denwego
Regular Member
imported post
Some friends and I have been planning on hiking up in the mountains of Colorado for a while, so as our schedules came together we went west from Boulder about 30 miles into Eldorado Canyon, not terribly far from the Nederland area when you start getting into some of the tall mountains beyond the foothills. For those of you who wouldn't have heard local news, Nederland/Boulder has been the scene of some wild animal fun recently: four bears in Boulder in the past week (including one which had to be put down) and three mountain lion attacks up near Nederland, with several horses being killed in the process. So while I'm usually content with carrying some sort of pistol for protection in the woods (Colt SAA with hot loaded JHP 45LC), this time I loaded my Remington 870 Police model up with a mix of buckshot and slugs, and struck out into the wilderness.
The hike up was devoid of another soul, but on the way down, our group came across some tourists from Europe who were doing some manner of rocky mountain hiking tour. The man in the lead had a British accent and said, "wow, is that thing real?" When I said yes, he turned excitedly to his group and said, "remember, don't anger the Americans in their natural habitat!" :lol: At the end of their group was a couple from France, who asked me why I had a gun out in the woods. I told them (in French to get my point across better) that there had been lots of bear and mountain lion problems recently, so I thought it would be best to be ready in case something happened. They became very concerned, telling others in the group that there were dangerous animals before turning to me and asking if I would mind coming up with them to make sure they were safe I apologized and said no, that I had already been up, and that it was safe as I could tell. But surely, they got a dose of American hiking in the place of European hiking!
After that, we drove back down to Nederland to get some lunch. I suggested a local bar with good "average" food, but I was overruled and we went to Kathmandu, a Nepalese restaurant instead. I left the shotgun in the car, of course, but kept my Colt and my KBAR on my belt. The food was good, but halfway through lunch a 45-50 year old woman came over and knelt down next to me, and said "You know, you walking in here with... a gun strapped to your hip, it's insane. I feared for my life. You shouldn't be allowed to walk around like that." Unfortunately, I can't capture her condescending "I'm going to give you my important opinion and couldn't care less about you" tone of voice. As I noticed her BMW keychain and her "I(heart)CA" tote, I was in no mood to put up with west-coast criticism and told her that if she was terrified of people being armed in Colorado, she should get to her car and drive back to California as fast as possible, for her own safety! Normally I'd be more polite and at least try to come off as a pillar of the gun-owning community, but there was none of that in light of her tone after a 10-mile hike.
So, the moral of the story is that in mountain lion country, Brits and the French are better allies than Californians against the wilds And the gratuitous gun porn picture of the afternoon...
Some friends and I have been planning on hiking up in the mountains of Colorado for a while, so as our schedules came together we went west from Boulder about 30 miles into Eldorado Canyon, not terribly far from the Nederland area when you start getting into some of the tall mountains beyond the foothills. For those of you who wouldn't have heard local news, Nederland/Boulder has been the scene of some wild animal fun recently: four bears in Boulder in the past week (including one which had to be put down) and three mountain lion attacks up near Nederland, with several horses being killed in the process. So while I'm usually content with carrying some sort of pistol for protection in the woods (Colt SAA with hot loaded JHP 45LC), this time I loaded my Remington 870 Police model up with a mix of buckshot and slugs, and struck out into the wilderness.
The hike up was devoid of another soul, but on the way down, our group came across some tourists from Europe who were doing some manner of rocky mountain hiking tour. The man in the lead had a British accent and said, "wow, is that thing real?" When I said yes, he turned excitedly to his group and said, "remember, don't anger the Americans in their natural habitat!" :lol: At the end of their group was a couple from France, who asked me why I had a gun out in the woods. I told them (in French to get my point across better) that there had been lots of bear and mountain lion problems recently, so I thought it would be best to be ready in case something happened. They became very concerned, telling others in the group that there were dangerous animals before turning to me and asking if I would mind coming up with them to make sure they were safe I apologized and said no, that I had already been up, and that it was safe as I could tell. But surely, they got a dose of American hiking in the place of European hiking!
After that, we drove back down to Nederland to get some lunch. I suggested a local bar with good "average" food, but I was overruled and we went to Kathmandu, a Nepalese restaurant instead. I left the shotgun in the car, of course, but kept my Colt and my KBAR on my belt. The food was good, but halfway through lunch a 45-50 year old woman came over and knelt down next to me, and said "You know, you walking in here with... a gun strapped to your hip, it's insane. I feared for my life. You shouldn't be allowed to walk around like that." Unfortunately, I can't capture her condescending "I'm going to give you my important opinion and couldn't care less about you" tone of voice. As I noticed her BMW keychain and her "I(heart)CA" tote, I was in no mood to put up with west-coast criticism and told her that if she was terrified of people being armed in Colorado, she should get to her car and drive back to California as fast as possible, for her own safety! Normally I'd be more polite and at least try to come off as a pillar of the gun-owning community, but there was none of that in light of her tone after a 10-mile hike.
So, the moral of the story is that in mountain lion country, Brits and the French are better allies than Californians against the wilds And the gratuitous gun porn picture of the afternoon...