I don't typically file complaints but I am an educated individual and experienced hunter and will attempt with my best attempt to provide you with an objective overview of my complaint. We contracted with this outfitter for three days of guided day hunts. My friends and I went with Gore Range Outfitters based on the owners selling of a great hunting experience and he estimation of our success filling our Elk tags. This was a complete exaggeration of the reality of hunting Elk with Gore Range Outfitters.
I informed him that I was bringing my 14 year daughter with me. I also told him that she has disabilities from birth that affected her eyesight but that had absolutely nothing to do with any form of strenuous hiking. Glenn stated that he had no issues with this. A note to the reader here, My daughter has climbed Masada in Israel (this is an incredibly strenuous hike) she's hiked paths at the 10,000 foot level on Germany's tallest mountain the Zutgspitze, as well as hiking several other strenuous hikes in Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks). I saw this trip as a special daddy-daughter bonding time and the opportunity to give her a once lifetime experience.
I also informed Glenn that my style of hunting is stalking not sitting for 12 to 14 hours waiting for game to appear - Glenn stated that he understood and would try to accommodate - another bait-and-switch tactic used by Glenn to get us to agree.
Day 1 - Glenn opts to guide for my daughter and I - we meet Glenn at the appointed time still roughly 45 minutes before sunset, we travel 5 minutes behind Ruby ranch where we begin a hike in absolute darkness to a spot where he thinks we'll have success - no issues hiking to and from any of the sites Glenn picked for the day. I did take issue over the fact Glenn dropped us off at spots some of which I questioned as you couldn't walk a straight line with running into several trees - there was no way I'd be able to identify a legal bull Elk let alone take an accurate shot - over the day Glenn took us to 5 spots where we hiked small distances and sat quietly. My daughter handled the hiking well but though we sat for over eleven hours that day we saw absolutely no game at all. Frankly it wasn't a great day at all but I'm a patient hunter - Glenn over several conversations that day made attempts to tell me that success wasn't going to be good, he even pointed out the overall Elk tag success was at about 20% - first, he stated in our initial conversations that his guiding led to an minimal 70% success rate now he was making statements trying to set a lower expectation. Okay, still had two more days of hunting so I wasn't too concerned. At the end of the day Glenn takes us back to meet the rest of our team. Here's where this completely fell apart.
In the car Glenn realizes that we have no transportation because his other guide took my friends to a more distant location - we have no idea, he's the guide and planned the hunt so we have no means of transportation home because of his planning - he literally got angry with me and my daughter over this and at one point suggesting that he'd drop us off at a restaurant where my friends could pick us up when they returned (I have a rifle and a handgun - where's the common sense here) then when he suggests that he's going to take us back to the same spot to sit and wait again for an 11-plus hours with no game sighting I disagree - he literally blows his top and starts yelling at me in front of my daughter stating he's not a "Babysitter" and casting statements about my daughter in front of her in his truck that were extremely hurtful and false. Honestly and sincerely, my daughter was a real trooper, didn't let out a single complaint and had no issues with the hike.
Then rather than approaching me he tells my friends via a text that he has no guide for my daughter and I and that we are a waste of his time - I'm quoting his text here. He was totally unprofessional, his hunting skills I question when he questioned himself regarding Elk migratory patterns and his customer services skill are appalling.
Some background on my daughter - first, because of his lunatic rants in the truck she was in tears and refused to go another day. My daughter had 15 different surgeries from birth where we were told at one point she might not ever walk - as a parent who loves their children, this is a gut wrenching experience - we have over the years managed to overcome all but one challenge for her, her eyesight is locked and because of that it throws off her depth perception - hiking isn't a challenge but she most likely will not be driving a car.
To have to listen to the rants of Glenn who was a) clearly upset out having to drive an extra 10 minutes out of his way to drop us off, and b) visibly angered over my disagreement over the next day's hunt plan was unbelievable and the fact that tried to use my daughter as an excuse is inexcusable.
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