Well, the training continues. The five miles a day trend continues, although I have been adding a pack and probably 15 pounds of weight. Far from a full load worth of pack, but still increasing with hopes to push it to 60 lbs near august. August will likely be when I will start to hike in, bivy and scout. For now the day trips will suffice. There are really no lack of goats, I've seen numerous every time I've gone, mostly from the road through the spotter. I still loose sleep thinking about the hunt but it seems to be slowly inching closer. 9 weeks or so to go!
I attended the orientation this weekend, it was pretty much what I expected. Most of what was presented was not new knowledge to me, but I was looking forward to speaking with the CPW guys about my unit. It turned out that the guy representing my unit had just moved there and really didn't know anything I didn't already know. Somewhat disappointing but really I feel that I'm pretty over prepared anyways....
I did however make use of some of my newly acquired skills from the presentation. I decided to spend some time above timberline on Mt. Evans, stretch my legs, practice my goat identification and spotting skills. After spending a few hours hiking around at 11-14k feet, I felt fairly reassured that my conditioning has been going fairly well. Recovery time was great and I was moving fast, granted I wasn't carrying a giant pack or gun either but I was covering some drainages. I may have spotted and identified a few goats, a few sheep as well.
I did get a few pictures with the good camera though, I will post those later...
I returned home and then awoke the next morning to continue with some conditioning dragging the family along too.
The shirt was fairly appropriate considering..