High Country Redemption: A Mule Deer at 9,600 Feet

High Country Redemption: A Mule Deer at 9,600 Feet

Leg cramps, missed chances, and four days of glassing—until one buck made it all worth it. 🎙️ Success in the high country is quiet—but it echoes for a lifetime.

🏔️ Altitude, Anxiety, and a Whole Lot of Glass

Hunting the Colorado high country isn’t just a challenge—it’s a commitment. Every extra ounce in your pack feels like a mistake after the first 500 feet of elevation gain. Every step above treeline feels like it’s one breath away from a bonk.

This was my second attempt at a solo archery mule deer hunt in the San Juans. Last year? I ate tag soup after blowing two stalks and getting weathered out on Day 5. This time, I promised myself two things:

1. Get in earlier.

2. Don’t chase—let the mountain do the filtering.

I packed in five miles, set camp at 9,200 feet, and spent my first day doing what western hunting demands most:

Glassing. All. Day. Long.

👀 Days of Nothing, Then a Shadow Appears

By the end of Day 3, I had glassed 14 does and one borderline buck—too young, too narrow. I’d passed two stalks because of wind, one because of thermals, and one because I slipped and nearly ate granite.

Then, on the morning of Day 4, he appeared.

At 8:23 a.m., my spotting scope picked up a wide-framed buck shadowing a pair of does across a shale slide. Broad, mature, and calm. A classic 4×4 muley, fully velveted, and unaware that 450 yards above him, someone was dialing in their route.

🎙️ “Mule deer hunting is chess on a cliff. Make one bad move, and it’s checkmate.”

🥾 The Stalk: 3 Hours of Silence and Sore Knees

I looped low around a scree chute, circled the wind, and belly-crawled the last 80 yards through alpine fescue. Every rock seemed louder than a rifle crack. At 34 yards, I knelt behind a boulder and waited.

The buck fed forward. Quartering slightly. Broadside. Then downhill.

I drew, aimed, and loosed.

🎯 A Shot Through the Clouds

The arrow hit tight behind the shoulder. He bounded uphill, then stopped. Wobbled. Crashed. Done.

I sat back against that boulder and looked out across the basin—peaks layered in the haze, the wind humming through dwarf spruce.

I hadn’t spoken a word in five hours. Now I whispered, “Thank You.”

🎙️ “Sometimes redemption isn’t loud. It’s just the silence after a perfect arrow flies.”

🧠 What That Buck Taught Me

✔️ Glassing is 80% of the hunt
You can’t kill what you can’t see—and seeing takes patience.

✔️ Altitude breaks people faster than terrain
Training legs is one thing. Training lungs is another.

✔️ The first opportunity isn’t always the best
Stalking every buck means blowing your chances with the right one.

✔️ Solo hunting forces clarity
When it’s just you, the wind, and your decisions, you grow up fast.

🧰 Gear That Went the Distance

I didn’t take a selfie. I didn’t fist pump. I just knelt beside that buck, laid my hand on his velveted hide, and let the cold air fill my lungs.

🎙️ “Success in the high country is quiet—but it echoes for a lifetime.”

📍Filed under: Hunting Stories & Reports
🕯️ Difficulty Level: Advanced—High Elevation, Solo Hunt
🏹 Result: Velvet Mule Deer 4×4, 34-Yard Shot
🏔️ Location: San Juan Mountains, Colorado