Why Hunt, continued...

Hunting is a brotherhood. Camaraderie is the tie that binds. Even when I don't get the opportunity to hunt with my buddies they're still the first ones I call to tell them how my hunting was. I get the same phone calls from them telling me how it was.

One of my buddies went pheasant hunting in Iowa a few weeks back. I'd been signed-up to go on the trip, but other things intervened.

I called my buddy to see how the road trip was going, only to find out that he and the rest of the crew had just pulled into the Cabelas parking lot in Sydney. Boy was I jealous. Not only was I going to miss the hunt, I missed a trip to Cabelas. Long story short, the weather was crap before they arrived in Iowa and the hunting was pretty lousy. Between the three of them they only bagged one bird. ONE BIRD. Damn I wish I was there to see that...

2007 Elk Season Summary

The Abridged Version:
They went that way, I went the other way. I never saw any elk the rest of the season.

The Unabridged Version:
I hunted Green Ranch, part of Golden Gate State Park, in Gilpin County, Colorado. I had a bull tag for the first season. What a waste of my preference points... oh well.

I arrived at the earliest time allowed (5:30 am), grabbed my gear, and headed up the mountain. My plan was to put myself between the other hunters, the elk herd, and the escape route. By 7:00 I was at the top of the hill and I could hear at least one bull bugling. I continued to work my way toward the "bottleneck".

By 7:05 I heard two shots and knew that the season was over. I never saw the herd, but I knew that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the time I had run down the hill into the "bottleneck" any elk that had been there were long gone.