Hunting is Not Necessarily Finding

On Tuesday morning I woke up before dawn, put on all of my warm clothes, and climbed into the truck with Dad and Brandon. We drove about an hour west of here to National Forest land to an area where we would likely find deer and elk. The temperature was in the low twenties as we donned our orange safety vests, loaded the rifle and began a silent walk up a gated logging road.

The sky was just starting to lighten. The deer and elk are most active at dawn and dusk. We walked about two and a half miles up the frozen road until we came to trail that led up a draw in the forest. There were several tracks and piles of poo on the trail so we knew it was used by the animals.

We climbed up the steep trail about a hundred yards and sat down to wait.

After waiting about twenty minutes, we decided to head back to the truck. It was getting too late to find anything.

We got back in the truck and began the slow drive back to the highway. Brandon had the rifle in the front seat in case we saw anything from the road. As we approached the highway, I saw a cow elk run down the side of the hill, cross the road about 50 yards in front of us and then race across a field to where two other cow elk where waiting. We couldn't shoot her. I was amazed at how large the elk was.

I realized during my first time hunting (at least for animals) that it is a lot like hiking except you wear an orange vest and carry a rifle.

We've heard that many hunters are having a hard time finding anything. The deer and elk are still mostly in the high country.