[t6dpilot]

I used to hike a lot in the San Juans and sometimes pretty far in. Never carried a weapon and stupidly never even crossed my mind. During Covid, my wife and I spent two months in Telluride and hiked all over the place. Some of those hikes were pretty far in and we would not see another soul. Again, no carry and actually started thinking about it on occasion since we became acutely aware that we are in [I]their[I] territory. The following year we did the same thing except now experienced a couple of unnerving events with a herd of elk and a mountain lion. Two large herds of elk, both being led by large bulls, came down the opposite side of the open valley we were in and crossed the stream and worked their way up towards us with no cover. Absolutely stunning and terrifying at the same time given we did not have a weapon. This was on a trail way out in the open climbing Ajax up towards Black Bear Pass above Telluride. The second thing was seeing a mountain lion cross our trail from woods to woods.

I immediately visited the sheriff's office to inquire about open carry on public land. Yes you can, but CO is not reciprocal with IL for concealed carry. I put it on my to do list to get a 10mm handgun, but never did. We just stopped visiting and hiking the area since that town and CO in general has "changed" a lot in the 40+ years we have been going there. Question, what are your thoughts on a 10mm bear defense handgun?