Just realized I typed S34 in the title. Should be S32.
There are things about MO that I miss though. I grew up chasing smallmouth bass in the Ozarks and IMO, the water sports in CO (especially on the Front Range) are awful compared to SWMO. I spent some time out on the Western Slope for work and had some great fly fishing on the Roaring Fork just minutes from the house, but floating Ozark streams for smallies is in the blood.
In a way I miss the hunting too. Don't get me wrong, western hunting is spectacular. Big country and big adventures. I get to chase species that I used to just dream about. But as the saying goes, quantity has a quality all it's own. There is something to be said for being able to duck out of work a couple of hours early on a nice October day and in less than an hour be settling into a ground blind for a few hours of hunting before dark.
Out here, for me at least, hunting requires much more of a time commitment. In MO, I had a public conservation area less than a half hour from the house. There were just many more opportunities to be in the field. Out here, I have to plan much more time to hunt.
With that said, I feel that my time in the field out here, while not as often, is typically much more profound. I've gotten addicted to the high country and while it takes more time to get there, I literally have millions of acres availble within a few hours of me. Much of those acres being wild, roadless wilderness areas. I came out here for work and overall this has been a fantastic move for my career and family. I don't care for the Front Range politics and it can certainly get crowded and expensive for a rural MO boy, but I can see my family staying here for quite a while.
But we're a bit nomadic, so you never know. Last year, I had my wife convinced to give me 5 years in Alaska, but then I got a job offer for a position that I had been chasing for a while and couldn't turn down. Resident Dall Sheep tags are still calling my name...
