Heres the low down. This was my second year hunting deer in colorado and I hunted this same unit last year with my bow pretty hard. I came up empty handed on the muleys, But I was able to take a nice bull elk. I've always wanted to take a big buck in the high country so thats where I spent most of my time. It was real evident last year that the 07\08 winter took its toll. There were not a lot of bucks to be found and the ones I did were young. On breaks between short backpack trips I would hunt the low country. While hunting the low country I found a couple of honey holes with good bucks but the bow hunting was tough. After three weeks of chasing deer I finally gave up and vowed to return with a muzzleloader. when I found I had drawn the muzz tag the thoughts of those low country bucks kept running through my head, But the urge to return to the high country over powered them. I had to give the high country another shot. Going off of tips from last year I decided on a new area. Once I returned to my buddies house in colorado I wasted no time hitting the hills. I had 4 days to scout and another archery elk tag. The trip couldn't have started much worse. For starters I couldn't find the trail head I was looking for so I decided to booney crash in the direction I wanted to go finally stumbleing into the trail. When I neared the top I decided to make camp. and just in time because it started to hail. I crawled inside to weather the storm and fell asleep which I try not to do because I dont sleep aswell at night if I do. Oh well 2 hours later I woke up to do some glassing. Than evening produced 1 lousy doe and no elk. I did see a ridge aways off that looked good and thought i might want to give it a look in the morning. when I renurned to the tent i found while booney crashing I tore a hole in my sleeping pad and my batteries in my head light were low. Talk about a long night! I decided with the lack of game and comfort I was packing up in the morning and getting out, but not without checking that ridge which was on the way out. About an hour after sun up i reached a spot to glass the ridge. It took some time but I slowly started turning up some deer mostly does and a few bucks. Finally at the end of the ridge I spotted a good buck. I watched as he fed over the ridge skylining himself for a minute. One look on the ridgeline and I could tell this buck was worth returning for. The day before the opener my friend and i returned for a 3 day trip. On the way in i got distracted by a beautiful nontypical that quickly made me forget about the other buck. Opening day came and went with sevral good bucks spotted but nothing I wanted to go after except after returning to the ridge top after a blown stalk on a 160 buck that my buddy wanted to arrow we bumped into a huge typical (bigger than mine) that was crossing the ride at the same time. We looked for him and the non-typical till dark with no luck. The next morning we returned to the area we saw the big typical and decided to work the ridge out to the end. by 8:30 we hadn't seen much and were a little discouraged. Finally i peaked over the ridge and saw my buck from the scouting trip feeding in the wide open. I quickly recognized his rack and his buddy. conditions were right but I had to act quick because it was getting late. I slipped off my boots and litterally ran down the ridge out of sight of the deer till i got on the same level. I then slowly sidehilled oven a small finger ridge till I spotted them. I then crab crawled my way into 50 yards before I shot. He went about a hundered yards expiring in a deer bed under a spruce. When I shot him he was in full velvet, when i approaced him I guess I got a little excited and tried to move him around by myself and i lost my grip and he tumbled 150 yards shredding his velvet. oh well, I couldn't be any happier This is my best buck and it came from a place I love to be, the high country! He grosses 180 with a 28 inch spread. His frame is huge but hes lacking 4 inches on his g2 and has no eye guards. I have lots more pics but I don't have time to post them now.