Monday, October 15, 2007

Wilderness Pilgrimage




These pictures are a month overdue, but before any more time slips away I want to post these pictures. Also, these will hopefully be shortly followed by pictures from Italy. My wife and I just returned from our 10th Anniversary trip, and have many pictures to share!

These pictures are from the Muzzleloader Season in Colorado, where my good friend Shelby Wadsworth and I spent 10 days in the West Elk Wilderness at 10,000 feet, hunting the elusive Wapiti!



These 2 pictures are an overview of the meadow and our camp at 10,000 feet. The meadow still had very good grass for the horses to graze and we were at the source of a spring which provide very cold and good water. These pics are of our horses nicely grazing once we figured out the best system for keeping them "hobbled".

This land was incredibly rugged...the most rugged I have hunted. Lack of oxygen, plus steep and rocky, made for exhausting days! This is a picture of Shelby leading the team of horses with our gear on the way in to camp the first night. This rock slide is typical of the West Elk Wilderness terrain, flowing down from the mountain like a river. Rumored to have been caused by an ancient Volcanic eruption....or God just created it that way to keep us guessing. I was just in awe!



We erected a small chapel behind our tent complete with icons and aspen hewn cross. The first day we appropriately prayed the Akathist of Thanksgiving, before beginning the assembly of our camp or preparing to hunt. Shelby and his family recently became catechumens in Delta, Colorado, and it was a special time to be able to share this new "bond" with and old friend!




The views speak for themselves...sorry I got in the way of this second view!!