Trailcam; 3 year sit
Contributors to this thread:Elk
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
So, in August of 2019 I went and hung a camera in one of my favorite elk hunting spots in Northern Colorado, as I do most ever year. But, 2019 was a little different, as less then a month later, the Cameron Peak fire started, and burned directly through this area and a whole bunch of other adjoining real estate. For those who don’t know, this was the biggest wildfire in Colorado history - it burned for 62 days and consumed almost 209,000 acres. Obviously most of the access roads in the burned area were immediately closed by the Forest Service, and remained closed for a long time, including the road that I used to access the area where I hung this camera. I assumed the camera had burned up in the fire, but vowed to go take a look, just in case, when the opportunity presented itself. Well, the Forest Service finally opened that road for hunters this September, and when I got up there, I discovered that miraculously, the camera was in a narrow strip of timber that didn’t burn. The fire missed my camera by less than 200 yards on one side, and about 400 on the other. There were over 2400 pictures on file, until the batteries died in December of 2021 - the last photo I got was of snow falling off of a tree on New Year’s Eve. Anyway, thought you all would enjoy seeing some of the pics. Strangely, there are no photos of the actual fire - for the 2 month period it was burning there were only muted, blurry images from all of the smoke that were completely indistinct. Still, a pretty cool experience for me. Enjoy! Poudre
From: t-roy
18-Sep-22
Bummer that it didn’t get pics of the actual fire, but it will be pretty interesting to see what it did capture. Post em up!
From: PoudreCanyon
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From: Lewis
18-Sep-22
Cool thanks for sharing Lewis
From: PoudreCanyon
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From: yooper89
18-Sep-22
That is awesome
From: PoudreCanyon
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From: Straight Shooter
18-Sep-22
Very cool
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
From: Recurvericky
18-Sep-22
No Bigfoot photo’s after 3 years?
From: ca
18-Sep-22
Very nice thanks
From: LBshooter
18-Sep-22
Wow looks like you pick a couple nice spots for a blind set up. Too bad the fire did it in.
From: Inshart
18-Sep-22
Cool to look at, thanks for posting. Did you or are you, hunting that area this year?
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
Inshart - I had a bull and 3 cows nearly run me over 50 yards from the camera location on Friday afternoon - the bull was bugling up on the timbered ridge in the foreground of all the photos when I slipped in there. I was fumbling in my pack (without an arrow nocked) looking for my diaphragm call when they busted into the meadow, 15 yards from me. They saw me frantically trying to get an arrow out of the quiver and left just as quickly as they showed up. That’s how my season has been going…
From: Bow Bullet
18-Sep-22
Very cool, lots of critters! Interesting that sometime 8/19 or 8/20 2020 one of those elk bumped your camera and turned the view a little to the left.
From: cmbbulldog
18-Sep-22
Cool pics, thanks for sharing!
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
Bow Bullet - cool observation. I hadn’t noticed that. I’m sure it was one of the moose that did it. I had probably 50 photos of just black hair and body parts of moose, right on the camera. I deleted most of them and can’t find one in that time frame, but here’s a later one for reference…
From: drycreek
18-Sep-22
Very busy little meadow there ! I had a similar experience minus the fire. I hung a camera on a trail, then promptly forgot it was there. It stayed on that tree two years and my buddy found it while blood trailing a hog. The batteries had just started to corrode but I saved the camera.
From: WV Mountaineer
18-Sep-22
Cool stuff.
From: PoudreCanyon
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From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
The very last photo the camera took before the batteries died…
From: Paul@thefort
18-Sep-22
Ian, I had not been back in the T basin for seven years so this early summer I hiked in 3 miles to where I had hunted for the previous 10 years when all of the forest looked like your photos. I know Mother Nature does her thing, ( the Forest Service believes the fire was man made) but to see it all burned up brought tears to my eyes. Not in my life time but the forest will return. Thanks for the pics. Paul
From: Bearman
18-Sep-22
Nice thread.
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
The very last photo the camera took before the batteries died…
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
Paul - I know exactly how you feel. Seeing the Canyon after the fire literally made me sick to my stomach. And, seeing how the water quality in the Poudre has plummeted and how poor the fishing has become comparatively has been like watching a close friend pass away. Interestingly, the elk seem to prefer the burn area ; I’ve seen far more sign inside the burn scar, and have had multiple encounters there. And, it will certainly make the pack out easier if I kill one in there, as the deadfall and understory has been completely removed. 4 more days to get it done next week:)
From: EmbryOklahoma
18-Sep-22
Very cool pics, Ian! Thanks for sharing.
From: Supernaut
18-Sep-22
Really neat pics and story of the camera, thanks for sharing with us!
From: nchunter
18-Sep-22
Wow, they little meadow opening seemed to be a magnet for animals.
From: Jordan
18-Sep-22
That bull in the middle of the meadow with the herd is a PIG. Thx for sharing Ian.......good luck!!!!
From: W
18-Sep-22
Very cool.
From: wild1
18-Sep-22
Honey Hole.
From: Beav
18-Sep-22
Thanks for sharing and good luck!
From: Tilzbow
18-Sep-22
Cool pics, thanks for sharing! Pictures were taken after the fire correct? Since the pictures don’t show any burn area, where was the fire compared to the camera view?
From: TGbow
18-Sep-22
That is amazing it survived such a fire.
From: PoudreCanyon
18-Sep-22
Tilzbow - the camera was hung about a month before the fire started, survived the whole 2 months the fire was burning, and has been stranded at the end of a closed forest service road for over 3 years in the fire’s aftermath. It was in a narrow strip of timber on a creek basin that somehow didn’t burn, in the middle of several miles that burned down to bare Earth. I have no Earthly idea how this all worked out, but it did. I suppose I should go buy a lottery ticket. Maybe someday I’ll even kill a bull in there with a bow:)
From: Thornton
18-Sep-22
Very neat
From: soccern23ny
19-Sep-22
Very cool.
Real question.... make and model of those batteries. 3+ years in extreme conditions is pretty solid.
From: PoudreCanyon
19-Sep-22
Soccer - the camera was a Stealthcam BT-14, th batteries were regular old Energizer AA’s.
From: Jordan
19-Sep-22
All I run is stealthcam. Nice!
From: 6pointbull
19-Sep-22
You obviously dont have wolves in your area, as you still have a wide range of species. Enjoy it while you can because when wolves move in most of that will be gone in short order.
From: bigswivle
19-Sep-22
What was the GPS position of the camera again? Did I miss that :)
From: PoudreCanyon
19-Sep-22
Big swivle - what was that quote from Jeremiah Johnson; “Ride due west as the sun sets - turn left at the Rocky Mountains.” :)
From: bigswivle
19-Sep-22
Lmao
