So, we slept in and enjoyed breakfast in bed.

So what?

It was a little after noon before the heeler sisters and I finally headed out into the field, looking for elk hunters and their elk in the mountains to the north.

The gates blocking the seasonally closed roads were still closed, which was a good sign. And no vehicle tracks in the freshly fallen snow beyond.

Maybe you don't have to lock people out for them to obey the law.

Then again, the three hunters I finally found (in their camp in The Grove) reported finding fresh vehicle tracks up those roads when they walked in this morning. Perhaps we had trespassers, and the new fallen snow only covered the evidence.

The three hunters? Wanted to know where the elk were, of course.

There were twenty head right here where you're camped a week ago.

Ooooh.

Yeah, so camping here, cutting firewood with a chain saw and target firing your rifles against the rocks perhaps wasn't the best way to find an elk in these mountains.

They didn't even know about the stupendous view a hundred meters from their wall tent.

The Stars & Stripes hanging limply from the flagpole spliced from two branches outside their tent was a nice touch for this weekend.

But otherwise, no other hunters. No gunshots. No elk (other than the tracks crossing the road at HighLine. Still wonder if those were there when I first passed, or if the elk had crossed behind me...

No, the biggest excitement of the day, other than spying the bald eagle cruising the river, was watching the mule deer. Feeding in the open every hour of the day, laying in fat reserves for the coming winter.

At least, that's what the does and fawns were doing. The bucks, on the other hand, were burning their reserves. Trying to keep their does herded togather, the larger bucks protectively shooing away the smaller bucks trying to sneak in for a chance at a receptive doe. Both ages of bucks nearly oblivious to the truck nearby (or me on foot, a couple of times), concentrating on the pressing business at hand.

Watched one moderate five-point with his three does being tag-teamed by three smaller bucks. But he'd been through this before, and never wandered far from his harem. They were still at it an hour later when I came back. It was the one doe finally getting nervous about me skulking about in the trees that ended the harassment. She and her suitor bounded off, leaving the teenaged gang to wander off together, bored.

But I watched it several times this afternoon, bucks shuffling up to a receptive doe, muttering grunts of appeasement.

Just to see if she tasted just right.