Final Thoughts

This season has been a test. Analytical, physical, and emotional. When we found the elk had been bumped, we were demoted and clueless. I had to figure where elk would be without the benefit of weeks of scouting. It was physically demanding to get to my perch, to sit without the knowledge of if there were any to be found, and wait in the sun and flies. But when those first wisps of bugle drifted in, and then the ghostlike appearance on that far slope happened, it was elating and a relief.

Going after them in the night, down the steep, brush choked slopes, tested our resolve to the limits. How bad do you really want it and what are you willing to pay? How many times will you slip and fall, how much skin can you lose on your shins, and how many saplings in the face?

How long will you sit still for the chance? Will the flies win and drive you mad? Can you wait as the bull approaches to the call? Holding tight as the quarry slowly, painfully moves to you.

The climb out was hot, dry, and virtually trail-less. We had little water and less food. Painful, the needle is way below "E". With no meat.


But in the end, to slip among elk and deer, moose and bear, was heaven. You don't get closer to these wildlife than walking, eating, and sleeping in their own space. When they bed down with you, or wheel around toward you call, you are part of their lives and not just watching. This is life and death for them, that cracking twig could be a slip by the approaching cougar. That scent of man is too strong to just be a passing hiker.


I love hunting, being a part of nature, crawling in the dirt, scrutinizing poop for freshness.

It's true connection.