up and down) for very little shooting seems to be the rule normally but... it now seems I have a "pinpointed" location to actually go try. Combining that with additional (and very recent) first-hand information about a high-mountain lake (in the same general vicinity) that is reported to have been successfully stocked (for several years now) with easily-caught artic grayling and you have the makings of either a serious boondoggle or a fairly exotic cast & blast opportunity. Fishing here lately (& in general), has been overrun by the hordes of refugees from both coasts (but mostly the left one), so I've let my flyrods languish for the past few summers. Perhaps it's time to dig out a little bamboo and a subgauge shotgun and go for a walk?

Sounds like a plan

Sounds like Shangri-Law. Post pics if successful.

Best to keep the “location” a secret or your will be over run with people. Years ago, a minor Sunday paper article mentioned a out of the way location with surprising number of wild quail. Opening day of quail season saw over two dozen hunters at that location. Birds were burned out in a weekend and never really recovered. That State land might have been 150 acres and had so many dogs out you would have thought it was a field trial.

Hope it happens Lloyd, sounds like fun and a little out of the ordinary.

I'll edit to add, high mountains, and same general vicinity, could be quite a walk, hope the gun and the bamboo are the light versions.

You had me at "Blue Grouse".
I enjoyed the glory days of Blue Grouse in the late 60s and early 70s, as a young man on Vancouver Island.
I also found a few at higher elevations in the West Kootenay of B.C.
They're a handsome bird.
Good luck with your hunt.

Young of the year Duskies are quite delicious.
Many people shoot them with a bow walking in to their elk stands.

If I had a choice between shooting Duskies, or plains sharp tails on September 1, I would go after the dusky’s just because they are better eating and the temperatures will be cooler.

Hoppers and berries along the park edges, or riparian corridors.

Have fun!

Yes the blues are now either duskies or sooties. A mildly exotic hunt for us was a weekend in Lewistown MT to hunt the Judith range for duskies and then to the northeast for sage grouse.

Fifty-two years ago, when I was going to school at Lowry AFB, Colorado was a hunting and fishing paradise. We got out of school at noon and by 2 o'clock I would be on St Louis Creek catching Rainbows. When Dove season came in, I found a great spot on some game department land near Greely where a powerline crossed the South Platte and the Doves funneled along the powerline. Then Outdoor Life did an article on Sage Grouse which stated the best Sage Grouse hunting in the country was around Craig, Colorado. I was otherwise occupied opening weekend, but the next Friday I was at the sporting goods store in Craig just as the owner was locking up. He gave me a map of the local area which included the land owners and where to go to ask permission!



Later great Pheasant hunting an hour or so east of Denver.

My only problem with Blues is getting them to flush when hunting them. I have the same issue with Ruffs. I love mountain grouse hunting, but the struggle to get them to be sporting at times is real. It’s frustrating when you have a setter locked up, you make it to them, start walking in for the flush….and the bird hops on a log and stares at you….and as you try to get him to flush…they fly up a couple branches and continue to stare at you. Very similar to Spruce grouse behavior I experienced when I lived in Alaska. They’re ok eating, but I think Sharptails and Chukars are unbeatable table fare. Sharpies and Chuks are also infinitely more sporting in my opinion too.
I’ve actually had blues follow me up the trail while out hiking too. I’ve had them hang out in camp as well. Literally staying the entire time I was camped.😂
This pic is one I took a couple years ago on a mountain grouse hunt. I didn’t shoot him. He wanted to be friends and just hang out. He sure was a handsome fella though.

They will always be "Blues" to the folks that have lived here for a while. The term "Fool Hens" is apt at times and sporting shots can indeed be a challenge. Am planning on including a buddy's Ryman setter into the mix this year (hopefully, that will improve things a wee bit) but... I always limit my kill to just a couple of birds for a meal. They are white meat and quite good, so somewhat of an exotic I suppose. I do prefer ruffed grouse over blues but this should be a nice way to start the season. It's quite the haul up to the locations I'm considering, and it will includes the cost of overnight accommodations. That, combined with the currently high fuel costs of such a trip, makes me a bit more deliberate about signing up for it all anymore. Doves are way-less trouble.

How many more trips up the mountain do you think you might have?

I have long wished I had a video camera in September 1974 to film an Air Force half-colonel I shot skeet with in Alaska, running across the tundra trying to get a covey of Ptarmigan to fly while carrying his engraved and gold inlayed Model 12 20-gauge!!

CZ: many more (God willing!). The haul I was referring to is the 4-plus hour ride, one way, to the hotel that will be the base of operations for this little adventure. Sadly, I'm finding myself doing a cost-benefit analysis on most of my extracurricular activities these days. My expenses seem to keep mounting and my income ( & investments) are not keeping up. While an elk is a significant protein windfall, two or three birds and a few fish isn't quite the same deal.

That’s unfortunate.

We don’t have forever.

Every year that passes, hunting above 8000 feet gets harder.

I’d find someone in the same boat to split costs with before I hung it up.

A year at 60 is different than a year at 65.

[quote=Researcher]Fifty-two years ago, when I was going to school at Lowry AFB, Colorado was a hunting and fishing paradise. We got out of school at noon and by 2 o'clock I would be on St Louis Creek catching Rainbows. When Dove season came in, I found a great spot on some game department land near Greely where a powerline crossed the South Platte and the Doves funneled along the powerline. Then Outdoor Life did an article on Sage Grouse which stated the best Sage Grouse hunting in the country was around Craig, Colorado. I was otherwise occupied opening weekend, but the next Friday I was at the sporting goods store in Craig just as the owner was locking up. He gave me a map of the local area which included the land owners and where to go to ask permission!


Have just come in from a scouting trip this morning. Hard to find a place to go now.






Is that an El Camino I see?

