Vicarious Hunting, Part I

Many thanks to the Provincial Secretary of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) for this Elk bow hunting guest post; he was fortunate enough to get out to Southern Colorado for the experience and if I said I wasn't a little envious I'd be lying, which is a sin, so...

We left Texas at 4:30 a.m. Sunday. On the drive up P. and I partook of the Blessed Sacrament as there was no opportunity to attend Divine Service, but I had brought my pyx. We followed D. and D. as they were pulling a travel trailer. We arrived at Forbes Park, Colorado about 4:30 p.m. On arrival, we rendezvoused with B. and J. at the campsite, unpacked our gear, and got the tents pitched. Called it an early night – 10,00 feet above sea level takes some adjustment.

Monday we awoke to the yapping of young coyotes. It was a very eerie sound. After a hearty breakfast, we went up to the salt lick and hung our stands. The remainder of the day we rode around and continued to get acclimated to the altitude. I had not come prepared to hunt. I didn’t bring a bow, I brought a camera. I was prepared to watch and enjoy the action...

At full dark, we went down to the meadow in the truck to look for wildlife. We stopped at the meadow at the prairie dog town to enjoy the splendor of the starry sky. What a sight! From horizon to horizon, we were captivated by the glory of the heavens. We went on and at the next meadow we spotlighted a herd of cow elks numbering about 40 head. As we rounded the corner by the prairie dog town heading back, our headlights captured a magnificent 6x6 bull elk. He was obviously looking for the ladies in the next field over. He was tremendous!

Despite early promise the Elks didn't cross the sights of the bows - but deer did (Ed):

...On the down side of the mountain we stopped to investigate a wallow that I had looked at last year. Sure enough, we found much evidence of recent elk use. As we headed down the back side of the mountain we also came across more tracks of elk, deer, and even that of a possible mountain lion in the mud from the previous day's rain. When we arrived back at camp, three and a half hours after our departure, we discovered that J. had downed a ten point mule deer buck still in velvet. They had field-dressed the deer and packed up the meat by the time we returned. In fact, J. and B. had had to leave for the airport right after the had taken care of stowing the meat.... (to be continued)

That strikes me as a tremendously good time - though I have to admit that I would have wanted a bow as well as a camera, not that I really know how to shoot either.

God bless and good hunting.

LSP