Last Saturday was opening day of the second combined deer and e1k hunting season in Colorado. A cold blustery wind was blowing as we 5 horseback elk hunters scurried about, gathering dry branches to start a fire. While enjoying the heat of our campfire and the company of some great young folks, I thought of hunting trips With my Dad, some 60 years ago.

Many changes have taken place since my brother and I first got to go to hunting camps - but some things such as the smell of aspen 1eaves and that of a friendly campfire, never change.

When I first started hunting, big game season meant only deer and bear in our pad of Colorado. The season always opened on Oct. 15, and as I remember it was only a 5-day season. Elk had been reestablished in this area and the first elk season was held in 1939. It was sometime after WWII that antelope were again brought to the area and a few years later an antelope season opened.

We usually set up our hunting camp the day before the season opened. We pitched at 9’x12’ tent and had a woodburning “sheep-herder” type stove for cooking and heating. This was before the days of sleeping bags so we had some mighty big bed rolls. We thought of ourselves as being “right up town” ‘cause we had a single mantle Coleman gas burning lantern. (In those days, we used white gasoline that most of us burned in our cars -  the wealthy folks paid a cent or two more for “bronze” gas, so their cars wouldn’t “ping”).

 I never remember of there being out-of-state hunters in those days and it was not unusual to hunt all day without  seeing anyone except the members of our own party.

The most popular caliber rifle in those days was the .30-.30 and most game was taken at a distance of less than 150 yards. After the elk season opened, we began seeing larger and faster caliber rifles and telescope sights.

Nowadays, Colorado has archery seasons, muzzle loading sea-sons and three combination, deer and elk seasons for resident and out-of-state hunters.

Yes, I have seen lots of changes in my lifetime, but I still en-joy hunting. It is fun to remember some of the bucks and bulls I have taken, but the ones I dream about are the big ones that got away!