CZ: 65 is this January and I'm finding exactly what you describe. I will be splitting the costs here as well but... I'm really just getting pulled in lots of directions these days and don't want to get overextended on any one thing, play included. No plans to hang anything up just yet, just trying to be practical about it (and old habits die hard).

Aging out is a tough reality.

I’ve watched everyone I’ve traipsed the country with age out over the last few years.

Always the same pattern.

Good luck, and I hope you get to embrace your opportunity.

1970 El Camino, small V8, "three on the tree" and "dog dish" hub caps. Here with my first two Colorado pheasants. Season opened at noon and these two were from my first walk.



After these two I crossed the road and walked down another brushy fence row. Got up a rooster that went low and shot over him. Walked fifty or sixty yards farther and got up another rooster and was back in the El Camino heading back to the city by a 1:30 pm.

Here are some of the Greeley area Doves --



I hunted ducks in some flooded timber around a reservoir not far from Denver, but apparently never took a picture.

Researcher: Would that be Barr Lake perhaps?

CZ: aging out is inevitable. I would think the key to forestalling it would be staying fit, which means controlling your appetite(s) for all the usual problematic things (booze, food, sex, drugs, etc.). Voting conservatively would hopefully help here as well, but at-least taking responsibility for your own outcomes would be the first step. Hunting (& fishing) are my yardsticks for competency. If I can't do those things well, then I've got way-bigger problems elsewhere. My present challenge is watching the prices for everything I use go through the roof. Blowing several days & $550 worth of gas/food/hotels and licenses to get 3 birds and 2 fish is becoming a little hard for me to justify at the moment. If my investments weren't tanking right alongside all of that I might be less concerned, but things are a damn mess everywhere I look these days. I'll likely go just to distract myself for a few days but...you can only ignore this stuff for so long.

Different, but not necessarily better. Young (in years) isn't everything.

Not discounting wisdom Stan, but I wouldn't mind a do-over of 60 again, or even 55. Energy and ambition are pretty wonderful things.

I understand that, Lloyd, but maybe from a different perspective. At 70 I am feeling better each day. I press ahead joyfully, constraining myself to eat right and exercise each day almost to the point of exhaustion, to attain the goal of reaching 100 in condition to shoot doves and enjoy it. It's work, it's not easy, but it can be done. I may not reach that goal but, I'm convinced I can. I have farmed for over 50 years, but have enjoyed the last year of it as much or more as I have any year in the last 50. It's a state of mind, honestly.

Push hard, don't take the doc's recommendations to go on blood pressure medicine, or other "senior citizen's meds" until you have exhausted every other avenue. The only prescription meds I take are eye drops for glaucoma, in my right eye (my shooting eye ). Doc told me recently, concerning my exercise regime, that he never saw anybody who hated to take medicine any more than me. You're are truly as young as you feel.

I know people 70 who want to be 100. I had four friends who made it to between 95 and 98, and, to a one, they didn’t want to live to be 100. They didn’t, either.

Sobering. My younger brother is now a diabetic amputee, with diabetes that is beginning to be resistant to his insulin and other meds. It would be hell on earth to live to be 100 in the condition he is in now.

Best,
Ted

Fall Creek: It really is getting harder to find a place to go here, to either hunt or fish. What used to be so-easy simply isn't anymore. A 4th Turning perhaps? Colorado is in a tough spot these days. Crowded & stupid is no way to go through life, eh?

Ted: "As you sow, so shall you reap" really starts to mean something in your 50s and 60s. I've slacked-off my exercises since being back in Pennsylvania for that funeral and I'm really feeling it now. Too-much strong drink and fatty foods is a dangerous trap that many fall into. We're also now contemplating a small home back there to be nearby to family, which has me badly distracted. Trying times indeed.

Hunting up some Blues and then recover while casting to grayling..... Way to go LLyod, that sounds like fun. Hope you take advantage and enjoy the opportunity. A light double with a pack rod, fly reel and some flies in your game bag shouldn't weigh you down too much.

Lloyd, 25 mill acres +/- of public land and can’t find or afford a place to go. Have alluded to this before but 3 heart attacks have removed from consideration all the high country leaving the high plains that are overwhelmingly privately owned and drought devastated. Factoring in “stupid” as you’ve mentioned and a fellow could get discouraged. And that’s not even considering the terrible air pollution from smoke and other pollutants which affect my eyes to the point I can’t shoot clays most days in the summer.

We’ve talked about a move back to the Midwest but not sure I’m up to another move and anyway I’m not leaving the grandkids so …

I’m doing what I’ve done for decades - adjust and advance - but it’s getting harder.

Lloyd, I will be camping up near Joe Wright on Tuesday and Wednesday next week with my 8 year old grandson.
We will probably fish spinners for cutts, and leave the grayling to dry fly enthusiasts. I will take the canoe but a 58lb Old Town Camper gets harder and harder to carry every year. Good luck on your hunt. Mike

Both of which can lead to the most dreaded result of all, for me ......... having a stroke. I push myself with cardio-exercise so that I don't have to go on blood pressure meds. I will if it gets to the point that I can't keep my b.p. at safe levels with diet and exercise but, it's a last resort and I'll fight it as long as I can.

Make yourself get back into your exercise routine, Lloyd. It's worth it. I believe it's good for the mind as well as the body.

LP: I know Joe Wright is the more-generally known grayling lake here in Colorado but I'm headed quite a bit further west. I had heard about Joe Wright when I was moose hunting in the Colorado state Forrest several years ago now (20?). I hope you and your grandson have a great time!

Stan: You're absolutely right, I just need to get on with things here. It's been fairly chaotic this summer and I've let that chaos overwhelm me. Once I get back into anything resembling a routine, it's back on the treadmill (figuratively) for me.