A couple weeks ago I posted two possible themes on Facebook for the next blog post. It ended up in a tie. So I reposted with the threat that if it remained a tie, that I would blog about something completely random. Guess what, it remained a tie. So here's the random post...and it's the post that will keep on giving until Christmas. I call it, The Human Bigote Growth Project. Basically, at random intervals between now and Christmas, I'll post the growth status of my mustache. I shaved it last night. Other than trimming it off my lip to keep it military standards, I will NOT be taking any of the bulk off. Let the project begin!

Just a little under a week ago, I had the chance to head back up the mountain and retrieve the data from my trail camera. I had my ATV out of storage, a fresh SD card, and some new batteries. After work, I got my things together and headed out. I knew time was going to be a factor even with the longer summer days, so I didn't dink around. I found the spot to park, unloaded the ATV and headed up the mountain. It only took a little over 30 minutes to make it to the trail head with the ATV, which beats the 1.5 hours it took to hike up there last time. 

Here's a note to the wise on a matter of survival. Conditioning is key. Last time I hiked up the mountain, I hiked further. This time, it was probably 3/4 of a mile up and I got my ass kicked. The difference? Due to school and a trip to Vegas for a grappling tournament, I hadn't run for two weeks. In those measly two weeks, I lost a lot of conditioning and I could feel it. You always want to keep up on exercise. When the shit hits the fan isn't the time to take up a new exercise routine. Needless to say, when I go back up there, and definitely when the hunt rolls around, I'll be ready.

On my way up, I saw a few doe as well as a couple of cows (not elk, regular cows). That should have been the first tip-off that something wasn't right. I made my way to the trail camera and found it pushed from its original position that it was pointed directly at the trunk of a nearby tree. 

Sabotage! I was pissed and thought that someone had come up here, saw the camera, and decided to sabotage it. In a way, I was correct.

Curious to see what happened, I opened my laptop and threw the SD card in. The first few pictures were alright and included a couple captures of a deer.

The saboteurs of my trail camera were revealed! Cows! A bunch of 'effin' cows decided to come by and eat the salt lick. At some point, I think these cows caught on that they were being recorded. They must have been listening to the current events and thought that maybe the NSA was spying on them. Well one cow didn't think that was cool and decided to shut down my deer spying operations.

After that, all I had was about twenty pictures of the tree trunk. Chalking it up to a learning experience, I changed the SD card, switched the batteries and headed further up the mountain. I found a game trail on the hillside and planted the trail cam there, along with the remaining half of the salt lick. I'll go back up in a couple weeks and see if I have something more to show for my efforts than 300 hundred pictures of paranoid cows. Before I left though, I saw a buck which kept my hopes up. Means I've seen buck deer every time I've ventured up that way.

There was something else on my camera. Something dark and nefarious. It only caught a glimpse of the creature. Some sort of robot deer, or perhaps a Rocky Mountain chupacabra.