Thursday September 21, 2006

Okay, the last two weeks have been killing me. I am really regretting the choice to not go elk hunting this year. For the past two years I have spent ten days in September elk hunting with my bow. For the past two weeks I have been waking up to crisp, cool, hunting weather. Driving home tonight from a night class I've been taking for work, I had the windows down, it was cold, and I could almost smell the decomposing leaves of Fall. I haven't gone a single day since I shot my elk two years and 4 days ago, without atleast looking at a picture of that amazing animal. Today on my drive home I realized that on this day for the past two years, at this exact time of day, I'd be sitting on a cot in a canvas wall tent, making sure I had all my stuff packed to go home. I would be making sure that all my practice arrows are out of the target, wondering how I'm going to get all this stuff back on the plane with me so that I have it for the bow opener in VA in two weeks, thinking about how I can't believe a TEN day hunt seemed so short. Then as my friend Jason turns off the lantern, I'd lay in my cot, watching the flames from the pellet stove dance on the canvas walls, and strain to hear just one more bull elk bugle before I left. The first year I actually heard numerous bulls bugle through the night. One particularly vocal bull decided to hang out a mere couple hundred yards from camp and he ellicited bugles from a few others in the area. 3:30 am would come too quick and my last moments in Montana would be spent staring out the window of a pickup truck at the few lights that are visible along the road and the tops of the mountains silloutted by the moonlight.
So right now it is 12:30am on friday Sept. 22 and I'm wide awake and bummed out. I was going to start transcribing my journal from that first year when I shot "The Legend", however I left my journal with my dad in May so he could read it. I'll have to wait til I see him again. Deer season is right around the corner....stay calm, pick a spot, and follow through! Oh, and don't forget to call and tell me about it so I can expect fresh pictures in the morning!
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