The Colorado Bowhunters Association's (CBA) Jamboree was the 15th -17th. It is the premier event for the CBA. The biggest attraction is the 3D ranges that are set up in terrain that varies from Sage to Aspen in realistic hunting conditions. Its also very satisfying to be in the presences of over 1000 shooters and at least double that in total attendees. That entire crowd has at least one similarity........the love of bowhunting in Colorado. The effort that goes into this event is nothing short of monumental. The volunteer staff that organizes this event and sets the ranges does a great job every year. My hat is off to the staff that organizes and runs the event.
I'm fortunate that the event is held so close to home. The first two I attended were held at Camp Hale in the White River National Forest in 2007 and 2008, a 20 minute drive north of Leadville, CO. The 2009, 2010, and 2011 event have all been held on private land just south of Twin Lakes, a 20 minute drive south of Leadville.
This was the fifth Jamboree I've attended, and I believe I would rate it at the best of the five. I had taken Thursday and Friday off from work so that we could set up camp Thursday and I could volunteer to set targets out on the ranges that had been staked the weekend before. When we arrived Thursday we were told about a bear that had already been in a couple camps and tore into one of the bear targets that was already set out (more about the/a bear later). The bear target was glued back together and I'm not certain how much damage was done to the camps. I spent most of Thursday hiking 3D targets to the top of a ridge with several other volunteers. The rocky ridge seemed to get steeper each time we hiked to the top. I was beat by the end of the day when I rolled back into camp. Thursday evening was spent eating dinner cooked over a charcoal grill and talking with friends.
We slept in, at least for a camping trip, on Friday morning to try and recover from the long day on Thursday. We cooked breakfast and then we took the kids to the kids range to start the morning. My wife read a book to the kids while I got breakfast ready and stood around drinking coffee. The book was "Little Britches", the autobiographical account of Ralph Moody's early childhood after moving to the area of Littleton, CO in the late 1800's. I may enjoy listening to it being read aloud as much as the kids.
After lunch the boys and I shot the orange/yellow and blue ranges and two things became very obvious. Isaac's shooting has improved by leaps and bounds since the 2010 Jamboree, and Boyd loves shooting the ranges more than I imagined he would. I guess there is three things I realized..........Boyd and Oliva need bigger/real bows very soon.
This got more crowded as the day progressed.
During the course of the day we learned that a 14 year old boy had been attacked by a black bear in one of the campsites. The bear had apparently feasted on food in a cooler then proceeded to test the boy out in his tent. The boy was taken to the hospital and it sounds as if he's going to be alright. The bear's fate was altogether different. The DOW brought in a pack of tracking dogs and found the bear, a 200 lb boar, that same evening and ended his days of attacking humans.....permanently. There was nothing to verify that the bear that had been in the area before the event and tore up the target and a tent was the same bear, but one has to wonder.
That night we had two sets of friends show up to cook dinner and I acted as grill master cooking an assortment of burgers, hotdogs, chicken, and wild turkey. The threat of rain eventually ran the two families back to their respective "homes" for the evening. We did a thorough job of cleaning up camp and storing all food in my truck because we were unaware the DOW had already dealt with the bear. Although a clean camp should always be the case in bear country, a known assailant on the loose gives reason for a little more urgency. We dove into the sleeping bags just after dark so we could get an early start at shooting a range or two.
Saturday morning found us up early and quickly starting a fire in our grill to warm us up. The boys and I headed out to shoot the red/white range after I had my fill of coffee and they had their fill of cappuccino around the fire. Both boys really like the assortment of targets, especially the dangerous game targets and anything big. I'm not sure how many times I answered the question "did I kill it", but it was more times than I could keep count.
Note Dad's shot on the bull. The bear target appears to be the one that was tore up by a bear before the event got started. The kids refer to these bear targets as "the peeing bear".
We returned to camp for breakfast and a little more reading before sighting in my wife's and Isaac's bows. After the sight in we took off to the Family Range then onto the yellow range which had a moose across a pond, two treestand shots, groundblind turkey shots, and even a mountain lion in a tree among the targets.
The family range:
Isaac continued to shoot with friends that we had ran into while the rest of us returned to camp for a late lunch and a short nap. The boys and I hit a few more targets before one of the previous families showed up for an BYO elk steak dinner. I served as cook again this evening and enjoyed the company of our friends.
Isaac, Boyd, and Mom enjoying a few marshmallows before we call it a night in our tent and sleeping bags.
On Sunday morning the boys and I again got up early and left from camp after the same routine of fire, coffee and cappuccino. We were able to take in the green range without following or being pushed by anyone. The green range was one of the more difficult ranges and I heard that it was comparable to the Extreme range that I didn't get a chance to shoot. I would shoot from the stake, Isaac would move up to approximately 30 yards, and Boyd to about 15 yards. We had to bail off the ridge after 14 targets for a bathroom break ( the joys of shooting with kids), but I was happy to hit foam on each of those 14 targets of this difficult range with the majority of those being clean kill shots.
After returning for breakfast we packed up half of camp and headed back to the family and kids ranges. Afterwards we packed up the remainder of camp and drove back home to prepare for a very long week of reality.
